Mandarin-speaking Dinos

Scott is going on a business trip tomorrow so we let Soren stay up a little later tonight to play with him. Soren has lots of stuffed dinosaurs in his room and Scott made them all talk in Chinese. The T-Rex is Soren's favorite. Or maybe it's just Scott's favorite. I'm not sure that babies have preferences like that yet. Either way, Soren were really enjoying it. The dinosaurs' made-up voices make him bubble with laughter. I'm even starting to learn a bit of dino-related Chinese vocabulary, mostly because they say the same things every time. Scott father always pretends they are arguing about who is the most ferocious dinosaur. I love watching Soren and Scott interact. My husband is a wonderful man and a great father. I often think of how lucky Soren is to have such an excellent role model of what it means to be a man.

Soren started getting cranky, undoubtedly because it was past his bedtime, so I gave him a bottle and put him to bed. Now he's sleeping like a baby, whatever that means. Tonight was one of those beautiful nights when he curled up, put his fingers in your mouth, and closed his eyes as soon as I put him down in the crib. On times like that, I'm always tempted to pick him right back up again and hold him close to me as he falls asleep. Too bad it doesn't work like that. He gets too excited to be near people and ends up cranky and overstimulated. It's better for him to have his space and a good night of uninterrupted sleep. But, oh, how cute he is and how much I love him! I just wanted to press him close to me, close to my happy heart.

Comments

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...

Just Enough is More

They say that later-born children have skinny photo albums. While parents lavish attention on the firstborn (making certain to record every milestone and in both print and pixels), later children are forgotten and neglected. So the common wisdom goes. Maybe its true. There are certainly fewer posts on this blog about the younger boys than there were about the older ones. And there's no doubt about it: fewer photos are taken now-a-days. I don't even want to talk about videos. Poor neglected Leif. According to the records, he's hardly even a presence in this house. Except that's not true. The paucity of posts and pictures does not reflect an absence of affection. It does not speak to my feelings about living with children at all. I find them no less delightful and amazing than I did eight years ago when I first began my mothering journey. If anything, the little ones delight me even more now. I know better how to enjo...

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others. Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons. More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things. The new miracle growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life. There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries. But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth. I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...

Mom Remembers

Search This Blog