Of Hunger and Hobbits.

My eldest son, Ainan, 12, has turned into a hobbit. No, that does not mean he has become short and stocky with furry feet – it means he has become someone who is ever hungry.

Yesterday is an example. He had dinner – twice. Then, an hour or so later, he started prowling around the kitchen, muttering: “I want food.”

He eats like there is a hole in the bottom of his stomach and the food is all just falling out, once swallowed. It is funny to see him like this. You see, when he was very young – from a toddler to a preschooler, he just hated eating. As a toddler he once even asked: “Why do I have to eat? The chair doesn’t do it. The table doesn’t do it. The towel doesn’t do it. Why do I have to do it?” He really didn’t want to eat.

Now, he is rather different. The end of one meal is just the beginning of another, for him. Like a hobbit, he has first breakfast and second breakfast. Last night, he had his first dinner, followed about 45 minutes later by his second dinner – and was looking for his third, within an hour!

I rather think he is beginning to grow. He is quite tall already for his age – at about 163 cm, for a 12 year old. I am curious as to whether he will one day be taller than me. He is certainly giving himself the fuel for such growth.

Happy eating Ainan! May you soon grow to be taller than your Daddy! Hopefully, though, you won’t be heavier...

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Eternal Child Hunger Pangs

Today, I met Tiarnan, twenty months, on the stairs. He was going up, I was coming down.

He paused and looked up at me, as he drew level, and opened his mouth to show me a big splash of green, in there. "I'm eating.", he declared.

I could see that. I smiled, for it was the assured way that he said it, that I found humourous.

Then he said, to clarify his position: "I always eat."

He doesn't, really. He eats no more and no more often than any other child. He is not a one child representation of world hunger. Yet, it is interesting to note that, from his perspective, the regularity with which he eats constitutes "always eating".

It seems that he monitors himself and marks his own behaviour for frequency and habit. It is funny to see self-awareness in children so young because, somehow, it is unexpected. Though it may be hard to conceive it, they are much more self-aware and self-determining than one might at first allow. Yes, Tiarnan is a little toddler - but he is also a self-aware intelligence, quite capable of perceiving his own nature and place in the world. A lot goes into those first couple of years of life, I believe - a lot more than one might suppose.

As for Tiarnan, he has the eternal hunger of every child - and his pangs are in common with all little kids.

For me, the best point of this was a subtle one. It was green in his mouth...you try most kids to get to eat vegetables!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)