Baby Brains

People have always told us that all newborns do is eat, sleep and poop - and while these traits hold true for our son, he also finds time to be cute and make faces. This week he's also mastered the art of sucking on a few fingers, taking a bottle, and involuntarily blowing little milky spit bubbles.

We don't have many toys around the house. What gadgets could one possibly need to facilitate eating, sleeping and pooping? But I did a little research while on bed rest and found a few age appropriate things to have on hand early on. Lamaze makes some very well reviewed toys so we registered for Jacques the Peacock (hereby known in our house as "Peter" - thanks Ry and Emma!) Peter's wings make a crinkle sound and his backside is black and white to capitalize on the vision strength of newborns. Owen actually made an uncoordinated swing for him yesterday and then grabbed onto a wing!

And when play time is over, little O hunkers down for some homework. Each day, during awake time, we show him his flashcards - except for the lion. Owen apparently doesn't like lions and expresses his distaste for them by blatantly ignoring the card or screaming.

My mom was here last week and gave me the craziest look when I said, "Alright Owen, now that you've eaten it's time to settle down and do some homework"

I'm sure she went home and immediately had this conversation with my Dad:

"You are never going to believe what they do to that poor baby - they make him study flashcards and they call it his HOMEWORK!"



In our defense, he does seem to like the cards and research suggests that images such as these help calm baby while supporting healthy eye development. And, for now, we only assign one animal per day. Just not the lion.