Recently, during a visit from our friend Alex, we witnessed what just may be evidence Theo's ability to understand, and try to manipulate, what others believe about him. Theo had climbed into one of the black chairs in the living room, and his "uncle" Alex, who Theo greatly admires, was sitting in the chair next to him. Theo was enjoying Alex's attention and was standing up in the chair, looking rather pleased with himself, when he suddenly started tipping sideways. Matt and I were sitting across the room, and I started lunging towards Theo, expecting him to crash awkwardly in between the chair and a small round table, when Theo's giant head hits the table, and the force is just enough to right him so that that he lands on his bottom in the chair. We all looked at Theo, shocked he was not crying. I sat tentatively back down. Theo sat calmly in the chair, looking a little shocked and a little dazed, and then turns to Alex, and starts finger popping in greeting. It looked to us for all the world, like Theo was trying to "play it cool" in front of Alex and Matt and I, like he was OK, hadn't really fallen and bumped his head. He sat calmly for a few moments, but once we realized that he was barely keeping the tears inside, Matt went over to pick him up, whereupon he began crying hard, needing lots of comfort from Mommy and Daddy. Was Theo really aware of what others thought of him, and was he trying to give the impression that he was OK, even though he was not? Could be. Here's a shot of the lump on his head. He comforted himself later by playing water bottle in the beer box.
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