Some Strong Words For You

Last night when I was doing some research on the internet, I came across a parenting study that I'd never heard of.

Check it out: "Twin studies show that language development is as much as 50 percent genetic, yet researchers say that the single biggest determinant in a child's language acquisition is exposure to language. Infants who have more early language exposure score higher in IQ tests, perform better academically and are more socially competent. Apparently, every word counts. According to a study done by Dr. Betty Hart and Dr. Todd Ridley, babies who heard an average of 2,100 words per hour scored higher on standardized tests at age 3 than did children whose parents hadn't been as verbal."

So we don't really care about test scores or anything like that, nor are we even looking forward 3 years or even to your first spoken words. We just want you to be a healthy kiddo. And basically the study says that the more a baby is spoken to directly, the better his or her neural development will be. That can include vocabulary later on, but it's just good for the wiring up front. And, really, I just want an excuse to tell you EVERYTHING!

The study recommends that a baby have 30,000 words spoken to them every day!


That sounds like an awful lot, but when you come out, we're gonna have no problem talking to you! And anyway, that's only 20 words per minute. But, of course we can't talk to you 24 hours a day.

I tried doing this once to your mother and she did not approve.


At any rate though, even though we talk to you some while you're in the belly, and sing to you as well, expect to have your ears chewed off (not literally, of course; we don't own a dingo).

If there's one thing your Dad is good at, it's talking. I can talk so well that I even talk in my sleep!

Your Mom and I are going to read to you, narrate what's going on to you and just tell you everything about the world.

It'll be a one sided conversation at first, well, at least on the verbal front. But it will be so much fun just to chat with you face to face.

In no more that 18 days (and more likely somewhere around 11 days), we'll be able to have our first tete a tete, and I can hardly wait.

I hope you like hearing me and your Mom talk, because you're about to get an earful of about 30,000 words a day! (and don't worry, because I can do 30,000 in my sleep!)

Book Learnin' : Ear to Belly

We used to think "What to Expect When You're Expecting" was THE only pregnancy book you needed. In fact, it was really the only viable pregnancy book we had, aside from The Caveman's Guide to Pregnancy, the creepy, hilariously out-of-date, cartoon fetus book Mimi gave us from the 60s ("Freddy the Fetus") and the equally creepy, out-of-date, incredibly graphic photo book from the 70s Bibi gave us.

Not quite the same as Uncle Jeremy's poster.

But, when visiting our friends Iris and David the other day, they opened our eyes to a bunch of really cool books, including one by Jenny McCarthy (who used to be on a poster in your Uncle Jeremy's room...but not for her skills as a pregnancy humorist.) But one of the coolest and most useful books they showed us "Your Pregnancy Week by Week."

Hopefully she's asleep and not passed out due to a severe allergic reaction to daffodils and ragweed.

I bring up these books because, you know kids these days, they'll try anything they see in a book.

In the 13th week chapter of that "Week by Week" book, I saw a picture of a Father placing his ear against his wife's pregnant belly, as if he were on the belly phone. I thought, "well, if that guy can hear his baby's heartbeat with his naked ear, then I should too!"

So I gave it a try, and put my ear directly on your Mom's belly. This was very weird. I heard all sorts of gurgles and squeaks and crunches and sizzles...but no heartbeat yet. I think the book lied to me.

But I'm definitely going to keep trying!

I bet you can hear your Mom's heartbeat...and maybe soon you'll be able to hear us out here in the non-wombed world! So, maybe we should start reading these books aloud so you can hear!