Carson's First Math Lesson

I'm so cute, why do I need to know anything???

A neighbor recently commented to me, "Well, you're a teacher, so you should be able to teach your son really easily." I wasn't sure how to respond, and I thought of my first attempted math lesson.

I try to teach Carson how to count. I say one, and he says two, and that's as far as we get.

I try a different approach and ask Carson how old he is. I tell him, "You're one year old, Carson, O-N-E."

He looks me right in the eyes and almost defiantly says, "TWO!" And so it begins. We'll try again the next day.

Nature vs. Nurture

After neglecting this blog for a month, it feels like I have missed out on a whole year's worth of changes happening with our baby boy. So much changes in so little time, and I find myself wondering how much of Carson's advances are due to nature or due to nurture. This question concerns me even more because Carson is adopted, so I will attempt to make a list of things we can definitely take credit for as parents and things we cannot.

We cannot take credit for...

• his beautiful curls, except for the fact of leaving them uncut.


• the way he giggles, except for the fact that unknowingly we have taught him to giggle when he burps and proudly say "Burp", instead of ,"Excuse Me!"


• how much he likes to dance - I think he learned that at daycare.


• how adept he is at saying new words, except for the fact that he has learned to say, "Beer" and "sh_ _". It's all his daddy's fault, however, luckily, he only said them each once.


• how adorable his smile is on his angelic face, except I like to think that we have given him plenty of reasons to smile.


• how he learned to turn on the radio or a DVD, except for the fact that his daddy is the one to get him interested in "movies".


• how smart he is, except for the fact that we read to him and try to teach him new stuff every day - he learns what he wants to anyway (see "Carson's First Math Lesson").


• how charming he is, except for the fact that we find him charming and so hopefully are reinforcing good behavior (see bullet #2).

Look, he's my mirror image!

And the list could go on...but I guess the gyst of it all is this: Carson is his own person, and as parents we hope always that we are helping him develop and grow into the best person he can be. We have no preconceived notions of who he should be or who he is, except that he will be happy.

My Son the Rocket Scientist

This is Carson, wearing his grandpa's reading glasses.

It's a wonder every day to watch Carson and see how much that sponge-like brain soaks up. But I have discovered that he does much more than absorb information. He make connections that, I think, are just astounding for a 16 month old baby. Here are some examples.

• He picked up my swimming suit and walked around with it saying "Mommy's".
• When his daddy pointed to a picture of a lake, Carson looked at him and said "fish."
• One day I described to him what a rocket was because we saw a picture of a toy rocket in one of his books. The next day when he saw a video of fireworks, he said "rocket.
• One day I told him that the characters on a TV show were going to school, and he said "bus."
• If he finds a remote control, he says "TV."
• He often says, "Daddy at work" during the day.
• He can identify these things just by hearing them: airplane, tractor, and birds.
• When we ask him if he wants to dance, he says "dance" and goes over to the radio and turns it on.

I think there are more examples, but I can't remember them all right now. The funny thing is that I don't remember teaching him these things. I may have mentioned some of these things to him once or twice. I may be biased, but I think it's a sign that he is very intelligent, and if that's true, we are really going to have to be on our toes with this kid.

No matter how smart he is, he still sometimes gets things wrong, and sometimes it's really funny. For example, he thought Daddy's nipples were bugs. He also believes all the trees in our yard are apple trees.

There are also two new things he does that are just plain cute. He squats down and says "Dump!" (meaning "Jump!") and then he stands up fast. He created a new dance move where he lays one hand over the other and then makes a wave-like motion with his arms. He does it when we ask to see his "new move."

No matter what, this kid is just plain entertaining and wonderous!

The Dancing Fiend

Carson loves to dance. If we ask him if he wants to dance, he says "DANCE!" and starts bopping. He bends his knees and bops up and down. Sometimes he turns on the radio first. Other times he just dances to the song in his heart or his own song usually - "doot, doot, doot!"



He has two other signature moves besides the bopping. He will do the step from side to side, and what I like to call the "I'm washing the table." In this intricate move, he sticks out one hand at waist level a little out from his body. He puts his other hand behind his back, and then he swings his waist level hand back and forth, like he's washing a table. He sometimes gets his head going too. It looks like he is shaking his head, "No."



I so wish I could get it on video, but he is the opposite of camera shy, he's camera hungry, so most of the time we have to hide the camera so that he doesn't eat it. We did manage to get one recent picture.



In this picture, he is enjoying his blow-up ball pit. It's where he, and sometimes the cat, like to hang out. The best thing about this toy is that we got it for free from some friends who wanted to get rid of it. Carson's dancing show is free too. It just proves that the best things in life really are free. Now I wonder why Carson has now started saying, "money"?

Word of the Week

He has so many new words since the last time I wrote that I am just going to share his most recent one: strawberry! He asks for them, and he says that word better than most!

I Love You E-I-E-I-OOOO

Carson is a funny kid, and very good at language, very smart. He mimics what he hears us say and what he sees us do. The other day I told him that I loved him and he said "yi-yi-yoh" which is how he sings the refrain of the "Old MacDonald" song. To him that sounded just like what I said.


He also has picked up saying "shhhh" and putting his finger to his lips. That comes from when we play - "We are sneaking up on Daddy now." Although, he squeals with delight right after, so I don't think he quite grasps the quiet part of it. The first time he shhhh-ed me, he smiled right after and crawled away. I was cracking up!


There are many gestures that he has picked up from me (the poor kid). He sings "doot, doot, doot" when he dances. He blows raspberries when he sees pictures of elephants (that's the closest he can come to imitating the sound that I tell him they make), and he uses the same sound to laugh in disbelief like I do when his Daddy is telling some tall tale.


So I guess we have one answer to the "nature vs. nurture" question, and that is your children's gestures can be learned, so I know now to be extra careful in what I say and do because someone is always watching!

Weaning Meanie or Weanie?

Ok, I have heard everything from you should wean them at 9 months to some babies aren't weaned until they are 4 years old. I know there are some reasons why to wean him as soon as possible such as...the longer you wait, the harder it will be...and the concern over teeth development, but I am still confused.

We give Carson solid food, but the fact is that he just doesn't eat as much as the "books" say he should be eating. With his milk allergy, it's hard to give him the foods many moms rely on (like cheese) for getting their kids to eat more solid food. The formula is his mainstay.

That doesn't mean I am giving up. I guess I'm just whining about weaning. There are many foods he does eat without worry such as fruit, chicken, and beans. Also, I am going to give him his formula in a sippy cup at least once a day from now on. Even though he knows it's not a "bottle" and sometimes throws it because it isn't (I guess I am in for a battle over this bottle issue.) Maybe I should have started this before he could say "bottle."

I just wish I knew if what he is eating is enough. I was looking for a free online food diary to track his food intake like I used to use at fitday.com, however, it is impossible to put in the nutrition information for five Cheerios and other such small amounts of food that he eats. I hope someone invents a nutrition tracking website for toddlers some day. I'm probably not the only crazy mom out there who would use it.

Three new unrelated developments:

• Carson can say "horse" and he knows what it is.
• Carson knows how to say George (as in Curious George) although, this morning he tried to tell me that George was "Bob"
• I invented a "double door wedge" to secure our swinging door in any position. I used two rubber doorstops duct-taped to a painting stirring stick. It's not pretty, but it works.
  
  

This picture shows Carson's horse and the double door wedge.

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