My baby can have measles, or chicken pox, or whatever...

I had a huge scare a few weeks ago when my husband called me at work to tell me that our son has some kind of rash on his entire abdomen.

He told me that my mom thinks it might be measles or chicken pox and so I urged him to take him to the doctor. I also asked him to take pictures of Victor's rash and send them to my sister and me. He was already taking them and so in a few seconds I saw what they looked like.

You can imagine that, without medical training, any rash can look scary, especially when it happens to your child! I immediately started to think weather he got vaccinated against these diseases and I remember that the MMRV vaccine is given only after one year of age, and he was already passed 18 months, so in my mind I really hoped that he actually got vaccinated.

If you read my earlier post on children vaccination schedule, you'll understand why I was so scared. I've been using a different approach to the official vaccination schedule, and I was not sure if he had this one done.

Fortunately, he had it done already. My husband checked the yellow vaccination card and there it was, on the back side of it! What a relief!

In situations like this you begin to understand that being a parent is like a walk on the wire. If you move too much to one side, you're down.

Now, to finish with my scare story, fortunately everything ended well. The doctor said he just has a rash and it will clear by itself by the next day, which it actually happened. By the time my husband and my son were coming back from the doctor, my sister also called me to tell me not to worry. It's not measles, nor chicken pox! Now, it's good she called me, she a pediatrician and I trust her! Too bad she's so far away that I have to actually send her pictures of a rash and ask for her opinion.

Now, for those of you out there that think about doing the alternate vaccination schedule for your children, consider a situation like the one I was through and try to balance the risks.

The official vaccination schedule can be found here.

On trying to discover a child strengths and weaknesses

I’m always upset with myself for not spending way more time with my children, especially with my older daughter, who’s turning five soon. But the day has only twenty four hours and I work and I also have a toddler, her brother, running around and getting into trouble all the time.
So I set up a special time daily when it’s just her and I, and I feel that everyday she’s grown already since the day before. This time is usually around bed time, when we can spend some quiet time together. We talk about anything imaginable, I read to her, and we sometimes share small stories about events that happened that day at my work or her preschool.
It’s a fun and wonderful time for both of us, and I think Adelina is now looking forward to this special time with me.
But I am not only looking for ways to enjoy ourselves during these hours spent together, I also try to get a better understanding of her strengths and also potential weaknesses.
Sometimes I think I can find myself in her, sometimes I believe I can see my husband there, but most of the time it’s just an exciting and new adventure that starts to mold my view of her.
She’s just so multifaceted and unexpected, that I cannot always know for sure what she will do or say next. And although she’s extremely absorbent for anything new, there are times when she just shuts herself off, so much so that she’s missing information she might otherwise acquire easily.
So I also started to better observe her during playtime and learn where her interests rest.
I also let her draw, write and paint as much as possible and she's always able to deliver a strong message thru these media. She seems to be thriving when given a way to express herself. But she seems sometimes shy when directly communicating with others.
These are just a few observations regarding my child. I have a lot more, but I just wanted to talk a little about the complexity of our children and how can a parent get an understanding of their child's actions, words and feelings, how and when to help, encourage or maybe restrict certain behaviors.
By trying to learn what types of skills and weaknesses my daughter possesses, I came across Howard Gardner's theory, stating and classifying different types of intelligence, as shown below:

1. Spatial intelligence - an ability to visualize the space with the mind's eye
2. Linguistic intelligence - a sensitivity towards symbolic language, the shades of meaning and the context, order, and resonance of words.
3. Logical-mathematical intelligence - an ability in maths and reasoning capabilities
4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence - the control of one's bodily motions and the capacity to handle objects skillfully.
5. Musical intelligence – the sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, and music.
6. Interpersonal intelligence - an ability to feel and understand other's moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations.
7. Intrapersonal intelligence - an understanding of the self.
8. Naturalist intelligence - the ability to nurture and relate information to one's natural surroundings.
9. Existential intelligence - the ability to contemplate phenomena or questions beyond sensory data, such as the infinite and infinitesimal.

Now, after observing your children at play, after having conversations and maybe understanding them a little, just shoving their strengths into one of these categories is not possible, as it is more than certain that each child will have a combination of them, or even will have different degrees of skillfulness in each of these areas.
Encouraging them to further develop their greatest strengths is a no-brainer, but what about the areas you feel they don't master as much? Would you just forget about them or would you push them as well, for a rounded individual? Would this last approach hurt?

sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences

I was really busy (you can read lazy) lately and I didn't post anything new.

But today I'm going to talk about the kindergarten cut-off dates.

In California, they ran as late as December 1st of the year the child turns five. But this date is going to be pushed towards September in the future, the plan being to loose a month each year until the September cut-off dates is reached.

In other states, the public schools kindergarten cut-off dates are as follows:

Alabama- September 1
Alaska- August 15
Arizona- September 1
Arkansas-September 15
British Columbia, Canada- December 31
California-December 1
Colorado- September 15
Connecticut-January 1
Florida-September 1
Georgia- September 1
Hawai'i-December 31
Idaho- September 1
Illinois-September 1
Indiana- July 1
Iowa- September 1 or 15
Kansas-August 31
Kentucky-October 1
Louisiana- September 30 (except Orleans Parish 12/31)
Maine-October 15
Maryland-Entering kindergartners must be 5 by Dec. 31
Massachusetts-September 1
Michigan-December 1
Minnesota-September 1
Mississippi-September 1
Missouri-AUGUST 1 (moved from July 1)
Montana-December 2
Nebraska-October 15
Nevada-September 30
New Hampshire-September 30
New Jersey-November 30
New York-November 30
North Carolina-October 16
North Dakota- December 2
Ohio-September 30
Oklahoma- September 1
Oregon-September 1
Pennsylvania (dates vary from district to district)
Rhode Island- Variable from September 1 to December 31
South Carolina- September 1
Texas-September 1
Utah-August 31
Vermont-dates vary from 9/1 to 1/1 Virginia-September 30
Washington- August 31
West Virginia- September 1
Wisconsin-September 1
Puerto Rico- September 1

Anyways, it looks like all states require the children to turn five the year they enter kindergarten, which is sensible.

I'm still torn between sending or not my summer-born daughter to kindergarten this year, even is she will be five by September. She seems to be ready academically, but I am not sure if socially this will be a good step for her. As I was watching her interact with other older girls at preschool, it seems like she tries hard to follow them, but when she plays with her neighbor’s daughter who’s a little younger than her, she in control and she speaks up her mind.

I really think that it's healthier to just wait, than to send her and have her struggle to appear older. Oh, in our area, the trend is to wait another year for the summer and fall birthday kids, sometime even for the spring ones.

Although she already writes well, using the capital and lower case letter appropriately, and she can do simple additions and subtractions easily, the lack of confidence that she shows when interacting with older kids make me believe that for her, waiting another year will be best.

She will start kindergarten when she'll be six and she will find it enjoyable and fun, not hard. She will gain self confidence and the desire to learn and be appreciated for her work.

In the year that she will stay in preschool, I will teach her French, which she loves, and maybe piano. So this year will not go completely to waste.

Also, just having an extra year to play, it's a bonus! She'll never be able to have it later on.