So I haven't posted in like two weeks becuase I have been working on a post about bad advice I got. It really wasn't going anywhere so I scratched it. Moral of the story: every baby wears newborn clothes (unless they are a 10 pounder) for a little while and so that old add-edge is stupid. 3 outfits will not get you through one week let alone 3. Also gas drops do work and are my friend. Buy them at WalMart sooooo much cheaper. So to my new post.
I feed the baby how many times a day. Let me think 3am, 630am, 9am, 1130am, 1pm, 330 pm, 6pm. 7 times....oh that is why I am not making enough bottles, we make 6 every day and every day the time at which I have to make them goes up by an hour or so....duh...anyway. I get bored. So one night while bored I pick up the What to Expect in the First Year and start reading.
There are so many benchmarks for babies now. We are probably being overactive about development but research shows that babies that hit certain bench marks at certain times are less likely to have social and physical disorders. Oddly enough not learning to crawl (just going straight to walking) is linked to Autism. Though everything is linked to Autism these days. Any child with a social disorder is marked as being on the Autism spectrum. I am sure I will piss people off by saying this but I have never had an Autistic student (and these days that is many) that didn't have a weird parent. Most teachers agree it has to be partially genetic becuase the apple does not seem to fall far from the tree. There is now a lot of evidence to suggest that if caught early enough significant improvements can be made. Crawling is one of them.
The book always says that not meeting these benchmarks could be perfectly normal for your baby or it could be an indication of a problem...gee thanks. I have a friend whose baby came two months early. The doctor seems to be very unfair to him. He spent the first month of his life in an incubator. Yet he is evaluated as any other baby. His mom says he is a 4 month old trapped in a 6 month old's body. Surprise, surprise he is developmentally 2 months behind. Every time I tell someone over the age of 60 that the doctor told me my baby already has an attention problem they tell me my expectations of a 3 month old is unrealistic. Maybe our expectations are unrealistic or maybe they are based on what is optimal and not all babies can an A+.
Side note: my child does have an attention problem. Most babies seem to have an altimeter. When they are upset you stand up and bounce them. Not necessary with Scarlett. You simply must get up and move to the other side of the room so she has something new to look at. We were in the waiting room at the doctors office today and I was playing musical chairs. I must have looked like an idiot. Moving from one side of the room to the other. She still mostly won't make eye contact with me. Only first thing in the morning when I am
new again and a half hour later I am not interesting
again. When she meets someone new she stares at them for like 2 mins which must be an eternity for a baby.
She loves her room. My whole house is red, white, black and gray. So when it came to the nursery I thank Dr. Seuss for coming up with a lovable children's (would some English teacher please tell me what the proper why to make children possessive becuase Mozilla keeps telling me that is wrong) character with a red and white hat. She can wear pink, my walls can not. When I was a child all infant toys were red, white and black becuase those are the colors they can see. I don't know why they did away with this but she loves her room. There is so much to look at. She also likes ceiling fans. Loves having her diaper changed so she can look at the ceiling.
Where was I going with this? Oh right boredom. So the book says it is very important to talk to babies. There was recently a big long research study done on low income babies verses middle class babies and the biggest difference was how the baby was talked to. Babies who are talked to do much better in school. When they asked the non-talking parents why they didn't talk they said they didn't know they were supposed to. Their parents didn't talk to them as children. They also discovered that there is a difference in talking
to your child and talking
at your child. "Mommy is going to feed Scarlett now" verses "eat baby". Apparently pronouns are difficult for babies. They do not understand the concept so it is better to say "Mommy is going to change Scarlett's diaper now" and not "I am going to change your diaper." It is important to use the babies name often. Like a dog you want them to learn to respond to it. Yeah I went there.
Since I really like the sound of my own voice (i.e. I talk too much) this is easy for me. We talk all day long. One of the things they told the non-talking parents who didn't know what to say was to sing or if your tone def recite the words to songs. It doesn't have to be a lullaby, Solider Boy will do the trick. As you know we sing Julie Andrews.
Another side note: Every morning when I feed her at 9am we watch the news. Either the Today show or CNN, whose every reporting actually news. Usually I read the scroll at the bottom of the Today show for local news and the scroll at the bottom of CNN for national news. It seems no one is actually
reporting news. Anyway after that we watch Jem and the Holograms. It was a cartoon from the 1980s about a music band and the clothing, makeup and hair is awesome dude. Today's cartoons are stupid and scary. Have you seen the new Mickey Mouse? And what is up with Yo Gabba Gabba? Seriously the creator of that show must have done more drugs then Lewis Caroll. Scarlett loves Jem (I should point out that Pat thinks it is ridiculous that I actually record 1980s cartoons on the DVR). I am pretty sure it is not the fashion that intrigues Scarlett but the fact that Jem and the Holograms are a music band and they sing all the time. She does not like the Misfits. Good baby. I mean Mommy is proud of Scarlett.
Ok I am trying to get to the point. The book also says it is never to early to read to a baby and research clearly shows that reading to a young child gives them a huge leg up when they enter kindergarten. By the way, props to kindergarten teachers. To me that is the 7th level of hell. So....we read during feedings. Much like cartoons I like old books. My favorite (I have never spelled that word right the first time in my entire life, I more then a little dyslexic) books are as follows:
Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
The Going to Bed Book (becuase they go up to the deck and exercise before they go to bed, whats with that?)
In the Night Kitchen (which is one of the lesser known Maurice Sendak book, I hate Where the Wild Things are, it is depressing, Night Kitchen is hilarious)
The Sign on Rosie's Door (see above)
I Love You Forever (which always makes me cry and Pat always asks "why do you read that if it makes you cry?" Also he thinks it is silly that she sneaks into his room when he is all grown up)
The Just So Stories
Where's my Blankie?
Little Bear
All of Dr. Seuss
The only book I have read her so far that I didn't have as a child is But Not the Hippopotamus, which existed I just didn't have it. We love that. Mostly becuase it is about a potamus and her potamus is her favorite (still didn't get it right) and becuase she is baby potamus. Oh I forgot the two most important books the ones we are reading now. Winnie-the-Pooh (downstairs) and a Light in Attic (upstairs). The only problem is I don't like how I do the voices. I had all of these on tape as a child. Two reasons, one I couldn't sleep even then (it is 3:45 am) and two my dyslexia led me to be a slow reader. I have purchased all of these on CD so she can hear the voices properly someday but for now it is apparently important that she hears
me talking
to her, something about familiarity.
The End.
