Three Years

I'm a lucky girl. I married a good man, and a great dad. 

Music

In my classes on child development, they taught that music was one of the ten necessities for normal development in toddlers. (Just in case you're curious the other nine are: stable relationships, touch, a safe environment, quality care, play, expressions of worth, reading, communication, and parental involvment). Music helps children learn through repetition, exposes them to their culture, and expresses the importance of creativity. 

I dunno if I believe all of that really. But, I love music--so sure, I include it in our normal routine. Oh, by the way--classical  music doesn't make you smarter. The actual study said that Mozart music helped college students perform better for a 15 minute window when performing spatial puzzles. Pregnancy headphones are the result of marketing and way-out-of-proportion media hype. So, whatever music makes lifts your spirit whether it be Beethoven or the Beatles--it really doesn't matter. 

I like to watch performances, so this list is basically my favorite music that also meets my baby video criteria: no flashing, and a minimum of camera shifts, i.e. visually understimulating, so that dinobaby can focus on the music itself. And I also look for short pieces. Dinobaby does have an impressive attention span, but he's still 9 months old. Two or three minutes at a time is ideal. 

Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens

• Each movement is supposed to illustrate a different animal and features a different instrument
• Elephants, swans, fish, Lions, etc. 
• Leopleuradon loves birds. So of course Voliere (The Aviary) is his favorite. It might also have something to do with the fact that children hear the upper register clearer than they hear lower tones. 

Little Prayer- Evelyn Glennie

• She's deaf, and has been since childhood--before she ever learned to play the Marimba. She talks about learning to hear without her ears, feeling the vibrations in the floor, off the wall. Cool.

Bach Suite on Mandolin by Chris Thile

• Dinobaby loves this. He just watches his fingers like he's being hypnotized.

Tiny Desk Concerts by NPR

• Really awesome music from all kinds of musicians: Iron and Wine, Bluegrass bands, classical violinists, Pheonix etc. 
• Since it's a radio show its all about the sound, no stupid backup dancers or choreography. 

Rabbit Days and Dumplings: East Asian Children's songs by Elena Moon Park

• I haven't bought this CD yet, but I probably will. Pretty cool music, without that really obnoxious tinny sound that usually defines children's music. 
• You can listen to five of the songs here. 

And the boy soprano I already talked about. 

Gender Roles

So I was just compiling music videos for an upcoming music for kids post and I was thinking about the message I hope they send to Dinobaby. Mom values music. Music is art, but it's also fun. It's gives expression to the divine and of the divine. And then I thought about the people inside of those videos--disabled musicians, children, women, Chinese, European, black, brown, etc.--and I was proud of the message they sent too. Music is for everyone.

I think its important that we expand the world that our children are born into. Culture likes to dictate roles and values, and usually that's not a good thing. Women can be smart and talented, but above all women should be sexy. Girls should play with pink or purple toys, and girls should love princesses. I'm sensitive to those because I'm a woman. But, now that I'm a mother of a son I feel all of the fences that are placed in his future too. And the fences are pretty blatant, they look like this: "I think he's gay" 

 Not that being labeled as homosexual is the worst thing in the world- it's not. But because of the principle implied.  Somehow your sexuality defines your interests and your profession. As a society we do it so casually and often but if we stopped for a second we'd realize how ludicrous it sounds. When was the last time you met a female CPA and assumed she was a lesbian? What if she's wearing a sports jersey? Yet, anytime a man notices something beautiful other than a woman we assume he's gay. So pretty early we teach boys to restrict their vocabulary to the basic 8 colors because if he mentions a specific shade he'll get picked on. We try to guide them towards interests that will make life easier for them because we love them. Nothing nefarious but soon all of the boys tried out for the football team and there's only five tenors in the choir (and all of the straight guys did both).  If a man sees an opera that he wasn't dragged to, it's assumed that the guy sitting next to him is probably his date. And that's a shame. Let's let boys be who they want to be without all of our messed up social pressures. 

So how does this relate to music videos? One of my favorites is of a 14 year old soprano from the Vienna Boys Choir singing the Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute. It's spectacular.

1.  I love it because it shows that children are capable and remarkable just as they are--"Dinobaby, you don't have to wait to do amazing things. You can and do amazing things right now."  
2. "This is the Vienna Boys Choir-- it's full of little boys just like you that love to sing. They make beautiful music and the whole world listens to them." 
3. It's Mozart. ---"Isn't it cool how the music lets you know that he's angry and out-of-control even when we can't understand the words?"
4. He worked really hard to sing that. Video games are cool, but making something is cooler-- "I bet he spent a lot of time practicing. But I bet that he feels really good about how hard he worked and how well he did." 

And, although I have no idea. I bet that kid had a rough time being teased. At least he would've if he went to the same schools I did. And no, there's no reason to assume that he didn't grow up to be a heterosexual man.  In the history of the world most musicians, artists, chefs, authors, and  dress-makers have been straight guys. Only recently do we limit "guys" to safely masculine arenas of athletics, math and science.  I mean... to quote the wikipedia page of Franz Liszt: "Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs." ...In terms of machismo, you can't get much better than that--and that's a guy who spent most of his time rigorously practicing piano. 

9 Months

being more kid and less baby everyday

Every month goes by fast but this one felt likeit was going  Mach 5. Perhaps it  because I got to spend almost all of it with family. Either way my little man is so gosh darn big now. I think he has more in common with his older toddler cousins than he does with the infant now.

Gross Motor: He is crawling! He can also sit up on his own (e.g. go from back to belly to sitting all on his own) and the busy kid has already mastered pulling up to standing. Crazy. While he might have been on the slow side to learn how to crawl I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he was one of those 11 month old walkers. He eagerly walks across entire rooms if I hold his hands. 

Fine Motor: The pincer grasp gained more refinement and speed during the last month. He is also interested in matching up lids (even though he's really bad at it). And little man loves to touch everything--he leans forward like ET with his index finger stretched out when you're holding him trying to feel the fridge or an object on the counter. Also Dinobaby can get his pacifier into his mouth on his own, whoop! Although he  never does this when he actually needs a pacifier, by the time he gets to that point around I'll probably want to wean him off of one anyway. 

Social: Are there two phases for stranger anxiety? Seriously. He more or less came out of his first phase last month, but in the last week it's come back. Maybe it's not so much stranger anxiety as mommy clinginess since he's okay with other people but after a short while gets sad and wants me to hold him again. That's okay--I've got plenty of cuddles for him.  

Language: He babbles much more, definitively responds to his name, and really has no idea what I'm doing with the baby sign language. (Probably because I'm neither consistent nor particularly enthusiastic about it...whatever. He'll learn English- and that's pretty miraculous on its own.)

Personality: Although glimpses of his personality were certainly evident before now, as he gets older the differences between him and other babies seem less coincidental then they did before. For one, he ridiculously observant. He follows waitresses as they move around the restaurant as we eat. He loves to look at anything that you're holding in your hands. He's also a terrifically happy kid. Normal is defined by a smile. Yep, we love it.

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Upcoming is a post on music for babies, my thoughts on television, and  a multi-part series on cloth diapers---and since I was visiting family and actually used  store-bought baby food (and for a significant period of time) I'll probably also have an updated post on baby food since I now of grounds for making comparisons. Hopefully those will be up over the next month. Love y'all

Gratitude

Hey Friends, sorry its been slow on the dinobaby updates lately. You know, Holidays.

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how extremely blessed I am. I am so grateful to my husband who is my best friend and an unbelievably good spouse. And who makes the money. Although not important to how much I love him, it is fundamental to my life at the moment that he makes money so I can stay home with my baby. No worrying about childcare and dinobaby's wellbeing, and getting to be there with him to watch him grow and just be so gosh darn adorable and a million other reasons. It's awesome. Thank you for being patient and forgiving. And seriously, thank you for not being boring--thanks for seeing all of the little intriguing details in this life. Thank you Adam.

My parents are fantastic. My dad has given me great, big, tight hugs nearly every day of my childhood, and is always willing to offering one to me via phone call or email since I've left home. This is extremely important to me, and I credit my dad that I'm more or less a confident and functionally self-assured adult because ever since I can remember my father has treated me like a competent individual with an opinion that mattered.  My mother is the most genuinely concerned person I have ever seen. She has cradled me in a million and one ways. I have never doubted that I am wanted and loved. And like my husband, although not a factor in my love, my parents have also been a sea wall in my financial life. Sometimes I think I'd be okay without their temporal support, and then disaster hits and I'm so fantastically grateful that they're always willing to help me weather the storm. Thank you Mom and Dad.

My other parents are also pretty much fantastic. They're worth a million dollars because they let me sleep in when I come to visit. I really cannot express how much I appreciate it. I appreciate the open-door invitations and home-cooked meals I don't have to prepare. I'm grateful for the no-fuss acceptance I have in their family. Thank you Melissa and Neal (or Mom and Dad or Gram and Pops or whatever I call you...'cause I'm awkward like that) and thank you for your zen-like calm and benevolent honesty both are infectious and reassuring.

My baby. Thanks for snuggling. For putting your head on my shoulder when you're scared or tired. Thanks being happy all the time. Thanks for being so bright-eyed and alert, and for giggling when I enter the room after I've been gone. Thanks for being a big, chubby, healthy baby. I'm so grateful for you.

Thank you Lord for my degree. It was a miraculously good capstone paper. Thank you for keeping us all healthy-- I know that there are many days that accidents could've happened and didn't. I don't know that that was because of Your blessing, but I don't know that it wasn't. Thank you all the same. Thank you for the right people in the right places. Thank you for being generous with the do-overs, I really mean that I'm not trying to be flippant. And thank you for this gorgeous place you've brought us to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

8 Months!

Yeah, I know red-eye, but if I waited until I edited the picture you'd never see it, and look how cute he is. (And yes that's a Peruvian flag on the table---the food was fantastic!)

8 Months, holy cow!

Leopleuradon is doing awesome. Healthy and happy. 

Fine Motor: So despite all previous inclinations to do things with his right hand, he now seems to be favoring his left. So who knows, maybe he's a southpaw.  He's nailed the pincer grasp (a month before average). He transfers from hand to hand like a pro and has started to use his hands in concert- holding items in one hand and touching with the index finger of the other. He still very much wants to chew on things, but he has started waving around his index finger at new objects also wanting to touch it.

 

Gross Motor: Crawling is imminent by all guesses (like it has been for months) but no dice yet. Dinobaby appears to be experimenting with all methods of locomotion before mastering any one of them. Hence the picture of the bear crawl. He also loves to stand. To the point that when I try to go sit him down on the floor so I can do something, he'll straight-leg himself, planking from his heels to his neck so that I'll have to stay and help him balance on his feet. He also loves to stand up with his upper body resting on the glider's ottoman so that he can rock back and forth on his feet. He's a goober. 

He also shakes things to make noise and today tried super hard to hit two sticks together, one in each hand. He was marginally successful

Social: Like I said last month, dinobaby also loves to laugh with people. But in the last few weeks he also has a laughing face where he wrinkles his nose and sniffs really fast. It's extremely endearing. He also seems to be overcoming his abject terror at strangers. Still wary, but no crying. It's evolved into alternating between looking out and hiding his face in my shoulder all while have a death grip on my bicep. (Also very endearing)

Language: He has started to babble. He often goes around pseudo biting his bottom lip making a "vvv" and drooling down his chin. He also says "a mam" in a very whiny way when he's frustrated and complaining that we haven't given him the puffs already or sat him up, or let him eat our cellphones, etc. (probably his first word since it's more or less consistent). Other than that, he doesn't actually talk much. 

Cognitive: He has a pretty impressive attention span. I have a box of "supervised" toys that he only plays with when I sit with him. It's a few seashells, a river rock, a house key, a scrap corner of lumber, and some chopsticks. He'll pull all of the items out of the box one by one and explore them for nearly thirty minutes straight. He loves books, and loves to turn the pages. I'm impressed that he knows what to do with them. Although he's a little rough with the paper pages, he's trying to turn them rather than ball them up and eat them like he does with paper outside of books. 

Sleep: I don't want to talk about it. Depending on how you define "sleep through the night" then yes. But if you define it as he goes to sleep and doesn't wake up until he's ready to stay awake for the day then definitely no. However, he's generally out cold between the hours of 11pm and 5am. But his bedtime is 6:30-7, and he wakes up for real at 7am. It's a start.  Naps don't show any signs of spontaneously lengthening. However where in the past dinobaby seemed more or less happy regardless of his 40 minute naps. He is showing signs that they aren't long enough anymore. So, maybe I'll try to do something about that. But man, I really don't want to. 

Loneliness

Loneliness. Usually you can't use the words billion and literally correctly in the same sentence. In fact I'd probably say that if you're using billion, you can rest assured that you're using literally wrong. But, based on the fact that there are 7 billion of us whizzing around the sun right now, half of which are women, and 490 thousand babies born every day, it's probably safe to say that there are literally a billion mothers on Earth if not more.

One billion people more or less sharing the same experience.Yet the consistently hardest thing about being a mom is loneliness.  Not the loneliness of being isolated, though that certainly comes into play when you're only able to communicate with yourself, but I mean the loneliness of experience. 

It's the feeling that creeps into your heart when people coo at your baby and say "8 months?  This such a fun age isn't it?" or you overhear a conversation about "adopting a new kid" that turns out to be a puppy.  It's the loneliness of thinking you're absolutely the only person on the planet that understands your own emotions.  Because yes, 8 months is a fun age. But it'doesn't always feel like it. Sometimes it's so frustrating its nightmarish. And yes, puppies are lots of work and I get that you love your dog, I do. But no, it's not at all like being the mother of a baby.  And really, it's not okay for you to say that it is. Because completely decent human beings say "you know, we had to give Spot away. He just didn't fit with our family and our lifestyle" -try saying that about your son. Get my point? Good. 

Being a mom is lonely because you never want to talk about the days where you feel like trash. You have this beautiful, amazing child that shrunches up his nose when he giggles, and in the fabric of your soul you know that you are so ridiculously lucky to be a mom. You don't want people to think poorly of your super awesome baby. You don't want to talk about how rough it is, because when you do you feel like the kind of person that complains about how hard it is find a wallet big enough to hold all your cash. 

So you turn to internet forums filled with other clueless parents trying to figuring out what the heck they're doing--trying to find some hint as to how to deal with erratic sleep patterns, or developmental delays, etc. And inevitably someone on the forum is blasting whatever you are currently doing as sending your baby on the bullet-train to life-long failures in reading and math, relationship problems, and bad hygiene if not eminent death.

And other days your baby is so breath-taking that all you want to do is shout "oh my heck, look at him!" as he lifts himself off the floor or gives you a huge grin or figures out how to get closer to a favorite toy, but there's no one to shout to. You alone are the witness and the camera's in the other room and soon the moment's passed. 

But you're not alone. Really. I know exactly what you're talking about. Hold on. He'll fall asleep eventually. You'll get to eat something soon. Buck up, you're in the Lucky Sometimes Lonely Mom Club, and sometimes you get to the camera in time. 

Making Baby Food

From L-R: Apricot & Barley, Plums, Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Butternut Squash & Brown Rice, Cinnamon Apples & Oatmeal

So if I had all the money in the world I probably wouldn't make all of my own baby food. However, it really doesn't take much time and it saves so much money, it would be silly for me not to. As an added bonus, Leopleuradon's food is more or less preservative, sodium, and sugar free. I can also fix a more varied amount of food than I could buy. 

I know they sell those little baby food machines -- baby bullet, Beaba Baby, baby chef, etc. But I would be seriously surprised if they were actually worth buying. Mostly I use my immersion blender (my baby food best friend) and my microwave. Occasionally, I use my rice cooker if I'm doing a heck of a lot of grains at once. 

I also know that a lot of homemade baby food makers use little 1 oz ice cube trays, which I must admit look pretty organized and cute. But I use ziplock bags. The pros to this is that I don't have the additional step of transferring from the tray to another bag. And since I defrost a whole bag at a time in the fridge, if I overheat something, I can quick-chill it by throwing in some extra from the bag in the fridge. The cons: you have to be careful when you're dishing out from the bag to the bowl so you don't bobby trap yourself. (however, I largely avoid the messiest problems by cutting a corner of the bag and squeegeeing the last few tablespoons out that way). And, if you forget that you're running low and don't put a second bag in the fridge soon enough, it takes forever to defrost an entire bag in the microwave. 

I make baby food every week, which usually takes ten minutes but sometimes takes up to 30 depending on what I'm mixing up. And I try to make a months worth at a time of whatever I'm fixing. 

My Tips:

• Canned plums have pits. Do yourself a favor and remove them before you blend so you don't hurt your blender blades and then also have to fish out pit shards. 
• some sweet potatoes are super fibrous and not as good for baby food--although contrary to conventional wisdom I find that the bigger ones are actually less fibrous than the small ones. 
• Find a bulk bin for your grains....unless you're really keen on having five lbs of barley, quinoa, bulgar wheat, and whatever else on hand
• Even if you don't want to make all of your own baby food, do yourself a favor and mix up some brown rice and buy a quart of unsweetened applesauce-- all prepackaged baby food is essentially the same price regardless of the ingredients. So, you might as well make your own baby food blends by getting the premium vegetable and fruit purees and mixing it with your own cheap filler food (rice, apples, etc.)
• Maybe my baby just has really perceptive taste buds, but dinobaby  greatly prefers frozen to canned vegetables. Plus frozen is generally much lower in sodium anyway. 

Oh and organics... I'd buy organic applesauce if 1--they sold it in something larger than single-serve cups here (we used to get organic applesauce by the almost half gallon out west) 2--it wasn't stupidly expensive (the half gallon was also only a couple quarters more expensive than the conventional jars). Apples just have a much larger amount of pesticide/fungicide on them than other produce. Other than that I  wouldn't sweat it. Ironically, grains (which have some of the lowest amount of pesticides in them anyway) are the only thing I do buy organic because granola-people love their bulk bins and weird cereals ;)

Brown Eyes and Halloween pics

For everyone that's curious, I think Dinobaby has finally settled on an eye color, and it's brown like his mama. 

Leopleuradon was also universally loved at Chipotle's this evening. 

Don't you agree with them?

Changeling

I don't see dinobaby as a infant anymore. When you compare him now to how he was when he was born, he's a completely different person. He used to be floppy and helpless, and now he's so strong.

Did you know that newborns can swallow and breathe at the same time? Crazy huh. But dinobaby is losing the ability, his larynx is descending. Which is a good thing because now he can actually use his voicebox, but as a downside-- he sputters a lot while eating or drinking because things can now go down the wrong pipe. But Leopleuradon is a happy kid, he even smiles after a coughing up water.

Leopleuradon still isn't crawling yet, but he's getting closer everyday. He's rocking on his knees now, so it's only a matter of time. He's also trying to pull up. If we help him initially get his bum off the floor he can pull himself to standing if he's holding on to a chair. And then he'll practice doing squats, as if he can't decide whether he wants to sit down or not. That's what he spent all of sunday school doing: pumping his legs up and down, until I helped him sit and then he'd cry for me to help him stand again. Gotta love it.

Voting: 92 years as a Domestic task

I voted as a mother today. I spent time to look up every name on the ballot before I arrived, and with dinobaby strapped to my back I filled in my little bubbles. Informed voting is one of the most important domestic adventures. Here's to 92 years of women having a voice in the political conversation. 

"Well Done, sister suffragettes!" and God Bless America 

Strangers

So dinobaby, like all babies, is nearly universally loved. Complete strangers come up to me and ask me how old he is, how he's sleeping, what foods he's eating. As I sat in the waiting room today, I looked around as everyone else remained compartmentalized, disconnected. No one tried to strike up a conversation with anyone else, just the two women with babies, me and another lady. But through us, they were able to connect with each other.

Loving people comes naturally to babies

Babies are the ultimate social barrier defeater. Really. A middle-aged man in stained clothing waved at me in the grocery store with my baby in my cart, and I was a little wary but I waved back. Something I would never, ever do if I was alone. And in the strange world of 7 month olds, dinobaby smiles at who he wants to: woman in nice Anne Taylor Loft duds: scary---large man in a tank top: hi, want to play peekaboo. Leopleuradon teaches me to reassess my standard approach to people. I'm not saying that dinobaby was right to fear the woman, but perhaps he wasn't wrong to smile at the man who seemed threatening to me.

Being with Leopleuradon is like living in December everyday. I think more charitably of my fellow man, and my fellow man looks more charitably on me. A homeless man opened the door for us when I left the library. Someone I had previously marked mentally as a threat and  had decided to exit by the other side, stood up and  held  the door open for dinobaby and me. The world is a better place because of babies.

Let there be peace on Earth.

P.S. Every stranger says about the same thing to Leo, "He's a healthy-looking baby, doesn't miss any meals does he."  He's 73rd percentile for weight, so I guess they've got a point. Still sounds like a euphemism for fat to me, but in my developing sense of grace for all mankind, I realize they only mean well. *wink*

Babbling: Language Acquisition

So dinobaby has been making noises for a long time, but he's really playing with his voice now. Babbling begins in children anywhere between 5-7 months, and usually children produce b, m, d, k, w, j, g, etc.

Leopleuradon likes "v", which is unusual. He also mixes vowels when he babbles which also unusual, e.g. "a-boo-ba", not "aba-ba."

Here's dinobaby being characteristically awesome:

I'm crediting his grandmothers. Both studied education, and it shows.  When either of them is with Leo he is constantly being talked to. Watching them read books to him is like seeing a video recording of my child development textbooks. They point out colors and animals, count items on the page, raise and lower their voices as they read, and elongate and emphasize their words. And, they do that all the time, every time they're around dinobaby.

I know academically that this is fantastic for his language development, but for whatever reason I have the hardest time talking to my child when it's just the two of us. It's not that I have a problem looking like a fool to do something that's good for my baby, but it's like my brain won't cooperate with me. It just sits there, instead of thinking of what to say, it just reminds me that I look like an idiot. I end up just repeating the last word of my sentence twice and smiling. "Look baby, do you hear the bird...bird" (fifteen minutes of silence) "...bird, bird."

So now not only do I sound ridiculous, it's basically for no purpose at all.

Just got to keep trying I guess.

How do you come up with things to say in your one-sided conversations?

Montessori: more than snoody private schools

So the vast majority of people I know only know about Montessori as a type of school, usually private and very expensive. A more broad way to define Montessori, and probably more accurate, is to explain it as trying to emulate the philosophy of Maria Montessori, the turn of the century education reformer. Which is a very broad definition, which means different things to different people.

But to me, when I say I want to be a parent based off of Montessori principles I mean that to the greatest of my ability I will try to observe and follow the child. Leopleuradon will follow the same general milestones as every other child--the same "ages and stages" (which is how they refer to it in child development)--but he is also unlike every other child on the planet. He has a unique combination of interests and abilities, and I will try to meet the individual set of desires that accompany those. 

Which in action most people sum up as "teach me to do it myself."  For instance, Leopleuradon has a fascination with cups. He loves them and will give it his best, herculean efforts to get the rim in his mouth. While most kids wean from bottles to sippy cups, I'm giving Leo a glass. Because he wants it. It's what he knows and is interested in. He wants what Mom's got--not really the juice inside of it. 

look at that satisfied face

But obviously, a 7 month old can't handle a cup. By only paying attention to his interests, I set him up for failure. So I also have to acknowledge his abilities. Leo has a little votive holder. Which he can bring to his mouth, but he can't drink from it yet independently. At first I just tipped it into his mouth and the juice went straight down his chin. Then he drank half, spilled half. Now, he still can't drink independently but I tip the glass and he usually steadies it with one hand, and most of the juice is swallowed--although he still spills quite a bit down his front. After I have a turn, I give him a turn to try to do it by himself. And slowly, he's getting the hang of it. (My apologies for the misleading pictures in this post)

Almost there

it's hard to get it right

Montessori also means respecting the child, according them the human dignity they deserve. So,  I try (but often forget)  to tell Leo what I'm doing to him, rather than treating him like doll. "We're changing your clothes-- First we pull it over your head. Can you push your right arm through the hole? Now your left arm-- push, push, push." 

Obviously, dinobaby doesn't actually conscientiously push his arm through the sleeve yet. But, babies understand language far sooner than they can reproduce it themselves, and he's gaining the muscle coordination to straighten his arm on command. If I never give him the opportunity to help take care of himself, I'll never know when he's capable of doing so. And I want to give him that opportunity to help him and me discover the amazing, talented, important person that he is. 

Now Montessori also stressed the importance of child-size furniture that they could climb in and out of by themselves, preferably made with natural materials. In a perfect world, I'd have a beautiful low table and tiny chair made from solid wood, but we really can't afford that. So these are pictures of dinobaby in our free, hand-me-down high chair. Just because you can't do everything perfectly, doesn't mean you should give up on the attempt. :P

Here's an example of someone that can do it perfectly (or seems to): A video of a 6 month old drinking independently.

The Bird Room

So I made these birds almost immediately after finding out I was pregnant. And then they sat unloved and forgotten for nearly a year. I finally got around to hot-gluing them on a branch and hanging them from the ceiling in Leopleurodon's room. I'm digging the shadows they cast around the room. 

I've also been uncharacteristically domestic lately so there will be more updates on Leo's awesome room. I decided to go with a multi-colored bird theme. Here are a few sneak-peeks. 

7 Months

at the park

Man, that was a fast month. Here's a quick rundown of Leopleurodon's development

Gross Motor: Sits unsupported! Still not crawling, but he's a world-class turner and scoocher. He can rotate in a complete circle and can travel several inches very slowly in hot pursuit of a just barely out of reach toy. He also knows that he can push off with his feet to cross greater distances, but only off of the couch or parent hands--can't quite get the foot coordination to get his toes against the floor. And can now flip from belly to back, whoot! 

Sitting all by himself! (...don't judge me, the fitted sheet is too small ;)

Also, within the last few days he has reached a new milestone of arm waving. He now pats/bangs with gusto anything with in his arm's reach--his body, the table, my face. He actually uses his rattles to make noise now, not just to gnaw on.


 Fine Motor: Leo two months ahead of schedule is an ace at the pincer grasp--however he hasn't master the release. He can't seem to let go. Hand dominance is still ambiguous, but I still think he is more coordinated with his right. 

Cognitive: Object Permanence is here with a vengeance. Leo flinches and giggles the first time he sees the tickle monster hand, even if its been several days since we played the game. When he's naked and I say bathtime, he smiles and whole-body lunges towards the bathroom. And although I'm not completely sure, I'd bet money he responds to his name. 

Social: Oh my heck, melt my little heart--Leo giggles when we laugh--meaning he laughs back, even when we're not doing anything funny or even looking at him. He also loves to play games: peek-a-boo, drop the blanket on my head (which is exactly what it sounds like), and a new favorite, let me slap your hand, wherein Leo will bang his hand against your outstretched hand to make a clapping noise.  Also, stranger anxiety has also emerged. He's fickle about who he likes-- animated women are still usually cool, especially if they sound ridiculous.  Reserved, friendly waving apparently looks like you're a demon from Hades because Leo will respond by crying real tears, and won't stop trying to climb into my face for at least ten minutes. 

Also, Leo loves his daddy. Good gracious, it's like heaven's light beaming from his face. 

...more on this later

chewing

Food: Leo can put it away. He really likes to eat. His favorite food is mashed sweet potatoes, but he is also a fan of peaches, peas, oatmeal, rice puffs, and dehydrated banana/ apple chunks. He's sort of meh about applesauce unless its the sweetened kind, or I've mixed in cinnammon. Mashed banana gives him a sort of uncomfortable look but he'll eat it. Avocados and green beans are refused. He's also a good little gummer (proto-chewing if you will) but has a hard time navigating chunks around his mouth and often pushes the rice O's out of his mouth.