But it hit me today on how much he’s learned and how much he does by experimenting. We’ve been sitting in our playroom for over an hour now and he’s having a ball. Yes, he has a play area upstairs but not as many toys are up there. Down in this room it is wall to wall in kids items, you’ve got board books, an animal bag, baby blankets, soft toys, blocks, stuffed animals and more in one room. There is a smaller room off to the side that has the “older toys” in it, this way the older siblings can play in there without Little A trying to eat everything.

Today though, I noticed that he now picks and chooses. He was going through the toy box of dolls and stuffed animals and tossing them all, but he stuck with two that I think he really likes, a baby doll (the newborn types with no hair that normally come with a pacifier) and a small stuffed bear with a red shirt. Both of these he loved on. I thought how cute, I would’ve taken a picture but he stops every time he sees the camera. I wanted to experiment and tried giving him a cabbage patch with hair, he does not like the dolls with hair.

We’ve got a small child’s rocking chair in the room, he’s figured out how to hold on to the bars on the back of the chair to pull himself into it. Yep, already and at that point he’ll grin and laugh. He knows momma will jump from what she’s doing to be beside him, course he thinks it is to push him. We all know momma is worried he’ll fall out. I never showed him how to get into this chair, before today I would just sit him in it and rock it.

He loves emptying out all the toy boxes, course I think he really likes making messes for momma to clean up. What do you think? Does your child tend to dump out the boxes or are they ones that try keeping everything clean and tidy? I’ve had both types.

So, the next time you have a moment watch your child and see what items he/she picks up and plays with. Or just watch them do something and think whether or not you taught them that or if he/she picked it up themselves. While I know children are smart and teach themselves by doing, it is always neat to sit back and watch. Well my little adventurer has decided it is time to eat so I better sign off.

Post from: Babylune

image from SXC.HU, Carin’s pic

As a mother to four children that I have each breastfed I came to the decision that with my last child I’d wean him before he turned a year old. While I know many believe that you wean a child when they decide, sometimes it is just something a mom must do. My youngest’s first birthday will be on the 14th, which means I have less than two weeks left to wean him. Will it happen? I have no clue, but I’ve been trying.

Before slamming me, my son cut his first tooth at a little less than two months old and has just about a full set of teeth. He loves to try biting me anytime he eats and if he falls asleep while feeding those teeth clamp down on me. Now that you’ve got the idea, I want to be able to do this as soon as possible.

I’ve never had success at weaning my children, at least not without getting mastitus (sp) or getting really sick. Any suggestions? From my understanding they no longer have the pill they did ten years ago with my first child and I know that cold turkey isn’t always the best. So how did you do it? I’d love to read comments as I’m sure there are other moms out there looking for ways to wean their child from the breast to a cup.

The countdown has begun…

(For the next two weeks we’ll be talking about breastfeeding and bottle feeding)

Post from: Babylune