Moving Up

We have one of those sun shield's in our back window to keep Caleb from having to squint continually. It has 3 little pictures - one of a baby on his back, one sitting and one standing. I remember putting that shield up in our window the first time, when Caleb spent the majority of his time on his back like the first baby. Then it was hard to imagine he'd soon be sitting up and the standing on his own. Now of course it's hard to remember what it was like back then.

Caleb is the first baby I've really spent any time with - first newborn I ever held, first dirty diaper I ever changed, first little head I ever held steady - and it's funny how that experience grows you in people's eyes - just thinking of how one friend is trusting me to take care of her baby and another handed me her hours old son to change his diaper. No, I didn't spent much time around babies before my world revolved around one.

In fact, growing up, I spent much more time around old people than babies - sometimes very old people. And it is interersting to me how Caleb's first steps - more like shuffles than steps - remind me of how a very old, very frail person walks. Even more interesting is that the rapid progression from always laying to always sitting to always walking is the exact opposite of the regression the elderly experience as they near the end of their life. Caleb's brightly colored push toy isn't that different functionally from a walker - and I'd been around plenty of those growing up in the country with many elderly neighbors at church and in my family.

Watching a baby master new skills is like watching a miracle unfold. Watching an old person lose those skills is not an easy or enjoyable thing to see, but it is a part of the same thing babies go through. These skills allow baby to move up to independence. As the elderly lose them, they become more dependent. And while we as Americans enjoy and love our independence, there is a lot of joy in the love you shower on your baby when he is so dependent on you. There is no reason why that relationship with an older relative or friend has to be any less full of joy and love.