Tummy Time

Since Mrs. HumorMD is a pediatrician, there are certain mandated activities that HumorMD Jr has to do to ensure that he maintains a proper developmental trajectory. One of these is tummy time. What is this? Mandated time spent on his belly with a pillow under his head. The idea is that he has to lift his head to see anything, which will help him develop his head holding skills. I'm sure this works very well with many kids, but HumorMD Jr has thrown a wrench into this whole process. He loves being on his tummy.

He would lay there all day with his head on the pillow if you let him. He must enjoy scoping out the flooring in our house because he stares at the ground about one inch from his face and just cackles. Additionally, he's decided that repeatedly licking the pillow is an excellent use of tummy time. We have no idea why he thinks the pillow tastes so good, but he would have gone through an entire box of lollipops at this point with all the tongue action that's been going on.

We have made multiple attempts to redirect his efforts but have been unsuccessful so far. I tried pushing the pillow further under him, but that just resulted in him repeatedly face planting into the carpet. He greatly enjoyed this by the way. I moved the pillow the opposite way, but that just gave him easier access to licking the pillow. We have yet to come up with any other solution, and I'm pretty sure that we won't.

Mrs. HumorMD is naturally very concerned about this. Personally, I figure that when he finds something more interesting than the floor or licking the pillow then he will look up. For now, I like to think that we are developing his tasting skills. Who can say that they can differentiate between multiple brands of pillow based on taste alone? In the race for unique marketable skills, we are just innovative parents giving our kid a reason to hold his head high...well, you know what I mean.