Hello Mudduh Hello Fadduh: ILX Rolling Parenting Thread

Teething? Urgh, I am not looking forward to it. Well, in a way I am if it's not like my friend's son: he had engorged (?) purplish gum! Poor thing. Anyway she's been biting on her own finger and also other objects so maybe it's starting? I was early so maybe she as well? Then again my husband started teething later.

I hope the babycenter website is right: that the first teeth is the biggest problem (and the molars).

Also good for teething: leave a carrot out on the counter for like a day-ish, until it gets all limp. It has a good flavor for them, and they can chew on it forever without biting pieces off and having choke-on-able size chunks in their mouth.

I don't really have any major objections to it (except for waiting until school lets out for the summer - and that's really only because I don't want it to be a distraction... like the time I let him wear blue nailpolish to school when he was in first grade and his teacher called me and basically said 'you'd better not do that again or the kids WILL THINK HE'S GAY OH NO OMG WTF'), but I'm getting hung up on the fact that I think 8 1/2 might be too young to be starting up with hair dye.

What do y'all think?

Maybe you could offer him one of those 24-hr washoutable hair dyes as a sort of trial run or something?

Her latest hilarious thing is to nod vigorously, as if in agreement with what she's just said. She has proper shoes now - red gingham numbers - and some pale blue sandals. She still finds my humming the opening riff to "Tears of a Clown" hilarious and her love for Kraftwerk knows no bounds.

I'm seriously up for another baby but I think we'll wait till she's a year.

Teeny, did you start on solids yet?

http://static.flickr.com/58/164424008_c3f325686e.jpg

The (American) book we have recommends rice cereal, something which they don't do at all here: they start with fruit and veggies. But they do recommend waiting until six months if you breastfeed. I don't know, I just can't wait that long. :-( Part of me worries but ah hell I was eating solids when I was 2 months old!

Apparently here, in Belgium, only 60 procent starts with breastfeeding. By six months only 15 procent continues and only 4 procent manages to do a year of breastfeeding! WTF!

American advice is very consistent about rice cereal to start because it's one of the least allergenic foods, but it's totally refined and then vitamins are put into it--nutritionally speaking it's not that fantastic because of the synthetic nature of the vitamins. But baby is getting most of her needs filled through mothers milk still, so it's not that important. One book I have recommends that breastfed babies start on banana because its sweetness is similar to breast milk.

You can totally wait until 9 mos-one year to start solids if you want, babies who have parents with food allergies should go that long (so they say) because it decreases the likelihood of those allergies developing. (although a lot of times docs will recommend vitamin supplements too.) But at the same time it's nice to get them in the habit of taking food from a non-boob source, I think that's why the six-month mark is frequently mentioned. I don't think there's any babies who didn't figure it out eventually though. ;)

Here's a page on breastfeeding rates in the US and around the world: http://www.kellymom.com/writings/bf-numbers.html

In the last couple of weeks she's started to really associate the word "puppies" exclusively with dogs whereas, previously, it just seemed to be a word she liked to say. She shrieks, "Puppies!" at dogs in the streets, in books, on advertising hoardings. Pam propaganda, I reckon.

I wonder how long my glee at peace and quiet will last. I reckon about 30 minutes.

"papa" (that's me!)

"agua"

and some others I can't remember. As much Spanish as English at the moment, but none of it particularly clearly.

And stuff like "cuckoo", "quack quack" and "woof woof", but they are from the animal kingdom.

He's also getting good at the "point to the cat/bunny/nose/door" game.

AWESOME

"Toast!" (pointing at frog)

"No no, that's the frog. This is the toast! Can you point at the toast?"

"Toast!" (pointing at frog)

"No, this is the toast! Here's the frog. Can you say 'frog'?"

[grabs stuffed frog, crawls across room, puts it on top of much larger rocking frog, points at them:] "Toast!"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/aldo_cowpat/DSC00001.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/55/151091586_a19939d29c.jpg

she's a doll BTW.

Since no one has really answered Natalie's raspberry question upthread, here goes:

Raspberry= sticking tongue out and blowing in order to make a realistic fart sound.

Razzing=energetic, humorous displays of contempt, which may INCLUDE raspberries, as well as verbal insults, rude gestures and rotten fruit projectiles.

I didn't know Andrew had a kid.

happy fathers day dudes

Yeah, um...did I miss something?

Thanks, Beth, for explaining. :-)

aldo's kids totally have a 'just humoring dad' look on their face!

Two chilluns, one with the boogie (Miranda, age 2) and one like his dad with no boogie (Eric, age 5).

Neither of them like anything really interesting, though Eric was rocking along to Bardo Pond's BUFO ALVARIUS/AMEN 29:15 this afternoon, but he said "he didn't like the music".