Author: James

Home

Baby Signing

This last Sunday afternoon, Lia woke up from a nap around 3 pm, when the schedule demanded a snack. However, because Karen was still snoozing upstairs, I kept Lia company for an hour before bringing her up. When Lia saw mommy laying there, she first tapped mommy on the head, but then she started opening and closing both her fists. I thought, “oh this is interesting, she’s exercising her tiny fingers!” But then Karen realized that this was not a dexterity exercise, but signing “milk”!  Karen had been teaching Lia every day before each feeding, and apparently Lia picked it up and used it to express that she wanted a feeding! Wow!

Now in case you’re unaware of what baby signing is, it’s sign language taught to babies who haven’t reached the gabbing milestone yet as a form of communication. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a few examples…

Milk: Open and close fist as if milking a cow

milk

Dad: Put the thumb of open hand on the forehead

dad

Mom: Put the thumb of open hand on the chin.

mom

Sleep: Draw your hand down over your face and close your fingers together while your eyes fall asleep

sleep1sleep21

Airplane: Stick out the thumb, pointer, and pinky, and make the hand fly!

airplane

Flower: With fingers closed, touch one side of the nose and then the other, as if smelling a flower

flower2

Want: With open hands in front, scrunch your fingers like grabbing something and pull the arms back.

want1

There! Now just teach that to your baby and he or she might surprise you next time!

Health

Healthy Baby Food

Eating healthy is not so simple any more.

babyfood1

Karen and I have always painstakingly made Lia’s food out of fresh vegetables, meat and fruits, but one day Karen questioned the practice, pointing out that the ingredients of organic baby food consisted of nothing but the organic fruit and water. So what’s the difference between what we’re made and what’s in a jar? What’s the big deal with buying baby food and taking it easy in the kitchen?

It depends on if you desire slapping tasteless, innutritious pile of goo in your baby’s mouth, according to my buddy Google, uh.. I mean, Live Search®.  Processed food typically needs to be cooked in high temperatures to kill all bacteria to preserve it, and that process kills more than just bacterias, but nutrients and taste as well. In fact, even different cooking process in the kitchen, such as the use of a microwave, steaming, boiling, and baking can change the nutritional value of food, but the process is shorter at home.

Now natural meat has a whole other set of considerations. For seafood there’s pesticide in farmed animals, and mercury for wild fish and shellfish, which affects brain development. For chicken and beef there’s hormones and pesticides, and even if it’s labeled “all natural” it, we might be eating clones in the future. The safer route is buying organic food, which is held to a higher standard, but even that has its own caveats.

I do admit we have a few baby food jars for the… umm… occasional emergency use and the jar reuse, but one thing’s for sure, Lia will be getting nothing but the fresh, good stuff!

Kids

Persistence

As demonstrated from the Little Drummer Tigger episode, Lia can be timid to sudden noises. When she played with the Music Table she got from Christmas, she got spooked by the sudden music from opening a drawer. However, one must admire her persistence of conquering that fear, even if it’s futile…

Kids

Lia Got Sick This Week

Lia was sick for the first time this week.

We immediately noticed her runny nose and raspy voice, and the coughs were more prevalent because of the increased mucus. Thankfully the sickness was’t severe, as she didn’t get a fever. She also didn’t exhibit any signs of lethargy, as she smiled and crawled all over the place despite dealing with the extra transparent discharge from her nose. Thankfully Lia is now recovering and seems to have diminishing symptoms.

Unfortunately, now Karen is exhibiting the same symptoms and is getting a headache…