Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Communication is Everything.

There must have been a point growing up when a switch occurred within me. I really can't narrow it down, but needless to say there was a point in time when I went from being too shy to say hello to someone passing by on the street, to being too polite to ignore them.

Communication is something I've tried to get better at over the years.

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People seem really fascinated by the noises that animals like whales and dolphins make in the water, while sharks make virtually no noise at all...and they get an entire week of TV.

The most early whale recordings are said to have been made by Navy ships back in the late 50s. I love three things about that. One, it was completely accidental. Evidently they were monitoring the water for "other things" and that just happened to get caught on tape. Two, you know some guy went nuts because he was convinced that it was "other things" and three, it allows for clear proof that whales are some of the nicest creatures on the planet. Cher releases "Believe" some 40 years after the first recording of the "songs" of whales and they have never tried to press charges. It's pretty clear to me that she ripped-off every whale noise every recorded to make her song. Pretty generous of the whales.

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I know this may seem a little disjointed, but here's where I tie it up nice and pretty for you.

William and Carter have been slowly learning to actually play together for around 6 months. It was simply a collision of interests. It was bound to happen at some point. Since they are both still so young, sharing is a bit of an issue. William likes to do things like line up all the matchbox cars in the house and really doesn't want anyone to get too close, just in case they bump something out of place. Carter believes that anything in/near his hand belongs to him and is thereby stolen if it's removed. They need to grow up and understand that everything is actually mine and I'll do whatever I want with all of it.

Now as I've mentioned before one of the best and worst things about being at home with the kids is the overexposure we have to each other. It seems to have led to them getting overly clingy with Melissa whenever she's home, which in turn makes me jealous and I end up doing drastic things like only playing the episodes of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" that I like. I can definitely say that if I was not Lord MeckDaddy of AtHomeia, I would not have been a witness to the evolution of their conversations.

It all started as you might guess. Carter would be in the same room as William and have the audacity to look in the direction of "his" toys. William would scream as a territorial warning, scaring the heck out of Carter who would then join in the screaming out of panic. I find that I get very tempted to join in with the screaming, but acting on this impulse seems to just cause more screaming. It seems a little unfair that I'm excluded.

After the unconditional screaming phase came the physical altercations. William would sharply turn as Carter entered the 10 foot danger radius around whatever William was playing with at the time. The two would stare quietly at each other while dust began to settle all around them (I need to vacuum). The tension would build to an almost unbearable level, as the two remained motionless like two adorable gunslingers about to face off. Finally ready to make his move, Carter masterfully goes  in toward the toys and William follows in to defend! He turns to his brother in both blood and battle, and keeps turning till his back faces his opponent. Ah! The classic butt defense! He backs that thing up like the ladies at an Usher concert, pushing Carter further and further away from his precious treasures. Carter, not to be so easily outdone, pushes back with the force of ten tiny fingers that possess virtually no strength at all. Finally Carter retreats, seemingly defeated, but with the slightest hint of a smile. What could cause that almost unnoticeable upturn of the lips? He made it out with one of the cars! What a duel!

That was pretty tense folks, take a deep breath and we'll move on.

Most recent in the progression of their communication with each other is the whale phase. This has been amazing to watch. Now, I haven't been able to pinpoint any similarities so as to decipher what the noises mean. I'm also not completely certain that they know what they're saying. It's possible that this really isn't communication that I'm seeing so much as controlled screaming, and that's perhaps the best way to describe it. They scream at each other, but not nearly as loud as a actual scream. It's a bit more reserved. In addition, they take turns instead of this unison glob of headache inducing sound. It really is this sort of high-pitched echo of call and answer to each other. What I think is real communication, and while at the moment there are no actual words, that's got to be the next step toward talking to each other, in my opinion.

Studies will be done to see if I can learn this new language and join in with their conversation.


So till next time....

eiiiiiiiiiiiiooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieoooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaah!

3 comments:

  1. Sometimes screaming with them stops the kids from their screaming tantrums. Ryan and I want to write a book on Avesion Therapy. Dude, it works. Next time the boys "scream" over toys, you jump right in, grab their toys, and scream with them while shaking the toy wildly in the air. They will surely look at you like you are a crazy nutball and both will stop screaming, never to fight over the cars again. :) They will probably stop screaming over toys after seeing you go all whack-a-doodle on them because quite frankly, daddy is one crazy dude to be doing that kind of 3 year old screaming, lol.

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  2. dude your comparison to Cher's song and whale noises is priceless. That rivals any stand up comic, any day. I'm laughing so hard it hurts.

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    1. Yes, let us be thankful that in this day and age where people seem so quick to sue each other for anything, that the whales carry on in peace. We have so much to learn.

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