Friday, August 11, 2006

Burping Babies, Etc., Etc.

Burping Babies

One of Zane’s friends got him these babies for his birthday:

I was especially thrilled because Zane doesn’t have any other baby dolls and he’s obsessed with babies right now. (See this post). I wasn’t quite sure, however, whether he’d play with the babies or not.

You see, Zane has a one track mind. And like many three year olds, his mind is on trains. Oh sure, he talks about babies all the time, but he’s usually playing with a train when he does it. It might go something like, Baby crying, mama. Chug chug. Baby sad, mama. Choo choo. Baby laughing, mama. Look train went over the hill! Baby in stroller, mama. Oh! What happened Thomas?

So imagine my delight when Zane started playing with the babies, a few days ago. He strolled them around the living room. He took off their caps and pretended they were crying. With some gentle redirection, even he started putting their bottles in the mouths, not their ears. He played with them off and on all morning.

(As an aside, I had the following very smug inner dialogue going the entire time, Oh, good. He’s playing with babies. I was hoping he’d like this gift and not just use the baby stroller as a graveyard for old trains. How sweet, he’s feeding the baby. I may just raise a kind man yet. What a sweet, loving, gentle boy I’m raising.)

You might see where I was getting myself into trouble here.

So a natural extension of feeding the babies is, of course, burping the babies. I put one of the babies on my lap and gently burped her to show him how to do it. Well, that was all it took to really take the baby love to a whole new level for Zane.

He started giggling maniacally, pounding the baby on its back and letting our big, loud, “UUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH!” burpy sounds over and over and over. That was the rest of our day. Charming.

It also describes the only way he’s willing to play with the babies right now. My sweet, loving, gentle boy is also a loud, burping, baby-walloping mass of madness.

Zane twirling the baby til she burps!

I am so proud.


Etcetera

We have officially entered the Asthma Pre-Season at our house. (The season itself lasts from Sept – Mar.) Zane caught a bug, and we’re doing rescue breathing treatments every four hours today. It’s a little stressful, but it’s all very manageable right now. Send us good energy.


Etcetera

Zane’s cardiologist appointment has been scheduled for September 18. (Discussed in this post) Since his pediatrician forgot to write it into Zane’s chart, the nurse didn’t get it scheduled until I called to remind them on Monday. While that’s a bit annoying, it also says to me that Dr. M is not overly concerned that my child has a huge, gaping hole in his heart, so it was also a bit reassuring. I will ask for you to send positive energy to us re: the appointment closer to the date. For now, all your positive energy should be directed towards Zane’s breathing! :)

3 comments:

Zany Mama said...

Dustin-
It's just a universal truth that we all have issues - sounds like yours and Zane's might be similar.

(Although I'm not sure how you feel about being compared to a three year old, I feel pretty good knowing that you didn't grow up to be a anti-social-can't-connect-with- others-skewed-relationships-with- children type of guy. You didn't, did you?)

belsum said...

I love that you're letting him play with babies! I was just at a gender conference today and one of the ladies mentioned that her twin boys received a similar present and she, very consciously, decided not to give them the dolls.

Zany Mama said...

belsum-
So there are really three things that are bothersome about your scenario:
1. She didn't let her boys play with the dolls. (What is that?!)
2. She felt so okay with that fact that she shared it with you.
3. The fact that she did it, shared it with you, and at a gender conference, no less.

Geez louise.