Baby J 9 1/2-10 months

Month 10 has been full of changes and major leaps in development for Baby J.  The major thing for him is that he is now on the move!  In one weekend he went from only being able to sit and reach for things on one knee to crawling, pulling up and cruising.

I was just starting to think that this pull up bar was not really worth the time and money making it when Baby J totally proved me wrong.  At around 9.5 months he started showing an interest in pulling up.  He was too short to reach the bar from sitting so I put the stuffed elephant below the bar for him to sit on.  It totally did the trick and he was able to pull up and have a soft place to land.  Now he can pull up on the bar no problem and he loves to do squats and cruise along it.

Baby J loves to use his walker waggon.  Although Sweetpea is not really interested in it anymore since she started walking she all of a sudden wants to use it when Baby J uses it.  Here they were working together pushing it which was so cute but most times she will push the other end and bowl Baby J over!  She better do it while she can because soon Baby J will be as strong as her!

Although he is moving now and can get to whatever he wants, Baby J has still maintained his focus.  He will move over to the item he wants and then spend time interacting with it.  These two materials that I originally put out for Sweetpea he loves to do.  He is definitely in a sensitive period for putting things into containers and small openings. 

I was surprised that after a demonstration and some experimentation he is able to now easliy put the stars into this slot.  He is also now able to put the rectancluar prism into the imbacure box.

We are still working with feeding himself at the table and most times I am able to put the food onto the spoon and he will take it out of the bowl.  He is starting to put the spoon back into the bowl but this happens about 50% of the time.  He is pretty excitable and we usually end up with the spoon on the floor several times throughout a meal.  If I find that he can't handle the bowl on his table I will remove it and just hand him the spoon for a few minutes and then let him try again.  This seems to work.  I will leave his glass on the table and offer it to him by asking him if he would like a drink and then putting it in front of him.  He will lift it and take a drink and sometimes return it to the table gently.  Sometimes though he will smash it down onto the table with gusto like he's just finished a shot of Tequila and he's all proud of himself!

 

Baby J is a super potty pooper!  Since starting him on the potty at 9 months he's done about 5 poos in his diapers which is pretty amazing!  At this point I'm not concerned with catching the pees and anything he does I consider a bonus.  He has definitely made the connection though which before having done this I never would have believed a baby of that age capable of doing.  It just blows my mind how much infants are really capable of doing if we just give them the right environment to do it in!!

 

Baby J continues to delight us with his extreme excitement and joy for everything!

Extensions?

I set up a new activity mainly for Sweetpea this week. I cut a hole in the side of a large milk jug and popped some clothes pegs inside.  The object is to drop the clothes pegs down the top and retrieve them from the bottom to repeat. 

I introduced the activity to both Sweet pea and Baby J.  Sweet pea could do it with some concentration but the container is a bit too high for Baby J. 

Throughout the morning many things were being done with the "material" besides what it was intended for.

 

Bringing the clothes pegs over to the vent and trying to drop them through the slits, carrying them and dropping them all over the house, trying to eat them,

 

holding as many clothes pegs in your hand as possible and carrying them everywhere, dropping them in the walker waggon, trying to drink out of the milk jug.

 Baby J even managed to get one of the sensory bottles inside the milk jug!

And then just when I'd given up hope.....

With these littles the possibilities are endless!

Baby J 81/2 to 9 months interests and activities

Baby J 81/2 to 9 months

 

As I was preparing to write this post I realised that I hardly have any pics of Baby J "in action".  I'm so busy taking pics of Sweetpea for her parents I haven't taken hardly any of Baby J.  I will try to be more conscious of recording more of Baby J's efforts in the future.

 

I would have to say that my main observation of Baby J is that he is a details kind of guy.  He loves to explore all kinds of small details of any object he picks up.  He will usually spend several minutes or more exploring each item.  He is not crawling yet but does move around on his knees to reach things and rolls over to get to things.  I'm not sure if his attention to detail and focus on individual items will change once he can move around with ease.  I'm wondering if this is just part personality and part the fact that he has been given materials to develop his focus and concentration since birth.

 

Baby J loves the cylinder imbacure box and has spent so much time trying to figure it out.  He will spend sometimes 15 or more minutes with the material.  He has now mastered it and I've introduced him to the rectangular prism.  He has managed to get it through the hole once or twice but not consistently. 

 

He also enjoys the egg and cup and the peg and cup and can do both easily. 

 

 

 Baby J loves the stacking cups and can put several of them into each other.  He likes when I build a tower and knocks it down.

In general he is trying very hard to move but just can't seem to get past moving all the way forward onto all fours from a sitting position and then sliding onto his belly.  He gets soooo frustrated and it is painful to watch him do this over and over.  I seriously can't wait until he figures out how to crawl!

 

I have been so focused on Sweetpea this month that I can't really think of anything else specific that Baby J is doing although I know he has been doing lots of things!  Next month will be more evenly recorded for sure!

 

 

Sweetpea 12 months interests and activities

 

I was hoping to post about what we've been doing sooner however better late than never!

 

Sweetpea 12 months

Sweetpea is now 13 1/2 months but the post will be about when she was 12 months.

One of Sweetpea's favourite things is to take objects out of containers and put them back in.  She loves to do this with all of the baskets.  I have set up a basket of small Schleich type animals for her to play with while she is on the potty.  She loves to take them all out and then put them back in or transfer them into another container.  Although it does seem that she likes to stop the process when everything is out : ) 

 

One activity I set up for her is this tissue box with some wooden coasters. 

  

 

After she'd had lots of practise with in and out I thought I would she how see would react to not being able to see what she was taking out.  I introduced this bag with a few different shells in it.  This is somewhat like the mystery bag that older children use where they try to guess the objects they feel.  In our case it is purely for discovery. 

 

I introduced the bag by calling her over and asking her if she would like to see what was inside.  I opened it enough to put my hand in, searched around for a second and pulled out a shell.  I looked surprised and examined the shell for a few seconds.  She kept reaching for it and after I'd finished examining it I gave it to her to examine.  I then opened the bag quite wide and offered it to her.  She put her hand in just a little bit and then took it out.  I repeated the activity myself again and then offered it to her.  This time I opened the bag quite wide so she could get a peek at the contents.  She put her hand all the way to the bottom and got a shell.  Sweetpea and I repeated this several times and it held her interest for several minutes.

I now change the objects in the bag every week but I think it is still a little early for her.  Occasionally she will bring the bag to me but she wants me to pull out the objects or if I encourage her she will take objects out if I hold the bag wide open.  She also enjoys putting them back in.

 

 The treasure basket has now turned into a language basket as well.  I put one type of item in the basket each week.  When introducing them to Sweetpea I find it works best if I let her take out the item and hand it to me first and then I name it.  This basket contains items of clothing.  Although she is not showing a lot of interest in language at the moment I know she is absorbing everything.
 

 

 Sweetpea has mastered the cylinder imbucare box so I put out the rectangular prism as well.  At first she was interested and could do it most of the time but she has now lost interest and if she can't get it the first time she will move on to something else.  I have just taken them off the shelves and will bring them back in a couple of weeks.
 

I started Sweetpea off with this small stacker.  At first she enjoyed taking all of the rings off but after a slow demonstration of how to put the rings back on she easily mastered it and we moved on to a larger stacker.

 

Although I don't have a picture by far Sweetpea's favourite material is the stacking cups.  They are usually the first thing she goes for and always takes them off of the shelf.  She can take them all out one by one and can also put them back together.  I stack them up for her and she takes them off one by one instead of just knocking the whole tower down. 

A favourite game is to hand items back and forth.  This has been great for her learning to give things up and she like to hand things to Baby J as well but she gets annoyed and frustrated if you don't always take the item from her.  We have been working on her putting the item on the ground instead of handing it to me or if she isn't doing a work then I will name whatever she is trying to give to me instead of taking it.  With perseverance it is starting to work.

 

Sometimes I have activities that I'm so excited to put out for the babies and then once they are on the shelves they aren't nearly as interested as I am excited.  Some things are just epic fails.  Others I take away after a few days and will bring them out again in a few weeks.

Here is an example of one said activity.  It is just a Pringles container with the bottom cut off taped to the side of the shelves.  I used rolled up baby socks for her to drop down it.  She was not as excited about it as I was : )  She would however drop a couple down every so often as she was coming back or going into the kitchen.  Baby J was very interested in this and would try his hardest to try to get the socks in but I had hung it a bit too high.  Eventually he tried to pull up on it to get the socks in which worked for him but he ended up pulling it off the shelf.  I will bring it back in a month or so I think.

 

 

The number one thing that Sweetpea has been working on this month has been trying to walk.  She is confidently cruising around all of the furniture but the best ever thing has been this walker waggon that Baby J got for Christmas.  It is perfect for her.  You can put as much weight into the waggon as needed and it is incredibly stable.  The best part is you can take it outside and take your best bud for a walk!

 

 

I have really enjoyed watching Sweetpea develop and learn this month. Despite being very focused on learning to walk she has also been developing her concentration and focus with the materials as well as her fine motor skills.

 



Infant materials 9 and 12 months

Here are the materials we started off with on the shelves at the beginning of January.  The shelves are from Ikea and are bolted to the wall.  I really like them because there is a separate compartment for each  material which makes them easy to keep organised.  They are also great for pulling up on and cruising along.  Both Baby J and Sweetpea have been shown all of these materials.  Sweetpea is cruising so is able to get anything on her own but Baby J still has to be given something unless I put him beside the shelves.  

 Starting on the top right.  A simple empty wipes box with a long silk scarf inside.  I thought this would be a bigger hit than it was actually.  They both seemed to be more interesting in the lid than pulling the scarf out.

This is a Pringles container which I covered with material.  I poked a hole in the lid and the bottom and threaded a long ribbon through and then tied  beads to the ends.  Both babies enjoy pulling the beads from one side to the other.

Stacking or nesting cups from Ikea.  I figured a close up pic wasn't necessary.

This material is one that I ordered on line.  It is basically a bead on a serpentine wire.  I've put this on the shelf and once they have mastered this I will put out a more complicated one that we have.

Sensory bottles.  I bought these plastic travel bottles from the Dollar store.  They contain colored water, beans, oatmeal, feathers and dimes.  

On the bottom right are soft stacking blocks from Ikea.

A basket of tactile beanbags.  Each one is made from a different textured material and filled with rice.

The treasure basket.  Each week I change this up.  Sweetpea is in the sensitive period for language so I am now doing a theme for each basket and presenting it to her with the first period lesson.  This basket is for bathroom things but we've also done one with kitchen items.

I found this on a local used toy website.  It comes with a hammer but at the moment I've just introduced it without and the babies push the balls with their hands.  The balls roll out the bottom.  This is a favorite of both babies.  Baby J also loves to hit the balls together as they make a wonderful noise.

The ball or "rolling things" basket.  Baby J is desperate to move so I put together this basket of ball like objects for him.

Homemade Imbucare box with cylinder block.  To make these I bought three wooden tissue boxes from the craft store.  My husband cut a large circle in the side and covered the top with acrylic with a hole cut into it the size of the block.  We made three of these but I have just introduced the first one.

So those are the items I started off with.  It seems like a lot but I only change one item a week plus the treasure basket so both babies have a chance to become very familiar with the materials and come back again and again to work with them.  I will be posting about our experiences with this environment soon.  The homemade materials come from ideas from around the Internet.