The pompom mania (19th and 20th week)

19th week:
This week, Fatima is introduced to a new mobile, the ring mobile. It was a small wooden cloth frame tied to a ribbon. You can tie any wooden bracelet or bangle to a ribbon.

The ring mobile

Fatima is suffering from sore gums. She has got cold and itchy ears. Even though she is not comfortable with any of her teethers except cloth and her hands, she wants to bite everything in her sight. This has created a lot of fuss. She tried biting the bell mobile and the ring mobile but nothing could sooth those sore gums. She starts crying every time she bites on any of these. So  there are less display of Mobiles for sometime now.

20th:
Even though there is less display of mobiles, I made one again. Pompoms are our latest crush. They are so lovely looking and fun to play with. Luckily there are some very very easy ways to make our own pompoms. I followed one of these methods to make a primary color mobile for Fatima. Have a look at it! She was excited to see it and off-course wanted to take hold of it. But I'm saving this mobile for later use. These pompoms will make a good toy when she starts sitting.
Look for How to make pompoms the easy way here (mini pompom with fork), here (just using your hands) and here (the disk method).

Her developments by end of fifth month:
Good hold of neck (almost 80%)
Turning head towards noise.
Able to sit with support
Sore Gums but no teeth yet
Good hand eye coordination
Rolling to side and on tummy sometimes
Stretching out hand and grasping objects

Primary color mobile (pompoms)

A visit to baby Shop (week 17 &week 18)

17th:
Her Talking is on peak. She just can't stop talking to everyone and everything around. Fatima is particularly attracted to her cousin Haroon (age 2.8). Can you believe she actually shouts loudly to call him. When he is around and in her sight, she is calm - no wonder children know their peer.
She has started rolling to side - My baby is growing! Her sleep pattern which was set during her 13th week continued.  We are still using the bell and bird mobile. She is finally able to bat on her bell mobile intentionally. My observation whenever she is introduced with a mobile is this:

1. First time she sees any new mobile, she stretches out her arms and lays them straight on her side.
2. next she starts talking to the mobile.
3. Sometime later you can see her fingers moving, while her hands still on ground, as though she was trying to grasp something.
4. Then comes the unintentional hitting.
5. Next are the unsuccessful attempts to grasp it.

It's fun watching her play.

18th:
Despite of reminding myself so many times that my intention is to make Montessori and parenting easy and feasible and that I am not going to shop, just to inspire others to make things at home, I couldn't resist a visit to a local baby shop. All I wanted to buy was a wooden ring teether. The shop looked glamours from outside. It is one of the best shops in my area. But what was my experience? what did I see?
I was so much disappointed to see that everything in the baby shop was in plastic. All toys, games, chair table set, teethers, everything except a single brand rubber teether and wooden blocks! There was not a single toy in clay or cloth or wood - surprising in a country like India.
India is a country of diverse cultures, colors, rhythms and traditions. It is so bad that we have lost our own colors and traditions (not the insensible ones off course).  We have turned so plastic - No feel, No sense. Its heart breaking that we are not providing our children the real stuff. We returned with heavy hearts and a rubber teether!
See my post on  toys here.

Bird mobile and puzzle ball (week 15 & 16)

15th week:
This week, I had introduced a new mobile to Fatima, the bird mobile (My version of Montessori Humming Bird mobile), in rotation with the previously introduced bell mobile. She loved it so much.

The bird mobile

Another view of the bird mobile

To make this bird mobile, I kept things simple again:

1. Just draw some simple bird patterns on cardboard.  (I drew out 4 different ones)
2. Cut out the patterns.
3. Using these patterns draw similar ones on shiny glaze paper and cover both sides with it.
4. Now punch holes on these birds and tie them to your mobile hanger with strong thread.

See my post on Montessori bird mobile here, this will give you lot of help and options.

Her teeth are on there way and my little girl is so much in need of all her teethers: the Indian wooden dumbbell teether, the beads (homemade), the cloth (which is mostly her own clothes or her blanket.) and off course the best of all nature's teether - her hands. She has started hand to hand to hand passing of all of these. 

One thing I'm still waiting for is - when will she hold her bell mobile??? It's just little unintentional batting on it.

We (I, Fatima's cousins and grannies) have made the Montessori puzzle ball which I was so much in love with. We followed this tutorial and it turned out very simple. It was made by all of us in a day's time. A younger cousin drew out the patterns on cloth, the older one cut them out. stitching was done by me and her grannies. Perfect family activity!
This ball is intelligently designed, as it was so easy, for a little infant like her, to hold comfortably without much dropping. It was a good suggestion to tie it as a mobile. she played with it for about hour. She was trying to hold it and bat on it with her hands, and as she slides, with her feet. She was enthusiastic like a focused footballer, tiny little footballer.

Another tutorial for the ball is here

The Montessori Puzzle ball

Other activities/stuff:
Did I told you - she has developed good grasping power in her right hand. That's such a relief!
This week she started laughing out loud. Any tickling or funny talk would make her laugh out loud.

16th week:
This week, Fatima's Great Grandpa passed away. Nothing much to share! Things remained same as in the previous week.

Its bed time (week 13 & 14)

Back to home after a short stay at grand parents place. Fatima started showing the biting behavior which was actually too early according to some people around. She was biting on her hands and I was alarmed to find a good teether. The following are the teethers I was able to find for her at this stage:

Home made beads teether
A clean cloth
The classic Indian wooden dumbbell teether

(You can find my post on teethers under health page here.)

She was comfortably able to hold her hands together. But I found that she had less grip in her right hand. She was able to hold a teether in her left hand good enough, but would drop it at once if it was in the right hand. Only thing which came to my mind is she doesn't have enough strength in her right hand. After noticing this, each day several times I sat beside her for about 5-10 mins and continuously made her hold the teether in her right hand. My job was just to pick up the teether she dropped and offer it to her right hand. Waiting to see the results!

This week I offered her the bell mobile. I made this bell mobile by compromising one of the major rules related to toys - No plastic. Yes, I tied a plastic rattle to a ribbon - a economical alternative to the bell mobile. If you are looking for more alternatives, of course the nice non-plastic ones, connect to my infant mobile series here. Speaking of Fatima's reaction to it - oh! she paid full attention and concentration to it, a serious look. Whenever She is put under this mobile she just gazes it for long time without moving or trying to get to it. I am waiting to see her hold it. When you are a parent, there is lot of positive and hopeful waiting for everything.

There is so much to write this week, hmmm its sleep time. You guessed it right! As Fatima has turned 3 months old, she is totally ready for good long night sleep. Taking this as a great opportunity, I decided to set her sleeping routine. This is what I did:
1/2 hour before her sleeping time (8'O clock) I used to prepare her for sleep: diaper and clothes change.
making night environment: low lights
feeding and burping
then gently taping her back.

It took me just three days to set her routine. From fourth day onwards she started giving a cry exactly at the same time. Her biological clock was perfectly set for bedtime. Montessori's believe in sense of order is so true. She now sleeps for whole night till 5:00 in the morning.
(see my post on sleeping here )

Good Night!

Dadda is home (week 11 & 12)

These weeks, Fatima and I have moved to her grand father's place as her Dadda was coming all the way. The new room there had new friends for her. It was the roof of the room which was decorated by shining stars and shiny ribbons (only one of which was left), put on an occasion. She was so much happy to see all the lovely starts and the only ribbon left. How incredible! it was exactly the time when I had a chance to introduce the dancers mobile. The metallic paper ribbons hanging through the ceiling were just the need of the time.

Ceiling fan and shinny stars on the roof

Showing dancing human kind of mobile is definitely not my thing. So I was happy with these ribbons. You can choose to make anything, out of metallic or holographic paper, that  moves swiftly in air. The idea of this mobile is to develop hand eye coordination, movement, depth perception, dynamic visual skill and off course concentration. So use your imagination to create anything which works for you. Some examples are: ribbons, simple decorations etc.
If you wish to make the original dancers mobile, look for a tutorial here and an another one here.

Other activities/ stuff these weeks:
Enjoyed dadda's lullabies and hugs
Had comforting Massage and Bath by Grand mother.
Went on shopping for Eid
Received lots of Eid Gifts
Playing and talking with Gobbi mobile, ceiling fan and every human she found around her.

Happy days!