Its all about walking 14 month

In my last post I wrote about Fatima on her way to walking. This month she is an expert in walking and that is something she loves to do. Few months back, I happened to read in absorbent mind, the importance of letting a child walk. Maria Montessori spoke about how parents tend to become a hurdle in there own child's development. When a tiny human begins to walk on her own too little is she supported by poeple arround her. often she finds people feeling pity for her. They say '' oh poor little girl, she is unable to balance" "she might fall" '' pick her up and carry her where ever she wants to go, she has difficulty in walking" "sit down, you must be tried" "why in the world is she roaming, she still doesn't have balance". But According to Maria Montessori the more they walk the better it is. They can only gain balance if they get more opportunity to practice this skill. She also says that a two year old can walk up to two miles but his manner of walking and intention of walking is different than us. He walks, takes a pause to explore something new, then walks again. Unlike us he doesn't walk to reach to a point. He walks because he wants to walk. I particularly like this part of Absorbent mind(walking part) which just shows us the importance of walking in human life, Esp. in days where we have all means of transport and we hardly have to walk somewhere. So these days I am just letting her walk everywhere and anywhere. No more carrying. Its just that I need to get a little slow to be with her but in the end with young children, parents need to slow down in everything. Children need some extra time in doing tasks that are routine for us. They are still learning, Being patient and slowing down are must for parents of young children. The only rule I follow in this walk and walk more time is to remove every dangerous or important thing out of her reach. This minimizes the number of times i need to say a no to her as she reaches to something she is not allowed to take. Rest is to leave her on her own.
A continuous observation of Fatima had made one thing clear that she is developing a very good level of concentration - thanks to Montessori system.
It just feels so great to see one's child grow. She is understanding and executing simple commands -like get that cup or give this to someone. Soon she will be an independent girl - I feel blessed.
Story telling is an art! you might have heard this. Sure it is! I began narrating stories to Fatima when she turned 7 month old. I used to narrate her 2 simple stories in our free time. The 2 stories were "the rat and the tiger" and "the thirsty crow". I could hardly believe at that time the level of attention she pays. She listens so carefully that these two stories just became a part of our everyday routine. Each time I narrate to her I recalled memories from my childhood when my great grandmother used to do the same for us. Every evening she used to sit on her old style Indian bed with all children gathered around her, then she slowly narrates the best stories i have ever heard. We all cousins just loved this time a lot. It was such a nice experience as children of all age group get involved in this activity. Everyone has his or her demand for today's story, then she peacefully settles as to which story is today's pick. She used to narrate stories from Quran - stories of Moses, Jesus, Joseph, Abraham (peace be upon them all), of people of cave, people of the garden, and so many others. There were fantasy stories also the one's from- Arabian nights. As I recall this time, I realize this was a mixed age group activity and the real stories surely helped in imagination of the child. I still have imagination in my mind about moses(pbuh) when his mother put him into river nile in a small basket,out of fear of pharoh. The memories of story time by my great grandmother reminds me of montessori mixed age group classrooms and their stress on real stories. I wish today's grandparents take out some time to give this beautiful experience to there grandchildren. - This is how we have our story time with out books.

learning to walk 13th month

Walking child is sure a comfort to his parents. Reaching this milestone is a sigh of relief. I am now officially a mother to a toddler. Fatima took her first steps on her b'day. Several days after this big thing she began to master this new development. She was always found standing, taking few steps, falling, getting up again and trying to walk again. After few days of  this practice she was able to take more and more steps and was falling less. This continued till end of 13th month. Only practice would help her gain balance and more control over her movements. She is still continuing to do the same activities like opening and closing of containers, putting back things, the stacking rings, etc.
This month she also had to go through a difficult phase. In the middle of this month, I had to join a school as a part time I.T. teacher for a period of one month. Three days before the joining date, I started talking to Fatima about this new change. On the first day itself, I realized how hard it is to leave your child in a creche. Several issues just popped up:
Is it right to leave a child so young(1yr) in a creche? what is the right age for crush?
how to deal if the only option you have is a non Montessori creche(esp. after having practiced and convinced about Montessori philosophy for one long year)?
how to deal with separation anxiety?
Is it right to let your child be in a new environment or leave her back home with some one she
already knows?
Am I being too possessive? Is it me who is going through separation anxiety more than my child?
The first week was terrible. I had put her in creche for first day and that eventually became the last day. On the very first day, I realized it is next to impossible to leave your child in a non Montessori environment if you are a Montessori mom. At-least a blend of Montessori and other child friendly philosophy would have satisfied me. But an anti-Montessori environment helped me decided the very first day that she definitely is not going to creche. I will not discuss here what kind of creche that was but it just made me realize the importance of a child led environment over a adult dominant environment where child is too less important. A place where only the physical needs of child are taken care of, killing his real self. Anyway the decision was made. For the rest of the month she stayed with her grandpa, who she was very much attached with. This doesn't mean we din't had to deal with separation anxiety. To be honest, I was more into separation anxiety than her. She being my first child had made me very possessive about her. I feel I cannot trust on anyone when its about her. Several articles helped me during this phase. They just convinced me to let her be big girl without me for some hours as long as the environment is familiar and friendly towards her. Few of these amazing articles are:
http://www.dailymontessori.com/self-development/children-separation-anxiety/
http://www.parenting.com/article/separation-anxiety-age-by-age
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/feelings/sep_anxiety.html#
After following the proper goodbye routine and leaving her in a familiar environment and with a familiar person we got through this one month in peace.
This new toddlerhood bought a new difficulty with it. Seems she doesn't have time to eat. Yes! she is too busy walking! She is eating too little that fear for her health. Again few good articles help me deal with this:
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1008600/how-to-cope-with-feeding-a-fussy-toddler
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile69d.stm
http://weecaremontessori.com/fussy-eaters-toddlers/
http://www.ahaparenting.com/ask-the-doctor-1/toddler-has-become-picky-eater-getting-him-to-eat-
Talking and naming things is on its way. She can very well say mum, baba(father), nanajaan(grandpa), anda(egg) and bye bye. The talks are mostly conversations kind. She speaks, expects other person to respond and then she responds and so on.
Drinking very well with glass, loves to play with water, shows interest in household works and scoping with a spoon are few more things this month.

A month in photos (weeks 45-48)

Color Bottles

first puzzle

first puzzle - circle

First puzzle - Circle, square and triangle

Stacking Rings

Drawer - open and close activity

Play Gym - A gift

Babies Book

Whose Name is my name?

Object Permanence box - Every tiny thing goes in it

Play/ Work Area

Open and Close Activity

little pompoms

4 teeth
weaning chair,place mat
BLW and montessori weaning

fruits and vegetables basket
kitchen utensils
lower kitchen drawers

Fatima's typical Day (43 & 44)

The Schedule:
Every morning she wakes up and give out a cry to let her mom, who is working in kitchen, know that she is up. After receiving greetings, Assalamualaikum (peace be on you), Fatima spends some few minutes in her mom's arms. I read somewhere that for kids 9 mins are really important, 3 after they wake up from sleep, three after returning from school, 3 minutes before they go to sleep. Anyway, later on she moves into the stroller, which is always in kitchen, and explores kitchen utensils or fruits or veggies while her mom cooks. Next its breakfast time, followed by play/work. She does all her activities one after another. When done with all that its time to move to another room to just crawl and explore. This all takes a good hour or two. She also takes a break from all her materials/ work just to watch pigeons through the window. There is this chair she pulls up to stand to look through the window. Meanwhile, she also has her snack. Then comes the nap time. After she wakes up, I let her play first till she gets hungry and then we have lunch. Then I read to her some book or we just lie down talking, story telling, rhymes,  games. She then plays while I do some work. Its nap time again. After waking up she mostly gets into the stroller, as I cook dinner, having her snack. Then dad is home, they play, exercise, talk, cuddle and all of us have dinner. After little play she goes to sleep. The schedule is a bit different when her grandpa arrives to meet her, then she plays with him. keeping up with schedule is only possible it she sleeps early, on time. Otherwise everything just gets so out of hand. Again, Weekends are a bit different. Going out, sleeping before this outing, staying up awake till late night, visiting relatives etc etc.
Activities these weeks:
On a weekend, we went to Cornish. Fatima for the first time explored grass. At first she was uncomfortable to touch it. She place her hand on grass and removed immediately and rubbed her fingers against her palm. After few attempts she got comfortable enough to crawl on it.
Open and close a box! yes this is one of her favorite activities these days. These are the boxes she is trying on:

In and out: One day I happen to notice her putting a small toy in her toy cup. She did it several times which reminded me of nesting cups. I simply grabbed these containers from kitchen and with out demonstration she did the activity. Putting the containers in and out in order.
Her place mat and new high chair, which allows her to have all her meals with family.

On her way to learning to eat with spoon.....

Treasure basket- how to peacefully engage your infant (week 41 & 42)

Its been long since I had made any materials for Fatima, and all this time the treasure baskets where a saver. I cannot emphasize enough on importance of Montessori treasure baskets, specially for moms who really want to engage their little infant for a long time. Montessori treasure basket is traditionally a large wooden basket which has 50-100 items in it. These items are regular household items like brushes, small utensils or kitchen tools, soft toys, varying fabric based materials, rattles/sound bottles, balls, or anything that can be explored by your little infant. The items must be safe i.e. no sharp corners or no choking hazard. Making this basket is really inexpensive and effortless. One advantage, besides exploring, is that treasure baskets keeps y
our baby engaged for like ages. Now there are versions of this traditional Montessori basket like theme baskets or basket with less items (5-20 items). The theme baskets hold items of one particular category like: kitchen items, color bottles, fruits/veggies (real or toy), smelling bottles, soft toys, different fabrics etc. To present this basket sit facing towards the infant, keep the basket in between and slowly take out an item, explore it and return it to the basket. Repeat this with another item and then invite the child to do so. once the child is engaged move your self slowly from the place and let him explore. When finished, return each item to the basket one at a time and keep the basket at its place.
We made a treasure basket for Fatima before (see here), it was kind of a theme basket. Now we have these two baskets for her:
This is a all in one basket. It has some lids, a book, a sensorial ball, a wooden spatula, a wooden bowl with knob lid, a small cup, a teether, some sound bottles, two little rubber teddies, some disks.

This is a gift she received form her aunt. Its a beautiful wood and crochet basket with a hidden section in it. There are some plastic toys (a gift). She loves this basket so much. Fun part for her is to first use the knob to open the lid then to put all toys out and then open the inner section.

One newly introduced basket holds color bottles. I have replaced the object permanence box (OPB) with this basket. She was least interested in OPB, removing it for time being was really needed. The color bottles are just some bottles filled with different food colors.

In my next post I shall be covering a whole lot of things....Insha Allah!

I got a tooth! (Week 39 &40)

Itchy ears and biting behavior, finally the first tooth has cut through those sore gums. After a week of diarrhea and high fever, Fatima got her brand new tiny tooth. Before I write anything else, my apologies for a delayed post. A teething child is so much in need of attention! She was like almost drained. Now that everything is fine its worth talking about how to deal with a teething baby?
My first recommendation would be the teething beads. All I read about these beads is when they make contact with skin they release some oils which tend to sooth the teething pain. Trust me it works! Next thing you want is some ear drops. I have till date not found a one that works..anyway next on the list is some teethers... wooden, rubber and cloth are best.
That is it about teething for now...

Weaning Weaning...I mean is that easy. In our case its easy if it is with hand but with a spoon? oh! let me explain this: Fatima started weaning long back. like at about 5 months old. Since then we offered her a lot of variety of food..Chapatis, other breads, vegetables, fruits, puffed rice, cookies, toast etc etc. She can feed her self with any of these..but when it comes to purees and cereal...dreading. When a puree or cereal is fed to her with spoon (obviously!) she is just interested in eating and once full she refuses to take more and that's it. She never tried to take away that spoon instead she would put her hands in the bowl! Not knowing how to encourage her to wean with spoon, I went surfing online for the matter. One suggestion I liked most was to give her a spoon of her own and keep feeding her. Eventually she might take interest. So these days we have her a spoon and she holds it tight putting it some times in her mouth. She has not, till date, tried to put it in the bowl. I'm really looking forward for ideas on how to encourage an infant to wean with a spoon.

Little more more on weaning: Homemade or Ready made Baby food? This was a big deal. In India there are people on both sides. For a long time we kept offering Fatima just home made food but now she gets ready made food at dinner time. I think a combination of homemade and ready made meals are best...at least this is what I heard from most of the moms. For more on Baby food visit weaning page.

These days she is busy with her two treasure baskets and some time with object permanence box.

Object permanence box (week 37 & 38)

There is so much movement these days. Even after having prepared the whole house for an crawling infant nothing ever seems enough. Fatima is mostly found in corners of the rooms looking for I Don't know what. But this doesn't bother me a lot. I know she needs her space to grow. A little adjustments here and there are fine and so natural. Preparing a house for infant isn't that difficult. trust me! You just need to take a round of your house and follow these simple tips:
1. Make note of all the materials you want to keep in her reach and the materials you want a keep away.
2. Fix place of all your 'Don't touch' materials in upper most cabinets, wardrobe, high tables or in cupboards. These materials can be: your mobile phones, laptops, iron, medicines, any expensive or dangerous stuff. This will avoid most of the running, snatching and havoc.
3. Place all the materials you want her to explore, in her reach. These can be her toys, learning materials, cushions, her blanket, any save furniture she can pull up and stand against, healthy and non messy snack (separately on a table) and other save home equipment.
4. Hide your dustbins and slippers.
5. Arrange some space on floor: Infants need space for movement. Small or big just arrange some tidy area where your child can crawl, move and play. This area must be uninterrupted or least interrupted.
6. Pay particular attention to corners: keep them neat and tidy.
7. Keep your wash room child save or better lock it up each time not in use.

This kind of arrangement will allow you to help your child enjoy her need for movement and will also reduce the number of times you need to stop her or say no, creating a positive environment.
Once you are done with all this, relax and see your child content and happy.
This week Fatima was introduced with Object permanence box. This is not the regular Montessori box. One of my uncles made it for Fatima. He used a very thick foam board to make it. And then he covered it with non toxic cello tape.

If you want to make it on your own, you can use eaither foam board, empty shoe box, or a desk. Below are the pictures for reference:

When introduced, she watched the demo carefully and soon got busy with it. At first I really doubted: can she do this? after the demo I saw her moving the ball slowly between her fingers and top of the box, finally put it through the hole. Even though she doesn't pick this material very often, expecting her to do so in near future.

Crawling Masha Allah! (week 35 and 36)

The much awaited act of crawling has begun.
In my last post, I mentioned Fatima was on her way to crawling and now she crawls! No its not that simple. Allow me to narrate you her crawling story....
Three weeks back, when Fatima was scooting backwards in commando position hoping she would reach her toys which were lying exactly in front of her, she was only getting more away from them. As she moved away she yelled and shouted, getting frustrated. I dint knew what to do and was only left with encouraging her and telling her that she will soon know how to crawl and that she must keep practicing. This scooting backwards lasted for a good two and half weeks.
In the middle of all this we had to travel with a family who had a crawling infant. The two days spent in the journey made everything so obvious. Fatima saw this little girl crawling in front of her....what a good lesson! First time she saw this infant crawling in front of her she paused to see carefully as to what is going on.
When we returned back home she was no more moving backwards, she used to pause on all fours moving in neither direction. Two days latter she crawled for the first time to reach up to her little cousin's bracelet.
At first there were little baby crawling steps. She used to move slowly and carefully. Now she crawls everywhere and with so much confidence.
If you are looking for ways to encourage your baby to crawl, My recommendation is this: Its time to visit a family with a crawling infant. No other lesson would be more promising. Babies tend to learn as they see things happening around. Show your baby a real crawling infant (not a video of course) and that will be all.
I have to go catch her up....

These weeks...(week 33 and 34)

I have absolutely no idea what to write today. These two weeks Fatima had little new indoor activities. We have been traveling a lot and she have been a part of our journey, sometimes silently sometime joyfully, observing. When at home she had her treasure basket, her new board book and almost anything and everything available in her reach to play and learn from.
She is on her way to crawl....hoping soon she will be crawling all around.
She loved it so much at the two holy mosques. I was afraid if she would get disturb with the crowd there but she convinced me on more time...she like people.
We are more focused these days about her nutrition and weaning related stuff. My post on Baby Food here.
Looking forward to some new activities....

what are you playing with? (week 31&32)

With the end of eight month Fatima's Physical development is not disappointing. She is able to move from sitting to crawling position. Even though she dont crawl technically but she scoots backward in the commando position. Rolling over and mini push ups is her way these days. Pulling up and standing is something she wants to do all the time. There is so much movement that she hardly stays still. She is got a new book of her own, a board book with pictures of birds in it. This is not a vocabulary lesson, its just that she shows interest in books.

Check out these amazing new toys in her toy section:

These are actually the models of auto mobiles sold by the company my husband works with. These are elegant and so metallic. She spends quality time playing and exploring these metal toys.

This week she enjoyed cooled breeze from red sea- just getting close to nature.

Babbling continues... (Week 29 & 30)

Papers are of a great attraction to infants and toddlers. The ripping, turning and crushing sound of papers is so much tempting. Fatima has always been looking for papers to play with. We dreaded that she would eat them off while play, so they were kept away from her. But now we give papers to play after observing her so much love towards them. Yes! she did try to eat them away. Under supervision, she plays with a papers for like ages.

There are some new treasures added to her treasure basket. These are little bottles and a tiny cushion. Looking forward to what else can get in..

She is joining us in family breakfast and lunches. It is great time to make her see others eating and to imitate them. She has her own little plate and few pieces of chapati (flat bread) to take her lessons. Even though she is turned 7 months old, she never really showed interest in feeding her self during her meals. So we thought she must get an opportunity to practice weaning. Chapati and other finger foods are best to work with. Other fun stuff can be Murmure (puffed rice) and different kind of breads. Puffed rice are best to work on that pincer grasp. Likewise mashed food is great to encourage sensorial stimulation. Though playing with food must be avoided there can be a little sensorial work.

Puffed Rice

Babbling continues...there are lots of sounds......dadada, mamama, bababa,nanana..... and so many others.

There was also some audio addition this week...3 tiny sound shakers, one filled with rice, second with  sugar and the third one with black gram.

Sound Bottles

The very own cloth book(week 27 & 28)

Our inspiration to Montessori was a Parenting workshop organized by a Montessori School (see my post on it here). One thing which was stressed on by the speaker was that we must start reading books to children once they turn six month old. It was surprising for us. When we questioned him as to what books he said any homemade book would do. Now that was tricky. There are many books available for very young children. The market is floated with all kinds of cardboard books. But the very first book has to be very special - that is what we had in mind. Although we have been reading Quran and other books to her, she dint have her own book. Finally, the idea of her first book was decided after enough browsing had been done on the subject. The idea was to make a cloth book that shows pictures of Allah's signs. Kind of like a nature's book. To make this book more of sensorial stimulation various beads and different textured cloth were used. Alas! the book was made referring to this tutorial. Its an amazing, easy to follow tutorial. Below are the pictures of the pages of the book and their descriptions:
The front cover of the book has written on it - Signs of Allah in Urdu (Fatima's mother tongue).
Allah speaks of all these in Quran.

Front cover of the book

Page1 (Day) has a yellow pompom that represents sun and blue ribbons that represents birds. 

Page2 (night) has a moon made out of silk cloth and few star shaped buttons,

Allah speaks of day and night as his signs in Quran. 

Day and night (Page 1 & 2)

Page3 has clouds made out of towel cloth and few beads as rain.
Page4 has a tree made out of green color cloth ball and brown ribbons.

Rain and tree (Page 3& 4)

Page5 shows water(blue wrinkled cloth), pearls and ship (felt cloth).
Page6 shows mountains

Ship and mountains(Page 5 & 6)

 Page7 Fruits(old dinning table cloth made out of rexine)
Page8 small book with few pages(buckram cloth) and cloth feather pen(this tutorial)

Fruits, book and feathered pen (Page 7 & 8)

Page9 flowers and leaves (velvet cloth)
Page10 camel

Flower, leaves and camel (Page 9 & 10)

 Back cover of the book

Back cover

All of these were made out of the scrap cloths available at home.

Her response to book, when introduced:
Excited to hold it
She liked the sun most.
Was busy with it for more than half hour

Sit and Explore (week 25 & 26)

Fatima is Comfortably able to sit without support. This gave her a chance to sit and explore and work with some materials.
A Cardboard Box with a ball to put in and take out: (a way towards learning object permanence)

A tin box with balls, rattles and teething beads. The sound as she bangs the materials against the tin box helps her learn cause and effect.

The tin box lid that holds all her teethers and ribbons.

These presentation is inspired by the idea of Montessori treasure basket. Mostly in India we have the steel ware which is offered to these young infant. Here we are using the empty cookies tin box.

The excitement and focus she shows towards these materials is so adorable. Its worth watching her "I'm so busy" kind of expression. 

Looking forward to introduce more treasures.....

Living Montessori(Week 23 and 24)

It's been six Months! Alhamdulillah. Today I wish to speak about what I meant by living Montessori. As parents, all of us pay lots of attention to our children's needs. But mostly we end up attending to the physical needs - food, shelter, hygiene. Often we miss out an important part of human need - the psychology. Montessori system stresses on understanding the child psychology. The way to meet this need is simply by observing your child and responding in a proper way. In this post I will speak of how have we lived Montessori so far. Fatima is a child who suffered bad colic right from 3rd week of birth till end of 12th week. Handling such a child would have been a lot miserable. There were days were we could hardly sleep or rest. We continuously had to see her in pain and frustration. Only thing that encouraged me not to be impatient and freak out was that I couldn't risk exposing her to any negatives. The Montessori believe in being gentle and polite help me a lot to sooth and comfort her in tough times. Montessori system made me more patient towards her. We made a lot of materials for her but there were days when she resisted all of these. As soon as she started teething she was never comfortable with any of her hand materials.  In situations like this I reminded my self the Montessori principle - respect the child. Fatima has always been a very social child. luckily we had an opportunity to provide her this kind of environment - an environment that satisfies the need of the child. Respecting the Montessori believe in movement we have never used a crib or play pen sort of stuff which would restrict her motion. Agreeing with the Montessori believe in natural stuff over plastic commercial toys, Fatima had minimal exposure to plastic stuff. She have toys and mobiles made out of natural materials - wood, rubber, cloth, glass, steel and beads. She started weaning when she was ready for it not when I was ready for it, which apparently was before she turned six months. As far as the massage and bathing is concerned, it is something which should be enjoyable and soothing for the child rather than been harsh or hard on child. Indians believe so much in massage and bathing but we must admit few of us go to extremes. Rigorous massage or hot baths are something which must be avoided. A massage should be soothing and comforting. The warmth of the bathing water must relax your child not burn her. At first when I used to bath her, she cried so much. I thought she was afraid of water but one fine day it turned out the water was a bit hot for her. Since that day to this day she just loves bathing - Follow your child. As we are approaching towards the sensitive period of toileting (12-18 months according to Montessori), Fatima has started to use her cloth diapers again, along side the disposable ones. I must admit it was difficult for me to keep her always in cloth diapers which is the old Indian way. So I decided to keep her in disposables for quite few months and then slowly get in the cloth diapers. I will gradually increase the time she will be in the cloth diapers. I am sure this will help me during the sensitive period. Although I want to try out the Indian way of early toilet training, I will make sure not to be pushy. Things are turning out simple and obvious and enjoyable. Thanks to Montessori approach.

Activities these weeks:
She is able to sit without support for good few mins.
Enjoying new foods and tastes.
Playing  and learning from little cousins.

From now on I will be posting regularly. Lovely six months!

Weaning begins....um mm yummy! (week 21 & 22)

Fatima have started weaning. She has been showing the' ready to eat signs' - interest in food, producing more saliva, doubled birth weight. She is weaning only one time each day. We are not using the Montessori specific weaning chair and table. She is getting her food in the traditional Indian way - eating on floor. To help her sit, we support her with pillows. She is enjoying this much awaited experience. She begins her meal with Bismillah (In the name of Allah)and finishes it with Alhamdulillah (Thanks be to Allah). Off-course I say these on her behalf until she is able to say it her self. Below are the pictures of her weaning bowl, spoon and glass. All in Steel - totally Indian.

The little glass takes all her attention. She is on her way to learn to drink from it.
week 22
There is a lot of sitting with support. Even though she knows how to roll over she never is interested in doing so. She neither likes to be on her tummy but sitting is something she is always ready for. Quite play on her back and supported sitting is something she is totally into these days. Based on our observations we do not insist her to be on tummy rather we help her to sit.
See my posts on weaning here.

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!