When my husband was first broached about taking advantage of our son's sponge like brain and to influence him to learn sooner and more he was very concerned and almost was against it.  He didn't want our son to grow up super stressed out at having to achieve and to not be allowed to play and grow the imagination.  I put his mind at ease and told him it was only for a few minutes every day and that it was supposed to be like playing for our son.  I've been giving our son lots of tummy time and trying to help him develop and my husband sees the improvements in our son's mobility and has become very excited and supportive of my endevers to teach our son.  He has even thanked me.   I don't talk about what I plan to start in a week or so with other parent's unless they bring it up though...  I don't want to brag or make them question their parenting.  I'm hoping the results from the programs will be enough of a testimony of my input in my son's life and the value of early learning.  I get scoffed at enough for being a stay at home mom.

I agree that perfect pitch can be taught.  The way I learned a lot of my pitches was from learning how to play the violin at a young age.  That will be the instrument of choice when I teach my son.  You have to really work hard (in the begining) to get the note to sound perfect.  My voice teacher was amazed when I was able to tell her she started a song on the wrong note because I had heard it first a different one and she had changed it.  I attribute it to my violin lessons and I started when I was 8, which is considered late in the music world. 

My baby boy is practicing his crawling and smiles a lot.  He's begining to grab at his toys with meaning rather than reflexes. 

When my baby cries I take it as an opportunity to walk around the house.  I will even do modified lunges and squats with my baby and it helps put him to sleep.  To work my arms I lift him up over my head a lot or from side to side using my abs.  I make up stuff as I go along just thinking of the muscle groups I'm trying to get to contract and using my baby as an extra weight.  A common lunch for me has become a baby spinach salad with flaxseed oil and balsamic vinegar.  In the begining I lost a lot of weight because I got constipated from my c-section and went on an all liquid diet.  I've ben considering looking into kidney, colon and liver cleanses too.  Has anyone tried the Acia berry pill?  I've been looking into it a little and am wondering if it has worked for them.

My sisters loved swimming pool parties growing up.  They would go to the local swimming pool and have pizza afterwards.

Jeans for the most part but I do love skirts.

I am currently trying to go natural/organic/environmentally friendly and I find it a wonderful challenge.  Please share your personal natural remidies, solutions, homeopathic alternatives that you are using in your parenting/pregnancy. 
I'll share a little about what I'm doing first:
Using cloth diapers
Trying to buy organic food
Giving my family massages (Especially my baby).

I am interested especially in natural non-plastic teething solutions and suggestions on making your own baby food.
Thanks!

I'm sorry about your 16 month catching hand, foot, and mouth disease.  I don't know very much about it but I'm sure it's not fun.  I would have to say though that I am very thankful for the freedom of choice on whether or not I have to vaccinate my baby.  I believe that vaccines are a wonderful life saving invention, but I also am not going to get my baby vaccinated with every vaccine out there either.  I support knowledge of the vaccine, what the vaccine is made of and to look into your family history for allergies of the packaging that the vaccine comes in.  My husband's boss's wife is deathly allergic to the packaging that the vaccine comes in and can't recieve one vaccination.  My mother is training to be a nurse and we've talked on this subject a lot and she said more and more nurses that work in maternity wards are choosing to not have their babies vaccinated because of what they've seen happen to others.  Now I'm not against vaccination, but I understand why you need to look into things more and to have the freedom to say no.  Personally my husband was not vaccinated as a baby and he is the more healthy adult I know.  He almost never gets colds and when he does he gets a very mild version of it.  He has said that if he goes to a third world country though he will get vaccinated for what is rampent in the region.  We chose not to vaccinate our baby right away because I want to be able to know for sure that his immune system can handle it and that he doesn't have allergies to them and is able to communicate to me the second things don't feel right.  I also am a strong believer in building up your own immune system.  There are articles out there about eating dirt, mucus and owning a dog that will build it up more and more.  Newer vaccines are more experimental anyways.  They don't know how all the people will react to them, only most.  I also think that it is important to look at where you live and what diseases are prevelent in your areas. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?_r=5
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/135709/benefits_of_boogereating.html?cat=5

My husband and I plan on getting zoo memberships so we can go anytime we want.   We love exotic animals and want our son to discover that love as well.  Another place I plan to takke him when he gets older is the children's museum.  They have great programs and wonderful places for the children to explore and learn without having to be told not to touch anything.

 Baby's bones have red bone marrow in them verses adults who have mostly all yellow.  The red is what makes the bloods cells and as adults it is only in the round part of the hip bones and the sternum.

I live in Tacoma, WA area but frequently visit the Olympic Peninsula for famiily and friends.

I am 23 and had my son at 23!   He's the light of my life besides my husband.

Oregon, USA!

Welcome!  I am so excited to try the Signing Time products!  I took a year of sign language in high school and loved it so naturally wanted to pass on that knowledge to my son and while searching for products yours kept coming up as number 1!  My husband and I plan on purchasing all your dvd's within the next 2 weeks or so to start our son on them when he's around 3 months.   We've been signing milk signs to him to try and get him used to it and he practices moving his hands even if he doesn't know what it means.

My husband and I have talked about this topic a lot because when he grew up his dad ignored him everytime he asked him questions like that or anything about sex and it really cause a huge curiosity that was satisfied by asking his peers and brothers and believe me you can get some really messed up answers that way.  On the other hand my mom was very straight forward with me and I could talk to her about everything and anything and I have never felt like I had to find answers through other people in fact became the person for my friends to ask questions to and I could ask my mom for them.    I have taken many college biology courses and am not afraid to be upfront and very serious with my child as soon as he starts asking questions.  I personally think the younger they are the more innocent they are and can handle knowledge about human body parts and functions more readily than a child who is starting to feel hormones and is very confused.  I would take it as a huge learning oportunity to talk about all the amazing functions of a woman's body and the amazing power to give life.  I'm not saying show them indecent pictures or anything but there are great textbooks and diagrams that can help explain things.  Personally I will always include my morals in the explaining process.  For example "Son, babies are ideally made in a marriage.  Even if that doesn't always happen, it is always best to be married before making a baby."  Of course that's the short exmaple...