We're in the midst of a family emergency right now so I don't have time to write about the full evaluation.
However, today Donna Bateman suggested that Samuel's constant crying, tension, and acne all over his face are due to gluten/casien and dairy sensitivities. I have to go completely gluten/casen/dairy-free...but it will be totally worth it if our child stops crying hours and hours each day.
Does anybody have good links for gluten-free recipes? I *love* my bread and my pasta and my glass of milk each night. I've got to find a way to make this work for my baby!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sick Kiddos & More!
Today we took Samuel in to the pediatrician. He's sick, but there's really nothing we can give him at such a young age. He'll be getting all my immunities through the breastmilk and we should just keep him hydrated and comfortable as much as possible.
The other big news is that Donna Bateman from Parents with Purpose is going to come out for an evaluation on Wednesday. I just called her today, so I'm thrilled that she's going to be able to make it out so quickly! We're seeing some issues with the kiddos that might be nothing but might turn in to larger things. I'll give more info once she's come out.
We did Bright Bubs Music Time with Samuel today. It brought back so many fond memories of doing it with Timothy. It's fun for the baby, good exercise for the parent, and GREAT vestibular for the both of you!! Timothy liked it, too.
That's all, folks!
The other big news is that Donna Bateman from Parents with Purpose is going to come out for an evaluation on Wednesday. I just called her today, so I'm thrilled that she's going to be able to make it out so quickly! We're seeing some issues with the kiddos that might be nothing but might turn in to larger things. I'll give more info once she's come out.
We did Bright Bubs Music Time with Samuel today. It brought back so many fond memories of doing it with Timothy. It's fun for the baby, good exercise for the parent, and GREAT vestibular for the both of you!! Timothy liked it, too.
That's all, folks!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Vacation
Wow!!
The last week has been so much fun, but it didn't end too well.
Last Friday, when Timothy woke up, we had a scavenger hunt for him to go on. He had an index card on his bed that said "in the oven" and then in the oven there was another card that said "under the sofa." So on and so forth, the clues finally ended with a wrapped gift--a real camera. It's our old digital camera but we didn't tell him that. He was so amazed! Along with the camera was a note that read "Today we're going on an adventure--pack your camera and some toys!"
I just wish you guys could have seen Timothy's face. Three year olds are awesome! I think I'm going to keep having babies just so I can keep having three year olds...
First we went to my grandmother's house. She lives on a tree farm and has lots of awesome toys (like real four-wheelers and a tire swing). We had an awesome time visiting and Timothy loved it there. Plus, great Grandma made all his favorite foods.
On Saturday we left and drove to an awesome resort about two hours away from our home. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo unit with a kitchen. It was so much fun!! We spent the next seven days at the indoor waterpark, outdoor pool, playground, sand pit, fishing at the lake, playing shuffleboard and tennis, watching movies at the on-site movie theatre, building traps in the woods.... We also went to the zoo, science museum twice, and Chuck-E-Cheese three times!!
Each day I'd say something like "We had a fun day today!" and Timothy would say "We're still having a fun day, right?" It was so precious!
Samuel was pretty much just along for the ride. He enjoyed being worn around and pushed in the stroller. He didn't get much tummy that last week, but we did spend a lot of time working on swimming with him in the ENORMOUS jacuzzi tub that would hold about 4 people.
During the week, we celebrate my birthday, too.
We came home yesterday and Timothy and I were both feeling really bad. Timothy screamed (literally) all night long about how much his ear hurts. We went to the urgent care today and he has a double ear infection. David and I are both fighting sinus problems, too, and Samuel's got his first-ever bug. He won't take his pacifier because he can't breathe through his nose. Nursing is pretty hard, too.
Anyway, now we're all recovering and trying to come down from an awesome week. Sorry I didn't let you know I'd be gone--it was a spur of the moment awesome $price$ kind of thing. But we had a terrific time!
The last week has been so much fun, but it didn't end too well.
Last Friday, when Timothy woke up, we had a scavenger hunt for him to go on. He had an index card on his bed that said "in the oven" and then in the oven there was another card that said "under the sofa." So on and so forth, the clues finally ended with a wrapped gift--a real camera. It's our old digital camera but we didn't tell him that. He was so amazed! Along with the camera was a note that read "Today we're going on an adventure--pack your camera and some toys!"
I just wish you guys could have seen Timothy's face. Three year olds are awesome! I think I'm going to keep having babies just so I can keep having three year olds...
First we went to my grandmother's house. She lives on a tree farm and has lots of awesome toys (like real four-wheelers and a tire swing). We had an awesome time visiting and Timothy loved it there. Plus, great Grandma made all his favorite foods.
On Saturday we left and drove to an awesome resort about two hours away from our home. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo unit with a kitchen. It was so much fun!! We spent the next seven days at the indoor waterpark, outdoor pool, playground, sand pit, fishing at the lake, playing shuffleboard and tennis, watching movies at the on-site movie theatre, building traps in the woods.... We also went to the zoo, science museum twice, and Chuck-E-Cheese three times!!
Each day I'd say something like "We had a fun day today!" and Timothy would say "We're still having a fun day, right?" It was so precious!
Samuel was pretty much just along for the ride. He enjoyed being worn around and pushed in the stroller. He didn't get much tummy that last week, but we did spend a lot of time working on swimming with him in the ENORMOUS jacuzzi tub that would hold about 4 people.
During the week, we celebrate my birthday, too.
We came home yesterday and Timothy and I were both feeling really bad. Timothy screamed (literally) all night long about how much his ear hurts. We went to the urgent care today and he has a double ear infection. David and I are both fighting sinus problems, too, and Samuel's got his first-ever bug. He won't take his pacifier because he can't breathe through his nose. Nursing is pretty hard, too.
Anyway, now we're all recovering and trying to come down from an awesome week. Sorry I didn't let you know I'd be gone--it was a spur of the moment awesome $price$ kind of thing. But we had a terrific time!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Budding Photographer
Yesterday Timothy asked to borrow my camera. Here's the world from his point of view...Cute Little Monkeys
The swing is the one "babysitter" object we have, and boy am I glad we got one with a mobile!! Samuel coos and smiles at those animals and is just so content :-)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Timothy Tuesday
Timothy is just like me. He continually wants to do a "project." The other day we were all sitting in the house, peacefully reading magazines while Timothy played blocks. Then he looked up and said "Daddy, how about you get your tools and build me a workbench, okay?" The most ridiculous thing is that David got out his tools and got some wood and did it!
Glitter, markers, crayons, PlayDoh...scissors are really fun now, too. Lots of projects taking place in this family!!
Samuel's Well Baby
We took Samuel to the doctor last Thursday for his 2-month Well Baby visit.
We came out of the visit realizing that Samuel's just a little guy!!
His head is in the 20th percentile, his weight is the 22nd percentile, and his length is in the 23rd percentile. He's short, skinny, and has a little head. As long as he stays on his growth curve there's nothing wrong with that. He's just wee little Samuel!
Of course, the only problem is that he doesn't really fit into the TON of clothes he has. He's 2 months old, but 0-3 month outfits are STILL too big on him! Most of his 0-3 month clothes are winter clothes and it's becoming extremely hot here in TX, so I'm so disappointed that he won't be able to wear some of the cute clothes he has!! Oh well...live and learn.
The pediatrician was shocked that he had such good head control. Samuel was pushing up and looking all around. We told him that he was already rolling over and he made a comment about our "genius babies." We've never told our pediatrician we do Doman.
We asked the pediatrician about Samuel's lack of Babinski reflex. He tested it and, sure enough, Samuel has no Babinski. The doctor said that it's a primitive neurological reflex, but he wouldn't worry if Samuel has his other reflexes (rooting, sucking, startle, etc).
We decided not to vaccinate Samuel, either and our ped was fine with that.
We came out of the visit realizing that Samuel's just a little guy!!
His head is in the 20th percentile, his weight is the 22nd percentile, and his length is in the 23rd percentile. He's short, skinny, and has a little head. As long as he stays on his growth curve there's nothing wrong with that. He's just wee little Samuel!
Of course, the only problem is that he doesn't really fit into the TON of clothes he has. He's 2 months old, but 0-3 month outfits are STILL too big on him! Most of his 0-3 month clothes are winter clothes and it's becoming extremely hot here in TX, so I'm so disappointed that he won't be able to wear some of the cute clothes he has!! Oh well...live and learn.
The pediatrician was shocked that he had such good head control. Samuel was pushing up and looking all around. We told him that he was already rolling over and he made a comment about our "genius babies." We've never told our pediatrician we do Doman.
We asked the pediatrician about Samuel's lack of Babinski reflex. He tested it and, sure enough, Samuel has no Babinski. The doctor said that it's a primitive neurological reflex, but he wouldn't worry if Samuel has his other reflexes (rooting, sucking, startle, etc).
We decided not to vaccinate Samuel, either and our ped was fine with that.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Samuel Crawling
Timothy did most of his crawling at night in his crawling track. Samuel does most of his crawling during the day.
.When we put him down, we never know where he'll end up!! Most of the time he crawls right off his playmat and onto the carpet. Yesterday he crawled off his playmat, onto the carpet, and kept going until he hit the wall.
.
We're happy he's got a good cross-pattern when he crawls. I'm so thrilled that our baby is mobile at such a young age!!
.
Edited to add--I've recently discovered that if I lay Samuel on the floor and read Samuel goes to sleep fairly quickly. This morning I read him Plato, this afternoon I read him Doman's How to Be Physically Superb.
.
In rereading the book, I realized that Timothy's night crawling of 30+ feet a night must be abnormal, as Doman brags of one baby crawling ten feet every night!
Teaching Your Child & Saving Money
You could absolutely, positively spend thousands of dollars trying to teach your baby--but we've been extremely careful in the budget department and we haven't spent that much. Here's my take on how to save some money!!
Infant Equipment
Doman says the ideal environment for an infant is the floor. On the floor, the child learns to crawl, creep, roll over, walk. You don't have to have plush carpet or a gym mat or anything like that--we just make sure we vacuum daily.
Save money and just completely skip the "babysitting" stuff that most parents buy. You don't need a Johnny Jump up or exersaucer or swaying seat you plug your iPod into. In fact, the whole purpose of those items is to keep the baby contained so that you don't have to mess with him. Save some $$ and put your baby on the floor!
I would, however, recommend an infant gym & mat. The $30 tunnel by Baby Einstein is a good choice, but most other gyms are upwards of $60. Quite frankly, that's outrageous. We have two that we bought at consignments sales--our black and white one was $5 and we have a jungle-themed one we got for $4. Look and see if you have a Just Between Friends consignment sale in your area. They're my favorite!!!
Cards
Even though the math cards cost $50, I would recommend you buy them. I'm sure you could make them yourself, but who wants to spend hours counting out 99 dots? And how would you know it's absolutely right? The $50 cards will last you the entire math program, so I'd splurge and buy them!
Reading cards were our arch nemesis with Timothy. We wrote words on 5x7 index cards and that seemed to be the most budget-friendly option. However, we did spend hours writing on cards. The advantage of making them ourselves, though, was that we could customize them to include anything immediate in our world--names of aunts and uncles and friends at preschool, the name of our town, etc.
Honestly, though, it was a complete mess trying to keep up with all the reading cards! There really is no good way to save tehm and use them again, so we just threw them away. By the time we found the one we were l0oking for we could have written a new one. It was just a mess!!
If you have the money, Little Reader is worth the splurge. I love that the child sees the same words in several different fonts with several different voices pronouncing the word. Plus, the computer keeps track of everything for you!!
Encyclopedic Knowledge cards (Bits of Intelligence) we mostly made ourselves. I'm sorry, but $2 each from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential is just more than we had!! We mostly bought books on clearance from Half Price Books (or postcard books--those made it very easy) and pasted them onto 8.5 x 11 cardstock with a gluestick. We laminated them ourselves with a $20 laminator and laminator sheets from Wal-Mart so that they would stand the test of time (and children). Also check eBay--you never know what you'll find there!!
Other Stuff
We have the Your Baby Can Read DVDs and I do like them, but the kit they're selling today is ridiculously overpriced! We got the DVDs for like $4 each at Half Priced Books!!
Breastfeed--it's free and so healthy for the baby!! Plus, breastfed children have, on average, higher IQs than those fed formula.
Infant Equipment
Doman says the ideal environment for an infant is the floor. On the floor, the child learns to crawl, creep, roll over, walk. You don't have to have plush carpet or a gym mat or anything like that--we just make sure we vacuum daily.
Save money and just completely skip the "babysitting" stuff that most parents buy. You don't need a Johnny Jump up or exersaucer or swaying seat you plug your iPod into. In fact, the whole purpose of those items is to keep the baby contained so that you don't have to mess with him. Save some $$ and put your baby on the floor!
I would, however, recommend an infant gym & mat. The $30 tunnel by Baby Einstein is a good choice, but most other gyms are upwards of $60. Quite frankly, that's outrageous. We have two that we bought at consignments sales--our black and white one was $5 and we have a jungle-themed one we got for $4. Look and see if you have a Just Between Friends consignment sale in your area. They're my favorite!!!
Cards
Even though the math cards cost $50, I would recommend you buy them. I'm sure you could make them yourself, but who wants to spend hours counting out 99 dots? And how would you know it's absolutely right? The $50 cards will last you the entire math program, so I'd splurge and buy them!
Reading cards were our arch nemesis with Timothy. We wrote words on 5x7 index cards and that seemed to be the most budget-friendly option. However, we did spend hours writing on cards. The advantage of making them ourselves, though, was that we could customize them to include anything immediate in our world--names of aunts and uncles and friends at preschool, the name of our town, etc.
Honestly, though, it was a complete mess trying to keep up with all the reading cards! There really is no good way to save tehm and use them again, so we just threw them away. By the time we found the one we were l0oking for we could have written a new one. It was just a mess!!
If you have the money, Little Reader is worth the splurge. I love that the child sees the same words in several different fonts with several different voices pronouncing the word. Plus, the computer keeps track of everything for you!!
Encyclopedic Knowledge cards (Bits of Intelligence) we mostly made ourselves. I'm sorry, but $2 each from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential is just more than we had!! We mostly bought books on clearance from Half Price Books (or postcard books--those made it very easy) and pasted them onto 8.5 x 11 cardstock with a gluestick. We laminated them ourselves with a $20 laminator and laminator sheets from Wal-Mart so that they would stand the test of time (and children). Also check eBay--you never know what you'll find there!!
Other Stuff
We have the Your Baby Can Read DVDs and I do like them, but the kit they're selling today is ridiculously overpriced! We got the DVDs for like $4 each at Half Priced Books!!
Breastfeed--it's free and so healthy for the baby!! Plus, breastfed children have, on average, higher IQs than those fed formula.
Monday, April 5, 2010
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