Titles of posts

Most of the time, I use the same title for a post that the questioner used as the subject line of the email. Sometimes I change it if I think the subject line doesn't reflect the actual question, and I'll put in more details if it's too vague.

Somebody emailed me yesterday to say she thought putting the smacking in the title of yesterday's post was a little harsh. I agreed, but it was the subject line Anonymous used in her email to me. I would have changed it if it hadn't reflected the majority of the question ("Problems with pack 'n' play," for example). While I don't think the smacking is the true issue (and would probably have titled the post something like "I'm drowning, and I really need help"), it is what pushed anonymous to email me. I also thought it would catch the attention of all of us who may have grabbed a little too hard, yelled a little too loud, or even hit when we couldn't think of what else to do.

And it did, and you guys responded so lovingly and with such amazing support. I still have no idea why this blog attracts such kind, smart, sensible readers and commenters. I think in the hundreds of posts we've done I've had maybe one troll ever. Who knows why. I just want to thank you all again.

And now for something completely silly, just to give us all a breather. (I'm still a little sad about Anonymous, and for all of us, because it seems like we're all just going around in our own little bubbles of pain and inadequacy, when really, we're not alone.)

Linda writes:

"Why does my 13 month-old spend so much time standing on her head and looking through her legs??"

I think she likes the physical sensation. Have you tried it? it's kind of cool to have your head hanging down and swinging like that, and to interact with gravity in a different way. Plus, she gets to see things upside down.

What are the other strange things that your kids do, and how old are they? My 5-year-old is obsessed with baseball and calls me at work to tell me how his teams did the night before. My 2-year-old does this funny little stumpy dance turning around and around and stomping his feet.

Comments

[Cathy]

My nephew does the same thing as Linda's 13 month old, and he's about the same age (12-18mos). His older brother, age 3, picked up that action (combined with some invented phrase) as one of his own personal Backyardigans Cool Moves.

[Sarah]

My 3 year old loves to spin. She will yell "Let's get dizzy!" and start spinning. It is hilarious and I can only imagine a great rush for her.

[rudyinparis]

Starting when she was quite young (about 8 mos.) Eldest has just had this THING for dishtowels... When she was a babe she would love to take them, shake them out, and lay them around her in a Very Specific Manner. Seriously, I had to take our kitchen dishtowels and move them to where she couldn't reach them, or they would always vanish! For her 3rd birthday last fall a friend of mine sent her a whole box of dishtowels and she was in heaven.

[robin]

My 8-month-old is just learning to wave, but he hasn't mastered the hand-opening part of it yet. So he raises his fist in what looks like a "Black power!" salute. Which is pretty hilarious coming from a blue-eyed, tow-headed, fair-skinned boy.

[AmyinMotown]

Maggie does the same kind of dance, it is SO awesome. She's recently started to do a more "normal" booty swaying thing and I'll miss the stomp.

If I put her hair in pigtails, she'll stretch her legs up so she can feel them with her feet.

[Allison]

My nephew (just over 2) does the same thing as Sarah's girl. He'll spin around and around saying .. "dizy"... and then fall over, freaking all of the adults out! Kids are so strange!

And robin, that is great you have a little radical on your hands!

[pumpkinmama]

My 8-month old is obsessed with trying to pluck her 4yo brothers eyelashes out. Anytime his head is near, her recently mastered pincher grip is headed straight for his eyeballs. On the plus side, it totally cracks him up and he loves it, odd bird that he is.

[Reese]

My 19 month old does the same dance!

[lisa]

my son is 16 months. For months he has been obsessed with opening & closing doors, cabinets, drawers, even the baby gate. He's not interested in the contents of the cabinets or drawers, which means there's no big cleanup when he's done. Until recently he wasn't even interested in the stairs; he'd just crawl up to the gate & slam it shut. The other day, he discovered the stairs & all he wants to do is go up. He's too scared to go down though!

[Kate]

My son did the looking through his legs thing at exactly the same age. He would do it constantly, even stop in the middle of the sidewalk to do it. And, at least two women approached me to tell me that he was "looking for a sibling."

[Amy]

My daughter used to sit on the loveseat and bounce against the back of it. Like bouncing her head off of a wall (she had done that, and we figured it would be safer on the couch). She would bounce SO hard, she'd almost touch her head to her feet, and she'd move the loveseat (it was perpendicular to a wall). This is how she'd go to sleep (BOUNCE! BOUNCE! Bounce! Bounce bounce... bounce... falling over... crash ZZZZZZzzzz). She did it from about age 18mos to 3 years (when we finally MADE her stop because she was getting too tall).

[Melissa]

My one year old (not walking just yet) sits on her butt and uses her heels to spin herself around, usually while she's chewing on something.

She also likes to point at the ceiling, shape her little mouth into a howl, and make this weird whisper "doh!" sound. None of us can figure out what she's looking at.

She also caught me last month looking under the couch for her purposely thrown toys (why do babies love to destroy but not to put together?!) and now she'll lay on her tummy and peer under anything that has an under. So cute!

[Sonia]

My son's 13 months too and yesterday for the first time, he did the same thing as Linda's child, but with his own unique twist: he bent over in half, looked through his legs, then started thumping his head on the (thankfully carpeted) floor, while occasionally spinning in circles. He did this quite deliberately about 5 times. I didn't know whether to laugh or be freaked out!

[Amy]

HOLY cow you guys, you should check out the banner for Looky, Daddy! for today!! what a strange coincidence!!!

http://www.lookydaddy.com/weblog/

[Katherine]

My 11 month old is obsessed with putting things in MY mouth. She wants me to bite down and hold whatever it is with my teeth. If I don't, she starts to cry. Even if it's her finger, she expects me pretend to bite them. If I oblige with a toy and then start shaking my head around, she thinks it's the funniest thing ever. Last night I was holding a plastic monkey by its tail with my teeth, bouncing my head around, and she was laughing like crazy. I hope no one ever catches this on video...

[jomama]

My now 22 month old used to do the same looking through the legs thing. Now his favorite thing is to play with the cordless phones. We have to keep them all out of reach or he will take them and start dialing. The weirdest part is that he doesn't talk on the phone; he flies it around like an airplane.

He also likes to run, fall on purpose and pretend to cry.

[Liza]

My 18 month old is obsessed with his toes.

And because they were so cute when he was smaller and less active/smelly, I probably encouraged it by tickling and kissing them a lot. Now he talks about them, plays with them, and shoves them in my face constantly. It was cuter before they became croc-sweat encrusted stink bombs.

[Maureen]

Sadly, my boys are obsessed with sticking their fingers in their nose (luckily, mostly their own nose rather than mine or their brother's; not to say that doesn't happen on occassion from time to time).

One also does the "silly" dance and the other loves to stick his bowl on his head (at the table) when it's empty.

They are 2 1/2... hard to imagine them as serious professional one day :)

[Julie]

Alex likes to "jump", which means he stands on the bed or couch, bends over into a squat, stands up straight and lands on his bottom. He thinks this is hilarious, and now insists that we pretend to sleep and then wake up surprised when he lands (often on top of one of us).

He also likes to lay on his tummy and squirm his hips around (it looks a little x-rated) while one of us smacks his bottom.

He also loves to look at the world upsidedown through his legs as described above - and to roll a ball at him while doing this is the height of humor.

[dawn]

Our colander does triple duty as a hat, a seat and a drum which he uses while dancing around and around it till he is dizzy at which point he tries to sit on it and misses, which makes him giggle like a mad man.
And, now its never where I need it for cooking!

[hedra]

I can remember doing the head-on-floor-upside down thing. And yes, it felt cool.

My kids have stompy-dances. All of them. Each unique.

My oldest is currently obsessed with swords. He's going to be a swordsman/swordsmith/scriptwriter/stuntman who makes the swords for his own movies and then does the stunts. I get to hear about that pretty much daily.

My second is doing adorable 'arm around the shoulder' things with his little sisters, helping them places, being very BIG BROTHER PROTECTOR AND GUIDE. He's also really annoying at times, but I love the arm-around-shoulders thing...

M is doing early-morning waking and adoring gazing from 2 inches away from your face, complete with hand kisses and gentle pats on head all around for anyone nearby in the bed. Biggest brother has gotten that a few times when he'd rather be sleeping, but it is also hard to not enjoy.

R is obsessed with helping me do everything, which mainly involves holding my leg carefully and firmly (wrapped around) while I walk back and forth from room to room. She HELPING. Very proud. Making sure mommy makes it from one place to the other. Oy! But still cute, dangit!

[Hilary]

My 9 month old son loves nodding his head like a heavy metal music fan. He just stops what he's doing and starts bobbing away, with a big smile across his face. He does it crawling, he does it standing, he even does it at times while nursing (ouch) or falling asleep. I swear he has never seen MTV. Party on, eh?

[Sarah]

My 17 month daughter does the same circle-stompy dance. She also waves her arms around in little circles while she's doing it, and she does it to all kinds of music, lol.

Her notable weird thing is that while she sucks her thumb, she wants to be able to fondle an ear with her other hand. Preferably, my ear. Or Daddy's. Or the ear of the nearest child. If all else fails, she'll use her own ear, but that's obviously not the preferred option.

[Florabora]

These stories are all so amusing!

My 9.5 month old will sit on his bum with his legs out and then move them (left first, then right) so that he rotates in a circle, clockwise. He usually is opening and closing his mouth in a "popping" sound. We've started calling this the "baby clock" move since it looks just like the hands of a clock.

[Amanda]

My 17 month-old is obsessed with shoes - she constantly says "shoes on!", and brings them to you. Then it's "shoes off!", and she raises her feet to have you take them off. Over and over, and if you ignore it, those little piggies will be up in your face. She just got her first pair of sandals, and is mesmerized that she can still see her toes when she has them on.

[jessica]

Mine does the stand-on-your-head thing.

For what its worth, they say in Africa and the Dominican Repoublic (and probably lots of other places too) that when a baby does that it means someone is pregnant.

[rebecca]

I'm here to tell you, if you *have* finally got the kid to sleepfor a nap next to you in your bed, and you don't want to move and wake him up, size 1 diapers (at least Huggies) aren't quite big absorbant enough for a mom-sized bladder. ;-) ).

Not that I know this from experience or anything.

[Kate]

We used to laugh every time our son fell down, so for the longest time, he would fall on purpose, just so we would laugh.

[carmie]

My 16.5 month old has been in a book-obsessed phase for MONTHS. He calls them "boppy!" as he shoves them in my face, and continues to yell it until I pull him on my lap and read it to him. He does the same thing if I dare read an adult book around him and don't share the fun. I am sure he is one of the only toddlers around to have absorbed Michael Pollan, Terry Pratchett, and biographies of Joseph Cornell.

[Regina]

A woman at Kindergym saw my 18 month old son bent over looking upside down between his legs and told me that where she comes from in Africa it means the child is looking for a sibling. I was newly pregnant again so it struck me as an interesting belief/cultural tidbit that I will never forget.

[vickie]

Our son loves to lie on the floor, tummy down, and use his hand to move trucks & trains back and forth. He'll use almost anything in place of trucks & trains, too--umbrellas, cardboard tubes, etc.

[Rachel]

Ah the stumpy dance. My 2.5 yr old also does the stumpy dance. She ups the ante when she points with her fingers while raising her arms in the air. Priceless.

[Bethiclaus]

My 17 month old is still obsessed with what we call "downward facing puppy." Although, now that she can stand up on her own, it's often just the precursor to the standing.

[Lisa]

My 18-month-old does "downward dog" and says "yoga! yoga!" and "doggie!" Sometimes he pants and wags an imaginary tail.

[fiona]

Ha ha! My 13 month old daughter does exactly the same thing. She thinks it is particularly hilarious when she is naked just before bath time! She is going to walk any day now. (hmm, hope i'm not pregnant, i need a breather before number 2 comes along!)

[Amy]

My 5 year old is obsessed with pretending she's a variety of large and medium sized cats (leopards, tigers, etc), so she sprints around the house on all fours. Frequently. Actually, it's pretty impressive.

[Heathers]

My 22-month old does this straight-legged march all around the room, kicking his legs almost up to his waist. We call it his Nazi march.

[Joy]

My son when he was two used to love walking around with his blankie over his head, running into walls and everything else. He thought it was hilarious! Couldn't see a thing.

[Megan]

DS has his stompy dance, too...he kicks out one leg and goes in circles. He also swings his arms in a "raise the roof" sort of motion, which cracks us up. His new thing is to show everyone in the room, in turn, his tongue until the mimic him and show him their tongue. This is less attractive when he has food in his mouth, however.

This morning we were all cuddling in bed before daycare/work, and I took one of his matchbox cars and ran it slowly over his back and legs. That was it...we had to stay there another 20 minutes while he lay perfectly still in different poses for his "car massage". Too funny.

[Ami]

For Linda...

Get a picture or 10 of your daughter doing the upside-down thing. She won't do it long if she's like both my kids. And I totally treasure those little upside down pics, with the chubby little legs and six-tooth grins.

Someday, your baby will have morning breath, a bad attitude, and be taller than you are. :)

[Menita]

My 26-month-old puts peas in her ears and pretends they're earrings.

[Sarah V.]

My son (2 1/2) does the stompy dance as well. Other things that he does are really funny and weird and cute:

1. He is obsessed with Mr Men books. He will recite long passages from them while doing other things, and he also loves to list the different books with their numbers ("Mr Tickle number 1, Mr Greedy number 2...")

2. He is also obsessed with numbers generally. In line with this, he has recently worked out that it's possible to fold a drinking straw into the shapes of different numbers. So now all our meals are interspersed by him thrusting his straw at me and insisting "Mummy make a number 1! Mummy make a number 2!"