When I was in kindergarten my teacher contacted my mom and implied that I needed to be in a special class or held back because she thought I was slow...not too talkative, not trying to learn to read, shy, etc. My mom knew I wasn't slow because I behaved totally differently at home (granted I had been slow to speak...learning a word then no one would hear it again for ages, then finally one day I decided to use all the words I'd learned in the past two years and began a lifelong habit of nattering on and on) and I wasn't shy or withdrawn in the family. So she insisted they give me an IQ test to prove I wasn't slow.
Of course, mom is always right and I tested in the 130s- obviously not slow- but there was one question that I failed because the test is looking for specific answers...and those are very context specific (have you ever heard of the arguments proposing the IQ tests are dramatically in favor of middle class white demographic?). Well the question was a word association one...what do you think of when you hear the word 'screen'- the answer sought was window...but as I had just spent the summer camping with my family I said 'tent'.
Anyway, I think IQ tests also have a lot of pattern recognition parts and if I had to take one now I wonder how I would do as I have completely failed to recognize a pattern for the past few weeks.
For quite a while now when I lay down to rest during the day or to go to sleep at night I get to enjoy this baby doing some amazing acrobatics in my belly. But sometimes he gets pretty still and then it is just a very small, rhythmic movement down lower and I've been stumped as to what the heck he could be doing over and over...I've thought maybe it was something my placenta was doing, or perhaps he was just making small movements with his hand...
Probably most of you who've had a baby already know exactly what it is, but I truly didn't recognize this pattern until last night (I'd score much lower on a IQ test these days with my pregnancy brain)...hiccups!
Now that I know where his back is I put my hand on there last night (and again this morning when I woke up to him having them again...and then I woke up Tim so he could feel them as well) I could completely tell that is what is going on. Incidentally, Tim HATES is when he gets the hiccups...he's normally a very calm person but when he gets the hiccups (which thankfully doesn't happen very often) it actually gets him ticked off...which I probably don't help because I think it is highly amusing that it can cause him such angst.
Kindergarten turned out great...got a crush on Gary when he dressed up as a vampire for Halloween, met my friend Abby who had the curliest hair ever, told my first lie (that I remember) trying to convince my teacher that the dried up Elmer's glue blob I had put on my finger nail was really a press-on fake nail that my mom had given me, ate green eggs and green ham after our story time was that story, and had my mom be a volunteer at Christmas time and she made everyone in the class brown felt gingerbread men with red rick-rack edging and ceramic Santa boots with everyone's names on them to take home as ornaments - I still have mine and use them every year on my tree.
So I have high hopes that this baby boy will also be a great joy this coming year...and perhaps I'll make him a few ornaments of his own.
Oh, yes -- Elsa had hiccups in the womb for what felt like ALL THE TIME! They say it can mean the baby will continue to have hiccups fairly regularly outside of the womb, which did prove to be true for Elsa. But they eventually grow out of it...
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