10 Weird Things, Part II
Chag tagged me for a meme where you're supposed to write 10 weird / random things about yourself and 10 weird / random things about your kid, but I've already done the 10 things about myself (which you can see here, because I'm sure you're dying to), so in keeping with Chag's format idea, I'll list five examples of weirdness for each kid.
Bryce
1.) The kid refused to eat any solid food until he was 15 months old. He gagged like we were shoving golf balls down his throat if we tried to sneak half of a mushy diced peach into his usually smooth Stage 3 baby food. He is now four years old, and still has, um, issues.
2.) He's psychic, but so far only when it's related to presents he'll receive in the future. Example: the day before his SECOND birthday, we asked him if we knew what the next day was. He replied, "fire truck!!" We exchanged a confused and slightly terrified glance and then said, "no, Bryce, what is tomorrow, it's a special day" to which he responded, "building blocks!!" He was getting two gifts from us: a fire truck and some building blocks, which we had chosen at random and had not been talking about; it wasn't like he'd been obsessed with asking for a fire truck or building blocks. He's had similar premonitions before other events. I suppose it's possible he was sneaking out of his crib and snooping through our closet while we slept soundly, but it seemed odd at the time.
3.) Along with his frighteningly advanced vocabulary, he had an early and freakish sense of direction. He could point out the building John worked in from any spot in the city, and even if he couldn't see it, he would point in the RIGHT DIRECTION. We tested him. He never failed.
4.) He was VERY serious as an infant and early toddler, but you'd never know it now, when he spends all of his time coming up with new and improved laugh tracks for his intelligent jokes - jokes like, "Have you ever seen an elephant with a diaper on its back?! Ahahahahaha!!! That is FUNNY!"
5.) He role plays ALL. THE. TIME. It never ends. The characters change, but they range from a cat to a dinosaur to inanimate objects or disastrous events like avalanches or fires. He's intense, that one.
Quinn
1.) He's always seemed younger than he really is, or younger than we think he should seem. He was late on all of the physical milestones like rolling over, sitting up, talking, crawling, and walking. But he smiled and was flexible and happy, content to be carried around on countless errands at a very early age (like by the time we brought him home from the hospital).
2.) Because of his late bloomer status, we got a little concerned by his 18-month checkup, and our pediatrician wanted to be on the safe side, so we scheduled an appointment with the state program that monitors children with developmental delays, and gets help for them if it's determined that they need it. It took two months to schedule the appointment, and by the time the three different speech, physical, and occupational therapists came to our house with their huge tupperware boxes full of puzzles and books and tests, Quinn had started talking up a storm and had mastered stairs, walking backwards, completing shape puzzles, identifying animal sounds...you know, all the things the nice, busy therapists were there to test him on in order to find out where he was behind. And what were the results? He wasn't behind, oh no. In fact, his scores came out slightly ahead in the areas of gross motor skills and speech articulation...the two areas we had been most concerned about. Those therapists probably thought we were really pushy parents, wondering why our 18-month-old wasn't in the olympics and composing symphonies yet. I swear, he was remarkably behind when we initially set up that appointment. Even our pediatrician thought so!
3.) He shrieks like he's being tortured when he gets his hair cut. He says it hurts. They don't even use the clippers on him so they can avoid touching his head - they use scissors. On his HAIR. At the very TIPS of his hair. He screams, he cries, huge crocodile tears streaming down his face. "It hurts!!" Yeah, bud - it hurts. It hurts BOTH of us, believe me.
4.) He has never liked anything sweet. As a baby, he wouldn't eat any of the jarred fruit - we tried it all - applesauce, applesauce with bananas, peaches, pears, even the chicken with apples. He gagged the same way Bryce did when we offered chunky food. Quinn was fine with texture, but absolutely refused anything sweet. He still eats no fruit (no exaggeration - he has never had an apple, banana, orange, strawberry, mango, kiwi...okay, you get it) and doesn't even like pudding, ice cream, cookies, or cake. He snacks on goldfish and popcorn and drinks only milk or water. Luckily he is a fan of several vegetables, so he's not completely malnourished yet.
5.) He's completely dependent on his pacifier when he sleeps. Bryce never took a pacifier, so this was a whole new experience for us. And, seeing as how he turns 3 next month, I'm thinking maybe we let this go on for too long. We've chosen the "denial" path here because we've already lost most of our hearing between these two, and I'm not sure going completely deaf from the screams of objection and protest is really the most beneficial thing for me at this stage in my life.
Bryce
1.) The kid refused to eat any solid food until he was 15 months old. He gagged like we were shoving golf balls down his throat if we tried to sneak half of a mushy diced peach into his usually smooth Stage 3 baby food. He is now four years old, and still has, um, issues.
2.) He's psychic, but so far only when it's related to presents he'll receive in the future. Example: the day before his SECOND birthday, we asked him if we knew what the next day was. He replied, "fire truck!!" We exchanged a confused and slightly terrified glance and then said, "no, Bryce, what is tomorrow, it's a special day" to which he responded, "building blocks!!" He was getting two gifts from us: a fire truck and some building blocks, which we had chosen at random and had not been talking about; it wasn't like he'd been obsessed with asking for a fire truck or building blocks. He's had similar premonitions before other events. I suppose it's possible he was sneaking out of his crib and snooping through our closet while we slept soundly, but it seemed odd at the time.
3.) Along with his frighteningly advanced vocabulary, he had an early and freakish sense of direction. He could point out the building John worked in from any spot in the city, and even if he couldn't see it, he would point in the RIGHT DIRECTION. We tested him. He never failed.
4.) He was VERY serious as an infant and early toddler, but you'd never know it now, when he spends all of his time coming up with new and improved laugh tracks for his intelligent jokes - jokes like, "Have you ever seen an elephant with a diaper on its back?! Ahahahahaha!!! That is FUNNY!"
5.) He role plays ALL. THE. TIME. It never ends. The characters change, but they range from a cat to a dinosaur to inanimate objects or disastrous events like avalanches or fires. He's intense, that one.
Quinn
1.) He's always seemed younger than he really is, or younger than we think he should seem. He was late on all of the physical milestones like rolling over, sitting up, talking, crawling, and walking. But he smiled and was flexible and happy, content to be carried around on countless errands at a very early age (like by the time we brought him home from the hospital).
2.) Because of his late bloomer status, we got a little concerned by his 18-month checkup, and our pediatrician wanted to be on the safe side, so we scheduled an appointment with the state program that monitors children with developmental delays, and gets help for them if it's determined that they need it. It took two months to schedule the appointment, and by the time the three different speech, physical, and occupational therapists came to our house with their huge tupperware boxes full of puzzles and books and tests, Quinn had started talking up a storm and had mastered stairs, walking backwards, completing shape puzzles, identifying animal sounds...you know, all the things the nice, busy therapists were there to test him on in order to find out where he was behind. And what were the results? He wasn't behind, oh no. In fact, his scores came out slightly ahead in the areas of gross motor skills and speech articulation...the two areas we had been most concerned about. Those therapists probably thought we were really pushy parents, wondering why our 18-month-old wasn't in the olympics and composing symphonies yet. I swear, he was remarkably behind when we initially set up that appointment. Even our pediatrician thought so!
3.) He shrieks like he's being tortured when he gets his hair cut. He says it hurts. They don't even use the clippers on him so they can avoid touching his head - they use scissors. On his HAIR. At the very TIPS of his hair. He screams, he cries, huge crocodile tears streaming down his face. "It hurts!!" Yeah, bud - it hurts. It hurts BOTH of us, believe me.
4.) He has never liked anything sweet. As a baby, he wouldn't eat any of the jarred fruit - we tried it all - applesauce, applesauce with bananas, peaches, pears, even the chicken with apples. He gagged the same way Bryce did when we offered chunky food. Quinn was fine with texture, but absolutely refused anything sweet. He still eats no fruit (no exaggeration - he has never had an apple, banana, orange, strawberry, mango, kiwi...okay, you get it) and doesn't even like pudding, ice cream, cookies, or cake. He snacks on goldfish and popcorn and drinks only milk or water. Luckily he is a fan of several vegetables, so he's not completely malnourished yet.
5.) He's completely dependent on his pacifier when he sleeps. Bryce never took a pacifier, so this was a whole new experience for us. And, seeing as how he turns 3 next month, I'm thinking maybe we let this go on for too long. We've chosen the "denial" path here because we've already lost most of our hearing between these two, and I'm not sure going completely deaf from the screams of objection and protest is really the most beneficial thing for me at this stage in my life.
Labels: blogellany
| | Permalink
