Melissa's Place

Shiver and Shake

I read a book on baby and child development which I borrowed from the library. In it, it mentioned that babies around 10 months old begin to develop weird shivers or shudders. You would think this might comfort me....that it's normal. Apparently, sometimes they do it when they're peeing. But then I started to see Cole shuddering A LOT. In fact, over the weekend, he seemed to be shuddering all the time! The kid just couldn't be peeing all the time.

So I talked to Mark. "I think Cole might have a tick," I said. Mark (the special ed teacher) replied, "Hmh. Maybe he has Tourette's", without even looking up from what he was doing. Okay, I thought. That's not the end of the world. Tourette's is completely manageable. And a shudder is a very small tick. That's not a terrible tick to have. He's not yelling profanities yet. I began trying to reconcile myself to the idea that my baby may not be perfect.

Then, this morning, I offered Cole his breakfast, "Cole, do you want blueberries?"
Shudder. Head waves back and forth.
"What about cheese?"
Shudder. Head waves back and forth.
"Are you shaking your head?"
Stares at me with beautiful clear gray eyes.
"Do you want Cheerios?"
Shudder/Head shake.

I guess we take certain things for granted, as adults. We forget that even the simplest motions, like shaking your head for NO, take practice and they may not look exact the first time we do them.
Wait til Cole hears that the first time he shook his head No, I thought he had Tourette's.