Saturday 10 March 2012

Smile and wave boys. Smile and wave.

A few months back I complained bitterly via Facebook about folk not waving after Bug had waved like a mental at them. My exact words were 'you're all a set of miserable bastards who couldn't spot a wave in a tsunami.' I couldn't understand why people failed to wave. It made no sense. Here's this little girl learning about social interactions at nine months old. Here's the world ignoring her. A grump was well and truly afoot. It never occurred to me that maybe the world hadn't seen her. She was small with smaller waves, and anyway, defensive is a Dad's middle name.

She's sixteen months old now, or as I like to call it: a year. I've been saying 'a year' for the past four months. I am King Denial when it comes to Bug growing up. When she's twenty seven I'll be telling people she's just big for her age while trying to squeeze her squidgy bum into a baby grow. Speaking of which, yesterday I was talking to our neighbour.  He's expecting his first wee one in a couple of months. I had Bug in a sling. He pointed to it and said "I'd like to get a sling."
          "They're ace," I said. "She's getting a bit heavy for it but still..."
          "Yes. I bet you like the cuddles."
          "I do," I replied. "She'll be in here when she's twenty seven!"
          He smiled. I got carried away:
          "Just call me Fritzl. Haha!"
           He hasn't spoken to me since.

Back to waving. Bug's big now with bigger waves. When she starts it's difficult to miss and people respond. Bug gets more new waves than an 80s teenager! The thing that amazes me is the type of folk who wave back. At the traffic lights last week there was a white van. In it sat two of the roughest looking bastards you'd never want to meet. Hanging out of the window was a dog that looked like it had gone paw-to-paw with the hound of the Baskervilles and won. Bug clocked the dog and gave it an excited wave. The two psychos noticed Bug and gave her a big wave back. The dog barked happily and waggled its tail. Bug gave a happy chirp and off on our day we went. It was Disney done by Guy Ritchie.

She gets waves by mistake too. Bug can spot dog a mile off. She has dog-sense. At the park she waved madly at a dog on the horizon. The homeless gent stumbling towards us didn't know this and gave her a huge grin and a wave. It's very hard to give a wave back so I pocketed it for later and smiled.

I love that she makes people happy. It's like folks get to experience -- in those few seconds -- what I get every day.

Bye for now.

Xx

PS
Bug's learnt to shake her head when she doesn't like something. Turns out there's a lot she doesn't like. Who knew eh?

4 comments:

  1. It's interesting how she's the one learning about social interactions for the first time, yet is the one to remind people about how they're supposed to be. I love this. :)

    ~ Les x

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    1. After I had my initial gripe about folks not waving, a friend posted a FB link of a thank you letter written to a small child who had waved at them. Something along the lines of 'people don't usually wave at strangers and it kinda made my day.' Made me smile.

      Xx

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  2. I never fail to be amazed at Mini-M's (and by the sound of it Bug's) ability to attempt to solicit waves from the most inappropriate people. I am particularly distressed when she choses to befriend some of Leith's finest drug users, complete with pit bull terriers...

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    1. Ha. Yes. Often. Often squared if there's a dog :)

      There's something about a waving child that makes people smile. A waving child and a dog with a wagging tail. Separated at birth perhaps?

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