Baby brain development

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Wow, haven't posted in a while. Been busy moving Connor's stuff out from our bedroom into his own room, trying to start Christmas shopping, my friend Jeff visited a couple weeks ago during the weekend, and the past two Mondays I drove Connor and I out to Steveston to visit Amy and walk around the area, which is very beautiful (the dykes).

Connor is now 3 months and almost 3 weeks old! He now tries to hold things like his toys and his milk bottle. He can't actually hold the stuff but he kind of tries.

I've been reading a book about how babies' minds grow. It's a very interesting book. A couple of interesting things of note, babies are not yet able to regulate their temperature that well (contrary to what I had been told or read before), especially in extreme heat and cold. To warm themselves up, they will move their bodies by kicking their legs and waving their arms. To cool down they will spread their arms and legs out to dissipate the heat. I've seen Connor do this lots of times! Also the body's ventricular system, which controls the sense of balance, can help to improve motor skills faster. The ventricular system is responsible for the Moro reflex and the tonic neck reflex/fencer's pose in babies, here's a pic of Connor doing that when he was about 12 days old (I haven't looked at his hold photos in a while, wow he looks so different.)

The book noted a controlled study of babies that were spun in an adult's lap on a swivel chair 16 times a day showed quicker development of their motor skills - so the more movement, change in balance that you provide baby with could be helpful. Also neat, if you twirl a few times and then stop, your eyes will keep on moving from side to side because while spinning, the eyes are trying to compensate for the movement and provide a still picture, and when you stop abruptly it still tries to compensate for a while. In babies the same will occur, but the eyes will move faster. So I spun Connor around yesterday and yes, his eyes did that! It was neat to see that.

We also learned last week that Connor shall be having a baby boy cousin! My brother Andrew and wife Cindy are due in March. Very exciting!