said a whiting to a snail, "There's a porpoise close behind us,
and he's treading on my tail."
If the stork just delivered a Gemini baby to your house, sharpen your roller skates and shake the cobwebs out of your brain. You'll need to be fast and alert for the next fifteen to twenty years, and you might as well start right now, while your little bundle from Mercury is still pinned down in his crib. It won't be long before he learns to walk and talk. If you're not ready to fly beside him, he may slip in and out of your fingers like a glob of air. Did you ever try to hold on to a glob of air?
The U.S. Census Bureau figures prove that there are more multiple births during the period of Gemini, the twins, than at any other time of the year. So your June event might have been twins-or more. No? Don't be too sure. You may be able to count only ten toes and ten fingers, which adds up to one infant in most cases, but not necessarily in the case of a Gemini infant. There may have to be a change in your concept of mathematics. You'll see what I mean soon enough when he starts to crawl. It will happen a dozen times a day. You'll swear you just this second saw him with his hand inside the electric mixer in the pantry. But how could that be? There he is, all the way out on the front porch, blissfully chewing the petunias. How can he be two places at once? Remember that your offspring is ruled by Mercury. He's that Greek god you see pictured in books with wings on his feet, wearing a bright silver helmet. Stick a kitchen pan upside down on your Gemini baby's head for a helmet, and use your imagination for the wings sprouting out of his chubby little pink heels.
See the resemblance?
I have never personally approved of those harness-like attachments they sell to mothers to strap around their toddlers when they take them out shopping. It always makes me think the woman is walking her dog. However, I would strongly advise the mother of a Gemini child to buy two or three of them, just to be on the safe side.
Your first thought might be that, if baby is going to be that active, a sturdy playpen is a must. I can see your logic, even sympathize with it, but I'm not so sure about playpens and Gemini children. Confinement in a small space can amount to cruelty with a little Geminian, whose entire nature urges him to seek, to explore, to learn. Even worse than the physical curtailment is the mental .boredom of being stuck on one little blue and pink plastic rectangular pad, with the whole exciting world out there to see and enjoy. Periods of being cooped up in a playpen should be brief. Too much restriction and hampering of the Geminian freedom can lead to emotional depression he may not outgrow so easily. Remember, he's an air sign, and air must move. Make sure he has a variety of toys and plenty of bright books to look at when you must keep him fenced in.
Of course, he won't stay there long, once he's had it. Mercury rules the vocal chords, and when your little Gemini tot decides to exercise his talent in this direction, youll wonder how all that noise could possibly come out of one small mouth. Bet you take him out of the playpen fast. Unless you have understanding neighbors, who are a little hard of hearing.
Gemini children often make older, more placid people nervous with their bird-like, quick movements. Grownups are always telling the little Geminian to stop fidgeting, or to be patient and do one thing at a time. But doing two things at a time is natural to these youngsters. What stodgy or poised people call fidgety is, to the Gemini, merely his normal state of activity. It's wrong to make him feel he would get more approval if he tried to imitate the slower, less lively people. He should be taught to slow down a little, perhaps, for his own good, but his basic nature can't be changed without frustrating his natural inclinations. We should try to remember that the quick Gemini child who annoys his more introverted elders-and the quiet, careful Capricorn child who irritates his more aggressive elders, are simply being themselves. Being yourself is always hard enough to do, without people trying to force a personality change.
Love your Gemini child for what he is-a friendly, alert, inquisitive and precocious little person. You can't turn the firefly into a snail or the snail into a firefly. Nor can the leopard change his spots. I might add that, if someone tries to scrub them off, he'll be a mighty unhappy, neurotic leopard.
Of course, you aren't raising leopards. You're raising a bright, interesting, enthusiastic child. But the analogy is logical. Let those spots of duality in your Gemini youngster remain. Someday he may make you proud of a building he designed and a literary prize he won; and when he manifests such a double talent, you'll wonder why you ever tried to stamp him into a single mold. If he leaps about as though he has jumping beans inside him he's just practicing the fast reflexes he was born with. His firefly mind can confuse you, but remember that it's pursuing a thousand fancies, sorting them, deciding which to discard and which to treasure.
Teachers will usually notice right away that these boys and girls have no trouble learning to read. Gemini almost invented words. They won't mind being called on to recite, and they may smile as the rest of the students sigh, when a theme is assigned. These youngsters delight in communicating with others and sharing their knowledge verbally or on paper. Many of them are mechanically inclined and ambidextrous. It's not unusual to find a Gemini child who writes with his left hand and draws with his right. He may bite his nails, but his fingers are normally slim and flexible, which makes him adept at magic tricks and playing musical instruments. Someday it could make him a fine surgeon, dentist or watchmaker. Gemini hands are sensitive, expressive and capable.
There's usually a marked ability to mimic others. The Gemini sense of sharp wit and satire appears early. At home or in school, the Gemini child lives in a world of make-believe and reality, constantly blending, where truth is often portrayed as fantasy, and fantasy is disguised as truth. He may give the impression of exaggerating or even telling lies. But he just can't help splashing a little color around when he's relating an incident, and he often convinces himself it really happened that way. At such times, he should be handled gently, since he's actually stretching and exercising his vivid imagination. Rather than make him feel guilty for having an imagination, he should be told always to speak the truth and write the story down on paper. Once he masters this, hell be able to see the difference between the dream and the fact, instead of being lost somewhere between the two worlds. Gemini youngsters who aren't allowed to express and communicate naturally may retreat into a half-world of illusion in self-defense. It's a good idea to start him on foreign languages early-which he'll probably learn effortlessly. Like the Sagittarius child, he'll find bi-lingual talents will come in handy because he'll talk a lot and travel a lot.
The Gemini child who argues with you that he can do his homework and listen to the radio at the same time is probably telling the truth. If his grades back him up, why not? Geminis are never satisfied with one pursuit at a time. It's as if they had two lives to live in only one lifetime, so they must absorb all they can, as fast as they can. The chief dangers are a lack of patience and an unwillingness to persist until a thing is thoroughly learned. These youngsters have to be discouraged from a tendency to let then-quick intellects and glib wits skim over knowledge without completely understanding it.
Your Gemini child may find it hard to be punctual, because he's always running into some new discovery on his way to anywhere. He may also find it hard to listen without interrupting, because he's caught the thought instantly and doesn't want to hear the details. He may tend to repeat himself, but he won't allow you to do so, which quite naturally may irritate people. In the classroom, he can be distracted by a fly, a piece of colored paper or a wisp of smoke outside the window. It's never easy to get his attention, but when you do, you'll be richly rewarded by the Geminian's intent curiosity and flattering interest.
Your teenage Gemini boy will practically live on the telephone, go steady with a different person each week, change his mind a hundred times about his future career, drive the car a little too fast, putter with the engine and fix your washer. The girls will be popular and be able to turn on a shower of tears or a sunny smile like a light switch. These youngsters will keep you on your toes and keep you young.
When your Gemini child finally grows up, lots of people will tell you disapprovingly that "he has too many fingers stuck in too many pies." You'll smile then, and they may be annoyed. But you'll be remembering one spring day when he was seven. He stuck his fingers in your chocolate
pies, his father's shaving cream, the fish bowl, the garbage can, a pot of hot soup and an electric socket. You were furious. Later, at twilight, you watched him run around chasing lightning bugs in the grass. After a while, you sighed, and asked yourself aloud, "Why must he rush around so? Why must he get into everything? What in the world is he searching for?" He overheard you and it troubled him. You'll never forget the look in his bright, clear eyes when he answered. "Gee, Mommy ... I don't know. But don't you worry. I'll find it."
- Linda Goodman's Sun Signs
