Fast Food - Faster Baby Tiarnan

Babies are famous for eating anything they get a chance to put in their mouths. Some babies are more adventurous in this regard than most. Tiarnan is one of them.

Singapore is not only populated by people, but by lizards - millions of them. They seem to get everywhere - even high up in apartment blocks, where we are, lizards are to be found. They are small, fast-moving creatures, that chatter excitedly in a tongue I do not know. It seems unlikely, looking at the speed with which they move, that a baby would have much interaction with them. Yet, Tiarnan is a well-coordinated baby, who moves very fast.

Two days ago, on the 7th December 2006, Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, aged ten months, saw a lizard on a wall in our apartment. He hurried over to it - and reached out with his left hand to grab it. The lizard was caught completely by surprise at the speed of his attack: Tiarnan had caught a lizard. Now what do you think he did with his wriggling prize? He moved it towards his mouth, and it was only the intervention of a nearby adult, that stopped Tiarnan swallowing his live lizard whole.

It is funny to note this, because it almost seems a family tradition with our babies. Fintan, three, did the same when he was a toddler - though, he succeeded in killing his find.

It surprises me that a baby of ten months can, in fact, hunt. It seems that our early instincts are not far from the surface, if a little baby, can move fast enough and coordinated enough to catch such a fast-moving animal as a lizard.

So, consider this: what is your baby trying to eat for lunch?

(If you would like to read about Tiarnan's gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and two weeks, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)