We're Moving!

No, not in real life. I have a new blog. Please take a minute to check it out and enter my contest:

http://wvmountainmama.wordpress.com

I'm going to keep this blog posted, but it will no longer be active.

Another Milestone: Ben can roll from side to front!

It's another milestone! Ben is 21 weeks today...

Ben has been getting close to this for a couple weeks now but he couldn't quite get his lower arm out of the way to complete the transition. Yesterday evening, he was laying on the floor and pulled himself all the way over from his side to his front using the leg of the coffee table. He did it twice.

Now, I have to preface this next part by saying we have been putting Ben to sleep on his side for the past couple weeks, a fact that will be explained in a future post. The night before last, he woke up without crying and I could hear him "playing" on the baby monitor for 40 minutes! This morning at about 4 he wanted to play again, so I put him back in his crib awake. About 30 minutes later, he began crying so Tim went to check on him. He was on his belly! We tried to feed him but he wanted to play so we put him back in his crib. About 10 minutes later he cried again so Tim went to check on him- he was on his belly again!

So, it's not technically "rolling from back to front." However, I think that's just a technicality. After all, he can roll from back to side and now from side to front. It stands to reason he can do a full roll- we just have to "catch" him doing it!

As for the disturbing trend of wanting to play in the middle of the night, here's hoping it's just a fluke!

Enrichment Clusters

OK, so this is totally not Ben-related, but it's on my mind so I'm putting it out there:

My principal wants to try the Renzulli model of enrichment clusters. Basically, the entire school is taking one entire day and doing this. It's going to be a Friday in May. She is asking teachers, "what would you do with children if you had no curriculum and no testing and deadlines, etc.?" For the entire day, all students will get to choose (ahead of time) 4 different enrichment clusters to visit. "Regular" classes will not be held. Some clusters will be facilitated by teachers, and others by community volunteers. Of course all the "traditional" teachers are FREAKING out. I think it's kind of neat, but I'm having a hard time coming up with "different" things I could do. After all, I already teach my favorite subject!

Here are my ideas:

Knitting
Crocheting
Introduction to Guitar (they would have to have their own)

Obviously, the above ideas are for older kids. So here's my question, teacher friends:

What would you do with kids if there was no curriculum and no set subject matter and the only limitation was time (and, well, money)?

Blog Business

When Tim and I did in vitro fertilization, my good friend sophanne kept a digital scrapbook of the entire thing. It was before I knew much about blogging and she offered to do it so I said sure! I really can't say how grateful I am that she did this for us! I emailed her updates after each appointment and she posted them online. We now have a record of the entire thing- and looking back, it's amazing how quickly little details get lost.

Now that I have my own blog, I thought it would be nice to have those posts be a part of this blog. So, over the next several days, I am going to be copying those posts to this blog. I just wanted to give my dear readers a heads up that "new old" posts would be showing up.

P.S.- The IVF posts are going to show up in the archives since I'm putting their original date (2007) on them. But, if you use a feed reader, they will show up as "new."

What feed reader do you use?

We interrupt the regularly scheduled baby blog to ask input from our readers:

What feed reader do you use?

I use Google Reader but for the past couple days, when I click "all items" (to scan through everything new), I get an error message. So I have to click on each feed individually. Which is a drag.

Thanks in advance for your input!

A rare Ben and Mommy pic (I am usually behind the camera):

That's not going to happen to MY baby! Part II: The Bald Spot

A few months ago, when Ben was a newborn, I saw a 4-month old baby out in public.  The back of her head literally looked as if it had been shaved.  At first glance, that is what I thought had happened.  Upon further review, however, I realized that this baby was experiencing something I had read about in the baby books: The Bald Spot.

In case you haven't read the latest baby books, the bald spot happens when babies rub their fine, delicate hair off by laying in the same position.  My parents told me I had less hair on one side because that was the side I preferred to lay on.

Well, I thought, that's not going to happen to MY baby!  That only happens to babies whose parents let them lie around all the time and never hold them.  Boy, was I naive!  At about 2.5 months, I was washing Ben's hair and noticed that there was hardly any hair on the back of his head!  At first, I was mortified that my son was suffering from such neglect!  Then I realized all the opportunities Ben's fine, delicate hair had to get rubbed off: he sleeps on his back, his head lays against his little chair, and the back of his head rubs against his swing, his carseat, etc. This phenomenon didn't happen as much in the "old days" when babies slept on their stomachs. Ben gets held plenty.

Luckily, Ben's bald spot isn't too noticeable since he has blonde hair.  That little girl's spot was super-noticeable with her dark hair.  And, it's not completely bald.  He has some fuzz growing there.  It just doesn't have the chance to get as long as the rest of his head.