Career Paths

It seems that Locke and Lola have embarked on what could be (mis)construed as career paths. Oh, sure, it's early. But it's never too early to start honing a skill. Especially one that appears unprompted and unaffected by outside influences.

Now you might be thinking of the obvious toddler career labels like veterinarian, fireman (or fireperson), artist, or dancer. But these two have eschewed the under-5 career path traps and plunged into the roads less travelled.

For Locke, there was always a deep connection with the written word. From very early on, he would sit and look at books for way longer than I thought a baby's attention span would allow. But there was more to it than that. As if studying the books wasn't quite enough to satiate his hunger for knowledge, he began to chew on them. At first I thought he was just teething. That's why they make board books, right? But now that he's older and wiser, I've realized that he's not just chewing on them, he's editing them.

Locke takes a book that he knows frontwards and backwards, upside down and right side up, and, by ripping off parts of the pages with his teeth, attempts to improve up them. For instance, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" always seemed a bit long to Locke. He'd sometimes lose interest after Wednesday, when the caterpillar had eaten through 3 plums and was still hungry. So he strategically ate away Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's pages, keeping the most interesting part -- Saturday, when the caterpillar eats not just sausage and a cupcake, but also salami, cherry pie, and an ice cream cone. Thanks to Locke's thoughtful editing, the book is really a much more manageable size now.

Lola is much more outgoing in her career pursuit. She has developed an avid interest in birds, so I can only assume a career in ornithology is her goal. And not only is she interested in birds, she's already focused on a specialization within the ornithological field. She studies ducks. Yes, just ducks.

I mentioned her duck labeling in a recent post but, at that time, I narrowmindedly assumed that "duck" was the only word she could say so she called everything duck. What I failed to realize was that there are hidden ducks everywhere and our budding ornithologist is very busy spotting them. In almost every book we read, there's a duck. In almost every Baby Einstein DVD we own, there's a duck. On their "discovery center" activity station, there are no less than three ducks! It's not that she's limited in her speech, it's that she's eagle-eyed in her duck spotting. That may not answer the chicken episode at the dairy farm, but maybe there was a duck I didn't see because I was too busy chasing Locke who was busy chasing chickens.

So it's nice to know that Locke and Lola are pursuing noble paths in life. Although I'm fairly certain their interests will change by next week, or tomorrow, or probably when they get up from their nap. But, whatever paths they finally choose, I will encourage them to do their very best and to be happy and proud knowing they've done just that.