Sunday, September 7, 2008

I Wanna Rock!

Jelly Bean is a sweet little girl. She is very girly and definitely has that edge of drama queen in her that will keep twindada and me on our toes for the rest of our lives. She loves her stuffed doggy and bears the best and is also known as the cuddle bug. As soon as I sit down, "plop!", she is in my lap.

In general, she is pretty well behaved and usually does what I ask her to do. I try really hard never to compare my girls, but sometimes when there are blatant differences it is hard to not notice them. Peanut is a little more rambunctious and active while Jelly Bean is more reserved and keeps busy with quiet toys like blocks or legos.

But Jelly Bean does one thing that is strange. She likes to rock. And I don't mean the type of rocking where you imagine a baby with spiked hair running around with her air guitar jamming to the latest music. (I am sure that is to come...that is, if it is cool to rock when she is old enough. Is it cool to say the word cool now? I don't know, I am so out of touch with what is hip. Oh, can I say that word anymore? Anyway...)

The kind of rocking that she likes to do is get herself situated on the couch, in the high chair, in her crib, in my lap, the rocking chair (the most appropriate place) and she rocks forward and backward. It isn't a gentle back and forth motion, but rather a forward-SLAM motion. She will rock so hard that she is literally bouncing off the back cushion of the couch.

This habit started off to me as being rather innocent, but it has turned damaging. I have noticed since it has started that she has tiny little bruises up and down the length of her spine. I spoke to the doctor about it and there isn't any cause that they are from an internal issue, but are just superficial.

The weird part is that it doesn't hurt her at all. She isn't upset or doesn't cry when she is doing it. She really likes the rocking motion. I remember when she was much younger, we could bounce her on our knee until our legs were tired. She never tired of it.

What does all this mean? Is this stage a metaphor for what is coming from my sweet innocent girl? Do I have a future rocker on my hands? Can I say rocker?

4 comments:

Carol said...

How old are the girls? Does Jelly Bean like other highly sensory activities like being tossed into the air?

I love when kids are all snuggly!

twinmamabee said...

She is almost 19 months old. She likes to be tossed in the air, twirl, assisted backwards rolls, etc. Quite a little gymnast. I have to say that Peanut likes to do these things, too.

Kim said...

My middle son, who is now 13, used to sit in his pre-school class and rock when his class was counting or saying the alphabet. He was bored. He could count to 1000 faster than the other kids could count to 50 and he just got bored with the repitition of it all. He finally stopped.

He too, was, and still is, happy to sit by himself and do whatever (these days it is video games) for hours and gets annoyed by his brothers. I think it was, with him, a way to bypass the mundane. He is very smart. He is in 8th grade taking freshman English, Algebra I, Integrated Physics and Chemistry and US History I.

Find something that really interests her. With Nicholas it was the video games. Then they have something that keeps their attention. It will pass.

Helene said...

Hmmmm, I have no idea what could be going on. I wonder if it's more of a comfort thing for her. Do you notice that she does when she's stressed out or overwhelmed? Is she very sensitive to noise? That's the only thing that comes to mind for me is that maybe she could be noise sensitive and rocking could be a way for her to tune it out and self-comfort.