Garden and Quahog Festival

The cucumbers are growing - yellow, prickly and sweet and Silvan is teething - two new front teeth are coming in.
Plus, he is going through is 37 week growth spurt. First his head grew - approximately 1 inch in a month in circumference (said the doctor 1 week back). Then in a week between his doctor's appointment and yesterday he grew 1.5cm in height. He is learning new things like bending down and picking things up, his pincer grip is pretty good by now, etc. It is pretty cool to learn more about these growth spurts, which occur at regular intervals at week 5, week 8, week 12, week 19, week 26, week 37, week 46 and week 55 and further. The crankiest weeks are a bit before that, the head suddenly grows. The actual week number is the clingy week, where the babe needs lots of holding and caring and wants to be carried and nurse all the time. And then suddenly it's over and the baby has learned more things, sees the world different and is a bit more independent.

These growth spurts were first discovered with chimpanzees. The babies "suddenly" start clinging more to their mom, the moms after a while get annoyed, the baby learns more things and is a little bit more independent afterwords.

Every human growth spurt goes along with mental developments about sensation, patterns, transition, events, relationships, categories, sequences and programs (in this order).

Also, during growth spurt children often get sick and they also peak with SIDS incidence.

Interestingly is also, that a lot of moms get very frustrated and annoyed during the clingy phase, the older the child gets it might even lead to clashes and fights. Because the mom "knows" that the child can be more independent. There are successful programs for parents on the brink of being abusive to teach them about these "wonderweeks". Showing that these growth spurts happen regularly, they are normal, include some regression, and should be seen in a positive light (what will my child learn this time around?). But, I totally understand every mom you gets annoyed with their little guy, when all he wants is being held and nurse.

There is quite a bit of literature about the subject, a lot of studies are small, but some are pretty large.



Anyhow here is the creature chewing on some dragon beans. Our garden is doing great, the zebra tomatoes are growing.

And this is us during the quahog festival in Warren. We saw a horse, ate stuffies and chowder, saw the art show and footprints in the sand - so tiny!

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