Showing posts with label Song Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Song Video. Show all posts

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hiccups, Books and Body Sounds

There are a few pledges about child-raising that Melanie and I made to each other when she was pregnant. One of them was a commitment to keeping things simple toy-wise and gift-wise. Walking through any toy department can overwhelm you with stuff that kids used to use their imagination to create. As the joke goes, young kids are often more excited about the packaging than the gift. When I was a kid the only and best hellicopter I played with was by dropping a leaf and watching it fall. I could spend hours with a stream and a stick or weeks with a tetherball set. There's something positive about getting the most out of one thing as well as the simple educational gifts like letter blocks. We pledged to each other to not buy our kid lots of stuff. Last night however, already exhausted, Mark would not go to sleep because he was obsessed with finding more cool books for Liam's library -- its much easier to commit to not buying stuff for your kid before they are born. Melanie is sticking with the plan. We've already received so many wonderful gifts from people -- stuff we can and do use -- we really don't need anything more for him at this stage. Melanie's been giving Liam top-notch play-time, love and milk -- someday in the future there will likely be a photo of milk coming out his nose within a blog entry named "Milk Drunk". Prior to that: photos of his Aunts & Uncles.







Unique Toddler Books

Liam woke in Mark's arms this morning though Mark got little sleep. Melanie is feeling a bit better these days. The following video contains a secret to eliminating hiccups that is 100% successful for ADULTS. Mark learned this secret from his mother.


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Contrast (8/21)

We're seeing first-hand how baby's like to look at that which is high in contrast. The black and white books we have are the ones he pays most attention to. He stares out the side of his crib to look at the crib slats and the dark shadows of the slats upon the white wall.

Auditorally, he likes it all, and he's hearing alot of music, from the classical music we try to have on as much as possible, to our singing, piano playing and his musical mobiles. Oddly enough, if Mark sings him an upbeat song (think: foot-stomping bar-tune-sing-along for children) that could annoy any adult within three minutes, Liam will often be asleep within two minutes.

How do we calm him when he doesn't sleep? In short, we try something different -- keep moving. Some of the "5 s's" also seem to work: saying shhh in his ear, swaying him on his side, swinging him in our arms, sucking and swaddling, though swaddling is the least successful -- the guy breaks out of even the tightest swaddle in minutes.




Mark watered today. That didn't deter the deer from eating nearby.



Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sunday Sunday Sunday Aug 17th


Everyday I've played piano for Liam and walked him around the house -- so far, music and the outdoors (especially the hammock) are two things that keep his attention and calm him. Melanie played for him almost nightly when she was pregnant with him.

One of Melanie's bosses brought over an amazing meal tonight as well as a few baby-related items. Yummy! Thanks Secil and Geoff!!








Piano!

Plants!

Camera versus Book!


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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Day 6: Settling in and Kicking Back

Mom's maternal adrenaline is flowing strong. Dad can't help but sing to son. The whole family takes their first stroll around the neighborhood.