Getting to know your child

    Now you just can’t believe where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday you were having your little angel and now they are over a year and almost two already. You won’t believe how fast the time goes. That little one keeps you very busy. I have a nephew that is almost two. I remember getting the phone call telling me I was going to be an aunt. Those nine months went really fast. I love that little guy so much and wouldn’t trade him for anything. I’ll spend every second with him that I can. I just can’t believe how much of a little stinker he can be and how different he is even within the last couple of months. Some of the major changes that I saw in him was he is able to put words together and make tiny sentences and even carry on a little conversations. He is able to say more words and able to understand what you say and will even follow directions, if you ask him to do something. I’ll never forget these days with him.

      His development and skills have improved tons within the last couple of months, even his hand/eye coordination.  For example, we can now pass a ball to him and he can catch it and pass it back to us. Landry loves to play with the little basketball that is the perfect size for his little hands. He is content playing this game for a long time.

       You will notice that your child has changed a lot and getting to the more fun stage of being a parent. You may feel that you’re beginning to find out the real child that you have. You’ll see their personality coming through in their actions and words. You are their first teacher and this is why it’s important to do activities and spend a lot of time playing with them. They watch you and will imitate what you do. They grow up so fast, so enjoy this special time.

Ways to entertain your 1 year old

      I’m sure you have seen your little one is becoming more independent at this stage. They want to keep active for the majority of the day. It’s important to keep them active when they aren’t sleeping. They are more attentive and can stay awake most of the day. They usually only take one long nap after lunch; instead of several cat naps throughout the day.

        They have developed more skills and you are able to do more things with them. Some of the fun activities that we do at our daycare with our toddlers are letting them color.  They love to do this. So cut a piece of paper and put their name on it in big letters. Then give them a fat crayon and they will go like crazy coloring on top of their name. They will know to color on the paper, when they see you as parent writing on the paper. The kids get so excited if you say; “Aww that’s so cute”, “you did an awesome job”, etc. They just love the attention.

          Another way you can interact with your one year old child is to do the shape sorter. You should say the shape to them so they get the visual and the hearing of it. Their brain is developing and it’s a good idea to start young and teach your child. If your child is struggling to get the shape in, then you can take their hand and help him/her and cheer them on that they got it!

          Another fun thing we do with our kids at work is playing with play dough. This will also give the chance to feel different texture. You just have to sit with them and watch them closely, because they have the tendency to eat it. I, as a daycare provider helper like to sit and play with the play dough with them so we have interaction between each other.

          Singing with actions with is another thing that will keep your child occupied for a long time. They love hear your voice singing. Some of the popular songs sung is row-row your boat, itsy-bitsy spider, the bumble-bee songs, just to name a few. They are very entertained if you do the actions along with the words.  If you don’t like to sing or don’t know the words you can also put it on the computer. A great website for toddlers’ songs, stories and just videos is on YouTube. Once you get to YouTube type in Simple Songs, and that will bring you up a ton of different options your child will love.

         I think they are now getting to the fun age to be a parent. They are so fun and you can talk to them and actually try to have a little conversation.  You are able to do things with them instead of just sitting there and holding them. So don’t miss the chance of having a great time with them and enjoy every moment with your child.

1 year olds

     Getting all pumped up or are you a little sad because your child is turning a year old already? This is a very exciting birthday for them and the parents. Many families have a big party for them and its great watching to see how much fun that day is for them. Taking pictures of them eating their own special decorated cake is one of the best parts of the festivity. Standing back and looking at them and seeing how much they have changed over the year. Remembering how tiny they were and when you 1were able to sit and hold them all day. Well, those days are pretty much over now because they are getting much more active and don’t have time to sit and be held. I know this is really sad for some parents to say because their baby is getting very independent and don’t have time for the things you   may have enjoyed most while they were an infant.

     You’ll see a huge change since they were even seven months to nine- twelve months. They are getting much more active and are able to do so many more things and a little independent. This is the time that it’s really important to make sure your house is child proofed. They will show you what you can do and how they can get into everything. By now they should be crawling and starting to be able to take a few steps or very stable to walk with a walker. They will look at you when they are getting into something, and have that smirk on their face because they know they aren’t supposed to be messing with it. It’s really cute the faces they make because they know they are going to get taken away from that object/place.

        Their development has increased a lot. They are talking a lot more and have their own language. They think they are really saying something, so it’s important to talk back to them so they develop more words. At this point in their life, they know the simpler and more common words especially the closer they get that year old point.  They are able to say mom, dad, yes, and no; well at least know what that means.  It won’t be the clearest but it will sound pretty close.

         This age group is a huge jump for being a parent of an infant because they have developed a lot and parents are a little sad because they don’t want their little one to grow up. Now it’s getting that time in their life that will make a big responsibly for a parent. Now you will have to have everything up and watch where they are so they don’t get in any kind of danger. But if your child isn’t walking at a year that’s totally fine. Keep in mind that every baby does things at different times of their life and learn at different pace. Once your child gets the hang of walking, nothing will stop them and he/she will always be on the move. This is a really exciting point for your child because they are able to get things for themselves and they try to keep up with everyone, which they like to do.

         This point in your child lifes is really a big change for you as a parent and for your child. You’ll see a lot of change once they hit their big 1!

Milestones for 7-9 months

As you can see there’s a lot of progress in your child development even in their short life time. They are able to do many more things. It’s just really important to keep up with what your child should be doing at each age group. If they aren’t doing the milestones, it’s a good idea to talk to the doctor about it, because there may be a problem. But don’t stress too much because they can be getting close to doing it, some develop slower than others. It also depends on the parents, and how much they work with the child. This will make a big difference in your child’s development. It’s really important to take the time and practice and help your child develop is a big step in their future life.

      Some of the milestones your child should be at when they are between the months of seven and nine are; they should be banging toys together such as blocks, sitting up unsupported,  progress of crawling( can crawl a tiny distance), and able to wave bye-bye. A good way to get your child crawling is put a toy that they love to play with and place it away from them and tell them to come get it. This is a really good technique to get them crawling because they will get frustrated if they don’t have that toy.

     A walker is a fabulous tool to have when your child is about eight months. This is a good technique to use for your child because they should be able to pull themselves up and able to walk with holding on to it.  This will help your child start the big step in their life known as walking. This is the month that they should begin to start saying a few months such as mama and dada, which is pretty exciting but don’t be upset if they don’t know which one is which. That will talk a little practice until they can separate the two.

      This is the month that they will act like a big kid now. At nine months they should be able to hold and use a Sippy cup and are able to feed themselves with finger foods.  Some suggested finger foods to start off with is small chunks of bananas, or other fruits, just make sure that the peels are off. Pasta noodles, bread, etc. are ok too.  Just make sure that you have everything cut up in small chunks and if it has peels, to take the peels off. Your child does not have enough or strong teeth to chew the food small enough. They don’t have the concept to chew the food up well enough before swallowing.

     You can see within these three months you child has developed a lot of important things. And exciting things as well because it so fun to watch them feed themselves, saying mama and dada and almost to the point of walking. Just keep working with your child and you will see the progress in your child from day to day. 

Activities for 3-6 months

     Now that your child is getting older you are able to do more activities with them. It’s really important that you interact with them and do fun things with them. Even though they are young they really enjoy doing things with their care givers. One fun activity that we like to do at our daycare in the infant room is doing art with them. We do special projects with them which ties in with the season or holiday. We do a lot of art that involves painting with their hands and feet. The cool thing is that you can use their feet and hands into a lot of different ideas. The art project is really made by them. Especially with fall being here, there’s a lot of different neat things you can do with them. Such as drawing a tree branch and painting their hands and putting them on the tree as the leaves. With Halloween just around the corner they’ve done a lot of activities. A fun activity is to take black construction paper and white paint, and paint their feet with the toes towards the bottom of the paper. Then take a black sharpie and make the eyes and the mouth. Now you have just made a ghost. Another great decoration is pumpkins, and you can do that by painting your child’s hands. So you take orange paint and just paint the inside of the palm of their hand, and press it on the piece of paper, and take pinky or finger beside the pinky and dip in brown paint for the stem of the pumpkin.  All of you child’s arts will be just be the most adorable even though they are little and don’t think they could do art. They make an awesome artist. We do a lot of different art crafts in our infant room. These are just a couple of ideas that I thought I would share with Halloween just around the corner.

     Another thing that we do with our infants is that we take them out for stroller rides when it’s nice. They love feeling the nice breeze and being pushed around. This gets them out of the closed in room and giving them fresh air. It doesn’t have to be a long walk, it could just be around the block. They will enjoy every minute of it. Sometimes it’s a good idea if you’re planning on going a little ways to take a cup of water and a little snack such as puffs. Most children love puffs and you don’t have to worry about them choking and it’s really easy to put a few on the tray of the stroller.

     We found out over this past summer that our infants loved water. So when the rest of the center had their splash day, and if it was nice enough they took them to have their own splash day. They put them in their water diapers and took them outside. We put water in containers that they could sit and play with the water. They had the greatest time, they laughed and giggled and had a blast.

     A fun, cheap easy activity that your 3-6 month old baby loves and is easily entertained by for a long time is blowing bubbles. You can even make your own bubbles. Just take dawn dish soap and water and put it in a container and have a small wand and blow bubbles. They love it and could sit there looking at those bubbles float and pop in the air. It gets your child just a talking a giggling!

     It’s so cute and impressive to see what your child can do and are at such a fun age that you can do a lot of fun activities and entertainment with your child at this age. Be creative and le your imagination run.