Human Development: suprising baby stages list

Everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Everyone, from somewhere in their consciousness, can pick out the stages of a baby’s development. Right?

Milestones such as:
Birth
Sleeping through the night
Crawling
Solid foods
Walking
Talking
Etc.

Any book, article, parent Facebook post easily covers these important stages. It’s everywhere. Even someone who doesn’t have kids knows that sleeping through the night is a key milestone, (more so for the parents than the wee babe)!

You know what? There are so many more stages. Our first child is over a year old now, and I marvel at the past year. I wasn’t ready for the whining stage, or the crumbs everywhere stage. We’ve already hit an, albeit minor, version of the terrible twos. Every once in a while, she prostrates herself on the ground. Luckily, we’ve not seen any head banging. Yet. Usually she’s prostrate because she hasn’t gotten what she wants, but sometimes we have no idea what’s upsetting her.

I can’t really blame her. These micro stages are natural and normal, and a lot less work for her than the major stages of development. It sure is an adjustment for us, though! When I first started feeding her solid foods, the main new workplace challenge was Bib Supply Chain Management. Just to manage the bib inventory, it got to the point where Erik and I would compete over who could feed Becks with the least mess. “No goop went lower than the chin!” was the first triumph. Then, we topped it with “no mess on the bib; we can re-use THIS one!” But the most accomplished among us (can you guess who this wonder of a person may be?) could feed our little angel without exterior evidence at all. “No goop on the face! Beat THAT!”  I’m not competitive. I just hate to loose. 😉

It’s a little daunting and a little rewarding and a lot of work. Yes, for the child, but also, for the parent. And if you’re bored with baby (because they finally are sitting on their own and it will be months of waiting before they crawl), never fear!  A new stage of development will soon be here.

(This post was originally drafted in 2014 for MissMaryClare.wordpress.com and published in August 2015.)

Tired Zombie, Sad Zombie. Bed Rest Journal Entry

Find below in italics actual journaling I did once during bed rest. It is unedited, except for editor’s notes, which aren’t in italics.

12-3-12 Monday

Normal morning prayer comes 1st. But I was almost like a zombie in terms of being awake. A sad zombie. Haven’t been out of the house since Friday evening [for a doctor’s appointment, if I remember correctly]. Stir crazy. The night before, planned to call Mom in the morn 2 if she could take me out on a jail break: out for coffee! But it was a ”night” like I hadn’t had in a while: toss and turn until 3 am-ish (after 1 sleep cycle) , get up, putter around/fold some baby stuff and put it in better stacks.) go back to bed. Can’t sleep (my rear hurts! Sciatic stuff. & hands swollen.) Back up: make 1 centerpiece [a seated activity for a friend’s wedding] & organize materials for, using Baby’s stroller to keep things corralled yet accessible, ‘ cus I’m creative like that. More puttering. Finally add books to baby registry (The Very Hungry Catapiller!)  Finally, finally laid back down & this time it felt compfy. Grogily realized around 7am, & 8 am, & 8:45 am that Carribou Coffee was just a vain dream. & I want so many things for Erik 2 get ready for me befor he leaves. And what I need 2 do is sleep. So I’m sad. Sad Zombie. Finally finally finally crawl out around 10am and all I want is cereal. & coffee. We have scads of milk (great planning!) but no cereal (how’d we miss that?!). Sad zombie. I decide I only want coffee. Nothing else measures up to cereal. Stop 1/2 way 2 prayer corner w/ my loaded tray [how could my tray have been “loaded” if it only contained coffee? I don’t 1remember. I’ve tried for months. It’s an eternal mystery.] b/c I don’t have energy to go further. @least coffee is @ hand. Will have 2 pray from here. Tell the Lord that “well, this is me. This is what we have. Might as well lay it out the way it is instead of disguising w/ prayers, songs, books. Btw the ipod was going this whole time – loud – w/ non-Christian

 

 

[Entry abruptly ends.]

I guess we’ll see you later,

Miss Mary Clare

PS: Please forgive spelling, grammar, punctuation, and logic errors. I was pregnant. I’d been on bed rest for the better part of 4 months. I like that the errors convey better the reality of the situation.

 

Baby Bib-alicious Part the Second

Previously on Baby Bib-alicious:

….Cutting? Noooo! You’ll ruin it!

Friends, I write today to assure you that the scary scissor escapade ended beautifully. As I cut a wider-than-I needed front piece for the bib (using the back of the shirt, the side that wasn’t stained, and the side seems), I realized that I could use the strips I was thereby creating as ties. And, to top it off (pun intended), the sleeves may as well remain for extra coverage.

But enough with words. You can see for yourself.

This is it. The bib. I could have stopped here, waited for babe to wake, and commenced with tying it on and feeding her the standard breakfast of bananas and yogurt. This is double-knit fabric, so it won’t unravel.

But see those scalloped edges? They are down right pretty. The cut edges seemed unfinished in contrast, and since my sewing machine was already set up, I went ahead and folded over each of them to sew it down, creating a hem. This also gave it more structure, so it may last a little longer. We’ll see!

Here’s a handy picture showing the cuts.

Here’s a list of the cuts so that you can make this bib yourself:

1. Wide front panel (remove).

2. 2-4 inches out towards the side seems from front panel, cut straight up to the shoulder seem. This becomes the ties.

3.  Chop off long sleeves, making them short sleeves.

And that’s it! Simply put on child and tie, or hem the rough edges first. A half hour, or less, well spent. A garment destined for re-use finds meaning again in life.

Love,

Miss Mary Clare

 

 

Baby Bib-alicious.

This is our daughter. The best part is her smile. She also sports a bib I recently made, using a cute little top that a friend gave us. The top was stained in front. (I had considered cutting it up for use as a rag. But it’s a cute little thing. And I feel it deserves to be worn.) Our daughter stains things when not wearing a bib. For that matter, she also stains bibs. (I’ll admit right off the bat that she gets this messy tendency from me. It’s part of her inheritance.) All our bibs – including my aprons, which are actually bibs for adults – were stained at the time. And unwashed. Somehow, I knew that these facts were destined for each other.  I enjoy helping people and things achieve their destiny (destinies?).

I sat on the couch, gazing at the top. I thought about grabbing one of those dirty bibs to use as a template for cutting a new one from the top. But the fabric scissors was closer to me than the dirty bib. I went the easy route, grabbing the scissors, flipping the garment to the side with the stain, and starting to cut. Cutting! Oh no! You’ll ruin it! Want to know what happened next? Will the garment survive the butchering? Come back soon to find out! Affectionately, Miss Mary Clare