milestones
DAD, WHY IS THE WORLD?
19/04/16 11:23
This Saturday’s ice skating class was nothing to write home about. He skated. He fell. He rested. He scuttled on his hands and knees to the exit when the buzzer sounded.
Still, he was very excited about how well he skated. Were we at the same lesson? What? As I unlaced his skates and tugged them off his feet he asked me something quite profound. “Dad, why is the world? And why are we in it? And then a pause and then added the cherry on top, “And why is it spinning?”
“Conor, those are amazing questions. And you know what, nobody really knows the answers.” “Not even you, Dad?” And in that moment, I realized just how tall my son must think I am.
I laughed, “Nope, not even me, buddy. Now let’s go see how Mom’s doing.” And he ran out the locker room door to find mom. I gathered up his equipment and wondered who my boy will be when he grows up.
CONOR'S FIRST BIRTHDAY
09/10/12 14:47
Conor's first birthday was on a Tuesday so we plan to wait until Saturday to have a party. We're not that into parties but it is his first one so we opted to invite a few of the neighbors. But tonight, we opened his big present from us; a #1 red race car. He and his dog are pretty impressed.
CONOR DOES THE CROCODILE WALK
07/09/12 15:21
With each new day, Conor's getting better at walking. If you'll look at the daily posts, only two days ago you'll see how he fought my help to put one foot in front of the other. For a couple of weeks he wanted nothing to do with this cute walking toy given to us by our good friend, Michaela. Tonight's a different story.
TODAY IS CONOR'S 10 MONTH BIRTHDAY
09/08/12 16:00
Tonight I made it home early enough to play with Conor and the whole family got to sit down and eat dinner for his 10th month's birthday. Unfortunately, Conor's dinner landed all over him. Not that he cared!
CONOR LEARNS TO STAND ON HIS OWN. GAME CHANGER.
03/06/12 08:40
Conor is apparently right on time, according to developmental stages when kids learn to stand. from six to 9 months, says Wondertime.go.com. According to Parenting.com, "It takes most babies about 1,000 hours of practice from the time they pull themselves upright to the time they can walk alone." So when I do the math, if Conor started practicing right now, 24 hours a day without sleeping, he will be walking in 40 days. But since child labor laws prevent such treatment, it'll still be sometime before Conor can walk. Whew!
To help a child prepare to walk, you can do the following;
1. Let the rascal walk in front of you while you hold his hands
2. Hold only one hand so he learns to feel what balancing is
3. when he can stand on his own, step away and call his name so he'll take a few steps on his own.
4. Arrange sturdy furniture that he can hold on to as he walks so he can do so without your help.
CONOR CRAWLS FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY
17/05/12 09:24
May 17th, 2012 at 7:37am, Conor decided to crawl for the first time. I happened to be cleaning the camera when I saw him and shot this :10 video as he came crawling to me. I told Valerie to come check him out. When she saw him crawling she started crying. I looked back at Conor to see what had happened that would cause her to cry. But he was just kneeling there smiling. I looked back to see if she was fine but she was still crying. Then I was really confused. Finally, it hit me that she was crying because she was happy and sad that he was crawling. It was another one of those milestones that reminds us that he’s getting older and he’ll never be the baby he was. He’s changing. And when it hit me, I was a little sad, too. He’s been such a great baby that it’s hard to admit we’re moving into the next phase of his life and the old phase is now a piece of charming history.
AT 6 1/2 MONTHS OLD, CONOR AND STAND WITH A LITTLE HELP
07/05/12 16:53
At 6 1/2 months, Conor seems to be in a growth spurt now. Only 4 days ago he said, ‘Da Da’ for the first time. 2 nights ago, I was laying on the floor and he crawled over to me and put his head down next to my chest and went to sleep. Then last night, he didn’t need me to hold his arms so that he could stand up. He just leaned against me and with a lot of work, was able to hold his own balance. These are really fun times now because I can see a little person forming from an infant. I’ve enjoyed every step of the way so far. And it keeps getting better.
HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY
17/03/12 21:03
Conor started to show signs of standing while we were visiting his Mimi in Austin, Texas last week. On St. Patrick's Day, this half Irish baby decided it was time to go for it. I was surprised at his effort. So I did a little research to see what was going on. I wondered if there were some exercises I should be doing to encourage this behavior. According to the Baby Center in the UK, "when it comes to motor development, you don't have to worry about any special exercises. Your baby will progress in a predictable pattern. First, she will achieve head and neck control, then torso and upper body strength, then lower limb strength. In early infancy, a baby may enjoy pushing with her feet or even bouncing as you hold her. Her natural reflexes enable her to engage in this activity, but she won't necessarily always want to take part in this type of play and some babies may not enjoy it at all. Later, when her torso is stronger and she is getting ready to walk, she will be able to stand upright."
Here's the link to the article i found at BabyCenter.com.