Charisma

NOTE BEFORE WE START:

EAMON WOLFE IS WALKING.

He’s still pretty shaky, and doesn’t have great balance, but he can walk across the room when he feels like it, which is getting more and more often. He still gets down to crawl when he wants to go fast, and he can’t pull to a stand without holding onto anything, so walking still isn’t his main mode of transportation. But he can do it.

NOW ON TO THE REAL BLOG.

There are no strangers to Eamon. He waves at everyone and makes it his personal goal each time we go out to see how many people he can make smile. He isn’t a pest about it (yet), but he’s far from shy.

And he has Aaron’s charisma. Oooo boy, does he have some charisma. Put it this way: if this were a D&D game, and Eamon had to roll a 20-sided die to find out his charisma score, he rolled a 25. And you might want to accuse him of somehow cheating, except that then he smiles and you sort of forget what you were so angry about in the first place.

Everywhere we go, people smile and talk to him. Sometimes, he smiles shyly and demurely hides his face in my shoulder–only to look back at the person a second later and smile again. I’m convinced this “shyness” is an act because he knows that it makes him look even more precious. He’s a cute kid, sure, but that’s not what makes him stand out–it’s his thousand-watt smile that breaks across his face whenever someone acknowledges him. It’s the kind of smile that says, “You are the most important person in the world and I am so glad that you noticed me.” People–men, women, other children–melt everywhere we go.

This can be interesting when Eamon is out with his shyer mother. While I’ve tried to work past a lot of my shyness, I’m still not determined to meet everyone in a room like Eamon is. But wherever we go, I have conversations with complete strangers–conversations that Eamon seeks out and starts (even though he can’t actually talk yet).

For instance, a couple of weeks ago, Eamon and I stopped at Subway, and there were about a half dozen people in line. I got to talk to every single one of them. I got to have a conversation with each girl working behind the counter–even the ones who weren’t preparing my sub. Eamon enchanted them all.

It’s not just at Subway, though. At the grocery store, Eamon makes it is his personal mission to get a smile from anyone behind us in line, the checkout clerk, the bagger, and anyone else he happens to notice. My mother was chased down by one of the day-managers of the store, who told her how cute Eamon was and how much they love having him come.

He’s also a hit at the pharmacy. I walked up the other day and before I said anything, the pharmacist said, “You need Aaron’s prescription?” I looked startled until I noticed that she was already smiling and cooing at Eamon. She doesn’t know me, she knows Eamon. She said, “You were here yesterday with your grandmother.” Our whole family is all famous, but only as relations to this kid.

It doesn’t take much, either. My mom went to Trader Joe’s for the first time a couple of weeks ago for soy yogurt for Eamon. Then she went back recently. The cashier looked at Eamon and said, “I remember you,” and started smiling and waving at Eamon.

All in all, we are in trouble once Eamon realizes his own charisma. I just hope that we can teach him to use his powers for good.