Baby Massage

Here are a few more photos for our adoring public. One of Myles emerging from a morning bath, and the other of Juniper interacting with Myles in his exersaucer. We are still working with Juniper on the difference between Myles' toys and hers. Occasionally she gets the two mixed up. Yesterday she licked one of the tubes on the exersaucer and the beads inside it went around and around and it was arguable that she was as pleased by that accomplishment as Myles, who makes it spin with his hands. Myles always gets a few kisses on the face from Juniper when he's first in the saucer, but I let Juniper know when enough is enough...otherwise it's possible he'd have a chapped face. On the other hand, Myles does giggle and occasionally squeal at Juniper, so I think the feelings are mutual.

Last Saturday, we had a woman come into our home to teach us about baby massage for 2 and a half hours, courtesy of my wonderful sister! We learned lots of massage techniques, which are all very helpful. But we also learned more about the cycle of babies...from light sleep to deep sleep to light sleep to drowsy to quiet/calm to active to fussy and back to light sleep. This little cycle, though we understood it somewhat intuitively, has been very helpful in realizing when it's a good time to interact, when it's a good time to let Myles do his own thing in his "office" (the exersaucer), and when it's time to help him go to sleep. You'd think that if a baby's tired, they'll fall asleep, right? Nope. You have to help them most of the time, and we learned that if it gets to the crying/screaming stage, you've already missed your window of opportunity. The best time to try to create an environment in which Myles will get to sleep is when he's entering his fussy stage, beginning to show signs of, as we affectionately call it, "losing it." So I think we are being a little more deliberate this week about watching out for signs from Myles and trying to respond appropriately. This can help us avoid a full fledged, all out screaming fit, and that is a key secret to happiness in the Hendler-Voss household these days. Thank you Brenna! And oh, it's absolutely heavenly to massage those chubby little arms and legs...