Tales from the Crib

Name that tune

The one warning no one ever gave me as a new parent is how addicting children’s songs can be.
Sure, I remember a few of the ones I had growing up – Row, Row, Row Your boat, etc., but most others are a distant memory.
Hanging around a group of other moms has helped, because they remembered ones I didn't. But as the electronic age is upon us, I've been hearing a few different things.

Firstly, the Head and Shoulders tune is different. I'm not sure who decided to change the one that was in place, but OK, I'll play along.
Instead of the traditional beat to "London Bridge", it now bops along to the tune of Mitch Miller’s “There is a Tavern in the Town.”

It's not the first time a kid's song has changed. For example, I was appalled when I first learned the original words to ‘Eenie Meenie Miny Moe’ in the 1970s. Thank goodness for political correctness.

And don't try to sing Sharon, Lois and Bram. No one remembers who they are anymore. I learned that the hard way. So much for the Peanut Butter song.

My second problem with kids’ songs today is the theme for some of the children’s shows are quite catchy. I find myself singing along as Nolan watches them in the morning.

He's too young to tell me to keep my day job, because I'm not always in key, but there I am every Saturday, getting excited when the theme to Pinky Dinky Doo and the Doodlebops comes on.
I’ll be humming around the house – or out in public – for the rest of the day.

As if that's not bad enough, the Barenaked Ladies just put out a children’s disc and I have to admit, it's pretty good. Those songs also cross my lips during the day.

So a warning to all other expectant parents out there - cherish the days of singing the Top 40 or good rocking hits, because your time will come, too.

Criss, cross applesauce

At a year old, it’s fascinating to see how much my son wants to imitate other people. And it's always a proud moment for both of us when he achieves a new feat.
For the past month, Nolan has had fun trying to manipulate a baby spoon himself. Mostly, he uses it for stirring his baby food in a bowl, but I still let him try to “do it” himself.

A few times, he’s tried to grab the spoon right out of my hand to feed himself. This can be challenging since he's decidedly right-handed. When I'm feeding him from my right hand, it looks left to him.
But in any case, it's part of the learning process, so I've given him the spoon to play with before.

Well, Nolan decided it was time to try it again and this time, he was successful (sort of).

He was eating applesauce for dessert and I gave him the spoon to “stir” the mixture. This time, he decided to put it to his own mouth, without any prompting.

Unfortunately, the applesauce didn't stay onboard for the trip, landing instead on his bib. But I got the point Mr. Independent was making.

He continued to scoop and serve, while I grabbed for the camera and cheered him on. Within a few minutes, he had finished most of the bowl.

What a proud little boy he was, and now I guess it means I'm going to have to run out and buy more toddler utensils, and lots of wipes to keep the mess to a minimum.

 

Just what is it you’re saying?

I’ve always loved listening to toddlers as they’re learning to talk, to hear their interpretations of our English language.
I once heard “hawta” for hockey, “Goldshish” for Goldfish crackers, and one of my own famous words as a kid was “pits” for chips.

Now that my son’s starting to talk, he’s mimicking a few of his favourite words, but not quite getting it all.
We have taught him a few words in sign language, and it was very exciting when he first showed us what he wanted using his hands.

He’s learned the signs for milk, little stars (a puffy cereal-like snack), more, and finished. He also made up a few signs for stirring (one of his favourite pastimes) and hot, which looks more like waving goodbye.

But when he first started talking, I didn’t realize what he was saying.
The first word out of his mouth, other than mama and dada, was ’side.

It took awhile for me to figure out he was actually saying his version of outside, and not just baby babble, which is what I first thought. He kept saying it over and over again whenever we were near the front door, and then I clued in that he wanted to go play.

The next word to his vocabulary was hot, which sounds more like “hawt”, but it’s close enough. When he says it, it’s usually teamed up with his sign for hot, so I knew what he was saying right away.

Then there’s his “ssat” – which he uses as a question like what’s that – and I don’t know where he picked that one up because I didn’t say that when he explored new objects.

The latest addition to his vocabulary happened last week.
We were outside when he started to play with pieces of dirt. After I said the word a few times, he repeated it, except it came out sounding more like “doight”. It made me laugh, and he hasn’t said it again.

Hopefully I haven’t discouraged him from trying new words.
I can’t wait to see what the next word will bring.

One blankey cleaned, twice

The Ramsay family has survived its first camping trip, even if we’re all a little worse for the wear.

Each summer, during the Civic long weekend, we head to the same campground in Parry Sound. This year was the first time we’d be bringing baby. It meant packing the extra baby gear into the car, along with the tent, camp chairs and other essentials.

I got the car ready during the day while we waited for hubby’s arrival home from work.
Once we were ready to hit the road, Nolan started to fuss as I put him into his car seat.
He doesn’t normally fuss, so that should’ve been a warning.

Earlier in the day, he had thrown up while napping, after eating raspberries. With red everywhere in his crib, I had already done a load of laundry to try and catch the stain before it set.

That meant washing his wool blankey, which is becoming his security item.
It was left outside to dry and was packed back into his camping bag along with his clothes.

So when he started to fuss in the car seat on the trip north, I gave him his blankey and soother to get him to settle.
He still fussed for a half hour, then became quiet.

Suddenly, a smell filled the car, and it wasn’t coming from outside. Then he started to cry again. “Did he puke?” I asked hubby.

A quick glance back gave us the answer. And it was on his blankey again.

So we pulled the car over and grabbed a towel to wipe him and the car seat off. I’ve never known a baby to be a silent puker, so it was strange not to get any warning signs of him being sick.

We ended up going back home that night. This was the first time Nolan’s been sick like that and I didn’t want to be in the middle of nowhere if we needed to go to the hospital, in case he had a fever.
Besides, blankey needed to be washed. Again.

When it was dry, we tucked Nolan into bed. He must’ve felt better then, because he slept through the night.
Our camping trip started once again the next morning with blankey in hand, and the rest of it went as planned. Now blankey has the slight smell of a campfire, but I'm not washing it again. It’s still good for snuggling.