I learned something interesting watching my little guy last month as he was introduced to finger foods (well, as much finger foods as a 7 or 8 month old cares about, lol). Baby G had gotten a container of the new flavored "puffs" from Grandma in his Easter basket. When I felt he was ready to try picking up food, I tried a few of them on the high chair tray. As I watched over the next few days, I grew a little concerned. It seemed as though something was lacking from his small motor skills. He could not get those puffs into his mouth for some reason, but was fine if I stuck them in his mouth for him.
So, I watched him closer (learned to watch processes closer when there are problems as I taught my sister to drive my standard transmission car forever ago). I realized it was not necessarily that he could not pick them up or that he was not getting them to his mouth. The issue was something wholly different - the "puffs" are made to disintigrate into baby's mouth (to prevent choking, I guess). But, that was a problem here. Baby G's fingers (and hands) were damp often (teething) or got that way trying to feed himself. The "puffs" would start to disintegrate on his fingers and stick there - making them unmanagable for him.
What to do about this interesting situation? I went back to the old, non-sticky standby - Cheerio's! And Baby G learned how to handle those much, much easier. He has not choked on them yet (neither did his older siblings). And so, Baby G has developed those, oh so important small motor skills that he needed. He now can manage those "puffs" with ease. So, my lesson learned to pass onto new mom's - rather than start with the "puffs", start with the Cheerio's - they are better for your baby, lol!
Monday in a Harlem middle school, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told a group of 120 students that administration officials are actively discussing “when and how it might be possible to join” (that is, ratify) the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As before, she also communicated what a disgrace it is that the U.S. would stand with only Somalia against such a widely-accepted treaty.
This is the first direct public statement by the Obama administration that it will seek ratification of the UN CRC.
In my 30 years of political involvement, I have learned to recognize this as what is called a “trial balloon.” Like in World War I trench warfare, our opponents have “sent up a balloon” to see if it will draw fire. If things remain quiet, they will proceed with their plans to push for ratification of the CRC in the U.S. Senate.
To discourage them from doing so, we need to make sure that our voices are heard with unmistakable clarity. We must let the Obama administration know that we oppose this anti-family, anti-American treaty.
Here’s what we need you all to do:
1. Call the White House comments line at 202-456-1111. Tell them you heard the administration wants to ratify the CRC, and you strongly oppose this giving away of U.S. sovereignty to the UN. Also keep in mind that this treaty gives the government jurisdiction to override any decision made by any parent if the government thinks that a better decision can be made—even if there is no proof of any harm.
2. Call Ambassador Susan Rice’s office at the United Nations. Tell her that you want her to represent the United States to the world rather than trying to get the United States to go along with international law initiated by the UN. Her office number is 212-415-4000.
3. Contact your Senators and urge them to oppose ratification of this treaty. (Find your Senators’ contact information by typing your zip code into the box here.) Ask them also to defeat it once and for all by cosponsoring SJRes 16 – the Parental Rights Amendment.
It is very important that we speak up right now. Please call before you close this email!
Well - mostly. Baby G finally figured out crawling forward last night. He had been getting around the floor quite nicely anyway, but it would be a 2-3 crawls forward, sit back on his bottom, turn himself about, go backwards, etc. type of thing. Then, suddenly, another developmental switch flipped and he started crawling forwards all over the place yesterday afternoon.
He can steer his walker quite nicely through the kitchen/dining room. We need to baby proof the kitchen now as he can open the cabinet doors. We have put the baby friendly magnet toys on the fridge for him - it keeps him mildly entertained when I need to clean out there. But, he is a killer with the walker. If I am standing at the sink, he sneaks up behind me and trys to kill me by tripping me when I turn around.
Baby G has been waving "bye" for the last couple of weeks as well. I had seen him do it randomly a couple weeks prior to that, but I am certain now that he knows why he is doing it, lol! I am working on teaching him a very few baby signs so he can communicate with us a bit. But, babies are pretty good at doing some of their own sign (think of waving bye-bye as one of them) - we just have to figure them out sometimes.
M & G are still playing piano. Med. G was in a spot where Young M was a while back - the songs (though good for skill building) were not familiar, thus not much fun. Young M, when at the same spot, was blessed with an easy Sound of Music book from T. She LOVES that book and plays many of the songs by heart now. I regularly hear Edelweiss & 16 going on 17 during the day. Soo, for Med. G, we made a trip to Interstate Music and found some other books. One I selected was one of traditional patriotic music (and some older folk music songs mixed in). Young M picked out a soundtrack from Narnia book and we picked out another that had music from the newer Star Wars movies. She already has a couple that she is working on. Med. G was thrilled with the Star Wars Music. It is hard (much harder than where he is at, really), but I told him to start working on the top line of his favorite (theme music from the movies). He is taking it slowly, but getting there. Young M has requested music from the musical OK. That and some "easy" classical music from the masters. I know it is out there, but one book at a time, lol! I know they did not have the OK one at IM, though, so I may have to order it online.
Med. G has outgrown his last bike. It was borderline last summer, but he grew so much over the winter that we had to put it away. Thankfully, we had another bike sitting there. Our friends the T's had given us Ben's old bike (almost used, lol). He is short, so it fits Med. G beautifully! It is a several speeded bike (8 or 10?) with only hand brakes, so that was a challenge for him. Young M is still using her bike and I suspect she will be using it for another year or 2. She does not grow as fast as Med. G - that boy is a bottomless pit. We will need our own cow and chickens when he gets a couple of years older, lol!
Anyway, that is all I can come up with for now - summer has finally arrived up here and I am thankful. Have a lovely week!
The tone of this list, in general, is a little snarky, and yet, she is on to something. This one in particular cracked me up - probably because I have heard it before. Feel free to click on the link above to read the whole list, but be forewarned I do not necessarily agree with all of her views.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
So, today is Monday. The Monday after my husband was home all last week. So, there is some semblance of hope of a return to the normal routine, I guess.
We did manage to get most of our lessons done today. However, M has misplaced her Math book and G, his reading....I often wonder how this happens in the space of 24 hours. Is there a space/time continuum that I am not fully aware of into which lesson books (and answer keys) can just disappear into? What happens that they turn up in random places. Last week, I had the children looking high and low for M's Language Arts teacher guide....only to find it on my keyboard tray (fairly certain is was not there the day before and I know I did not put it there). Certainly not like the child is using it to cheat (my checking of her work reflects that she goes WAY too fast and misses too much in her speed for that to be the case, lol!). So there must be some other valid explanation for this.
I did finish reading the the story of Aladdin to G out of the Blue Fairy Tale books (my favorite series of Fairy Tales stemming back to when I was a girl in Indiana and even in OK). M, who was listening in, commented that this tale certainly was not like the Disney version - I think she might have seen it once in recent years. But, she is right - sure is not like Disney. I suspect it is this violation of books that has curtailed my children's desire to go to Disney World - they suspect that if Disney has screwed up the fairy tales, the odds are good they have messed up the rides as well, lol! However, that does not impede them from wanting to go to Epcot (I suppose they figure Disney cannot mess up the countries as easily?). Anyway, I do have a couple of other read-alouds I want to accomplish tonight, but it won't take very long.
I managed to play with the baby and get him to take 2 decent naps, which allowed me to get a 20 min. recharge in there. I did accomplish getting the dishwasher loaded and running. And maybe, just maybe, I will get a bit of organization to the explosion known as M's room in tonight....it could happen.
Tomorrow, we have the lovely diversion of piano lessons. We enjoy them, but it sucks a full 2 hours out of our day by the time we figure in travel time, etc. Sigh. G is currently whiney about practicing piano, but M was whiney at the same stage and now she loves it!
Anyway, today was Monday - it can only get better from here - right?
Baby G got tooth number 4 last week (where IS that steak, Carol, LOL!). He is still crawling backwards with ease, spinning to get what he wants. However, if one of the cats is in his line of vision, he will take a couple of lurches forward. Those poor, poor cats when he gets going finally. They will only rarely come down to the main level, I suspect.
We have gotten the better part of the garden in. We have decided, that, based on the news we have been reading (don't hedge your bets on what the Main Stream Media is feeding you), we are going to expand the garden a bit this week. We have the supplies to do it - just have to get it done. I planted my flower seeds today, hung out 3 loads of laundry, weeded my back flower beds, told my beloved where to plant the really cheap rose bushes we bought at Menard's (after all, you do save Big Money at Menard's, lol - don't ask - my weird sense of humor kicks in with Menard's ads), swung the baby to sleep 3 different times in the porch swing (we got that free from our neighbor - how cool is that?!). Made supper and served it outside, then cleaned it mostly up (still have to load the dishwasher).
I am still astounded how quickly my energy level goes down still. But, I can say that my tolerance level is getting longer each time (okay, I typed a large portion of the above paragraph after I typed this sentence. For where my energy levels have been, I got a lot done!). I keep contemplating bringing the exercise bike upstairs so I am much more likely to use it - but then I have those horrid mom visions of Baby G cruising over and either sticking his fingers in the way or his head in the way of the pedals. I guess it is bette in the basement and he can either play up here with the children or play in C's non-walking walker thingy in the basement...
Anyway, that is most of what I can come up with at this time of night (unless it something silly I stick up on Facebook - what is the point of that website again??).
Sinful Sensitivity -The sensitivity to not offend is a symptom of this hedonistic generation. The last virtue of a wicked society is tolerance. A sinner will throw away all the Bible, but still quote, "Judge not that ye be not judged." Michael Pearl
So, Baby G is still not currently crawling forward. But, we found out tonight, this will not stop him. What does he do? Tonight, he is pushing himself backwards.....and then turning around so he can grab what it is that he wants.....Little stinker! Rather ingenius when you think about it. Must be the Hoosier ingenuity that runs in his blood.....
We have warm weather here in WI, so we are enjoying it as best we can - quickly before spring returns again (sigh).
Baby G now has 3 teeth. Thankfully, after 3 not so restful nights, we awoke on Sunday morning to a freshly cut tooth.
He is also quite serious about his physical fitness - does baby push-ups regularly. He does some crawling...backwards. Forwards is kind of haphazard at best. I suspect it will not be long before it is common place. He is also pulling himself up in his crib. Of course, that warranted a lowering of the crib mattress.
I had M take the laundry out of the washer to hang on the line. I have not had her do the washer in a long while. She now believes that I meant it when I said she had grown. She can easily reach the bottom of the washer now!
A journal of our home educating endeavors and our walk through life.
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