Haiku Friday #20: It's Broken

Remember when I
Was berating myself for
Being a bad mom?

Well, it turns out it's
Even worse than all of that.
Wedn'sday the second,

My husband took our
Son to the orthopedic
Doc to check his arm.

At first it was to
Check for any hip problems
Since he's not walking.

But while he was there,
The specialist would check his
Hurt right arm as well.

At the orthopedic center, they took yet another x-ray of his arm and found a healing fracture up near his elbow. So they put a cast on it right then and there. They let him pick out the color he wanted -- he chose kelly green. Apparently he wasn't into the teddy bears or dinosaurs (now, if they'd had a cat pattern...).

Horrible mother that I am, I stayed at work during the whole process -- with all of Adam's illness lately, I'm running out of sick time (the next day, we found out he had roseola as well -- this in addition to already having an ear infection and several molars making their entrance).

So he's still in the sling. He's still trying to crawl on that arm, although with more success and fewer tears and frustration now. And we still don't know what happened, although we now know what's wrong, at least.

The good news? There's nothing wrong with his hips, so as long as he's willing, walking shouldn't be a problem. The nice lady from Help Me Grow came today; she determined that Adam has a gross motor delay, but otherwise he's developing on or ahead of schedule -- especially ahead in the language. No surprises.

Any suggestions for encouraging a child to walk, who is usually content to just sit on the floor with whatever has caught his interest?

More Of The Same

I have a bit of a dilemma.

When I first set out to improve my overall health and fitness several weeks ago, I did pretty well with eating sensibly. But I had no motivation whatsoever to exercise.

Now I'm doing 4 sets of Dance Dance Revolution (3 songs per set -- it's the game mode for those of you who are familiar with the game) every night -- sometimes more sets on the weekends. I even do a warmup, cool down, stretching before and after, and I'm gradually increasing the speed of the songs.

But I'm back to eating crap. All it takes is for me to think about eating a salad, and I think, "Ugh. Rabbit food." It's like there's a switch: if I turn it one way, I want to eat better. If I turn it the other way, I want to exercise more. How do I get both?

The good news is, I (usually) eat very well at work. We mostly eat with the kids -- and eat what they eat -- and their lunch always includes at least one fruit and one vegetable. And because they're toddlers, we often have leftovers of things like salad and canned fruit (which really comes in handy when the fruit of the day is something I don't like -- I'm pretty picky about fruit).

I have some issues with raiding the snack cabinet lately though. I think the more frequent meals and exercise are causing my metabolism to speed back up again. I'm always hungry. And -- especially at home -- I want to eat something fast, because I'm starving, so instead of cooking or preparing something nutritious, I grab junk food or bowl after bowl of cereal.

My subsequent remorse is twofold: I feel like I suck at the goal of overall health and beat myself up for straying; I also feel uncomfortable what with the different problems with digesting all that junk.

If anyone has any tips for self-motivation for simultaneous diet and exercise, I'd love to hear them.

Almost Forgot...

It has occurred to me since Friday that Adam's vocabulary is actually larger than what I let on.

I forgot all about these words:

• Chee = Cheese
• Kee = Keys
• Buh (sounds like the 'oo' in 'foot') = Book
• Nah-nah = Night-night
• La-yun = Lion
  

And my mom has also informed me that he says juice, although I've never heard him. And it probably sounds more like /joo/ -- he's not so good with the ending consonants yet. But everything he says is fairly easy to understand, and he uses words (mostly) appropriately. He sometimes sees other animals (dogs, squirrels) and refers to them as "kitty".

Just had to brag. :) Of course, he's still not walking at sixteen months....

Haiku Friday #19: Talk Isn't Cheap

We're in the middle
Of a language explosion
At the Geek household.

Baby Geek, who will
Soon be sixteen months of age,
Now talks up a storm.

They're serious when they tell you that once a kid starts talking, he just doesn't stop. And sometimes it comes at a price: "Yes, that is the door. No, you drank all the juice already."

It seems like Adam learns a new word every few days now. Here's the list so far:

Words:

• KIH-tee = kitty
• Mih = Milk (or sometimes juice)
• Buh = Bread
• LA-ee = Light
• Boo = Blue
• Puh-puh = Purple
• Bah-bah = Bye-bye
• Ha = Hi
  

People:

• Mama (duh)
  
• Dada (duh)
• Mimi = his name for my mom
• Guh = Grandpere (French for grandfather), his name for my dad
  
• Teh = Tia (Spanish for aunt), his name for my sister

Sounds:

• Baa (like bad, without the 'd') = Bang
• Me = Meow
• Yow = Meow (can you tell what his favorite animal is?)
• Hoo hoo hoo = The sound a monkey makes

Signs:

• More (pointing finger into palm)
  
• Finished (palms up, hands cupped slightly, waving back and forth)
  
• "No no" (shaking pointed finger at someone -- he got that from the JCC)

Songs/Rhymes/Games:

• Points finger or taps head to request "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"
• Shakes pointed finger to request "No, No, No, I Will Not Let Them Go" (a Passover song)
• Does all the motions to Patty-Cake
• Does some of the motions for "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and "Mini Mac" (another JCC song)

Of course, he recognizes more words than he can say -- probably more than we are aware of. So far we only know that he understands family members that he can't pronounce yet, colors, and most of his body parts. He also understands words for his routines: mealtimes, bed, bath, etc.

Anyone out there have children of similar age and developmental stage? What cool stuff is your toddler doing lately?


For more haiku or to play along, visit A Mommy Story.