The mystery of the scratchy head...

The boy left large looking scratches in his head. Currently he gets a bit itchy and when he is frustrated --- waiting too long for the bottle or a change, or just sleepy and not comfortable to sleep --- he runs his right hand along his brow and up into his scalp like a spiked vacuum cleaner.

Every day he leaves a couple more marks. His scalp is already dry so that he gets hard skin on top. I treat it with baby oil rubbed in with a quick wash to follow. From time to time I use olive oil and a little vitamin E mixed in with the lighter baby oil/mineral oil.

Washing makes all the difference because when I did not wash out the oil the scalp came back more dry than ever. Just another mystery to do with babies. The boy is learning forgiveness at an early age.

After backing off of that and going back to washing right after oil treatment, his scalp begins to look like usual. That is, initially shiny and red for a few hours, and then a bit crackly as time passes.

The olive oil/vitamin E additives seem to hold off the crackliness a little longer.

The greatest part of the whole treatment: his scratches (at least on the scalp) seem to disappear. He really appreciates the scalp massage too; if I can get him into a comfortable position. There are so few surfaces that I want to get oil onto. But if I hold him in the baby carrier, then I can rub his scalp to my heart's content and he will look up with his big eyes.

Today I rubbed his scalp, and he made to speak a little. There is not much to distinguish the sounds he makes at this point, but it sounded like a tone of wonder. So far he has said 'good' (something I speak to him often), and it sounds like: 'gooooaaaaaaathhh' only softer than that. But when I repeated it to him 'good', he used the same sounds 'gooooaaaaaathhh.'

He is onto different elements of his speaking process most of the time. He has much to learn and he seems to get that.

Today for about an hour I played selections on guitar. Songs like 'so long, it's been good to know you' and 'she moved through the fair' elicit sounds of singing from the boy. Papí beamed with delight during our little session today. He opened his mouth wide and made to sing a bit.

Sometimes he dances there on the bed, and sometimes he even cries because papí forgot something important to baby before launching into his carousing. He will get a generous smile on his face, this will turn slowly and slightly into almost an apology, or an 'excuse me, don't mean to fuss' followed shortly by a full-on frown and a red-faced burst of exhibitory sadness.

I try to make it to him by the time the frown crosses his face, though through circumstance I passed that point once or twice. Crying follows, and after that (my memory of it causes a subtle shudder) if he is still not helped baby launches into bellowing heaves of sobbing.

Fortunately, his outbursts all have a reason and a rhyme to them. All together, I suppose that when the boy exhibits moods more often, I mentioned the sleepy uncomfortable mood he does have now, I suppose he will still have reason and rhyme. These will arise from within the boy, only for papí to guess.

Cheers.