Another Abandoned Blog

Blogging has fallen to the bottom of the priority list lately as I try to juggle being the mother of an active, walking, falling, whining, running, babbling, nose running, coughing, door opening toddler and managing the "busy season" at work. Life has become a never ending exercise in organization. That pile of paperwork never seems to get any smaller. And since they pay me to work, it must come before blogging.

I have really missed the creative outlet blogging gives me. Each day, when Cutie Pie does something unbelievably cute, I think to myself, "That would make a great blog."

For instance, when Cutie Pie and Da Da invented the "I'm going to get you!" game. I have never heard a sound so beautiful as the giggles and laughs coming from my husband and son playing together. It makes tears come to my eyes just thinking about it.

Cutie Pie has also been discovering new and exciting things around the house. No matter where he is and what he is doing, he keeps one eye on the bathroom door. And if someone should absent mindedly leave it open, Cutie Pie makes a beeline for the toilet, which he thinks is the Best Toy Ever! The best part is that Mommy immediately picks him up when he touches the toilet and washes his hands, another treat. Cutie Pie has begun to associate the toilet with water play. Lucky me!

The most exciting thing to happen lately was when Cutie Pie learned how to open the screen door to the backyard. He loves swinging that door wide open and walking out into the yard all by himself. He's such a big boy now. Unfortunately, he's not always sure on his feet and the other day he tumbled head first into a pile of dirt one of the dogs had just created. Cutie Pie was covered, he even had dirt in his eyes. I resisted the urge to immediately wash him off because it was the first time my baby boy had ever really gotten dirty! Not to worry though, he got a bath soon enough. Which of course, just made his day. Let's hope he doesn't realize that getting filthy gets him a trip to the bathtub or he'll be getting 8 baths a day!

http://theadventuresofcutiepie.blogspot.com

Mommy says MOO!

"That is a cow. What does a COW say?"

Silence

"A Cow says MOO!"

"This is a pig."

Cutie Pie crawls away.

"What does a Pig say? Hey Cutie Pie! What does a pig say?"

BANG BANG BANG! Cutie Pie plays with his blocks.

"Never mind."

Many of the Baby Instruction Manuals I have read stress the importance of teaching your child animal sounds at this age. They say it is a great game for mother and child. They describe an attentive baby gazing adoringly at his mother and answering all the mother's questions with precious baby animal noises that he learned on the first try. Yeah, right.

I've heard Cutie Pie make some animal sounds but I don't think he did it intentionally. I've heard him oink like a pig when he was laughing so hard he couldn't stop. I've heard him gobble like a turkey when he told me about his day. I even heard him bark like a dog once, while looking at the dog. It was probably an accident but it was still pretty cool!

I can understand how teaching your child letters, numbers and colors will benefit him in the future. Even if the kid isn't going to be an athlete, he needs to develop motor skills so it's important to play ball and climb all over the place. But for the life of me I can't figure out how learning animal sounds will benefit him at eight months of age. He likes it when we make funny sounds at him. But I'm worried that I've been saying MOO MOO MOO for so long that he thinks that it's a Mommy sound, not a cow sound!

Why on earth is it so important to teach your child animal sounds? Maybe if Cutie Pie lived on a farm and often came into contact with a variety of animals, learning their sounds would be helpful. Perhaps if Cutie Pie lived a long time ago when the world was a dangerous place full of predator animals, he would need to learn which animals to avoid. Cutie Pie lives in the suburbs. When is he really going to have a chance to have a conversation with a cow or a pig? Are animal sounds going to be on the SAT eighteen years from now? If so, I think we're all in trouble.

http://theadventuresofcutiepie.blogspot.com/