Screen Saver

 

After Dave left yesterday, I worked on grading projects and finishing up my grad students’ final.  Then I decided to take a break and do some garden work.  At about 4, I came in to get some water (per my doctor’s order) and thought I’d check email. 

 

I was surprised by the notice popping up on my computer screen.  I read closer:  Conor’s developmental screening at daycare was in 7 minutes.  HOLY SHIT!

 

I had not taken a bath, no makeup, hair frizzing everywhere, and I was stinky in my dirt covered garden clothes.  I ran to the bathroom, washed my face, slammed some mascara on my eyes, and bathed myself in a cloud of perfume before heading out the door.

 

At Conor’s daycare, in addition to the music and art teachers, they have on site speech pathologists and inclusion specialists, the latter of which is a professional who tests that the children are meeting their developmental milestones.  Conor had not had his baseline developmental test and this was to check out how he was doing.  I think it’s great to get this sort of testing done early enough that if there is an issue, you have a lot of time to deal with it. 

 

I arrived 10 minutes late, and tried to make a less than lame apology.  She took me into her office to do the “discussion” stuff before we started the testing.  She asked about his eating habits (although the organic, homemade food reputation had gone before me!).  I told her about the iron deficiency and she took some notes.  (I’d just like to point out that not ONCE did she ask me about his sleeping habits.  Sleeping is NOT a developmental milestone.  So if someone is pressuring you that your baby should be sleeping through the night, phhhht to them)

 

However, she did have one concern and she didn’t mess around with it:  Conor’s scooting.  Apparently the scooting, although cute, is Not Good.  It’s not Bad (as in really, really bad), but it is definitely Not A Good Thing and we must Stop Him Now.  The problem is that he can muck his hips up because the position in which he scoots around is too flexed for a child.  His hips are not fully developed yet and this could mess them up. 

 

I told her that we’ve been making him do only tummy time at home and she didn’t believe me because he protests loudly when they make him to tummy time at school.  I told her he was doing at least an hour a day and she looked at me open mouthed and said “he’s playing them here.  He refuses to do more than a few minutes of tummy time at school.”  Then she added, that’s actually really good because the fact that he is trying to manipulate us shows cognitive development.  (He’s a geeeeenius!)

 

The Bad Scooting, though, did and does still freak me out.  There are therapies that we’re going to have to try if we cannot get him to stop spreading his legs out so far (like an extended leg stretch in yoga or ballet; good for older people, not good for babies).  There was even one sentence she said that involved “too flexible,” “Down’s syndrome” and “difficult therapy”, but I’ve googled Down’s syndrome and scooting and I only found a few sites; it doesn’t appear to be a common issue. 

 

So then we got Conor and he took his test.  It involved him picking up blocks, pulling them out of a box and putting them back in, looking for a ball under one washcloth and then under two washcloths and then looking for the ball when it magically disappeared (he didn’t get that one right), picking up cheerios, twisting off Oreo tops (just kidding!), responding to words, putting a spoon in his mouth, brushing his hair (didn’t do that one), responding to No (we don’t say No around the house, we just move him), turning the pages of a book, pointing to pictures, what sounds he makes, etc etc. 

 

I know from what I know about developmental testing that he did just fine on these tests.  She said that he is doing really well and that she’ll write up a report.  In fact, everything is all hunky dory except for the scooting part.  Also, because he is tweaking his hips, it’s putting him behind on other gross motor skills like pulling himself up and, obviously, crawling.  To be honest, since I’ve started writing this blog entry tonight, I’ve checked out the issues on scooting online and I’m just not seeing it as A Really Bad Thing. 

 

But if it’s something that has the potential to harmful to him, and we can relatively easily fix it, I don’t see the harm in more tummy time.  We’re going to do the test again in 6 months.  We don’t have to do it again until he’s 3 1/2 years old, but why wait until then?  If we can find another problem that’s easy to address, why not do it?  Why not take advantage of the resources we have available to us? 

 

OK.  It’s my first night single mom-ing it.  I’ve deadbolted all the locks and turned on the alarm.  Conor had a nice afternoon playing and taking a fun bath with lots of toys.  He went to sleep pretty easily.  The sleep routine is so weird now:  we bathe, put on jammies, he picks out his three favorite books, we read, he nurses and then he goes to bed.  Usually the first drop off is too soon:  I pat his back, he twists around the crib protesting his imprisonment.  Tonight, I just went back to the rocker while he twisted around.  Usually, at some point, I have to pick him back up and nurse him for a really brief time and then he’s back in the crib and much more calmed.  Tonight after I put him back in the crib the second time, I went back to the rocking chair and he played around for a few minutes before he fell asleep.  It’s really perfect.  That’s exactly how I’d like him to fall asleep---I’d just like to not be in the room the whole time.  Soon, I think.  Soon.  About the time he starts crawling.  

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A Pit in My Stomach

Dave just drove off for a conference.  I'm going to be a single Mom for the next 4 days.  I know plenty of women do it every day, but with all the end-of-the-school-year frenzy that's going on, I'm feeling a wee bit overwhelmed. 

Boy, am I going to miss him.

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Weekend Mania

 

The weekend was our neighborhood festival Midwood Mania.  It started off with a 5K run on Saturday morning.  The last time I ran the race was 2 years ago and I finished fifth among women.  I’d like to point out that the first and second finishers were good friends of mine that I had invited to the race (Hi Blaine!), so if I had less friends, I would have finished third and I would have medaled for that race.  

 

Last year I was 8 months pregnant and not up for jogging.  But I had fantasies of running this year with my skinny post-baby, bfing body, at least medaling for the race or winning my age group. 

 

Bwahahahahahhaahahha.  This race, I was the fifth woman from the END of the race to finish.  Considering that I’m running at most once a week, I suppose I should be happy that I finished it (which was, pathetically, my goal).  But I miss my running legs.  I miss being strong.  I miss 10 miles being a short run on the weekend.  There’s only one way that can happen again, and it involves me getting off my sleeping duff, lacing up my shoes and hitting the road.  It’s that simple, folks. 

 

Dave and Conor ran together with Dave pushing the jog stroller.  It was a PR for both Dave-with-a-stroller and for Conor with his first race.  Conor was really good and about halfway through the race started cheering Dave on with a DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!  I’m hoping this is not the last 5K the boy is in this summer.  That would be a waste of cuteness.  (Should I point out that the winner of this race was pushing a double stroller with two older children in it?  Yikes!)

 

After the race, we saw the pet parade.  About 100 folks with their dogs walk around the neighborhood on the parade route.  Neighbors sit out in their yards and cheer.  They also leave bowls of water for the dogs to refresh themselves on the big day around the ‘hood.  Patches was very good.  He met a couple of other collie cousins and sniffed and played with everyone.  The last time we were in the parade, he was still a puppy and I could barely keep him from dragging me from one side of the road to the other. 

 

By the time the parade was over, my folks were up and we headed off to the Wachovia Championship Golf Tournament in waves.  (Dave and I waited until Conor finished his nap)  It was actually a lot of fun, and pretty easy to hang out there with a 10 month old baby.  He ended up napping during the afternoon in his stroller which made the day easier for everyone.  And he was so dang cute lying back in his stroller with one leg thrown up over the front bar of the seat that folks were smiling and commenting “look at that baby chillin’ ”. 

 

Great-Grand-Mother’s Day

 

Yesterday was my first mother’s day.  It was also our family’s celebration of my grandma’s 95-th birthday.  My cousins and aunt and uncle came in from all over the country.  I haven’t seen my cousins in over 10 years.  It’s really weird when you see people who share many of the quirks that you think are uniquely your own.  I don’t know why I didn’t notice all our similarities the last time we were together.  I wasn’t a child then.  But certainly this time, there was so much that I saw in my cousin C that I see in myself, that I now know that I come by quite a bit of my personality honestly, as we say in the south. 

 

Best mother’s day present to me:  Conor said Ma…….ma.  He didn’t say it to me or even near me, but Dave and I distinctly heard the syllables close together.  Here’s hoping he starts babbling some mama’s around soon.

 

And as for the tooth we spotted on Friday?  It has a friend on the opposite side.  We have a new nickname for Conor:  Fang.  Dave thinks he sees the two front teeth just under the surface of his gums.  I call that wishful thinking.  

 

Happy Blogiversary to me! My blog is two years old (plus a day). 

 

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