A lefty or a righty?

I can't tell you how many times I've seen Jack use his left hand to feed himself and pick up all sorts of objects. That got me wondering if there was a good (or any) chance he'd end up a lefty even though both Bob and I are right handed...

A cursory Google search gave me some insight into the world of hand preference. It seems only about 10% of the population is left handed, and no one is 100% sure what completely influences hand preference. Genetics seem to play a role, but a number of theories (including some that seem a little silly) abound like the one hypothesizing all humans are meant to be right handed, but early brain damage leads to left-handedness. Yeah, nothing like telling 10% of the population their left-handedness is a sign of brain damage...

Apparently most young children use both their left and right hands under the age of two with true hand preference showing up around the 2-3 year mark , so it's still too early to tell with Jack. I saw one pediatrician mention that some kids remain ambidextrous up until 5 or 6 and then choose. The other point of note said that left-handedness tends to show up slightly more frequently in boys than girls, so perhaps I will get a lefty after all!

At least with the proliferation of personal computers, hand preference seems to matter less now in terms of handwriting legibility if kids can just get through kindergarten and elementary school. My husband would be thrilled if Jack (or any future sons) were left handed because of one thing: pitching. Apparently MLB lefty pitchers make lots of moola, so we could retire early :)

What about you, when did you notice hand preference in your kids?

Mad skillz at dinnertime

I've heard (and now experienced firsthand) that parenthood is full of endless surprises, some good, some not so good. Well, tonight we were fortunate to experience one of those pleasant surprises that makes up for all (ok, maybe 2) of the bad ones: Jack demonstrated his surprisingly adept ability at feeding himself!

Now in the back of my head I've known for a while he's at the age where I should start letting him experiment with his spoon if I ever hope to raise a child who can do more than just eat with his fingers (a skill his future wife would greatly appreciate at dinner parties). But until tonight, I hadn't really let him try it on his own yet. While I would like to feign ignorance here that I just didn't know a 14-month-old could feed himself, in reality it's just that I had gotten lazy and found it easier (and less messy) to feed him the applesauce or whatever myself. I admit though that a mother-in-law showing up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a plastic spoon is probably not the best way to bond with my future daughter-in-law.

Anyway, we were amazed at how well he did feeding himself with a utensil for a first try. I loaded up a few bites onto his spoon, handed it to him, and let him do the rest. We did this a good 10-15 times and he really enjoyed it. What surprised me even more was that after I just let him have the spoon to do whatever he wanted with it, he began picking up little bits of rice off of his tray and putting it on the spoon himself. He had watched me do it and then tried to imitate the action himself.

While he wasn't quite as successful with that endeavor, mainly because the food wouldn't stay put, I was more than thrilled he at least had pretty good control over the spoon itself. In the grand scheme of self-feeding, I'm sure there are plenty of toddlers who have mastered this skill earlier that Jack, but hey, it was still a little victory nonetheless. It also showed me how I shouldn't be lazy in my efforts to try new skills with him, because he might just be further along than I think he is. Now, about that walking......

Homeschool, private, or public education?

I was looking for a new topic to write on the last day or so and one finally fell into my lap while checking up on the news this morning: What are your plans for your kids' education? Have you considered homeschooling or do you plan to enroll them in a public or private school?

This topic stemmed from an article talking about how a California appeals court ruled that parents without teaching credentials could no longer homeschool their children. Parents that continue to homeschool their children without proper credentials could be subject to "truancy violation, which could require community service, heavy fines and possibly removal of their children under allegations of educational neglect." Now, why am I not surprised that of all our 50 states, this happened in California?

I hadn't really thought much about it myself until we moved back to Texas and I began talking to a lot of moms in the Spring/Woodlands area who are homeschooling or plan to homeschool their kids for various reasons. That got me to thinking about Jack and what kind of education experience I'd like him to have. Like any other parent I want the best for him in terms of learning what he needs to know to be a productive citizen and the extracurricular opportunities to develop an athletic or musical talent (or underwater basket weaving). It's just all the other junk in public schools that makes me see why so many moms have decided to go the homeschooling route (and private school isn't cheap). That being said, I went to a great public high school and seemed to turn out ok, and Jack's going to have to figure out we're living in a fallen world sometime.

While I do enjoy teaching, I don't think I could homeschool myself because of one subject: history. Please know I have no intention of offending you history buffs out there, it's just that I don't find treaties and wars particularly interesting and would find it tough to teach that subject with any kind of enthusiasm to my child(ren). I much prefer science and math to history, after all we meteorologists live in the future world of weather prediction. Some might argue we don't live very well in that future realm and we'd be well served to live in the past to learn from our mistakes, but that's another (long) topic for a different post. :)

In all seriousness though, have you thought much about what education route you'd like your kids to take (assuming you don't live in CA)?

You want me to spend how much on a pair of kids shoes?

I need some advice in this area from all you moms who have older kids: where did you buy your children's shoes?

Jack has had 2 pairs of shoes since he started pseudo-walking and I think the most I paid for either pair was about $12. The first ones were the soft, slip-on kind that look like little slippers. For the next pair, we moved up to something with a touch more sole support in them and a velcro latch (which I do NOT recommend if your child enjoys his toes seeing the sunshine...way too easy to get off).

In my never-ending state of denial that I can actually do something to jumpstart his solo walking, I thought maybe I should invest in a better quality pair of shoes for him. So my mom and I ran down to Imagination Toys this morning to look at some Stride Rite shoes.

The saleswoman was quite helpful and measured his feet for me, then recommended a pair to try on him that would fit his stage of walking. Apparently with a child that's not quite walking yet, a softer shoe is recommended so they retain some flexibility in their step. As they get better at walking, a sturdier sole can be used for more arch support. Anyway, we tried a cute pair on him that fit really well. I just knew when she told me the price I was going to have a hard time swallowing it, and I was right: $44. My next question to her was how long I could anticipate that pair fitting him before he outgrew them, and she said about 2-3 months.

$44 seems pretty steep for something he'll be wearing for just a few months, not to mention scuffing up outside. I could go buy a pair of Sketchers for myself for that kind of money (and they'd last me a lot longer than 2-3 months)!

So maybe I'm missing something...I know Stride Rite is a quality brand, but how good are they really? Is a $44 pair of shoes for a toddler really that much better than say a $15 or $20 pair? Are there other brands out there worth looking into?

I'm all ears!!

Would you spend $3K on a one-year-old's birthday?

My husband, who enjoys reading up on the subject of personal finance, told me about the Free Money Finance blog about a year ago. I too have become a regular reader and feel like I've learned a tremendous amount about how to be wise with money.

So what does this have to do with my blog? Well, today one of his posts really caught my attention: how much some parents are willing to spend on their kids' birthday parties.
One of the more interesting quotes from the original article that spurred on his blog post came from a mom that spent $3000 on her one-year-old son's first birthday. She said "she knows such a large party for a child so young may sound odd to a lot of people. But she wanted to make it memorable for her first child." Umm, perhaps I missed something, but does anyone out there actually remember your first birthday party?

First birthdays are more for the parents and photo opportunities than anyone or anything else. When else do we encourage our children to make a mess with bright blue or pink icing and then laugh when they proceed to smear it all over everything else? Now of course I want my son to feel honored for his birthday, but not enough to spend $3K on something he won't remember (or even something he would remember for that matter).

This article got me thinking about how I'd like to go forward with celebrating birthday parties for my child(ren) in the future. It's hard in this competitive society NOT to get swept up in the my-child-will-have-the-biggest-party-on-the-block fever, but what does that teach our kids? That mom and dad have to spend a lot of money on a party so the kids feel valued? Seems to me that these huge parties have more to do with the parents' insecurities and not much to do with the kids!

My experiences with birthdays as a kid were generally celebrated with a family dinner and some girlfriends over to spend the night. It was great! How about you, how did you celebrate (or not) your birthday as a kid? How do you (or did you) celebrate your kids birthdays?

All boy and the dog-on-the-head trick

Bob and I really enjoy watching Jack change, and this 14 month mark has definitely brought with it some new quirks. Within the last week or two, it has become blatantly obvious to me that he is rapidly becoming all boy, not just in physical characteristics, but in his personality as well. I mean, I don't think I know any little girls at this age who enjoy picking up a toy baseball boy bat in each hand and hurling them towards the wall (or mommy). He's also become quite the mimic, both with words and noises (think blowing air through your lips). My favorite thing though has to be his infectious laugh, which makes it terribly hard for me to remain frustrated with him.

Now, the dog-on-the-head trick has come about in the last week. I happened to peek back at him in the car seat one day on the way to the grocery store and noticed he had his favorite puppy perched on top of his head. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera at the time, but luckily this weekend he gave me another opportunity to catch his newest quirk while we drove down to Reliant Stadium for the Houston Rodeo chili cookoff.

As a side note, anyone planning to go down to the Houston Rodeo should plan on shelling out some serious dough if you want to park anywhere close to the stadium. We saw parking for $30 and $20 per car that would still put some serious callouses and/or blisters on your feet if you had to walk that far. Needless to say, we went somewhere else and had a nice BBQ dinner instead.

Jack versus the Highchair

Well, we're getting a little closer to walking each day now, but still no jackpot (haha) yet. As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, one of the things we have enjoyed most in Jack's journey toward vertical, self-propelled forward movement has been his fascination with pushing the highchair all over the house. And, if you watch the video, you'll see I'm not kidding when I say all over the place. The video starts out in the living room, but that was after a few minutes of tooling around the kitchen as well. He's even gotten it back in our master bedroom, which involves a sharp 90 degree turn.

Now, please understand that I have tried to get him to push all sorts of OTHER things around, which he happily complies with. The small lawnmower is another favorite, and believe me, we will capitalize on that once he can push the real thing around. He even pushes flattened books around if he can overcome the friction from our carpet. However, the highchair remains his all-time favorite, unfortunately to the detriment of my cabinets, walls, and toes during dinner.

It's the quirks that make our kids so endearing though :)