North and I were having a difficult feeding session. He was resisting eating his main course and only wanted apple sauce. I was holding his hands down and waiting for his mouth to be open wide enough while he cried -and popped the food in. I had decided to stand firm on what he eats. But I also didn't want there to be too much "damage" from the contention between us. He had his only super-duper tantrum a week ago, and the rest of the day things were a little cautious and off between us. Since then I've learned to de-escalate this stuff. So after this feeding I wanted to move on to making him enjoy and respect me again.
Turns out maybe he was thinking the same thing. I guess to him he is "teaching me a difficult lesson" also. After this difficult meal he grinned at me, and I picked him up and carried him to watch some things with me on my computer.
I noticed on Facebook a blurb about some girl that is the new guitar whiz, and she performed at TED. I clicked on the video [here]. Kaki King came on and she began to blow North and I away.
I was thrilled to someone contemporary that was so amazing on guitar. But what I'm really writing this blog entry about is North. I looked over at North, and he was enraptured. He gets a serious, deep and reverent look on his face and body mannerisms when his favorite music is on. He was that and more. The video is over 14 minutes long. North was so into it. He never took his eyes off the guitar playing. Once, in not so subtle change in the music composition, he jumped. He was paying a kind of attention adults pay to this stuff.
Through all this he sat in my lap and had his arm around my back, and being so into music that I was so into. We had both discovered it at the same time, a surprise, and we both were extremely moved by the music and the visuals of her unorthodox playing style. I spent half the time of the performance looking at North, almost crying I was enjoying this whole moment so much.
We went out for one of North's long exploration walks, he even did something new when I said "look, there's a little girl over there, you ought to go and say hi" and he walked the half block distance to her and waved hi.
Then we got back, and I got out his lunch of the same food he fought against earlier. I got the first spoonful out and said "open". He opened his mouth, totally cooperating. He ate every bite without even a hint of a fuss.
( Oh, and TED is where some of the greatest minds speak, usually on intellectual topics. A seat for one performance costs $6000.)
