My 21-month-old, Jacob, is good with electronics. He loves anything that has buttons, and if those buttons make noise or cause lights to flash, so much the better. From a very young age Jacob has sought out whatever electronic devices he could get his hands on, and attempted to master them.
Jacob engaged in one of his favourite pastimes – playing with the stereo
One of Jacob’s best feats was locking me out of my own laptop. You see, my laptop has facial recognition software, which I didn’t enable. However, somehow Jacob enabled it. And, of course, his sweet little face was in front of the webcam at the time. So my computer decided that it belonged to him. The next time I fired it up, it considered me an intruder.
Jacob also likes to put CDs in the CD player, and play them. He even adjusts the volume to his liking – which is very loud, in case you were wondering. He especially loves to do this with his dad’s combination CD player / clock radio, while his dad is still sleeping. He’s messed up other people’s computers, learned how to make our computer print lined notepaper, called his dad on my cellphone and set his dad’s car alarm into deep panic mode. He just has a knack, my toddler. In fact, when 5-year-old Hannah can’t make something work, she enlists her little brother’s help.
I’m sure that everyone likes to see themselves in their children. So I might be biased in this, but as an engineer I take a certain pride in Jacob’s love of all things electronic. It’s true that he isn’t always as gentle as one would hope. And it’s true that it’s sort of a pain when he locks me out of my own computer. But I like to see that problem-solving process, and love of technology, in my child all the same. Maybe he’ll be a programmer just like his mama. Programmers get to push a lot of buttons.
The truth is that I was never as into taking things apart and figuring them out as Jacob seems to be. So maybe I can’t really take credit for his button-y love. It’s also true that my husband, while not an engineer, is pretty adept with electronics as well. It might not be all me. But my heart swells with pride at my little electronics whiz all the same. No doubt he’ll be even more technically adept than me one day. Hopefully not before he’s 6, though.
Do you see yourself in your children and their interests? Tell me!
great, I’ll know who to call when I can’t figure out how to work my new laptop/iPad/e-reader…whatever I happen to luck out in getting in the near future
.-= Carrie´s last post ..What I learned: May =-.
Oh, too funny… Little Piet at 9 months is too young yet for me to be able to really know for sure, but he adores pushing buttons on mommy or daddy’s laptops or telephones. The TV is never on when he’s awake so he probably doesn’t really know what that black box does yet, but it’s just a matter of time. Your post seems to prophesy our future — both my husband and I are computer engineers, I think we’re doomed to have a little boy as into electronics as yours! What I find particularly hilarious is that we have the exact same Ikea entertainment unit as you, and Pieter loves to sit in front of it and try to play with the things inside as much as Jacob. The difference is that Piet can’t open the doors yet.
Funny! Wee Guy can re-programme my phone so I don’t recognise its ring.
I recognise my love of books in him, and he loves playing with words as much as my father does. He’s also really interested in exploring his artistic capabilities,something I buried for a long time in favour of concentrating on science “because it would pay more than being an artist”.
.-= pomomama aka ebbandflo´s last post ..friday forte: little words and short sentences =-.
This post makes me cringe. Sorry.
ay 1 =-.
It sounds like you are dealing with the boy’s button pushing, knob twisting phase much better than I. In fact it was a constant battle for me. I am not technically savvy enough to correct whatever adjustments my young engineers made, so then I’d be the one getting ranted at when daddy comes home to find his stereo worked over or his TV settings messed up or the car dashboard knobs all out of adjustment or whatever.
At one point we had to take apart the big bass box because of a rattle…. the husband found a collection of hotwheels, a little sock and other miscellaneous objects shoved inside. All our speakers have been “customized” in some way or other. And the boys were small in the days of VCRs (curse you, flappy portal-of-fun, curse you). We had a custom, heavy duty, clear plastic shield fabricated for the button/sensor area of our TV so that little fingers would stay away (and the remote would still work).
Sigh… curiousity is good, exploration is good…. science experiments with expensive electronics is not so good.
.-= *pol´s last post ..My Trip in Pictures
That is too funny that he locked you out of your computer! Well, of coarse not that funny. (Okay, really it is).
.-= Capital Mom´s last post ..Whroo =-.
Yea. All I can say is Theo is attracted to all those gadgets and buttons. So far he can’t turn the washing machine on but it’s just a matter of time (we have stackable machines that turn on by pressing buttons!!) Hey maybe that means he’ll be a MOM one day..lol
.-= harriet Fancott´s last post ..Ten Month Update =-.
My child has unfortunately, or maybe fortunately?, inherited my cautiousness. Or maybe it’s paranoia? I.E. before climbing in the tunnel he-
walks up to it
walks away
walks up to it
walks away
puts his hand in
walks away
puts his hand in walks away
climbs in
climbs out
climbs in
climbs out
Before he can FINALLY crawl through the thing. It really gets on the other kids’ nerves pretty badly!
He doesn’t look that babyish in that picture! Ay-yi-yi. So weird to feel like he’s growing up before my eyes when my eyes haven’t actually seen him in real life.
I’m still not positive about Miss Em, but my son is me. I knew it almost from the moment he was born. He has my temper, my stubbornness, my occasional moments of sheer giddy silliness followed abruptly by my need to be alone and quiet, my love of puzzles and manipulating 3D objects, and reading. It’s really weird and kind of cool. I would hope my kids took only the best traits from my husband and myself but in my son’s case it’s like he’s a carbon copy.
.-= Marilyn´s last post ..No Pictures =-.
So funny! Yes, my son seems to be drawn to art. We went to a festival this weekend and they had an arts and crafts table and that was all he wanted to do. He did play some other games but he kept wanting to go back to paint some more.
.-= AmberDusick´s last post ..Cheers & Happy Weekend =-.
Right now I’m looking hard at my laptop, and wondering whether there is any sign of facial recognition happening … nope, I think our softwares are behind in this too.
I don’t especially see us in our children in any particular ways, but I do see uncanny similarities in two of our children.
.-= Francesca´s last post ..shared memories =-.
Cute! Baby seems to love books as much as we do, and he loves pulling grown-up books off the shelf just as much as the baby books. Some of the biographies even have pictures I let him look at!
He’s also very musical, which is exciting because I used to sing, play piano, and play handbells, and Hubby played trumpet. He rocks and pats in rhythym allll the time and loves listening to classical music in the car better than silly songs!
.-= Maman A Droit´s last post ..Memorial Day =-.
Aw, my little dude is into pulling apart things with buttons (like laptops and electronics); I too chalked his curiosity up to my hubby’s field, which is engineering too but I also wonder whether his curiosities had more to do with being a boy. I know, I know, that’s being sexist but I did wonder that.
As far as seeing myself in my kids, my daughter is a drama girl who loves to have fun and has a huge heart. I like to think that she gets some of those qualities from me,
My kids like to cook and bake and explore the outdoors. Just like their mom. Oh, and whenever I buy a CD my oldest daughter decides it’s her favorite band too and asks to listen to it constantly, thereby pretty much wrecking it for me. But of well. At least we have the same taste in music!
.-= Melodie´s last post ..Have You Ever Wanted To Nurse Someone Else’s Baby? =-.
I love it! I always have equal parts pride and fear whenever my little ones show such feisty ingenuity.
My oldest was able to navigate on the computer, listen to CDs, and manipulate electronics so well at an early age too and at 6 wants to be an inventor or robot builder. That is not me, but I love it!
My second is so afraid of making mistakes that is keeps him from doing things he really wants to do, but has the ability to do so much. That was/is me. I worry about this to no end. He is also very into buttons and if he would let himself, be quite good at those things that buttons operate.
My third is as feisty as they come. She is naturally athletic and I love to see that in her.
They all love to read and that makes me happy.
.-= Brenna´s last post ..Want to win the $100 gift certificate to Clementine NW? =-.
Your son sounds a lot like mine. The other day our son have changed the graphics on his computer which made everything looks different in shocking colors. He liked it that way but we want to teach him that this is not right. So we sit for at least 15 minutes and could not figure it out. Then we asked him to show us where he did make the changes and voila! There everything was back to normal again. Kids are really getting smarter than their parents
My daughter loves all things electronics just like my hubby. She uses the itouch with amazing speed and finesse. From me, I see in her my love of books.
.-= Lisa´s last post ..Silent Sunday =-.
Ha!! Awesome! Yeah, it’s so fascinating to see your child’s aptitudes develop. All parents indulge in the conceit of “Aw, he’s JUST like his mama!” but at the same time, it’s true, too!
My one year old is a super adventurous, physical kid (see, e.g. shots of him climbing to the top of a ladder while I have a heart attack in recent blog post), and also really into mechanical stuff, especially bicycles. His baby friends are focusing on language skills, whereas he hasn’t said a single word, but he’s all about the motor skills. I was working in the kitchen recently and he toddled around the corner to the washing machine. I heard some tink-tink sounds, and went after him, arriving just in time to find him behind the washing machine. He looked at me and then yanked a big hose right out of the back with surprising strength. Water just EXPLODED out of it. It was quite the emergency! Joe didn’t cry or anything. His expression would best be described as “Dude! AWESOME!” Anyway, he is NOT a cautious child.
One thing is for sure – he does not get this from me. I’m a bookish nerd. It’s 100% Dad.
.-= Inder´s last post ..Pickle Patch 2010! =-.
That face recognition story is awesome. I also take pride in my pre-engineers!
.-= Lady M´s last post ..Best Thing Ever =-.
My daughter just turned five and she’s the mechanical one out of my two kids. She likes to use my husband’s tools and help him put together and take apart his component racks for his DJ business. She’s wanted to do this and was able to “help” from about 18 months. He’s been able to channel her need to take things apart by letting her help him so she hasn’t tried to experiment on anything on her own. I’d have to say she gets these traits from her dad. My son on the other hand has always been very verbal. His vocabulary was always way ahead of the “what to expect” milestones. He likes to ask lots and lots of questions and wants to know how things work and wants to understand things from different angles. As irritating as all the questions get to be sometimes, I recognize that he gets this from me, so I nurture his inquisitiveness as much as I can. I’m fascinated daily by the way the same two sets of genes could combine into two such different little creatures.
.-= Fran´s last post ..Review: Paperback Swap =-.