Some day, when Ben is as big as his daddy, we'll look back and sigh nostalgically for the time when he fit through a ten-inch embroidery hoop.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Dirk's Wii, Ben's Wee, and Me
While IMing with Dirk yesterday, he mentioned that he’d ambushed the soldier in the PX who was carrying a Wii. Dirk is now the proud owner of a Wii. I told him to bring it home in good shape because I want to play tennis on it.
Dirk did get a great deal on it, but I started thinking that perhaps we ought to stop spending money like water (have you seen all my new clothes and books? Wheeeee!). So when Chelle offered to cut Ben’s hair that evening, I said yes. After all, saving the $8 that Great Clips charges to buzz Ben’s head will go a long way in helping offset the purchase price of a Wii. Yep.
Ben took it like a trooper. He sat on my lap working on a little wooden peg puzzle while Chelle buzzed around his ears and over the top. Ash blonde hair spilled all over his bare shoulders and I had a shuddery vision of what Ben might look like with a hairy back.
Suddenly my lap felt wet. I shifted his weight to reveal a large wet spot on my leg. Well, you can’t push a kid off your lap with half a haircut, regardless of what he’s just done. So I sat there with the wet spot spreading to the other leg while Chelle finished buzzing his head while simultaneously laughing her head off. It’s a wonder Ben escaped without having his ears nicked. Come to think of it, it’s a wonder Chelle escaped without getting smacked.
While Chelle rummaged around for clothes for me to wear, I plopped Ben in the tub and pulled his diaper off him. It made a squishy “plop” in the garbage can. Note to self: change Ben’s diaper at least once after lunch and before bedtime.
Diapers are 38 cents each. There was at least three diapers worth of wee in the one diaper that is marinating in Chelle’s garbage can. Combine that with the eight dollars I saved on the haircut, and we’ve practically paid for Dirk’s Wii!
Dirk did get a great deal on it, but I started thinking that perhaps we ought to stop spending money like water (have you seen all my new clothes and books? Wheeeee!). So when Chelle offered to cut Ben’s hair that evening, I said yes. After all, saving the $8 that Great Clips charges to buzz Ben’s head will go a long way in helping offset the purchase price of a Wii. Yep.
Ben took it like a trooper. He sat on my lap working on a little wooden peg puzzle while Chelle buzzed around his ears and over the top. Ash blonde hair spilled all over his bare shoulders and I had a shuddery vision of what Ben might look like with a hairy back.
Suddenly my lap felt wet. I shifted his weight to reveal a large wet spot on my leg. Well, you can’t push a kid off your lap with half a haircut, regardless of what he’s just done. So I sat there with the wet spot spreading to the other leg while Chelle finished buzzing his head while simultaneously laughing her head off. It’s a wonder Ben escaped without having his ears nicked. Come to think of it, it’s a wonder Chelle escaped without getting smacked.
While Chelle rummaged around for clothes for me to wear, I plopped Ben in the tub and pulled his diaper off him. It made a squishy “plop” in the garbage can. Note to self: change Ben’s diaper at least once after lunch and before bedtime.
Diapers are 38 cents each. There was at least three diapers worth of wee in the one diaper that is marinating in Chelle’s garbage can. Combine that with the eight dollars I saved on the haircut, and we’ve practically paid for Dirk’s Wii!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Benji's new book from Dad
We got a surprise in our mailbox today. There was a big envelope addressed to Ben, with a return address of Bagram. Dirk hadn't told us anything was coming. He'd sent Ben a book and a DVD of him reading the book to Ben. Ben sat there, mesmerized. He doesn't do much with the book in this initial clip, but by the third or fourth time through, he'd turn a page. He knows his dad is reading him the book he's holding. I paged through it with him once.
Big huge thank you and hugs to Dirk for sending such a neat present! It's a cute book too. It's called "Put Me In The Zoo", and Dirk says it was one of his favorites as a little kid.
Big huge thank you and hugs to Dirk for sending such a neat present! It's a cute book too. It's called "Put Me In The Zoo", and Dirk says it was one of his favorites as a little kid.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Book Review: The Scientist in the Crib
Ever wondered how a baby thinks? The Scientist in the Crib describes the efforts and experiments of developmental psychologists who want to figure out just what that little binky-sucking cherub is thinking. Scientists started taking babies seriously only about 30 or 40 years ago. Up until then, psychologists (if they thought about babies at all) thought children were blank slates who knew nothing, just a crying carrot in the crib.
Turns out that babies are born with many assumptions, many of which are wrong, and with powerful learning abilities that allow them to largely put their world in order by the time they're just three years old. The title is also the conclusion of many developmental psychologists who study babies -- babies are like scientists. They have ideas; they perform experiments; they change their ideas based on the experiments. For example, babies think if they can't see something, then it doesn't exist. Objects disappear forever if you cover them with a cloth. Babies experiment with this idea, and learn it is wrong. Things exist even if they're out of sight! Imagine that! This amazing discovery is the reason why the game peekaboo is so exciting for a little one.
Babies are also continually experimenting on adults. Babies are born knowing that they are somehow like adults, and that they should imitate adults. A psychologist tested lots of newborns and discovered that if you stick out your tongue at a new baby, the new baby sticks his tongue out at you. (Yes, your tax dollars at work, I'm sure.) But it takes a scientist to tell us how profound that is. The newborn with his tongue out: (1) recognizes the adult face as something similar enough to his own that he can imitate it; (2) knows where his tongue is (there are no mirrors in the womb); and (3) knows how to stick it out.
Babies learn from adults because they are born wanting to imitate adults. Then, when they're about two, babies learn something terrible -- adults don't want the baby to do everything the baby wants to do. Gasp! This shocking discovery is the impetus behind the "terrible twos." The baby is trying to see just why mom doesn't want him to dump out the rice, and what happens if he dumps it out anyway. Mom is the lab rat in the baby's experiment of "do people really think differently than I do?"
The book is an easy read, and contains a lot of humor. You can't really write a book about how babies learn without funny anecdotes, and the authors throw in several.
Finding out how babies think and learn provides a lot of insight into how adults think and learn also. In fact, it isn't babies who think like scientists. It's scientists who think like babies. The scientific method of developing a hypothesis, experimenting with that hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion based on the experiment is one we've all used since birth. It's the way we found out about the world. As the authors note, the adult scientist peering into the crib meets the curious gaze of the infant scientist peering out of the crib.
Turns out that babies are born with many assumptions, many of which are wrong, and with powerful learning abilities that allow them to largely put their world in order by the time they're just three years old. The title is also the conclusion of many developmental psychologists who study babies -- babies are like scientists. They have ideas; they perform experiments; they change their ideas based on the experiments. For example, babies think if they can't see something, then it doesn't exist. Objects disappear forever if you cover them with a cloth. Babies experiment with this idea, and learn it is wrong. Things exist even if they're out of sight! Imagine that! This amazing discovery is the reason why the game peekaboo is so exciting for a little one.
Babies are also continually experimenting on adults. Babies are born knowing that they are somehow like adults, and that they should imitate adults. A psychologist tested lots of newborns and discovered that if you stick out your tongue at a new baby, the new baby sticks his tongue out at you. (Yes, your tax dollars at work, I'm sure.) But it takes a scientist to tell us how profound that is. The newborn with his tongue out: (1) recognizes the adult face as something similar enough to his own that he can imitate it; (2) knows where his tongue is (there are no mirrors in the womb); and (3) knows how to stick it out.
Babies learn from adults because they are born wanting to imitate adults. Then, when they're about two, babies learn something terrible -- adults don't want the baby to do everything the baby wants to do. Gasp! This shocking discovery is the impetus behind the "terrible twos." The baby is trying to see just why mom doesn't want him to dump out the rice, and what happens if he dumps it out anyway. Mom is the lab rat in the baby's experiment of "do people really think differently than I do?"
The book is an easy read, and contains a lot of humor. You can't really write a book about how babies learn without funny anecdotes, and the authors throw in several.
Finding out how babies think and learn provides a lot of insight into how adults think and learn also. In fact, it isn't babies who think like scientists. It's scientists who think like babies. The scientific method of developing a hypothesis, experimenting with that hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion based on the experiment is one we've all used since birth. It's the way we found out about the world. As the authors note, the adult scientist peering into the crib meets the curious gaze of the infant scientist peering out of the crib.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Biiiiig baby
See how well Simon fills out this cute sleeper when he's almost 8 weeks old?
See Benji wear the same sleeper at almost six months old?
Yep, we broke out the box of six month old baby clothes today. Simon is out of the 3-6 month size for sleepers. He can still wear things that don't have feet in them, like pants and shorts. T-shirts are okay too, but the onesies that size are a little too snug to snap as well.
To look on the positive side, if Simon keeps this up, I'm not going to have to box up clothes that Benji grows out of to wait for Simon to grow into them.
See Benji wear the same sleeper at almost six months old?
Yep, we broke out the box of six month old baby clothes today. Simon is out of the 3-6 month size for sleepers. He can still wear things that don't have feet in them, like pants and shorts. T-shirts are okay too, but the onesies that size are a little too snug to snap as well.
To look on the positive side, if Simon keeps this up, I'm not going to have to box up clothes that Benji grows out of to wait for Simon to grow into them.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)