I do my best to keep Julius exposed to lots of different stimuli. It might seem silly or wasteful to bring a 6 month old to the park or a 1 year old to zoo's an aquariums, Native American reservations, etc. But it also used to sound silly that a one year old could learn sign language, learn how to read, or be potty trained. Heck I could have had Jules potty trained before he was a year old if I didn't listen to people telling me I needed to wait until he was two. Anyways. My point is. By the time my son is 2 I want him to have seen more than his own back yard. Kids are sponges. I'm pretty sure that next year when I bring Jules back to Asheborro Zoo, he's going to remember the polar bear. How could a child who loves animals not remember the GIANT white polar bear swimming from underneath him, coming right up to the glass, playing, and pushing off? Over, and over, and over. The thing was right in his face, and the bears head was nearly as big as Julius is tall. Julius loved that thing (and we got some nice pictures too). Some people, for example James, can remember being as young as one. Why wouldn't a two year old remember it? He would. And so wouldn't a three year old. If you make memorable memories some of them are bound to stick. Even if you kid doesn't remember for more than the first few years of life, exposing him to multiple stimuli will help him monumentally in the end. If I have it my way when Jules is 2 he will be in pre-school and before he's 3 he'll be seeing Asheborro zoo again and doing ziplining with mommy and daddy (and maybe Papa if mum and dad are with us lol). I want the world for my son and I'm going to do my damnest to give it to him. So we're starting early. Because this just in- kids love learning. If you start young your child will love learning for the rest of his life. How can you expect a child to grow and prosper if they haven't done anything other than sit in their feces all day and maybe play ith other babies sitting in feces and urine until they're 4 or as old as 5 and get put in school. You can't. I hear comment all the time about how babies don't need to go to the park, or the zoo, or the aquarium, or meuseums, etc etc. Why is that? Why wouldn't even a 3 month old enjoy those things? Just because they're young and nto as smart as us doesn't mean don't require the same stiumli to make them happy and help them grow.
I remember when we first took Julius out side of the NICU. It was the second time in his life that he had ever been outside of it besides the first time which was the one minute interterval of him being born, swooped away, and brought straight to NICU. And his face was priceless. I think I may even have a picture of it somewhere. He was so in awe of just the hallways. He was like "what is this magickal place that isn't a box full of machines?" It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Besides that, it's proof that when children are exposed to new stimuli it really does make an impact. I was lucky that my child has always been very expressive. Even when he was first born you could always see very vividly what he was feeling or thinking on his face and in his body language. It made it easy to see that things like beaches, and roaring lions really were amazing to him and not just boring. Not all cihldren would be okay with roaring lions, and giant polar bears of course, but every child still deserves good experiences.
I often find myself breaking my pocket to spoil my son with good experiences (of course Vovo and Papa help a lot too!) and I've never felt guilty for it. Spending my last few dollars or borrowing a few to buy my son Easter even though people said he was "too younge" and it was "a waste of money"- worth it. He was only 8 months old but still worth it. I think it will always be worth the money, and the blood and sweat that came with making that money. My son doesn't have to be a certain age for me to decide his experience is worth spending a last dollar on. Anything is worth the smiles that is put on his face when he is having a truly memorable experience. And for most memories I'll be able to forever cherish the memories through not only the pictures in my mind, but pictures from the camera too :)
And you know what they say....
A pictures worth a thousand words....
Jules' face when he saw his first thunder storm. 1 month old.
Especially when there's a smile in it.
Smiling in his sleep, relaxing on his mom. 1 month old.
