Mountain Mama

This morning, Ben looked at Tim and said, “Dah.” I told you he was advanced for his age!

But, seriously, he is getting very close to crawling. He’s up on all fours and regularly scooting off of his blanket. It won’t be long now!

Ben’s crib has 3 mattress levels. It’s been set at its highest level since he was born. Last weekend, we lowered it to the middle setting since he’s pushing himself up and grabbing so well. Today I changed Ben’s Pack ‘n Play from a “bassinet” to a real playpen. (Did you know it’s not politically correct to say “playpen” anymore? Something about implying babies are animals…). My baby’s growing up. Sniff.

In the last week or so, Ben has been reaching and grabbing an object he wants. Go, Ben!

He’s also started, in the last couple weeks, to babble more. Sounds I’ve heard:

M, N, G, B, and a buzzing sound from his lips.

He continues his roly-poly antics and is starting to scoot. WooHoo!

The Flat Spot is similar to The Bald Spot, only much more serious. I hesitate to make light of it due to the high level of anxiety it was causing me just a few short weeks ago. But, it’s important to talk about so here goes…

When Ben was born, I was shocked (shocked!!) that the nurses put him down in the bassinet on his side. I thought that they must not have heard about the Back to Sleep campaign. Didn’t they know it’s illegal to put babies down on anything other than their backs nowadays?! (OK, now I’m kidding). I didn’t say anything, but when we got home, I dutifully laid him on his back every time he went to sleep. I put him on his tummy when he was awake, but he would only put up with it for 5 minutes or so. I had read that babies often develop a flat spot from laying on their backs for too long.

Well, I thought, that’s not going to happen to MY baby. That only happens to babies who never get picked up. Ha! Little did I know that the nurses in the hospital were changing his position so that pressure didn’t get applied to the same part of baby’s soft skull all the time. Shortly after discovering The Bald Spot (which has completely grown in now, by the way), I discovered The Flat Spot. Ben was about 3 months old- it was right after I went back to work. Let me just tell you, my reaction was not a minor “oh, look, it happened after all… hmm…” kind of reaction. I immediately booked an appointment with the pediatrician. Note that I did not blog about this event, it caused so much anxiety.

One reason I love Ben’s pediatrician is that she is a mommy of little ones herself. There’s nothing like first-hand experience. She told me when her daughter was little, she had a severe flat spot. She said it was much worse than Ben’s- it was very obvious at first glance (his wasn’t, to anyone else but me). Her daughter now has a perfectly rounded head. That was a relief- there’s hope! How do we accomplish this perfectly rounded head? Special pillow? Helmet? Reconstructive surgery? Her advice was to put him on his belly as much as possible and when he IS on his back, have him look to his left. His left?! Why? Well, his flat spot isn’t in the center of his head! It’s slightly to the right. What?!? I hadn’t even noticed, but it wasn’t symmetrical! That was even worse!

We immediately implemented her recommendations, giving Ben as much tummy time as possible. He tolerates it much better now that he is stronger. We did everything possible to keep pressure off the back of his head. However, getting Ben to “look to his left” when lying on his back was extremely difficult, if not impossible. I started putting Ben to sleep on his side. Yes, that’s right. I stopped putting him to sleep on his back at 3 months of age. His lower arm laid straight in front of him and prevented him from rolling onto his belly, and at some point in the night he always rolled onto his back, but usually kept facing the side. I know because I checked on him- a lot.

Now, I am happy to report that The Flat Spot is not nearly as noticeable as it was. It is still there, but it is improving. I have since found out that 3 months is when people usually notice The Flat Spot. I looked for it to happen early on, and when it didn’t happen in the first couple months, I sort of forgot about it. I am 90% sure it will completely correct itself in the next few months. If it doesn’t, well, I’m sure I’ll come to terms with that too.

The Bottom Line: We are thankful for a healthy baby!

And about putting him down on his side- now, even when I do put him down on his back, he always ends up on his belly because he likes to roll over so much!

Thank you to everyone who played in my first-ever contest! I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the “captions.”

I was planning on posting this in the middle of the night last night while Ben was nursing, but (woohoo!) he didn’t wake up!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2008-03-23 10:40:42 UTC

Jennifer left comment #6, so she wins the $5/$50 Target coupon.

All the captions were GREAT, but I said I would post my 3 favorites, so here they are (in alphabetical order by author):

From Heidi Ho: The Department of Education’s new requirements for standardized test preparation.

From jandcandme: hukd on fonics, wurkd fer me!

From Mary Kathryn: Hmmm….. To read the book or eat the book? THAT is the question.

Thanks again to everyone for playing!!!

It’s not too late to to enter the caption contest!

I didn’t do a blog or journal during most of my pregnancy (shame on me), but this is one of those funny kid stories that needs to be preserved for the ages…When school ended last school year, I had told the kids about my pregnancy but I wasn’t “showing” very much. It wasn’t blatantly obvious that I was pregnant yet. When school started again in the fall, it was quite obvious. Some of my little students were surprised to see my “new” belly and a lot of them smiled and laughed when they saw me. I got some interesting questions but this one tops all:

It was the first day of 1st grade music class. We talked about the baby in the beginning of class and how I was expecting a boy and I would be leaving for a while when he was born and then I would come back, etc etc. They had many questions, and of course stories, so we talked for as long as I could stand. Finally, that subject closed, I went on with the lesson. In the middle of the lesson, out of nowhere, a little boy blurted out, “Why are you fat?” For some reason I cannot recall, I was on a “manners” kick that day. I said, “Is there a nicer way you could ask that?” Meaning, it’s not nice to call people “fat” and hoping he would say something like, “Why is your belly big?” Instead, he rephrased the question in his own “nicer” way:

“Why are you fat, please?”

Don’t forget to enter the caption contest!

Today in 5th grade band class…

Me (to Girl Flute Player): You’ve made such progress! When I came back from maternity leave, you were still struggling with fingerings, and now you can play with fluency! ["Fluency" has been our 5th grade band buzzword ever since Girl Percussion Player said, and I kid you not, "I can PLAY it, I just can't play it with any fluency!"]

Girl Flute Player: Thanks. I’ve been practicing.

Boy Trumpet Player: Materniwhat??

Me: When I had the baby

Boy Trumpet Player: Huh??

Other Girl Flute Player: You know, when she had the baby, and she took off for a while.

Boy Trumpet Player: OH! [knowingly] To breastfeed.

All Girls in Class: BOY TRUMPET PLAYER!!! (actually, they said his real name).

Me: Well, that’s part of it, but having a baby is so much work that people usually take a little time off to get adjusted.

Boy Trumpet Player: Oh. Your face is red.

Other Girl Flute Player: So is yours.

Welcome! I’m glad you made it over to my new blog. In case you’re wondering why I changed, I’ll tell you now. If you don’t care why I changed, skip down 2 paragraphs for information on how to enter a fun contest! It all started when I wanted a different template for my blog. I found several I really liked at WordPress. Then I was checking out links on my friend Jennifer’s blog and found a post from jandcandme that got me thinking about one day printing a copy of the blog since it’s such a good record of Ben’s life. Finally, I wanted a new url. Not that I don’t love “benjamin-david.whatever.com.” It’s just a tiny bit short-sighted. What if we have another kid? (And, no, I’m not announcing anything). I was able to import my entire “old” blog very easily to this site! Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t have an “import” feature, so we’re here to stay for the foreseeable future!

Before you start thinking WordPress is perfect, I want to alert you to a few drawbacks I’ve found: You can’t change the templates around unless you buy a CSS edit upgrade for $15/yr (and even then you have to edit the code). Adding pictures seems trickier than in Blogger, but maybe I just haven’t figured it out yet. Also, the fonts are smaller and you can’t change them without the above-mentioned upgrade. The “widgets” (similar to Blogger’s “page elements” are a little harder to figure out. It also doesn’t play nicely with Apple’s Safari browser, but it works well with Firefox.

To celebrate Ben’s new Baby Blog (and my new Mommy Blog), I am having a contest! There are 2 ways to win. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post with an original caption to the picture below:

I will use a random number generator to select the first winner. That person will win a coupon good for $5 off your $50 purchase at Target (exp. 4/17/08)! In addition, I will choose my 3 favorite captions to display in a post (along with a link to your blog, if you have one)!

Have more than one great caption idea? Go ahead and enter more than once!

Not a Target shopper? Enter anyway – Maybe you know someone you could give the coupon to. Or, you could always decline the prize and I could give it to someone else.

The contest ends Saturday, 3/22/08 at midnight (Eastern Daylight Time).

***P.S. There is a link to leave comments at the top of this post.

It’s another milestone! Ben is 21 weeks today…

Ben has been getting close to this for a couple weeks now but he couldn’t quite get his lower arm out of the way to complete the transition. Yesterday evening, he was laying on the floor and pulled himself all the way over from his side to his front using the leg of the coffee table. He did it twice.

Now, I have to preface this next part by saying we have been putting Ben to sleep on his side for the past couple weeks, a fact that will be explained in a future post. The night before last, he woke up without crying and I could hear him “playing” on the baby monitor for 40 minutes! This morning at about 4 he wanted to play again, so I put him back in his crib awake. About 30 minutes later, he began crying so Tim went to check on him. He was on his belly! We tried to feed him but he wanted to play so we put him back in his crib. About 10 minutes later he cried again so Tim went to check on him- he was on his belly again!

So, it’s not technically “rolling from back to front.” However, I think that’s just a technicality. After all, he can roll from back to side and now from side to front. It stands to reason he can do a full roll- we just have to “catch” him doing it!

As for the disturbing trend of wanting to play in the middle of the night, here’s hoping it’s just a fluke!

OK, so this is totally not Ben-related, but it’s on my mind so I’m putting it out there:

My principal wants to try the Renzulli model of enrichment clusters. Basically, the entire school is taking one entire day and doing this. It’s going to be a Friday in May. She is asking teachers, “what would you do with children if you had no curriculum and no testing and deadlines, etc.?” For the entire day, all students will get to choose (ahead of time) 4 different enrichment clusters to visit. “Regular” classes will not be held. Some clusters will be facilitated by teachers, and others by community volunteers. Of course all the “traditional” teachers are FREAKING out. I think it’s kind of neat, but I’m having a hard time coming up with “different” things I could do. After all, I already teach my favorite subject!

Here are my ideas:

Knitting
Crocheting
Introduction to Guitar (they would have to have their own)

Obviously, the above ideas are for older kids. So here’s my question, teacher friends:

What would you do with kids if there was no curriculum and no set subject matter and the only limitation was time (and, well, money)?