Babies and sixth sense

Published in THE STAR ( StarTwo, Page 17 )
Thursday March 24, 2005
by Sharon Boo

What is it with babies and their sixth sense? I’ve always been amazed at how babies and toddlers just seem to know what’s going on around them even from the time they are newborns.

They know when mummy is not in the room, or when you are about to sit down after cradling them to sleep while walking up and down the room. And then they kick up a fuss.
Last night, about half an hour before my hubby and I left for Kuala Lumpur, our 16-month-old son, Brendan, suddenly tried to draw our attention by telling us to play the piano for him, showing us how he drives a car using an empty tin cover as a steering wheel, asking daddy to carry him, tugging at my dress and patting my seven months pregnant tummy.

And then he suddenly sat beside me and kept very quiet and stared blankly at the television. I turned to look at him and saw tears welling up in his eyes. Clearly, something was disturbing him. He knew that daddy and mummy were leaving for KL, despite us not telling him beforehand.

After two days of crazy laughter and fun with daddy and mummy (Brendan is in Johor under the good care of my parents), sleeping at 1am because he wants to play with daddy and mummy, he suddenly felt lonely again (well, at least for a while because when I called the following day, he was back to his normal self, carrying on with his everyday life of playing and doing everything a toddler does).

We finally left my parent’s place at 8.30 that night and Brendan just stared at us. He didn’t cry, didn’t make a fuss and didn’t smile. He gave us never-ending flying kisses with that "staring into space" look in his eyes. That broke my heart.

Until now, I am still trying to hold back my tears in public, thinking of that one moment when I turned to see tears in Brendan’s eyes. He was trying hard not to cry and behaving like an older kid instead of a 16-month-old toddler!

What is it with a baby and his sixth sense?

Anyway, on a lighter note, daddy and mummy were sitting side by side earlier in the day with tummies exposed.

Brendan was patting mummy’s tummy and as usual, giving hugs and planting wet kisses on mummy’s big tummy when daddy said: "Brendan, come kiss baby in daddy’s tummy too!"
He just looked at daddy’s tummy and pushed it away. He poked at daddy’s navel, touched daddy’s tummy and hit it and started smiling, as though trying to tell us that there’s no baby in daddy’s tummy.

He turned to mummy’s tummy and give it another peck and a big koala hug. Again, it made me wonder. How does he know?

Call it extra sensory perception, or telepathy or whatever. I’d certainly like to comprehend this special gift in babies and toddlers.