章 5: Doodling
Austria, August 30th 1788
2:42 PM
Lukas right now was sitting on the floor with Olivia crouching behind him. He was doing his new favorite hobby, and probably his first one if you don't count zoning out.
His new hobby was drawing. Of course he didn't draw anything special, actually, he didn't draw anything at all. He just doodled around the paper with a quill.
At first, everyone thought it would be dangerous to him since he could try to eat the paint, but he didn't even try it, actually, he even rubbed the paint off on his shirt as soon as he dirtied his hands with paint.
Lukas did it because he had overheard the conversations that it would be dangerous for him to try to eat the paint.
Funnily enough, Lukas did think about eating it at first because the scent was rather attractive to him, but as soon as he heard it, he immediately discarded that idea.
Lukas finished scribbling the whole paper with random doodling, which, for a newborn baby, was actually pretty impressive. Newborn babies usually wouldn't even be able to wield the quill properly, even though Lukas, obviously, didn't do it perfectly either.
Lukas held the quill with all his five fingers and roamed it randomly around the paper. It could look ridiculous if an adult did it, but for a baby who was born two weeks ago, it was mesmerizing.
Lukas looked at the scribbled paper with a content expression. Drawing sure looked easier than it was. Lukas's hand shaked when he tried to wield the quill, he suddenly lost control of the quill as well. It may be an amazing thing for a newborn to do, but Lukas didn't think about it as a great thing.
Olivia started to lightly clap her hands with a smile.
"Well done, young master! That's quiet a drawing!"
Lukas frowned.
'You're mocking me, right?'
Lukas had advanced quite a lot in his language lately, it was pretty rare for him to hear words he didn't know, he could spend a whole day without hearing words he didn't know. Despite not looking like it, Lukas was very proud of it.
Besides the words, his time of reaction between hearing the sentences and understanding them got very narrow, he almost can say that he understands them as soon as he hears them.
Now Lukas only had to get used to speak the language, which would have to wait a bit because he didn't want anyone to have a heart attack due to a baby starting to speak all of a sudden.
Not to mention that he didn't know what would happen to him if someone saw him speaking, he could be considered a demon and get killed by the church, which already happened to many people for much less according to what he had overheard.
'I can't believe people think anyone who's slightly different is a demon! I mean, they actually can be a different creature, but I guess it would be fine as long as it doesn't harm us.'
Olivia knelt down in front of Lukas.
"Would you like one more sheet of paper, young master?"
'Are you, by chance, urging me to speak?! Because it's working.'
Olivia naturally didn't expect for Lukas's answer, so she just stood up and fetched one more sheet of paper.
Now that Lukas already had a good domain over his language, he wanted to do more things. His next step was learning to walk. Lukas had a very good mobility for a newborn his age.
He still couldn't crawl, but he could roll over and move his limbs around very easily and with perfect control over them. It may look like little, but for a newborn, that's outstanding.
Since walking demanded some physical strength that Lukas still didn't have and would take some time to, he decided to work in gaining body dexterity, so a good option to do it, was drawing.
Although Lukas thought it would be pretty boring, it actually turned out to be a pretty fun and relaxing experience.
Although it was stressful at first since he couldn't even hold the quill for a few seconds, now doodling was exactly the other way around. It relaxed Lukas quite a lot.
Lukas, by now, was just focusing in roaming the quill around the paper in order to sharpen his movements, and soon, he'll try to draw some pretty simple things, like: circles, squares, simple lines along the sheet of paper, etc..
A curious thing that Lukas noticed was that, at first, he tried hold the quill with his left hand, but Olivia immediately frowned and made him hold it with his right one, which, obviously, made it even more difficult for no clear reason to him.
Despite Lukas being annoyed that Olivia made him hold the quill with his "least favorite hand", he ended up by admiring it, since now, he could wield the quill with both his hands.
Although Lukas doesn't think that was the reason for which Olivia made him hold the quill with his right hand, he's still happy it happened.
'I wonder if people believe that when you use your left hand to write, you're a demon. Oh, well, I'll apparently become a full-fledged demon at this rate.'
While Lukas was zoning out, Olivia came back with a new sheet of paper. She crouched down and placed it on the floor.
"Here you go, young master."
'About time.'
Lukas took the quill and started roaming it around the paper yet again, however, he noticed that it was running out of paint since the doodling was very scant, so, he decided to dip it in the quill pot by him, which called Olivia's attention.
She frowned as she watched it.
'He is already aware that you need to dip it into the pot, so it is able to write again? No, I wonder if he's aware that you need to supply the quill with more paint so it can keep writing. I am not sure if it's something mechanical or something that he does out of awareness, but although both options are frightening, the latter would be much more.'
Lukas noticed Olivia's stare and although that made him quiet uncomfortable, he decided to keep doodling like nothing happened.
Although his sight was still rather blurry, he could recognize that kind of stare anywhere.
'Oh no, what have I done now? Why's she staring at me like that? This usually happens when I do something I shouldn't. But I don't remember of doing something that demands much brains lately. What did I do?
I waited for the sheet of paper, then I started to doodle like I always do, then the quill started to... oh, of course. She noticed it. Dang! Some eyes she has, huh?'
Although Lukas was quite mad at himself for doing something reckless without even noticing, he couldn't do anything about it now, it would be even more suspicious if he stopped dipping the quill into the pot when it started running out of paint again, so he started doing it in a way that would make Olivia think that it was an automatic movement and that Lukas wasn't aware of what he was doing at all.
'I guess it's working, she apparently doesn't care about it anymore. Oh, well, I guess I'm worrying too much.'
Frida walked into the room where Lukas and Olivia were and started looking around until she focused her look on Lukas.
"It's bed time, Lukas! Olivia, please, give him a bath, okay? He's quite dirty."
'Hell yeah! It's bath time!'
Lukas almost dropped the quill as soon as Frida said that sentence. It really would make it look like he was understanding everything Frida was saying, so he decided to keep doodling until Olivia makes him stop doing it instead.
Olivia made Lukas drop the quill and he obediently did it. He had no reason for not wanting to go to bath or to bed. He was already getting tired of doodling anyway.
Frida smiled as she watched Lukas.
"You're such an obedient boy, aren't you?"
She started patting his head.
Although Lukas didn't show it, he really started to enjoy his mother's cuddles, he was a baby after all. He needed love and care as any other baby.
Olivia nodded.
"Yes. I've never seen him making a fuss out of something or anything like that. He always does what we tell him."
Frida chuckled.
"Olivia, he doesn't literally does "what we tell him" since he can't understand us. He must notice what we want unconsciously"
Lukas shuddered.
'Hey! That's on purpose, right?! That's not a detail of speech that people would usually notice.'
Olivia nodded while chuckling.
"Yes, yes, Mrs. Von Neumann, I know. Babies only start to understand words around 9 months and those are just the very basic ones."
'Yeah, yeah! Don't recall me about it... Wait! 9 months?! I finally know it! I finally know when I should start to spea... Wait, she said "to understand", not "to speak", but that must not take much longer, maybe... around 10 months I can start saying words like... "Mama"? I don't know! I have to think as a normal baby!
Although I never saw one before, I guess can somehow mimick their mind. Okay... gu-gu-dah... cof! cof! Be serious, Lukas! Ok, it took me 9 months to start understanding a few basic words, so, since I already kind of understand them... I guess I'd want to mimick them right away? Yep, I guess it's just fair. People already noticed that I'm not a normal baby anyway, start speaking like one month earlier wouldn't be that big of a deal... I guess.'
Olivia took Lukas to take a bath, which was, as always, enjoyable to him and then put him to sleep in his crib.
Olivia was quite surprised that Lukas didn't need anybody to lully him or something like that, he just needed to be placed in the crib after a bath and he would fall asleep in no time.
-----
Austria, August 30th 1788
5:30 PM
Lukas opened his eyes slowly, he was already pretty used to his routine, although he spent most of his day sleeping, he didn't see it as a bad thing at all.
He hated doing things while he was tired, he would be more productive if he was totally rested.
As Lukas opened his eyes, he saw Frida standing in front of the crib, she apparently was about to wake him up, but he apparently spared her the effort.
Frida smiled and started to talk to him softly.
"Oh, honey, you're already awake? Good boy!"
Although Lukas hated to admit it, he actually started enjoying when Frida talks to him like that.
He thought it really looked like she's talking to a retarded and he actually still thinks like that, but, even so, he started to enjoy listening to her talking to him like that.
Lukas slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes followed by a yawn.
Frida was pretty sure that Lukas was the cutest thing she'd ever seen in her entire life.
Frida picked Lukas carefully and hugged him gently.
"You're such a cutie, yeah, you are!"
'I know I'm pretty cute, I know.'
Frida pulled Lukas away and looked him into his eyes.
"Are you hungry?"
'Very.'
"It's time to eat, Lukas."
'I know. It always happens like this.'
After breastfeeding Lukas, Frida was pretty tired. Lukas ate a lot for a newborn, however, he was always pretty gentle while he was eating, it looked like he was aware that he could hurt Frida if he was clumsy.
Not only ate Lukas a lot for a newborn, but Lukas also slept a lot, even for a newborn, newborns usually sleep about fourteen to seventeen hours per day, nineteen hours would already be a lot, but Lukas sleeps about twenty hours every day.
Even Olivia, who was very used to take care of babies, she took care of a lot of babies from the Von Neumann house, had never seen a baby who slept this much.
Lukas had overheard that he slept and ate a lot for a newborn, but he really didn't mind it. He figured it happened because he always pushed himself too much, so he had to sleep and eat more than everyone else, so he wasn't worried about it at all.
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