First Adjustment

I admit, I am not that great at working on Xander with his physical development.  I really need to dig out my copy of How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb, read it cover to cover, and run with it.  I think I was just a little too overwhelmed at first.  I read it at the same time I learned about teaching him math and reading and it was way too much to try to figure out how to implement everything at once.

That said, I have been a little concerned that Xander is 8 months isn't crawling yet.  I know a lot of babies don't crawl at that age, but he was rolling over back in February for goodness sakes!  He has been turning circles on his tummy and pushing himself backwards for months.  I really felt like he had hit a plateau in his crawling.  Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed that when I would hold his hands up, he would step with his right foot, but not the left.  When I would bicycle his legs, the left was stiff, and while it would bend, it was a lot more difficult.

Well last Thursday I had a chiro appointment and explained my concerns to the chiro (who is the most amazingly fun, eclectic, interesting gentleman and has been treating our family for years).  I explained it was probably me being a paranoid mom, but I wanted him to take a look.  I am SO glad I did.  Turns out a few of Xander's lower vertebrae were locked up and his left hip was twisted, decreasing nerve impulses to his left leg.  My chiro adjusted him in about 30 seconds and showed me how to massage it to keep it loose.

In the week since the appointment I have noticed huge progress in Xander's movements!  I swear he has made more progress in the last week than in the last month!  He can go from sitting to all fours and back.  He also does this funny little bounce while sitting to scoot himself forward (need to get it on video).  He is pretty good at getting objects he wants and he is so much better at pushing up onto his knees.  He still isn't great at staying on them though, tending to flatten them out like a frog.  He also still mainly goes backwards rather than forwards.

This is where he got "stuck" while I was messing with his mattress.

This is where I found him while I was getting ready for work.  He had started in the middle of the room watching his Sight Words.  He definitely didn't mean to get here since he was still trying to see the movie.  So thankful I have a baby gate on the stairs!

Teething

Xander has been acting like he is teething for a while now but this week we finally have progress!  He has two bottom teeth poking through!  I can't wait for them to finish coming in so that he will be a happier little guy, and maybe less of a drool monster!

On the other hand, I am a little scared of him being a biter and having to ween him.  I would love to make that one year mark!  I suppose I have quite a bit of milk in the freezer so we could probably get by that way, but it wouldn't replace the comfort he gets.  We have had a couple of instances where I have had to scold him and flick his cheek for biting.  Breaks my heart but better now than when he can draw blood!

In the meantime Xander has been gnawing on frozen bagels.  I also have one of those mesh feeders, which is been a blessing!  He has used it for months to eat fresh fruits.  He particularly LOVES mango.  To help with the teething, though, I have been freezing apple juice and putting it in the feeder for him to chew on.  It keeps him entertained and soothed for quite a while.  He just yells at me every time I take it away to refill it.

Eating mango, his favorite.

Alternating between frozen bagel and frozen apple juice.

Oh Boy!

I've always agreed with the idea that boys and girls are just different, no matter how much progressives like to say they aren't.  They think differently, play different, and learn differently.  Doesn't mean both can't accomplish the same great feats.

Anyway, Xander definitely reinforced the idea this week!  In our Little Reader lessons we had two new categories this week.  One was action words.  He looked at the words, pictures, and videos with about the same degree of interest as the other categories (some days glued to the screen and excited and some days only glancing as each is presented while also paying attention to everything else in the room).  The second new category, however, was transportation.  Oh my goodness!  He bounces up and down every time one of those comes on the screen!  Just from pictures and 10 second video clips how can he already know that he is supposed to think that bicycles, trains, cars, helicopters, etc are interesting?  I expected him to like buses and trucks after seeing them in person, but not after the brief, indirect exposure he has had.  I may have to use images of vehicles in our other lessons just to spice them up!

I love getting to know his personality and discover what intrigues him.  Every day is an adventure!

Best Tummy Time Ever!

Tummy time has been a struggle for us, to say the least.  I want Xander to spend as much time on his tummy as possible.  He wants to spend as little as possible, especially since he can sit on his own.  I know it is my fault because I bought into the SIDS fears and always had him on his back as a baby.

Well today I tried a fun way of mixing it up.  I put the baby pool on the front deck and put in just a little water, maybe an inch.  I chose the deck since I don't have any level grass in the yard and didn't want any are to be too deep.  As a bonus, the pool was completely shaded by the house, so no sunscreen for a little boy who seems to think it is torture!

Overall it was a success!  He had a great time splashing and playing.  I think he was actually way more stable than when he is sitting in the pool since he doesn't have to lean over to reach far away toys.  What a wonderful way to enjoy a very hot afternoon together!  I am very glad we tried it and I am sure we will be doing it again soon!

My Baby Can Read!

Excuse the cliche, I was just excited.

In our house we follow the principle that learning is and ought to be fun.  Lessons are done joyfully and skipped if we are in poor spirits.  Xander is praised continuously.  One of the main benefits of our lessons is the bonding experience.  Because of this philosophy, we do NOT test.  The knowledge is for him, not me.  I present him with plenty of material but never ask him "what does this say?" and expect him to product an answer  Not that he could answer anyway, but you get what I mean.  Putting him on the spot like that would add pressure and take away the fun.  However, from everything I have read, playing an assessment "game" every once in a great while is acceptable.

Well now that he is 8 months old I was thinking he is more than capable of pointing.  I got out two word flash cards (eye and nose) and asked where one was to see what he would do.  He ended up looking at them both for a few seconds then grabbing the correct card, to much praise of course!  Well he grabbed it with his right hand (seems to be the dominant one at the moment) and it was closer to his right hand, so I decided to try again.  This time I used "eye" and "hair" but asked him to find the one that was on his left side.  He still used his right hand but grabbed the correct card anyway!  We did a happy dance together and I did a good job of not crying with pride!

I know they are silly little words.  I know that I chose words to which he had quite a bit of exposure (YBCR, LR, and Doman style flash cards).  I know there could be plenty words he has been taught that he won't recognize and that he is no where near ready to pick up a book and understand its contents.  It doesn't matter.  I am still absolutely over the moon.  It is nice to think that at least some of the time and energy I have been putting in for the last five months is paying off.  I am so grateful that I have been able to work with him and am excited to continue!

Let's Get Shaking!

I am always on the hunt for new experiences and fun activities for Xander, so this week I decided to make some shakers.  Ideally, I would have used medium sized spice jars, but had none, so improvised.  Here is what I came up with.

The clear bottle held baby juice and the blue bottle held eye makeup remover.  I filled each with some popcorn kernels and super glued the lids shut.  The eye makeup removed bottle actually makes a very interesting sound I wasn't expecting.  The baby food jar I filled with water and different sizes of glitter.  One Jello box is filled with card stock cut to different lengths.  The other holds just a little rice.  

Not much so far, but a good start!  I will eventually experiment with spaghetti, colored rice, legumes, and other containers.   I would like to create enough to have shakers and sound makers to fill a treasure basket of their own.  I need to start eating some spices!

Of course I had to let Xander test them out!  So far he is most fascinated with the jar of glitter.  He likes watching it swirl but does get frustrated since it is the most difficult of the containers to pick up one-handed.

Treasure Basket Beginnings

Lately I have been reading more and more about Heuristic Play and correlating "treasure baskets."  If you do a quick Google search, you will find many articles, so I won't link then all.  This one seems to have a good overall summary.

Basically the idea is that babies and toddlers are natural discoverers.  They want to know what everything is, what it looks like, feels like, smells like, sounds like, and of course, tastes like.  Unfortunately, most baby toys are plastic, which while looks interesting with its many colors, smells, feel, and tastes the same as other plastics.  These treasure baskets provide a discovery outlet.

Treasure baskets are supposed to be round baskets filled with all sorts of objects to discover.  Objects should be safe and clean.  Ideally they are made of wood, fabric, metal, or natural materials to provide a variety of textures, sounds, and tastes.  The child is allowed to sort through the basket as they wish, without interruption.  That is, no showing them what each object does and expecting them to use it that way.  This is their own exploration.

I really think this is something Xander would enjoy!  I try to give him new objects to play with often and he can entertain himself for long periods of time this way.  The other day he played with a whisk for at least an hour over the course of the day.

Entertaining himself with some kitchen items while I made dinner.

Now that I have an idea of how to present this type of play in an organized fashion, I need to get to work!  Finding small, safe, varied items is harder than it sounds!

This is what we have so far.  The basket, of course, a knit cloth, a velvety ring box, and an old bottle nipple.  Hopefully by the next time I write about our treasure basket it is overflowing!  50-60 items is the goal so that we can keep it rotating!  I will be searching the thrift stores and garage sales for unique little items.  My dad is going to cut down a dowel and maybe a branch (which I would sand).  I may also make a trip to a craft store to get various pieces of cloth or even make him some scented satchets.

If anyone locally comes across an item they are going to throw out but may have a home in Xander's treasure basket, please let us know!