baby's development at six months of age

zenvirus.com
by Hugh Cook

Section 124 Entry 0001. Date: 2004 November 1 Monday.
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At six months of age, my baby daughter, Cornucopia, has begun to demonstrate her artistic ability. She has begun to work (and to work with great energy, let me say) with paper tissues, producing a series of works in the Deconstructivist mode.

Paper tissue is a difficult medium to work in (I don't recall that Picasso ever used it) so, naturally, I'm excited by this development. Here is a sample of Cornucopia's work:-

Plangencies of the Interior - Collateral Damage
Tangential to the Galactic Apocalypse

a work in the Deconstructivist mode
by Cornucopia, age six months.

Actually, Cornucopia's approach to the universe in general is a Deconstructivist one. If it can't be torn apart she tries sucking it apart, or (now that the sharp edges of teeth have started to show through) biting it apart. I'm sure this is proof of a lively imagination and a keen desire to explore as much of the world as fast as possible.

This morning's explorations included trying to wrench daddy's watch off his wrist using both hands and all force available, but the watch was comfortably equal to the task of resisting the assault.

Cornucopia's problem is that, even when she knows exactly what she wants to do, she does not always have the necessary physical strenth.

The other day I saw her assume the correct crawling position and make valiant efforts to crawl forwards. But all her endeavor was to naught. She completely failed to make forward progress. But then she started crawling backwards, and explored her way backwards until she ran up against an immovable object.

This makes me think that perhaps crawling backwards is ergonomically more efficient than crawling forwards. This could be a life-saver in certain situations. Think of all those cartoons featuring one or two people crawling across the desert. They're always crawling forwards.

And maybe they're unnecessarily doomed. If they'd only done the "Learning from Babies" module ....

It must be said that, while I'm excited by Cornucopia's expanding interest in her universe, I acknowledge that curiosity can go too far. Recently, I've noticed her, after a nappy change and before she has been fully reclothed, fooling with the tabs that hold on her disposable nappies. And I've found myself thinking, "I hope that's one trick she doesn't figure out too quickly."

Fortunately, the tabs are usually buried beneath her clothing, so she doesn't have much time to experiment and figure out how to undo the tabs.

Section 124 Entry 0002. Date: 2004 November 2 Tuesday.
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At six months of age, my baby daughter Cornucopia is on the verge of talking. She is certainly vocalizing loudly, saying "Hey!" and "Ay-yah!" (Her mother hears "Hi ya!" but I hear "Ah-yah!") What is startling is how loud she is. Earlier, she made sounds that were approximately like words, but they were much quieter.

Sometimes, Cornucopia starts enthusiastically vocalizing at six in the morning, at the same time kicking her heels against the (rather fragile) sliding screen which is used to separate the master bedroom (which is in traditional Japanese style, complete with tatami mats) from the living room.

This sudden breakthrough into confident vocalization is actually quite exciting for her parents.

Section 124 Entry 0003. Date: 2004 November 5 Friday.
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Whoops! I got home from work last night and found that the Deconstructivist of the household, Miss Six Months Old, had been practicing her artistic talents on our Japanese paper windows.

Japanese paper windows

Beyond the paper windows there are windows of glass, and beyond the glass windows there are sliding metal shutters, which are usually closed at night. The photo above was taken at night (last night) and so the shutters are indeed closed. A portion of one metal shutter is visible inside the darkness of the darkest hole in the paper windows.

In front of the paper windows, a portion of tatami matting is visible. Only one room in the house is in this traditional Japanese style, with paper windows and tatami matting on the floor. Unfortunately, this room is the master bedroom, in which Miss Six Months sleeps, and in which she spends most of her waking hours.

And now a question: how do you fix a torn paper window? Well, fairly easily, I think. I've never done it, but the way to do it is to get a paper patch and use it to repair the damaged area. Our neighbors in the house to the right of ours have small children, and, after they moved in, it wasn't long before the first paper patch appeared on their paper windows, which are clearly visible from our house.

Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Section 124 Entry 0004. Date: 2004 November 6 Saturday.
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Q and A about Japanese paper windows - got an e-mail asking about the paper windows in Japan, so decided not just to answer it but to put the answers here as well.

I remember when I was a kid being told, in school, that Japanese houses traditionally had paper windows. Another kid asked, well, if that was so, what happened when it rained? And the teacher quite simply didn't know the answer.

As far as traditional Japanese houses go, back in the old days they typically had very wide eaves which kept off most of the rain, and they had sturdy wooden shutters to close at night or when really bad weather came.

In my years in Japan (six or seven years now) I've only seen one inhabited house which had the traditional paper windows and wooden shutters system. It was on the grounds of a temple, and was presumably inhabited by a priest. (I knew it was inhabited because there was a TV aerial sticking out of the roof and there was a sticker on the door announcing to the world that the people inside had paid their legally mandatory TV license fee to NHK.)

The modern system, as I've explained, is a three-layer system. If one room in your house or apartment has tatami mats then it will probably also have this three-layer system, consisting of sliding paper windows, then sliding glass windows, then sliding metal shutters.

With that background stuff out of the way, let's move on to the Q and A.

Q. The paper is thin enough not to block the light, right?
A. Yes, it's translucent. You get light and it's a very even light.

Q. What about ventilation? How do you open the window?
There are two paper windows and they sit in grooves. If you slide one back then it overlaps with the other one and half of the window then has no paper. You can do the same with the glass windows. As for the metal shutters, they slide into housings which project from the outer walls of the house. The metal shutters, then, can be completely cleared away, vanishing into the housings, and half of the window can be opened to the air to admit the breeze. Actually, in addition to the three layers already mentioned, we have a fourth layer, which is fine mosquito mesh.

For additional ventilation, the house has vents in a couple of places, one of these being in the kitchen. We do have one air conditioning unit but only use it on really hot summer days.

Q. Are there paper windows only on walls facing the street, to prevent people from looking inside? A. No. Practicality has nothing to do with this. Having a room in your house or apartment which has traditional tatami matting plus paper windows is purely a matter of style. It's reasonably popular, so lots of the new places that are coming on the market have one (and uusually only one) room in that style.

Q. What about vandals and high wind?
A. When you're out of the house, you will have the glass windows closed. The paper windows are inside the glass windows so they are protected against vandals to the same extent that stuff inside a normal Western house is protected against vandals. Additionally, you may choose to close the metal shutters as well, for extra precaution. In high winds, the glass windows are usually enough to protect the house. If there is a typhoon coming, we will close the metal shutters as well for extra protection.

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