Sick Again

It is no surprise that this, Timothy's first winter of preschool, he has also been sick more than any other time in his life!! Timothy was fairly sheltered his first few years of childhood, but his two days a week of preschool have introduced him to germs--and lots of them.

My dissertation is on the cusp of being finished, and in all honesty I've taken him to McDonalds so that I could read a book or outline a chapter more times than I want to admit. He would play with friends while I sat in peace, eating a yogurt parfait and scribbling in my notebook. I'm sure the germs in the indoor playground have contributed to his constant illnesses.

So, Timothy is once again sick. This time he has an Upper Respiratory Infection, the "beginnings" of bronchitis, and a terrible ear infection in his left ear.

We had to take him to Urgent Care last night and he looked at the doctor with tears in his eyes and said "It hurts very badly."

Now folks, it's always terrible when a child is sick and hurting, but when he expresses it in perfert grammar it's even more heartbreaking!!

So Timothy's home for the next few days--we have to cancel his first dentist appointment, hold him home from preschool on Tuesday, and pray that he's able to go to his Dress Rehersal for his first choir concert this Sunday. :-( This little guy is miserable!!

We've Dropped!!

Well, it appears that the baby has dropped.

Last night I woke up feeling some strange sensation that I've not felt before. I stayed up for a couple hours and then went back to sleep. I didn't notice anything until I got out of the shower and looked in the mirror this morning--my bump is clearly lower!!

It's a little bit early and I wasn't expecting it to happen this soon, but I go back to the midwife in a week and a half and we'll see what she says. Maybe he dropped but not at all the way.

Timothy never dropped, so this is certainly something different!

Blizzard

You really have to watch what you say when you're around this child!

If you happen to mention, for instance, that so many people were at the store it was *like* they were preparing for a blizzard, Timothy will take note. He won't mention it right then, but a few hours later he'll ask you "What's a blizzard?" You might explain, forgetting about your comment earlier, and then you'll spend the next two days promising over and over and over that a blizzard IS NOT coming.

Oh, no, mommy--we won't be able to go to Grandma's house if there's a blizzard!

Oh, no, mommy! We won't have any electricity!

Mommy, I'm frightened. See outside my window? See those blizzard clouds??

When the baby asks what a blizzard is, I'm telling him a Dairy Queen ice cream!!

Mechanically-Minded

It's become increasingly obvious that Timothy is very mechanically-minded.

He wants to take things apart, figure them out, and "fix" them all the time. He was trying to figure out how the door locked and I couldn't really explain it (I told him to wait until daddy was home). He couldn't wait. He went and got a screwdriver and popped the outside of the knob off and then pressed the button and watched inside as the gear changed as it locked. I sat there in shock that he knew how to do all of that!!

The other day, the batteries were out in one of his toys. He got a screwdriver, opened the battery compartment, threw the old batteries away, went and got batteries, realized they were the wrong size, exchanged batteries, and then put them in CORRECTLY. Once again, I didn't know he could do that!

Timothy is so logical and he's always reasoning about something, so I can't wait to see how these skills develop as he grows older!! I can't help but wonder how much of who Timothy is came from what we did, and I don't know the answer to that. However, I do know this--I LIKE IT!

Pirate Play-Doh Planning Party

Timothy's sick. This time he has croup. He's on antibiodics and feels a lot better now, but until the cough goes away we aren't letting him go to church or preschool.

Yesterday the whole family sat down for a "Pirate Play-Doh Planning Party" regarding the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

We updated the calendar for the next several weeks and talked about who we should buy gifts for, budgeting, and what foods we need to bring to gatherings.

We also developed a 3-part Mission Statement for our family's Holidays:

1) Remember the Birth of Christ.

2) Bless Others.

3) Grow as a Family.

Timothy seems to understand the concept of giving to others. He said his preschool teacher would really like a new computer and we should get her a new computer, and Pop wants a bicycle. I can't wait to see him really experience the Christmas traditions this year!!

On the Importance of Crawling; Review: Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel

Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel


In the last three and a half years, we've learned sooo much about children. We've read many of Glenn Doman's books: How to Teach Your Baby to Read, How to Teach Your Baby Math, How to Give Your Baby Encyclopedic Knowledge, How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb, How Smart Is Your Baby. We've watched the corresponding lectures on videos for every one of these books. We also watched watched Family Hope Center's brain development class and that gave us a great deal of Doman-inspired insight.



The most important thing we learned in all of these books, though, can be summed up in one sentence:



Babies belong on the floor.



On page xiv of How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb Glenn Doman says the following:

"We are totally persuaded that: Every child born has, at the instant of birth, a higher potential intelligence than Leonardo da Vinci ever used. That potential intelligence, inherent at birth, includes, and indeed begins with, physical function."



With the back-to-sleep campaign and babies being constantly put in one device or another, babies are developing later and later. Twenty years ago it was strange if a child was not crawling by six months....today the "average" age for a child to start crawling is seven months (and oftentimes more!!).



We put Timothy on his stomach and gave him the opportunity to move and develop and--guess what--he was crawling at 4.5 months old!



One of our largest convinctions for this new baby is that he will be on the floor to develop. If a child is stuck in a bouncy seat, how's he going to learn to roll over? If we leave him to sleep in his infant carrier, his head will get flat and he won't have the opportunity to develop!



Considering that, then, we really haven't bought a lot of "stuff" for this baby. We have a car seat for obvious safety reasons. We have a swing because it's calming and good vestibular, but it won't be used for sheer entertainment or for long periods of time. I'll post some of the products that we really, really think are worth having when you're wanting to raise a child to develop, learn, and grow from an early age.

Product Review: Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel

Price: $30 (the price has now raised, however, to $40)

We had a baby gym with Timothy, but we never saw the point in it. You're supposed to place a baby inside on his back so that he can bat at some things that dangle over his head. Babies on their backs can't move and develop, so what's the point of a baby gym?

They're also used for such a limited amount of time. Once a baby is crawling, the need for a traditional gym with some toys dangling over a baby is really gone. Traditional gyms like the one in the link are expensive, running upwards of $50-$75, and their lifespan is limited. When you have to have sooo many things for a baby, why waste your money on one?

When I saw the Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel, I fell in love with it at once. It has a use for a crawling baby, as it has some toys (a squeaky leaf, etc) attached to the bottom of the playmat. It could also be used if you wanted to place your baby on his back.

The lifespan of this toy is what really impressed me! Timothy is three and he could easily crawl through and play with it. He enjoyed it for several days before I insisted we take it down until the baby arrives. What child doesn't like to crawl through a tunnel? This is a toy that will truly grow with your child!!

Pros:

Price -- less than traditional gyms

Setup -- I did it alone and it took 5 minutes

Storage -- folds flat into a small box

Design -- has pictures of actual animals on the bottom for your child to look at, rather than the cartoon-y animals you see on traditional products

Value -- came with several toys, much more than most gyms

Cons:

Size -- this is a large tunnel and measure about four feet

Sides and top are not removable, meaning you couldn't just use the nice mat on the bottom

Overall: I strongly recommend this product! I love it!! If you read Amazon reviews, you'll see that most people love it, too. It's received 4 1/2 stars. I give it a 5!!!

Our Leaf Activity

It's not easy keeping this child entertained!!

Timothy can spend a great deal of time playing by himself. However, being an only child (for now), he really likes somebody to "play with him" a great deal of the time, too. Sometimes sitting next to him while you read a book will work, sometimes you have to physically have a car in your hand and push it around the train table.

Tonight during "bring me a book time" we read a new Magic School Bus Scholastic book on falling leaves.

**Brief plug for Scholastic Book Orders--they do them through Timothy's preschool and we order several books each month. They have great prices, no shipping, AND the preschool earns free books and teaching items. I've been so happy ordering from them!** (No, I wasn't paid to say that...)

In the book, Mrs. Frizzle and the class look for a missing leaf for their poster. After reading, Timothy was inspired to make a leaf poster, too! He begged and begged and--why not? We had poster board, markers, and glue. We searched around in the dark for some leaves and had everything we needed. Does it look like he enjoyed it??

Viability

We have reached the point of viability!!

If the baby were born today (and let's hope it's not), he would have over a 90% chance of survival!!

That's a good feeling. So much can go and does go wrong during a pregnancy, but knowing that if early labor started today our baby could probably be saved is a good thing.

I read that we're entering a period of rapid brain growth and that THRILLS me. We've been doing BabyPlus daily and I take a good-quality fish oil for brain development. We talk to the baby every chance we get. Today David was rubbing my belly and the baby would kick wherever he pushed down his hand. It's amazing that a child that isn't even born can respond so well!!

Jack be Nimble...

We got a note sent home from preschool last week that they were starting a unit on "Jack be Nimble." Each child was requested to bring several candles of various shape and size (birthday candles, tea light candles, pillar candles) so that they can classify and group the candles by size, color, smell, etc.

Timothy was intriguted that there were candles in his backpack this morning and asked "Why do I have handles in my backpack?" We told him they'd be doing an activity at preschool and he said "Maybe we're having a birthday and we'll blow out the candles...or perhaps it's for a Jack o Lantern...or maybe they don't have any electricity."

That's our boy--his mind is always working!!