Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Want a fat lip?. . .

Friday, our parent educator from Parents as Teachers came by to see little Puffy McDuffy. It was our first time meeting her so we covered a lot. She checked him out for everything he should be able to do by 3½ months.

It was amazing how quickly we both turned from laid back people to ultra-defensive parents.

"He's pushing up on his arms pretty well" she noticed "he should be rolling over soon." We both chime in with "He already rolls over!"

"He should be sleeping through the night already." "We need to make sure he eats at 6:30 everyday so we haven't tried to get him to sleep all night yet." (Since then we tried and he does.)

Don't get me wrong we know he's developing well, we know he's OK. We know nothing is wrong with our son. It still hasn't stopped us from worrying he has a hearing problem. . . that not turning when she squeaked a toy to the side of his head, even though he'll turn to see us when we talk behind him, means he he's going deaf.

We love the little monkey as he is, but something about an "expert" checking him out got us into this parental pissing match. It happens around other parents too. We know every kid is different and the little guy will hit different milestones in his own time and we know we are OK with that. Still when someone mentions that their kid is stacking blocks, while Skippy Jr. has only just mastered sticking out his tongue, the claws come out ("well, Skippy Jr. can flip your kid the bird").

All in all he checked out pretty well on everything. She said she thinks he's going to be an early mover (crawling, walking, climbing), that worries us, but at the same time makes up proud of our little over achiever. Amy, our parent educator, was very nice and we had a good time.

Oh and the above illustration greatly exaggerates how much hair our son actually has, but more hair is coming in every day.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Isn't Melissa's parent educator named Amy? Do you guys have the same one? Oh by the way my kids saw Parker today because I had my laptop hooked up to the smart board. They all though he was so cute. Emma doesn't like it though because she thinks he is crying.

Anonymous said...

You are right all babies hit milestones at their own pace. Carter my first son didn't crawl till he was 9 mo old and didn't walk till he was 14 mo old. I use to plead with him to move and would try every trick, but he was just a very cautious baby. Once he did start moving I was sorry because I never sat again.LOL I thought for the longest time that he was delayed and wondered why he didn't do things as fast as other babies. All kids are unique in their own ways. Though by his first birthday he was able to put puzzles together and could look at the pictures and knew exactly where they were suppose to go. WE timed him once and he did it in 30 sec. I get defensive too when there are mom's of kids around my son's age bragging. It use to drive me crazy. I have a hard time doing tummy time with Peyton because of his spitting up issues. I usually lay him on his belly and blah lunch comes up.LOL So he has not rolled yet, but he will get there in time. The little stinker just seems to want to sleep all day anyway.

Just enjoy every minute as it comes because they grow up so fast.

on holy ground said...

sleeping through the night at 3 months? i guess my kid is broken. 17 months and she still sleeps like crap.