Wordless Wednesday - Baby's 1st Ice Cream Cone @ Chinese Restaurant (14 Months Old)

We haven't taken our baby out to a restaurant in 6 months. 1st because I get all freaked out that he's going to get sick from touching and trying to eat everything he touches. 2nd because there are no organic food restaurants where we live and 3rd because I worry about how the food is cooked ... I was outnumbered this time and ended up giving into my husband and 12 year old! We took the baby to have his 1st Chinese restaurant experience (scrubbed the table and chair with Purell). He loved it and was such a good baby!

Wordless Wednesday pictures of our 14 month old eating his first ice cream cone (well, it was really frozen yogurt). We enjoyed watching him!

Mama, what is this?


Ice cream? I'll just give it a little lick, ok?


Can I use it as a microphone ... "La La La"?


That is what cold is ...? This is a brain freeze?


OK, I'm gonna slow down and use my finger as a spoon :)

I was amazed by how well he did (he is a very active toddler after all). He was open to trying a variety of foods, though did not like and threw the Chinese donut first (both of his brothers always liked them best). This is the first time that he did not throw his plate of food (as he does at home). He actually ate off of a plate for the entire meal. He did make a little mess on the floor and his face, but no food on his clothes. I could not believe it! I was extremely proud that he DID NOT want to get down and run all over the restaurant.

In Motherly Love,

Mother Baby Child

13 Month Baby / Toddler - Extreme Child Proofing To Keep The Baby Safe For Home

Child Proofing AGAIN | Child Safety for 13 Month Old Toddler

It feels like there is nothing that we can do to keep our 13 month old baby out of mischief! He is just one curious little boy that is usually on the go from 6:30 to 7:30 A.M. until he crashes around 4:00 P.M. He will nap for about an hour and then do it again until around 9:30 to 10:00 P.M. I feel like we are living in total hyper drive right now and there is really not much that we can do about it because our toddler only understands but so much at this age.

Don't get me wrong! It is truly beautiful to watch him exploring new things in his world. I am amazed by how we can literally see the "light bulb going off" when he discovers his own capabilities; his adorably innocent and transparent expressions are how I can see what he is thinking and understanding before he takes off like the Roadrunner to do the next thing. Our 13 month old is not only cute and curious, he is frighteningly smart and stubborn about what he does understand. This makes him an unstoppable opponent these days, therefore we had to childproof our home AGAIN.

It was just one room that needed the "toddler make over" because the rest of the house is off limits and we did childproof months ago when he was learning to crawl. We have given him the entire living room which is really like having two room because it openly connects to my 10 x 10 office (we just do not use the sliding doors). In addition to that opening, he can pretty much see what is going on outside of the living room because it has no doorway (just one wall where the entertainment stand sits) and opens into the kitchen and hallway.

Initial Child Proofing Done Before He Turned One Years Old

We removed just about everything from the living room (no coffee table, end tables and accessories). All that is left in the room is low sitting leather couch on one wall, glider rocking chair, one lamp, entertainment stand w/ older TV, Today's Kids Play Yard, pack n play that holds his bin of toys and a basket of toys w/ my Legmaster to the side of the entertainment stand.

• We had to put the childproof caps into all of the electrical sockets when he was around 5-6 months because he started going for them as soon as he began crawling.
  
  
• We painted because he started licking the walls while using them to stand up. We had only cleaned the walls when we moved in to this home, but felt more comfortable giving the walls a fresh coat of paint "just in case". He eventually stopped licking the walls.
  
  
• We had to teach him not to eat the door stopper, though did end up switching to the flexible coil door stopper which he has stretched and smashed like crazy. He has finally stopped trying to use it as a teething ring. This coil type of door stopper is flexible, so it never went to the back of his throat like the straight, solid, metal ones.
  
  
• We bought a pack of floor pads (found in the exercise department of Walmart for $20) to avoid any more head and tooth injuries. He was extremely accident prone when learning to sit up, crawl and walk. He chipped his front tooth just after it first came in. It is a slant that still looks OK, but he sometimes pokes his tongue with it :( These gym mats helped a bunch and we ended up getting a 2nd pack when he was learning to walk. They are not as colorful as the baby / child mats, though they are durable and have enough cushion for small knees and to break impact during falls. They are larger than the baby mats, so less cleaning time. * We did have to take the trim from around the edges because he was pealing the strips up to chew them and he has bit off a few of the block edges, but stopped that obsession around 12 months. These mats are a "must have" if you have tile or wood floors.

(Best baby floor - Get them @ Walmart for $20 in the exercise department)

Toddler Childproofing Needs (13 Months)

#1 - Turned the couch around and use it to block the open wall ...

As I mentioned above, we turned his favorite couch around (the love seat) so that he'll stop climbing it. He almost flipped over the back of it one day, so this was necessary. It also worked out that the couch was wide enough to block the opening between the living room and office entry way. We also had to sew the hole he picked in the back of the couch after we turned it around.

#2 - One room opposed to using the play yard or pack n play to contain him.

As I mentioned above, he now has the whole living room opposed to just the space of a play yard or pack n play. We have the love seat blocking him in to the living room, though I can see what he is doing at the times that we are not in the actual living room with him. I just have to slide it over to open the area up and combine the two rooms (which I need to do sometimes, so that he can walk back and forth to give his hugs and check out what we are doing :)

#3 - Turned the Today's Kids Play Yard into a gate

Last week, my husband drilled the Today's Kid Play Yard to the walls because he kept breaking loose when we had it wedged between the couch (on one side) and the entertainment center (on the other side). It is no longer a hexigon, but one long panel that makes a semi circle, straight or edged panel depending upon how the baby pushes on it. Now that the play yard is drilled to the wall, he cannot leave the room on his own and we use one panel as a door or just step over it. I would like to mention that this Today's Kids Play Yard is one of the best yard sale purchases we made. It has heavy plastic panels that permit you to combine more than one set to make a larger play area. This is what we were going to do if drilling to the wall did not work, but it did :)

#4 - We needed to baby proof the entertainment center again.

We had already cleaned out the drawers of the entertainment center, but our baby started opening them and excessively shaking the doors (that close in the TV). It has finally gotten to the point that we needed to take the knobs and both doors off the entertainment center. We also had to put our baby's books in the cabinet area because he is still trying to chew on them and rip pages. This works out well because he will stand over there to let us know that he wants to read his books. We also have an older tube TV in the entertainment stand because I am less worried about HD quality than I am his safety. This TV is heavy enough that he cannot shake it down (as he does try to lift and shake the entertainment center) and he does hit on the TV when he gets hyped up, so I am glad we left it in the living room.

#5 - Blocking the electric sockets AGAIN ...

We have had white safety plugs in all of the wall sockets since he started crawling, but they are almost useless at 13 months old. He can pull the safety plugs out of the socket, so we had t position all furniture to block those safety plugs. It gives piece of mind, but we still have to watch because he tries pushing the couch out of his way to get to the plugs on the one wall :(


In Motherly Love,

Mother Baby Child

Your Baby Can Read - Week 3

Your Baby Can Read - Week 3 - 1/30/2012 to 2/5/2012

This is our 3rd week using Your Baby Can Read and I am excited to share our experience with the program. It is becoming part of our baby's daily routine and he seems to enjoy watching the video now. I did not think that he liked the video as much as using the Sliding Word Cards in Week 1 and Week 2, but we can see how relaxed he is now. His father and I discussed a few important details as to why he is starting to pay attention and enjoy the system more.

Sorry that I posted this late ...I had to get all of the notes and video together :)

1. Your Baby Can Read uses real children as examples. His other programs use puppets and animated characters, therefore Your Baby Can Read was not as attractive to him at first, though has gained his focus by week 3. This is not just because of repetition, but because he notices they are real children making example for him. He watches them intently and sometimes copies what they say to do. His little eyebrows are raised the whole time he watches the Your Baby Can Read video and our baby is NOT easily distracted while watching Your Baby Can Read as you can see in the Week 3 Video below:
   
   



2. Your Baby Can Read uses real animals. This is the same concept as I was explained in #1 except they are animals. I was irritated at first as to why they would include animals as part of the first set of words, but our baby loves seeing the animals as much - if not more - than the children. In fact, he clearly recognizes and makes the sounds for elephant, tiger, cat and dog by this 3rd week. I am sure that the past months of exposure to these animals have been beneficial as well, BUT he makes the connection while doing the Sliding Word Cards and when we read books. His animal book is now his favorite book. "Mama Love Me" is his second favorite book. I think it's because they are elephants as he made an elephant sound when he insisted that we read it.

This is what I noticed after using Your Baby Can Read for 3 weeks:

• Our baby sometimes lifts his arms or touches his nose while playing alone, and then laughs out loud. It is as if he is thinking about it and then smiling because he did it.


• He sometimes walks up to me and does a little growl (Tiger) to try to attract me to play with him or get his animal book.


• He pointed to the cats in the magazine and then looked at me (as if to say, "do you see it?")


• He is starting to talk back to the Your Baby Can Read video. Just "hi" and little babbles as if he might be repeating.


• He now pay close attention to his Baby Einstein Wild Animal Safari where he used to run around the room and ignore it.


• He says "Hi" and does "Clap" on demand now, though still does not put those our when doing the Sliding Word Cards.


• He sits to watch Your Baby Can Read when not in the high chair, too.

Well, this sums up our 3rd week using Your Baby Can Read. As always, I am interested to know what your experience has been with the program or if you are thinking about trying Your Baby Can Read. Let us know what you think!

You can learn more about this Early Reading System,
by visiting the Your Baby Can Read page!

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Your Baby Can Read - Week 2

Your Baby Can Read - Week 2 - 1/23/2012 to 1/29/2012

I am now reporting our son's second week using Your Baby Can Read. He just turned 13 months old and has been using this early reading system for 9 days as of 1/29/2012 (he only watched the video and used the sliding word cards for two days on the first week). I will post these reviews on Tuesdays, so that I can share the information during "Teach Me Tuesdays" when I have the time. If you missed my first blog post and video, you can read my last report / review on the Your Baby Can Read - Week 1 Review page. Here is the 2nd week report and video based on his using the sliding word cards and watching the video 5 days.

END OF WEEK 1 SUMMARY & WEEK 2 RESULTS

On Monday, January 23, 2012, I made a 1st Week Video of our baby's previous weeks results. He said "Hey Baby" and sang "Clean Up" while fidgeting, though did "clap" on demand by the end of the video. That was a summary of the 1st week's progress and started our second week with results to improve upon. WEEK 2 RESULTS- Your Baby Can Read has helped add "cat" and "dog" to his vocabulary. He also growls when he sees a picture of a tiger and perks up when he sees an elephant. Our baby will sometimes lifts his arms when I say "arms up" (which we have been teaching him since he was a few months old, but he would not do it until this week) and he has started clapping on demand a lot more now. He already knew how to say "hi" and "hello", but now he says "hi" whenever we come in the door or a room. He does not always wave when saying "hi", though sometimes when he wants our immediate attention.

WEEK 2 YOUR BABY CAN READ VIDEO OF OUR BABY



VIDEO NOTES: If you listed closely, he replies "a dog" to my first attempt and I totally missed it because I was trying to have him say "cat" in this video. He says "a dog" once when he had the yellow toy to his mouth (as if he thinks them in order" and then he repeats cat several times; one time saying "a cat" because when we ask "what is that" (when reading an animal book) the reply would be "that is A cat" opposed to "what does this word say" where the reply is "cat". I mistakenly called Caillou's cat "Rosie" instead of Gilbert. He still went to the TV to see, though typically will touch the TV screen when I ask "Where's Calious's cat Gilbert". Either way, "cat" is a word that he says all day long and gets excited to see in books or when we do the sliding word cards.

SLIDING WORD CARDS & COMPREHENSION

I have noticed that our baby REALLY enjoys the sliding word cards. He looks at the words as intently as he does the pictures. He sometimes laughs in anticipation of a picture being shown and / or gets really excited. In fact, he seems more excited to have us understand him on the few things he says more than anything. If he catches us look at him, he will say one of his new works and the say "clap" while clapping (as if to say YEAH!). It is really cute and encouraging; therefore, I am anxious to see what his vocabulary and enthusiasm for learning will be like in a few more weeks because even his focus while reading and playing on he mat, with me, has improved. For example, he sat and stacked rings on his own the other day. He never slowed down enough to do that before. He also opens and closes the animals on his Playskool Busy Basics: Busy Poppin' Pals. He was not doing this a week ago. * I am not saying that Your Baby Can Read definitely made these improvements in him; MAYBE it did help stimulate his understanding / comprehension (logic).



As I mentioned last week, our baby does better at watching the Your Baby Can Read video when he is sitting in his high chair and when I am not participating during that time. I did test this again one day. He started out well by watching the video while sitting on his boppy pillow. He eventually stood up and started walking around the room, though sat there for about 1/2 of the video. While walking around the room, he did turn to watch Your Baby Can Read at certain points in the video. He turned to watch the 2 songs and he watched the portion where Your Baby Can Read asks the baby to choice between two words to determine which is the correct word.

Want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!

Let's compare notes! Are you finding Your Baby Can read useful for your child? Do you have a blog post or video to share with us? Please feel free to add the link and let us know what you think of Your Baby Can Read!


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Your Baby Can Read - Week 1

Your Baby Can Read ... Can Our Baby Read, Too?

Watch 1st Week Video Towards The Middle Of This Blog Post

I am embarrassed to say that I am addicted to infomercials and do watch the commercials between shows. I'm not as bad as my mother who buys from the TV, but I have been more than grateful for the Swivel Sweeper, Chopper and other great As Seen On TV products that she has bought me over the years :) My personal favorites are the Baby Bullet, Wen, Bare Minerals and Your Baby Can Read commercials. The funny thing is that our baby watches commercials on Sprout, too. He will "stop short" to watch the ones he likes and ignores me until they are done. Here I was thinking that the companies were advertising the Baby Bullet and the lunch packs to me, but my little guy likes them, too.

I supposed this is a case of Like mother, Like son ... LOL.

Anyways, I have been addicted to the Your Baby Can Read infomercial for years - YES YEARS!!! It started way before I met my husband and had our baby. I was amazed when I first watched the infomercial one 2:00 a.m. and the excitement has followed me all the way up to when I made my husband watch the infomercial when I was pregnant, and to this day. I began stalking their website when I was about 6 months pregnant. My husband did not get hooked on the Your Baby Can Read commercials until after our baby was born. He has been rather adamant about our buying it for months now. I have not agreed about buying it until now.

I have finally given into my curiosity and bought the Your Baby Can Read system. I feel as though we have a need for it.

I've had reservations about buying Your Baby Can Read until now. I was worried about wasting money. I also worried about rushing our baby into learning "sight words" too soon. He is just learning his ABCs ... Now that our baby has turned 1 year old and gets excited over counting, singing the ABCs, reading books, as well as watching certain educational shows like Super Why, Moose & Zee, Zoboomafoo etc., I decided that it was time to get started with Your Baby Can Read for these reasons:

1) Our one year old baby is starting to talk and he says more than the standard "Mama", "Dada", "Hi". Our 1 year old baby says "Clap", "Hey Baby", "Duck" "Quack", "All Done", "That", "This", "1, 2, 3" and sings "Clean Up, Clean Up" if I stop singing the Barney "Clean Up" song while picking up his toys. He might say more words, but this is all that we have understood and our baby has validated with excitement if we repeat him correctly.

2) Our baby is starting to get frustrated that we do not always understand him. He screamed "Mama Eat" the other day after he had been saying it and I did not understand. It was an extremely loud "EEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAA-T" that finally got my attention and then his laughing hysterically and running to his gate, so that I could pick him up, that confirmed that he wanted to eat ... WOW was it dramatic and I felt so sorry for not understanding him!

3) He sits to watch his favorite shows. As a new walker, our baby runs laps most of the day, but he does sit down on the mat when certain shows catch his attention or I have just turned the TV on for him. I am in hopes that skills learned from Your Baby Can Read will help him understand more of what he is watching.

4) Our baby talks to himself all day long. It is SO CUTE, but I obviously only undertsand a few words he is saying.

5) He gets excited when I count for him; he sits so that I can set up the alphabet blocks and then goes over them 3 times before wanting to play; he loves to learn and is trying to say his numbers and letters.

The only thing that our baby does consistently is come to me for a diaper change when he poops. He does this on demand every time. I find it hard to believe that he can say all of these words / 2 word phrases and dislikes a poopy diaper so much that he understands to get his diaper changed, though he has stopped doing the other things I ask on demand. I know that he understand what I ask because he has said or done these things when I have asked at other times ... For this reason, I swear that my baby has been ignoring me and have turned to Your Baby Can Read thinking that it can help!

Here are a few examples of how I know our baby is ignoring us: 1) he used to clap on demand, now he claps at random times that he feels like it, 2) he used to touch his ear whenever I said ear and now he just looks at me like I am crazy 3) he used to lift his arms when I asked him to, so that I can put the high chair try on. He stopped lifting his arms on demand, too. He is starting to ignore when we call his name or when I ask him to pick something up. THE BIGGIE is that he has started having temper tantrums when he wants something and no one in our family understands what he is saying. He is also starting to have temper tantrums when we say "NO" ... (Can you believe this? He is already getting mad when we say no?). I decided to buy Your Baby Can Read and get it started now, so that I can add the Signing Times program along with it.

I am going to post weekly videos and / or notes on how the Your Baby Can Read system works for our baby Max.



YOUR BABY CAN READ - WEEK #1 - BABY IS 1 YEAR 3 WEEKS OLD

• Purchase Day & Notes - I bought the Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 on Friday, January 20, 2012. Volume 1 came with came with the 1st Multi-Sensory DVD, 6 Sliding Word Cards, 1 Wipe-Clean Word Car and 1 Erasable, Non-Toxic Pen.
• Day #1 - I sat our baby in his high chair and turned on the DVD. He remained engaged with the program through the whole lesson and was positive about doing the Sliding Word Cards with me; we did them twice, he smiled, though did not repeat anything with me (not even the clapping which is one of his favorite games to play with me).
• Day #2 - I sat our baby on my lap to watch Your Baby Can Read. I started interacting with it as the video said to say or do things. This kind of irritated our baby, so I will not interact with it from now on. Additionally, our baby did fidget a lot today and wanted to walk around a bit. I will not hold him while watching Your Baby Can Read. I will put him in the high chair from now on. I did watch our baby touching his nose at that portion of the video. He did it one time and very quickly ... This HUGE because I have been trying to get him to do this for over a week. He liked doing the flash cards.

Week #1 facts & opinion(s) of Your Baby Can Read:

Your Baby Can Read is not as animated as I expected. It is rather cut and dry words, animals and clips of children providing examples in comparison to what my baby is used to from watching Super Why or Sesame Street. I can see this being a problem for older babies that are used to more animated and technological learning (like V-Tech). My baby was OK with watching Your Baby Can Read and doing the Sliding Word & Picture Cards so long as he was sitting away from me and in a containing chair (high chair). For these reasons, I would RECOMMEND preparing a child to sit and watch these DVDs before they become mobile (the Volume 1 box says as early as 3 months). You can do this by sitting your baby on your lap to watch Sprout for about an hour each day or buy Your Baby Can Read and get started at 3 months. If I had to do again, I would have started our baby around 6 months opposed to a year old.

WEEK 1 RESULTS WERE POSITIVE

- Our baby touched his nose on the second day / 2nd time watching the DVD.
- He started clapping on demand again.
- He pays attention to the video; especially the animals and "which word"portion.
- He sit for and enjoys the sliding word card more than I expected.

if you want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!

It's your turn to share! Did you find this blog post useful? Are my notes similar to yours? Have you tried Your Baby Can Read? Let us know!

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Wordless Wednesday | Baby's 1st Long Walk

"Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was going somewhere, I was running!" ~ Forrest Gump


Spreading his wings and keeping balance. Our baby is no longer an infant, but a toddler boy and establishing his independence. He loves the world; family, nature, family, toys, milk bottles and snuggling with mama, daddy and brother. This was his first long walk outside. He walked a bit and then ran ... He did a total of about 1/4 of a mile on 1-10-2012; this was his first long walk outside. This was also the first time that he kept shoes on for ANY length of time :)


Our baby was supposed to walk with his brother, but he turned and started
running the way he wanted to go instead of forward :) He is an individual!


We visited this mailbox like 10 times ... he must like blue or that red flag.


Baby walking towards the trees. They consumed his interest for quite a while.


Checking out this really cool tree ... it had a florescent green and lacey appeal.


Baby walking with his big brother so long as he bounced the basketball :)


Baby walking forward as brother walks backwards - long walk ahead :)


Baby running outside for the first time. He ran so hard that I had to catch
him to stop (I will post the video) and he just cried from exhaustion. It hurt
me to see him so frustrated, but I also felt proud ... maybe he will run track?


Our baby walking video: Age 1 year old (Jnauary 2012)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Baby's 1st Birthday | Happy Birthday Max

Baby's 1st Birthday ... Walking, Dancing, Singing, Hugging, Kissing

My elders always explained that time moves faster when we are older. I did not understand until this month ... a whole year has passed and it feels like it was a whirl ... now, it is our baby's 1st first birthday. WOW!

This feels like the fastest year of my life ... REALLY! As I put together the items for our baby's birthday party, I think about all that our baby can do now. He is walking, singing and dancing. He gives us kisses and hugs. He is trying to talk and finally grew some hair. He no longer nurses, though still enjoys laying in bed with us. He has 8 teeth (4 at the top and 4 at the bottom) and is starting to refuse his baby food. He grew 2 pant sizes in the past month ... I am now answering to "Mama Baba" with a fresh milk bottle each time. The thoughts of mortality overcomes me; It feels bittersweet to hand him a bottle when he was nursing a few weeks ago and will eventually trade in the bottle for a sippy cup.

As I watch my two older boys playing basketball, melancholy hits me. It's our baby's 1st birthday today ... I wish this could be the only birthday he'll ever have, but that's not how it works ... Happy Birthday Max. You are our beautiful, loving, smart, sweet, baby boy :)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child