well, yesterday we took the childrens to the doctor for their 9 month appointment. Yay, no shots! And we were officially told that they are "beautiful, growing, healthy" childrens. And that Mr. Grunty "is big". We talked about their developmental milestones, and how they are doing different things, but Miss Squeaky doesn't talk much, and Mr. Grunty does not like to be on his tummy.
And wouldn't ya know it, this morning they set out to prove us wrong. This morning, at 4:55am, Miss Squeaky woke us up. I took her to the loft, so we could snuggle, and maybe go back to sleep, and she was talking lots, new sounds, lots of talking...she showed us. Yay, Miss S!!
And later, after breakfast, Mr. Grunty went from sitting, to on his tummy, and hung out on his tummy for a couple of minutes, lifting his head way up high, and maneuvering around. Then he flipped to his back, smiled at his mommy, then flipped back to his tummy for more moving around. Yay, Mr. G!!
Miss S likes the "da, Tha, gah" sounds, and will sometimes add the "ah" prefix.
Mr G has learned how to blow raspberries.
At work I've noticed that I take a deep breath, and motorboat flap my lips / passive raspberry on exhale from time to time. Our receptionist laughs and asks if Miss S taught me that.
Bottle Holding
Mr. G does not like to cooperate on this. Either a parent holds the bottle or he does. Don't even try and touch his hands during feeding. And naturally he's kicking his feet. He has learned that when the bottle is full, he can rest it on his belly and drink from it no-hands.
Miss S likes to show off and hold the bottle with one hand while looking around. Sometimes she will hit the bottle. She will let you hold her hands while she feeds. She still drinks a lot faster than her brother, and less too.
Miss S was reading a Seasame Street's "What's that sound?" the other day. Slowly turning pages, carefully looking at each page. Usually she will just chew on a toy for a few minutes, then toss it to the side.
Mr. G is a lot more deliberate looking at toys, and will usually take longer to lose interest in a toy. And these days, one of his favorites is the Mary Meyer* Lucky Duck Rattle. I am amazed at how well rattles entertain. I guess that's why we've had rattles since pre-historic times. All right all you anthropologists, what came first, the rattle or fermented drink?
A game they like to play is empty the basket of toys. When it's done, they've gone through all the toys, and start to get fussy/bored, we refill the basket and the fun starts again. Mr. G does like to pound on the empty basket like a drum.
A cool toy that I like, the Fisher-Price Stack & Roll Cups. They're fun for me, because I can clap them together, for different noises, or make them into rattles by sticking a block between them, and the different sizes have different tones. Oh yeah, the childrens like them too, and will clang them together.
So...a worry I have, is are they developing properly? Rationally I know, each child will develop at their own pace, but emotionally, I worry. And this can easily lead into jealousy and bragging (do parents ever brag about their kids?)
One nice lesson of a recent political scandal, is even if your child becomes the gov'ner of NY State, it's still not a good idea to brag about how successful he is. Which leads me too, when can you know if you've been a good parent? I guess in heaven you'll get the answer. I heard from my boss about this ultra-competitive private school in town, where the kindergarten children have to go through this rigorous interview process to be accepted and the parents are really obnoxious. Seriously, I'm all for encouraging kids to learn, but do we sometimes go a bit to far?
Another thing my boss was talking about. Moving your child to a different school if they fall into a bad social group. An option to remember.
Our good friend BitterKat was showing me some vids of her babies. They were cool. Her daughter was crawling all over at 5 months! (Ack!! Should I be worried? should I be jealous? ) And her daughter did grow up to be a violist, that IS something to brag about! :-)
Dancing Styles
They still have different dancing styles.
Miss S will swing her upper body back and forth, from left to right, very energetically.
Mr G will rock front to back, gently, sometimes tossing in shoulder shrug.
* I do not like that Mary Meyer has "girls" and "boys" toys!! grrrr!!!! Shame on you Mary Meyer, shame on you.
Posted by joncim at March 15, 2008 10:17 AMThe video where Zoe was crawling around like crazy (and standing up against things) was when she was almost 7 months actually). At five months she was more like a slug, still on her tummy but with foot propulsion. :)
And don't you worry, your kids are doing great. Heck, I'm jealous that your kids will suck on pacifiers and remain pleasant at parties. I sulked a lot about my kids not doing those things.
Posted by: bitterkat at March 15, 2008 12:03 PMWow that is alot. Looks like I am a bit late on reading this. Sorry.
Your worrying about whether they are developing properly, I am not saying that you shouldn't worry, but I think they are right on task with that. Some kids develope motor skills faster than others and alot has to do with their environment. Kendall learned to walk early b/c we lived with mom and dad and she had Chad and Ryan that she wanted to play with. Daniel had Kendall and the younger ones had their older siblings. Ben and Ella have the kids at the daycare and each other. Soon they will be competing with who can do things faster. Tieing shoes, eat their food, etc. But I don't think there is a norm for when they should learn things.
As to when do you know you were a good parent? You can't really answer that. Sometimes parents do all the right things and teach their kids right from wrong and hope that they got it, but it is up to the kids to make their choices and follow their own path. We, as parents, have to hope we pointed them in the right direction. I have to say there are times when I have felt like a horrible parent. I know I have made mistakes with them, but you have to hope that you can learn from those mistakes.
okay now I am getting into preaching. I guess when you are old and lying on your death bed and your children are standing by your bed side. That will be when you know if you were a good parent.
And bragging, I use to brag about my kids alot, especially to family members who have kids the same age, I think I do a little still. I think it is okay to brag about your kids.
Posted by: Trina at March 26, 2008 09:50 AMThanxies for saying my childrens are doing alright. I know that rationally. I just worry. There's so much to worry about. Is it true the worrying never stops?
Posted by: :-jon at March 27, 2008 09:14 PMNever stops. and at some times you will start to question if you have done something wrong and then nit pick on things you should have done differently.
Posted by: trina at March 28, 2008 05:55 PM