The Sponge

     David is soooo cute. He is repeating everything we say and is showing such a great thirst for learning it's amazing. We go over counting and the alphabet everyday and he really enjoys it. The other day it didn't seem like he knew anyone was watching him, but I saw him playing with my refrigerator magnets and counting them to five.

     Now all we have to do is toilet train him. That will be my daughter's job!

Happy Baby

     There is nothing more joyous than to see a happy baby or toddler. I called my daughter the other day and she was giving David a bath. He loves being in the water and was so happy he was singing. It was mostly baby talk but he can sure carry a tune. He was singing loud and strong with everything that was in him. My daughter said he was very happy When I think of him singing I smile and feel happy.

      I can't help but think also of other children who are not so lucky and are abused or neglected. I don't understand how you can ruin an angel, an innocent. Watching him I have found myself in situations with him that have made me yell or get angry and after my initial reaction I immediately go to him and tell him everything is alright and that I'm not mad at him and I'm sorry and I love him.

     We all make mistakes but I think it's important to address that with the child as soon afterward as possible.

     For all our mistakes David is growing, learning, and happy. We can't be doing that bad with this precious child. He is a joy.

Grown Babies

     My son who is now 23 years old has turned out to be quite a man.  I have in the past been told that he has very high moral standards which he got from his father.Despite all my husbands many faults he believes his word is his bond. My son also believes his word is not to be taken lightly. They do not ever make promises they can't or won't keep.

     My son never finished high school, he never finished the freshman year. He tried to go back and he had a girlfriend at the time. He was having a problem with a kid who insisted on teasing him constantly and pushing him around. His girlfriend made him  promise after he had hit the kid that he wouldn't fight anymore. He promised. When the next school year started he enrolled again. The first day of school the entire freshman and sophomore boys had to have gym together. This is a school of more than 1600 students. Anyway during this class and in front of everyone the boy my son hit also had an older brother there. The older and bigger brother hit my son in the face. Remember my sons promise to his girlfriend. He then just walked away and never went back.

     That was years ago. This year my son is making his wish come true. He got his drivers license, bought a car, got his high school equivalency, and is starting college in a couple days. He is so happy and excited and we are so proud of our baby.

"Out Of The Mouths Of Babes"

     Our David is now 22 months old and incredible. I am convinced that toddlers know a lot more language then they let be known. He says a few things and loves to sing into his made up microphones.    

     The other day I'm ashamed to say I got into an argument with my daughter. We were acting like children ourselves and we're both screaming at each other. In the middle of our argument David walked into the room and stood between us. All of a sudden he yelled clear as a bell, " Stop right now"!

     We both just stopped mid sentence and looked at him. What could we do after that but stop fighting and hug him telling him what a good boy he was.

     I don't think we'll be yelling at each other any more.

Disturbing Story on Steve Wilkos Show

     The story is about a three year old boy so horribly neglected by his mom that he doesn't even speak. He screams from a diaper rash so bad he rips his own diaper off. She keeps him in a pitch dark room all day long in a filthy crib surrounded by dirty diapers. The mom treats him like an animal and gives him crackers for food. When she does talk to him its to scream at him for some reason.

     She admits most of this and says she did this because she was lazy but has now changed. A witness says nothing has changed and although he has called police and child protective services no one is helping this poor baby.

     I feel intense empathy for this child and beyond rage for the mom. Mom likes to go out to bars with her friends and leaves this little boy crying for human contact. For mommy to love him.

     I can't stand to think that this is going on and if it's happening in one home I'll bet it's happening in hundreds maybe even thousands of homes world wide.

     I think about our David and wonder how anyone can treat a small child like this. I had a boss years ago and we were talking about a child abuse case that was in the news and I felt enraged. I asked him what we could do and he answered me "just take good care of your own" . When you don't know where this is happening or to whom what else can you do?

Squirt Plays Joke on Grandma and Grampa

     I've been staying with my daughter and little David for about a year now and before that she and the baby stayed with us. So finally I decided it was time to leave them. When my husband came to pick me up, my daughter asked us to watch David for a minute and said he's in the bathroom. So we go into the bathroom and neither of us see him. We looked behind the door, nothing. I looked in the tub, nothing, but we could hear him whispering to himself.

     Finally I turned on my way out of the bathroom and opened the cabinet under the sink and there he was sitting comfortably in the empty cabinet and then he looked at our surprised faces and starting laughing at us, or maybe himself.

     Seriously, I am broken hearted that I won't see him everyday, he gives me such joy and laughter.

Hitting

      Today David is 18 months old and what a personality, however he's got a problem with hitting us. Sometimes it seems like he's just overly excited, he doesn't seem to do it as much when he's mad, cause he sometimes laughs.

     My daughter, his mom, grabs his hand tells him either not to hit or that hitting is not nice and says no while leading him to a minute or so in a time out area on the stairs. He sits quietly in time out but then he gets out and hits again when he feels like it.

     Any ideas out there how to stop this behavior?

Grandma

     If you will remember, I was concerned at first with what my new grandson would call me. I didn't want to feel old. Anyway since he was born, my name around him was Grandma or Nana. He's of course calling my daughter Mama, but he's chosen a different name for me, and I like it. He calls me Ne Ne. That I can live with!

Bedtime Easier

     Bedtime has definitely gotten easier. The first couple nights were rough with his crying, now we're down to just a couple minutes, then he just whimpers a few seconds and goes off to sleep.

     We had a scare yesterday because he was trying to climb over his little arm chair and fell flat on his face. He bloodied his lip a little but a minute later he was fine and the bleeding had stopped. The first time or two something like this happens is very frightening for mom. I assured her with a little boy, this was the first of many to come.

Sleeping Woes, What Else is New?

     David is about 16 months old now and very verbal about what he wants and doesn't want. Bedtime he doesn't want. So my daughter has been putting him to bed very late and still he cries and screams. She thinks it's cruel and harmful to him to cry and scream that hard and after a few minutes of it she gives in to him and takes him out of his bed. Sometimes he doesn't get to bed till 2 or 3 in the morning.

     She is tired and getting very upset with him. The other night I made her leave him to cry himself to sleep, she wanted to give in just to shut him up, but I told her he is manipulating her into letting him out and that it was a war she had to win. It took a while but he did eventually give up and quieted down. I proved this by telling her that as hard as he's crying, as soon as you take him out it stops and he is smiling.

     We have a little bedtime ritual and he's changed and given a bottle of milk. The tears are a scam.
Here's the problem though, he wakes crying in the middle of the night. Usually if we quickly give him a bottle of water and lay him back down with his blanket on him and his favorite stuffed animal next to him, he'll go right back to sleep, but we find ourselves tiptoeing around the house after that afraid he'll wake. How do we handle this middle of the night crying?

Dorel Asia Crib Recall

     There is also a crib recall from Dorel Asia and this involves the hardware that is used to drop the side of the crib. Several babies have gotten trapped and hurt using these cribs.
"
WM1633 Drop side 3-1 Sleigh Crib – Cherry

WM1633-0 Drop side 3-1 Sleigh Crib - Cherry (no castors)

WM1676BC Fixed 4-1 Bethany James Crib – Walnut

WM1676BCR-DC Fixed 2-1 Crib – Walnut

WM2163 Fixed 4-1 Crib – Manhattan Walnut

WM2163DC Fixed 4-1 Crib – Manhattan Walnut

WM1633-0-DC Fixed 3-1 Sleigh Crib (no castors)

GP004B3EGR Drop side 3-1 Convertible – Espresso

GP004B3WGR Drop side 3-1 Convertible – White

GP006BCEGR Drop side Single – Espresso

GP006BCWGR Drop side Single – White

DA1615B3 Drop side 3-1 Convertible Crib – Natural

DAKM5132 Drop side 3-1 Convertible Crib – White

DASE5005 Drop side Cottage Hill Single Crib – White

DASE5009 Drop side Vintage Estate 3-1 Sleigh Crib – Cherry

DA0504KMC-1N Drop side 3-1 Heritage Crib – Natural

DA0504KMC-1W Drop side 3-1 Heritage Crib – White

DA1614B3 Drop side 3-1 Lexington Crib – Cherry

DAKM5152 Drop side Single Jenny Lind Crib - Walnut

DASE5015 Drop side 3-1 Convertible - Toffee

Sold at: K-Mart, Sears and Walmart stores nationwide from January 2005 through December 2009 for between $120 and $700.

Manufactured in: China and Vietnam

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled cribs, find an alternative safe sleeping environment for your child, and contact Dorel Asia to receive a free replacement kit. Consumers should order the free replacement kit to prevent child entrapment in these cribs. The repair kits will be provided to owners within the next several weeks.

Consumer Contact: Call Dorel Asia toll-free at (866) 762-2304 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the firm’s Web site."

For more information check out Barbara's Beat 

Important Product Recall by Graco

     There is a product recall by Graco, on it's strollers. The 3 styles affected are the Passage, Alano, and Spree, Travel systems. We have a Graco stroller that was given to David as a gift. My daughter and I were unable to determine which of these three we have.

     Graco has also put out model numbers which are affected. The model numbers are on a white sticker that you'll find on the leg of the frame of the stroller, they also insist on a manufacture date. Our model number is not on the list and there is no date on that sticker anywhere unless it's in a secret code which we do not understand.

     However, there are two pictures and ours looks exactly like the one that is being recalled. This is the photo of the dangerous one. Several babies have cut or amputated fingertips getting them caught in this canapy hinge.

     Then there is this photo below which shows one that is safe.

     Graco will send you a cover for the hinge in the first photo free of charge. They say it will take about a week and it's easy to put it on. They even have an instructional video to show you how.
You can go to the Graco site for additional details.

Music and David

     Music is very important in my family. I play the guitar a little and my son plays them like his fingers are made of lightening. We all love to listen to our favorites which include all types of music and we all love to sing along or alone. My wish is to pass that love of music to David. Music helps us to remember and relive happy and sad moments in our lives, and it gets us moving and dancing which sometimes is the only exercise I get.

     David just started dancing and singing a couple months ago, but now it's like he's the dancing fool. I hope it's something that we can continue to encourage in him. Maybe it will become a big part of who he is when he gets older.

Photo by Sarah and Iain

Crazy Baby

     David is making us laugh so much these days. He learned to spin in circles until he's dizzy and then try to walk. He falls over which makes him and us laugh. He's also taken to do funny walking. Sometimes he does a Sumo wrestler and sometimes a zombie monster. What a funny little man he is.

     He is so happy most of the time and so beautiful I love him to death!

Growing Up Too Fast

     David is now about 15 months old and is just incredible. Though I admit we are having some trouble with bedtime he is a joy to be around.

     Yesterday I noticed a new behavior. We gave him a pair of 3-d glasses to play with. He didn't want to wear them but seemed to get quite a kick out of seeing mom and grandma wear them.

     I was sitting in the living room with a tray table in front of me. It had several items that he was told not to touch when he reached for them. Anyway, he gave me the glasses and insisted I put them on and as before I pretended not to see when I wore them. When he saw me wearing them and doing my "where is David" act like I was blinded, I saw him staring intently at my eyes while he slowly attempted to reach for the "no items" on the tray table. When I took the glasses off he moved his hand away. Are they supposed to be so sneeky at this age?

Photo by Abbybatchelder