Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Facial Recognition

Most of us have five senses that we've been working on for quite some time. I've had 28 and a half years to master my sense of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch, and I know I take each one for granted. There's probably not much out there in my normal life that would shock one of my senses, but for Kaylani, it's completely different. I'm sure that she learns something new every day for one of her five senses.

I'm not sure what age it is before babies can recognize faces, but I know it's early. I mean, I'm sure that she knows my face because she smiles when I walk into a room (can you blame her?), but I feel like she uses more than just her sense of sight to recognize me. Sure she can see me when she stares at me and she probably can see me even if I'm not there (as proven when she stares at my spot on her futon when she's nursing and I'm not there), but I wonder what other senses she uses.

It's been proven that Mommy has a distinct smell to Kaylani, but does Daddy? I mean, I did just change cologne's, but that didn't seem to force Kaylani to readjust to me. And maybe she likes Chinese food because she does try and eat my cheek, finger, arm, or anything she can get her mouth on, but I don't know if that's how she would identify me. She definitely knows Daddy's voice as we proved when she stared at the phone when I called home, so that's another one that she uses. But it's her sense of touch that she's been using most lately.

When I put Kaylani on her back and hover over her, she likes to reach out and grab my face. It's actually one of the highlights of my day now because it feels like she's studying my every feature from my fat, flat nose (as Mommy calls it) to my squinty eyes and even up to my fuzzy hair. It kinda reminds me of those wedding games where the groom (or bride) is blindfolded and needs to identify their partner (which is a terrible wedding game in my opinion. Can you imagine getting it wrong?). But in Kaylani's view, she's not playing (and she's definitely not getting married). She's learning facial recognition in the simplest of ways.

Because she's learning what my face is like, it doesn't bother me that she has sharp nails (even when we cut/file them often) and tries to claw my nose off (which would be impossible because it's too big as Mommy says), or poke my eyes out (good luck finding them when I'm smiling), or maybe just leave her mark on my cheek. It's the simpest of sacrifices that I can make for my daughter, and I'm sure it's still only the beginning of what I'd be willing to let her do. After all, she's learning the greatest lesson of all...me!

2 comments:

Tom Sherman said...

I believe your distinct smell is less your cologne and more your butt - boo-yah!

JonnyTam13 said...

It's the cologne that covers up the smell of my butt.