It’s spring it’s spring it’s spring!!!

While in general I’m not trying to make this blog all about posting pictures of day to day goings-on, I’m so excited about our first spring trip to the park as a real live toddler who can toddle that I’ve got to just do it this one time. (I know it’s not ACTUALLY spring, but it was 60 degrees here today. Totally counts.)

We hit the little tot-lot section with a vengeance and although at first she wasn’t really sure what to do with herself, before long we were climbing up the stairs…

going through the tunnel…

standing at the top of the slide…

and going down!

(I couldn’t get an actual picture of her sliding, since I had to kind of spot her. Getting the pictures I did already earned me a number of judgy looks from the far more responsible moms at the park as the big camera clonked her in the back of the head once (didn’t even flinch, though–nothing gets through that ginormous skull), and as I let her nearly topple off the whole structure once or twice. Would have been a long, slow one-foot fall to a grisly end on the rubber-covered ground, I tell you.)

Anyway, life is better when a) it’s not winter and b) your kid can DO STUFF.

An open letter to pediatricians re: communication

Dear Esteemed Baby-Doctors,

When you are checking on a child’s developmental progress, you would probably get better and more accurate results if you did not race down a checklist asking yes or no questions. (“Does she say ‘Mama’? Does she play patty-cake? Is she crawling?”) I for one can tell you that the likelihood of my answering “No” to any of the questions is very slim, as that would require what feels like an admission on my part that either I’m doing something wrong or that there is something wrong with my child–without, of course, knowing whether or not a lack of any of these things is actual cause for concern.

Even less likely to get your patients to open up is the approach that involves going down your checklist just “affirming” what the child should be doing without even pausing. “So he’s going to sleep without breastfeeding by now and he’s sleeping through the night and he’s starting to eat some cereal…” This system packs a one-two punch of a) making it sound as if it would be unthinkable that the child is not doing these things and b) forcing the parents to interrupt your stream of high expectations to point out that their child has failed to meet one of them. Probably not going to happen!

So, to sum up, my guess would be that while it might take an extra three minutes of time, it could be worthwhile from a long-term diagnostic perspective to ask your patients some open-ended questions. “So what kind of games does she like to play?” or “What’s his sleep-schedule looking like these days? Is it working for you?” Then parents have a chance to tell you what is actually going on and I’m sure you can very easily decide whether those things merit a yes or no on the official checklist.

Sincerely,

Me