Sunday, May 29, 2011

It's in your genes, buddy

Sam has been showing some signs of shyness lately. I've heard that you're not supposed to label children as "shy" this early in life, so I guess I'll say that he's slow to warm up. And I guess it's likely in his genes too since Jason and I are both introverted and were probably labeled as shy early in life too. Which we're both okay with. That's just the way we are.

When someone comes up to Sam and says hi or he gets attention at stores, the playground, etc. from people he doesn't know, he turns his head away, but glances at them with his eyes. So he kind of looks away, but kind of doesn't and has this way of looking sideways in a goofy manner. He usually won't say anything, but he still smiles and looks sideways at whoever is talking to him or me.

This morning at church Sam's slowness to warm-up manifested itself in a new manner, one that we have not seen before. He went up to the children's message and sat on Jason's lap in front of the church and held his hands in front of his face. When he wasn't holding his hands in front of his face, he was pulling his shirt over his face. What a strange little boy! Always coming up with something new. After the children's message, he then ran down the aisle with his shirt pulled up over his face, almost running into some pews and giving a scare to some of the other churchgoers. Oh, he was so silly today.

Matthew is somewhat shy these days too, although his shyness has a clinical diagnosis: "stranger anxiety". At the playground the other day he was going up the stairs on a climbing structure when another little boy, maybe 15 or 18 months of age, started crawling up the stairs beside him. Well, that was not an acceptable move and Matthew gave the little boy the stare down for a few moments then burst out crying. You wonder what's going on in his mind? Well, Matthew, it's in your genes too, although you may outgrow it and be Mr. Outgoing. The genetic odds are not in your favor, though.

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