Almost Tooth Time...

We're working on helping Oscar sit up and strengthen his back muscles. That's one of our homework assignments from our 6-month meeting with our parent educator, Lauren. She came over Tuesday night and this time David was able to be part of the session. I just love the Parents as Teachers program.

By the way, I have a new Flip handheld camcorder (yay), which enables me to shoot easy-to-compress (and so much easier to upload) videos for the blog. The quality isn't as good as what I'm used to, but it's so much easier to work with.

This first video below is from Tuesday's session, which was Oscar's first assessment. This basically means that Lauren had Oscar do a variety of tasks and exercises. It's sooooo helpful. In the video below, Lauren is passing Oscar a block and he is supposed to pass the block to his other hand and THEN release it. (I recorded this from the sidelines, because I didn't want to distract Oscar).

Here's more of Oscar with the block exercise. You'll see he took a break from the blocks to make silly noises with Lauren.

This next video is long, about 2 minutes. I kept filming because I could not BELIEVE how long Oscar sat and listened to Lauren read. For those of you who remember our first session with Lauren, Oscar sat for 10 seconds (tops) before crying. I really have to give the credit to Oscar's teachers at school (I'm no longer calling it daycare-because he's learning so much)! Miss Sarah and Miss Rachael read at least 2 books a day to Oscar and I'm really noticing a difference in his listening skills and his attention span. It's incredible!

Oscar had really good week at school. We actually had some warm weather for a couple of days, so Oscar's teachers took his whole class for a walk in this push cart thing--too cute. This week we bought a Fisher Price Galloping Horse Jumperoo for Oscar's classroom--since Oscar loves to jump so much. We dropped it off today and almost everyone in the class has already used it.

In other Oscar news, it appears that Oscar is teething. I can't see (or feel) any teeth yet, but his teachers are pretty convinced that it's tooth time for little Oscar. He had a low-grade fever on Thursday--not high enough to have me come and pick him up, but high enough that he was uncomfortable and a little fussy. No fever today, but some definite discomfort. We've been chilling some teething rings in the fridge and giving him Tylenol when he seems to be in pain.

Before I sign off, here are the teachers' notes from Oscar's daily activity sheets:

Monday:

Oscar had a great day. He enjoyed some floor time playing with the Sesame Street Jungle Gym. We worked on standing and putting weight on his legs-he jumped ike he was in a Johnny Jumper. He just laughed and had a good time. We sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Bumble Bee."

Tuesday:

Oscar had a great day. He had three BM-s today:) Yay! He enjoyed some time in the exersaucer. Today we read "Faces" and "Garden Colors." Oscar loved looking at the babies in the book. Parents: It's getting warm enough to take the children out for walks. If you could bring jackets & hats so we could do that, it would be great. :)

Wednesday:

Oscar had a good day. Today he went on a walk outside & Christelynn & Oscar held hands the whole time. We took lots of pictures of them. We also read "Bobby the Bunny," and "Trevor the Steam Train." He loved the sounds of the train that we made.

Thursday:

Oscar had a good day. Today we read "Morning, Mr. Mouse," and "I Love You, Papa, In all Kinds of Weather." We played peek-a-boo. We would lay the blanket over him and say, "Where's Oscar?" & pull it up and he laughed & smiled. He enjoys a fun game of peek-a-boo!!

Friday:

Oscar had a good day. Today we read "Kisses," & "A Nose Like a Hose," and "1, 2, 3." He liked all the bright colors in "A Nose Like a Hose." We also went on a walk outside this afternoon. He loved playing in the new Jumperoo. Thank you for the jumperoo, all the kids enjoyed...wait they loved it! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!