Yeah I do not know where the time goes but one more month passed and Edie entered his last month of his 1st year. For me is so exciting to be near by him and being observing him on his life journey. He has done so many things and he has developed many skills during last 11 month.
But what is particularly new is as follows:
his weight 8,9 kg and hight is 74 cm
he is nicely waving during greeting time to everybody, everybody is so astonished and keep smiling and waving him back
he is clapping his palms and able to do hi5
he is still suffering of mamitis, as we called the big need for mom. It is curious but always when he is some time without me, he is calmly playing with somebody else or on his own, but it is enough to see me and he immediately starts to complain and run to me. Sometimes with smile but many times just as a need to be hugged and carrest.
his breastfeeding habits: I cut off his supply of mother milk so he is having exclusively only 2 round in a day, in the morning as breakfast cca 6am and before going to bed cca 8pm. I realized that it is not good for his dietary to give him more mother milk because afterwards he was not eating properly the food I prepared and also he was too used to breast. Also he was usually falling asleep while being fed which created him artificial sleeping time and he did not want to sleep at night properly.
His sleeping: finally he is sleeping whole night long! How we reached that point. Yes, we LET HIM CRY! I was already so tired, after 10 month of broken nights the past 3 weeks became more and more demanding. He was waking up 1,5-2 hours and was asking for being carried. I already cut of at 9 month to give him breast as calm down pacifier but it brought new issue. His constant waking up. And once I said: “Enough”! He has every needs satisfied now he is only being spoiled by us and our constant carriage. He can not sleep properly on his own and it is not good for him as well for us. So we hold our hand with Carlos and decided to hold on his cry and not to carry him. First night was terrible, he was standing in his crib and yelling and screaming to us. We did not move, we did not talk, we were nearly not breathing just holding our hands . I do not know how long it took but he stopped after a while (cca 10-20 min). He repeated this process 3 more times at night but always calmed down after a while. And in the end he fall asleep on his own. The second night was a bit better, he did not cry that desperately and was falling asleep faster. Third night already slept through and woke up only once for short time. After the week he is falling a sleep about 8 – 8:30pm and waking up for his drink at 5:30 -6 am. He usually drinks and afterwards he falls a sleep with me again. He is very active whole day, smiling, playing and being happy. He takes 2 naps a day. One in the morning after the breakfast about 10-11 am and than in the afternoon about 3pm, sometimes later.
What Edie eats: now basically everything. I try to give him everything what we eat, of course that some things he can not chew so he is spilling it out but at least he is trying its taste. He started to love papaya, which he did not like before. He loves yogurt with compotas (presnidavka, fruit jars), he likes chicken, creamy soups, melon, bananas, potato pure and brad with ham and cheese. He enjoys to drink mother milk and tap water mostly. He drinks about 400-600ml in a day. He is also eating basic finger food on his own like fruits and I try to give him drink also from glass or plastic bottle to let him learn how it feels and works.
He has his third and fourth upper tooth. And it is not comfortable for feeding. I discover it while I was breastfeeding him.
He loves to play, I try to show him different instruments and now I am trying to learn to play guitar to be able to teach him in the future. I know first song (3 piggies from Nohavica). He loves to dance also. Always when he hears music he calms down and usually start to move his hips. It is very funny to observe him. He is catching ball and through him back. He loves bottoms on mobile phone and PC in general.
He is also more and more manually skillful so he is bale to switch light on and off, able to whisle, clap his hands, wave. He is unfortunately able to open top from toilet and since he loves water he keeps playing in the full tank
He is very happy with other people, he likes to be the center of attention and if he can play with people and other kids he is very happy. But of course mum has to be close by. Than he is smiling, laughing and sending kisses.
many people said that he is very beautiful and long. He looks long and he is wearing clothes of 12 month and more, although he is still considered as young.
he is very smart and he is already trying us. He was already punished by slapping his hands when putting them into the electricity plugs or touching big frame with painting which could have fallen on him. He knows now and always when he tries to do it again he looks at us with his face like is somebody watching or can I do my sin and it is enough to remind him by raising a bit our voice. Not to shout just telling his name and reminding him.
He has also developed sense of self protection. He can recognize that he is up the stairs or on the bed. When he reaches the border he start to shout and call for help. He never crawl or jump down on his own. He knows after falling that it is dangerous and he can harm himself.
He is very smart and started to abuse out goodness so we needed to show him that there are some limits. He is in time when we need to say also NO and when he need to understand that he can not do everything he wants. He always cries but he starts to get a point. Now is the time of creating the good patterns in his head. We do not want spoiled kid! The theories say that till the age of 1 you can not spoil your baby, but you can create bad habit, and it is very easy. Kids are great manipulators!
He is healthy and strong child. Do not suffer from sicknesses now. He is tasting most of the things which he founds on the street or in the park. He probably tried all different leaves from the garden and also bit of soil and other stuff. I will never be fast enough to avoid this. But on the other hand now he is creating his immunity system, so I can only wish him “Enjoy your meal!”
Edie is in general very lovely, very demanding for attention and that’s why I keep constantly learning new things and creating new activities to keep him busy and not board. It is also important for me that he keeps my brain running! Unfortunately when he wants something he starts to yell out so we try to unlearn him this pattern. Not easy at all, but worth to try.
During his 11 monthary we visited beach side and he had opportunity to dance his first beach samba on the beach so just have a look and dance and celebrate with us
Picture galerry
Edie was also trying hard to fill his pool with sand, he had two supporters watching him
Advice of the day: Enjoy the time with your infants, because time flies and they will not be little anymoooooreeee!
My dear parents friends. I have been searching more for more games either online or simple interactive to play and educate our darlings. And since Edie is now 10 month turning this week 11 month I will present games suitable for his age.
I found different webpages wort to be presented here:
Baby Games online – the most complex online games page focused on different areas of education (animals g, plants g, kids and people, music, color/size/shape g, ABC g, drawing and coloring g, numbers g, memory g, abstract g, etc.)
Fun Foot Baby Games – This great baby game idea came from Jackie Silberg’s “Games to Play with Babies” and is a fun toe game to play. Sing the following to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and rub or wiggle each toe in turn as you sing through the song.
“Rub, rub, toe, toe, rub, rub, toe.
Rub, rub, toe, toe, rub, rub, toe”
Warning: Your baby may enjoy this game so much you will be sick of the song far before he is!
Hand Baby Games – Another bath-time game, this one uses a small washcloth or sponge for your baby to play with. Let him hold one sponge while you hold another and teach him his body parts, washing himself. Ask your baby, “Do you want to wash your belly?” and then help him wash his belly. Either play matching games by washing his belly first and then encourage him to do the same, or later, ask the question and encourage him to respond correctly on his own.
Voice Game Fun – Baby word games now take on more importance as your baby becomes an expert at communicating her desires and observations about the world around her. Most babies can learn basic words and baby signs by this age and use them with ease. Explore the idea of playing baby sign language games with your baby – always saying the words and doing the motions at the same time. Remember, the more you respond to your baby’s communication attempts the quicker she will learn new words.
Movement Baby Games – Daddy-jungle-gyms are a favorite baby game. Lay on the floor on your back and let your baby come and jump on your chest. Try sitting him on your feet and lifting him up into the air. You can hold his chest or arms and he can grasp your legs to make this game safe.
Baby Sounds Games – Babies love to make noises and explore musical instruments so play lots of music games. Musical instruments can be store bought or homemade but place some “drums” on the floor and show your baby how hitting them can create different sounds! What a fun game!
Floor Time Baby Games – Blanket games can be fun at this age as your baby is confident enough and physical enough to play safely (Newborns should never be left unsupervised with thick comforters or heavy blankets that can smother them in their sleep). Lay on the floor with your baby and cover yourself completely with the blanket. Let your baby find you and shout “Peek-A-Boo” or “Gotcha!” when they uncover you. Then toss the blanket lightly over her and let her uncover herself (you may need to help her the first few times) and watch how delighted she is at this hide-and-seek game.
Singing Baby Games – Another fun bath-time song, this one is to the tune of “Here we Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush” and can be used to clean your baby from head to toe. “This is the way we wash our legs, wash our legs, wash our legs. This is the way we wash our legs to make ourselves so clean.” Repeat the song changing the words with each verse until you’ve cleaned your baby completely! See additional tips for music and babies.
And a bit of poetry for obtaining new English words:
Baby Animal Names by Stacy Mantle
Baby cats are called kittens
Baby bears are called cubs
Baby dogs are called puppies
A pigeon’s a squab!
A girl horse is a filly
A boy horse is a colt.
A possum’s a joey.
A chicken’s a poult!
A penguin’s a fledgling
A reindeer’s a fawn
A turtle is a chicken
It makes no sense at all!
An ant is an antling
A goat is a kid
A bird is a nestling,
A muskrat, a kit!
A kangaroo’s Joey
A louse is a nit.
A toad is a tadpole,
And a mink is a kit!
An eagle’s an eaglet.
An eel is a fry.
A fly is a maggot.
And a fish is a fry!
And what have we learned
From all these words today?
That if you’re a boy
Then a boy you’ll surely stay
I hope that you enjoyed learning and we will give our kids the best from all what I have found
Our serial continues. I decided to teach Edie a bit order and keep things on theirs place. I know that now he will probably not understand my guidance, but I just keep telling him nice things when he puts his toys into the box. One thing is that it is entertaining for him, second it develops his motorical skills and third I am teaching him to make order in what he does. I hope believe that once he will remember from his childhood what should be done to keep his life organized.
Game: Box
1. Orderer: What we need is one simple plastic box or at least box which keeps it shape in case that your baby crawl over it or start to chew it and many objects which he can fit there. I used the cubics of different shapes and colours which were part of sets, also puzzle numbers, paper’s balls etc. Basically what I have found around us! Than I put all the things around Edie and throw one of the things insight. He will most probably take it out and immediately after he will throw it insight. Afterwards I used to start to give him another object to his hand and he is puting them insight or if I see that he is playing on his own I let him on his own. He is able to keep taking things out of the box and putting in sometimes even 30 min and it is wow time! Because most of the games last max about 10 min.
Short video demonstration:
2. Drums: If you turn this box upside down you can easily create drum base for it. Than you just need stick or plastic bottle and you can keep hitting it. It makes interesting sound and if you have more different boxes you will create whole drum station for your child.
I like on this game that Edie is able to play on his own for long time and I can do another things just besides him.
Advice:If you want to do something on your own. You need to keep your baby busy otherwise you will not have free hands. And trust me sometimes less means more! Do not make things complicated for yourself. Einstein was also not playing with PC or Barby and he won Nobel prize!
And here we go. I decided under the pressure of my son to create for him 100 + 1 games. He is such a curious baby that he does not like to be all the time just with one or two toys and he likes to interact. I am happy about that because I can see how nicely he is developing and reacting to different stimulus but on the other hand my brain is sometimes boiling when I have to create new and new games.
So to help also you others I decided to post one by one any kinds of games I found funny to do and easy to prepare. I will share with you games which are interactive, educative and you as adults will have fun too.
GAME: CARTON STICK You will need any kind of carton stick. I found at home one from plastic folio, it is long and light. The carton is chew-able and more or less clean
Objects exploratory: I tight different objects to it by strings, or just circles, daily objects basically different shapes, colors, things. And than let your baby explore one object by another one. Let him enjoy different shapes, materials and sounds.
Binocular: this carton stick can be also used simply also as binocular (or monocular in our case). Just look through to your baby. Edie loves that to see my “one eye” so far and in very funny frame such as this tube is.
Horn, drum, whisperer: carton is good sound transmitor. I used to use it also as a musical instrument. I blow into it and make similar effect like with horn.I also sing which creates my voice very funny. I sound like elephant. It is funny to put the tube closer to the kids year and silently whisper something nice and lovely. Sometimes it seems to me that is tickling him and it is funny for him. Edie used to calm down and keeps listening. Also if you have big gym ball at home you can use this stick for hitting the ball instead of drums. It makes weird sounds which kids like. And they will keep hitting the ball with you like drum player.
I believe that you will found another smart and funny usages for carton stick friend and that you will have with your kids as I do. I hope that this short advice will help your baby to play and explore.
Advice: Toys does not have to be expensive. They have to be interactive!
You might know that Edie already turned 10 month and soon he will be 11 month old. And the question about his sleeping habit started to be on place because I refused to keep breastfeeding him at night became it was not helping him to be calm and sleeping. I would even say that it was contradictiv to our goal to make him sleep nicely whole night. Edie had 10 month and week and we realized that already some time he is only crying to get attention from me, that he is only chewing and not drinking much and that if he is with his grandma or aunt he is able to sleep nicely. He used to wake up about 5 times at night but they were able to caress him slowly and put him back to bed without bigger noise. But in my case he felt me and was always crying when I tried to put him to his bed. So we simply found out that he is already in the age, when he is just becoming spoiled or that particular pattern has been created. “I cry and I am carried or attended by my parents” and this habit could keep going for ages. So once I said STOP. NO MORE thanks. I would love to have after 10 month of broken nights some rest. My eye backs are not big but my energy start to be low! Edie is also not sleeping well and he is tired during the day and more moody, so it is not only my selfish with to sleep well but also it will be good for him.
So back a bit in time. There are two main streams of dealing with kids and unlearning them some particular habit (sleeping problems). In our case constant carriage at night and night breastfeeding. One is from Dr. Sears (” strategy do not let your baby cry, attend him as much as possible”) the other is Dr. Ferber (” strategy to let baby cry for certain period to break his stereotype). So when Edie was about 5 month old and he reached 5 Kg weight we knew that it is time to try Ferber strategy, we tried to make him used to be on his own and fall a sleep on his own. But whole try ended up after one week when he nearly lost his voice and the worst was that he lost his mile and most of the social communication. We said NO. This is not the right time for him to be on his own. He is toooo little and does not understand yet. He need mom!
But now there were already different circumstances, we tried the strategy of Dr. Sears and were attending Edie when he started to cry. I was already not feeding him at night because he was not needing it, but I was carrying him always when he woke up and started to cry. But uppppps! He was waking up more and more often and he did not let me to put him to his bed. He always started to have very hysteric cry, so well I carried him over and over again. Sometimes even one hour and more and he could not sleep properly. So Sears in this case did not work for us.
So as I wrote we said NO MORE!. This can not be like this. Look at him his cry is just so mean. He is only looking for attention. He is not missing anything and he is ok. So we decided to try Ferber strategy. LET HIM CRY! Easy to say but worst to do. We stayed in bed next to Eides crib. And we were sleeping. Then suddenly he woke up and started to cry. But badly, like if you are killing somebody! We hold our hands, we did not move, we did not spoke with Carlos and were just thinking that this will once be over and that we are doing it for his good. So yeah after cca 20 min the terrible scream was over. He woke up that night 2 more times, but already did not cry that much. In the morning he woke up with smile at 6am. I took him to our bed and breastfed him. He lived very nice and active day. The second night we did same. We put him to the bed after dinner and bath around 8 pm. No Carriage allowed. And in this case he had one of his crying wake ups alone in our room. But in this case it was already shorter, just about 5-10 min and his cry was not that desperate like before. I know that I can not attend him by going there and touching him otherwise he will expect me to carry him and will cry and wake up. So I let him be on his own. He fall asleep. He was though sensitive when we entered around 11 pm our room and woke up. But we went silently to the bed and did not carry him. After this night he had again nice and active day. The third night was already easy. His new stereotype started to be created. The dinner at 7pm, ,after nice worm bath, I breasfed him and after put into his crib. He was already sleeping calmly and deeply. He woke up only once for about 5 min, he moan a bit and fall asleep again. He woke up at 5:30 am hungry, so I took him to bed and fed him.
And now already after one week. He got used to it, easily. Now I gave him dinner, after bath and around 8 – 8:30 pm he is already sleeping in his bed. He sometimes wake up but just for short time and then he is nicely sleeping whole night till morning. He has happy and active day. He is smiling, communicating and is visible that his psychic is not harmed.
The mission was done.
Good advice to you: You know there are many theories about parenting. But nobody is having your child. The others have their child. And your is unique, Your child is yours so it is only up to you which way you will choose. Because the way will be the best one for your child. You as mom are the only person who knows your child the best. So follow your instinct and you will not do mistake! And do not forget your child needs to cry sometimes to be able to develop his vocals and lungs properly!
You know I was born as city girl. But thanks to my dad I have spend most of my time in the village with my grandparents which all together teach me respect towards the nature and animals. I will not say that sometimes I did not brake something I was not supposed to but everybody is learning.
And now being in Venezuela I have opportunity to see different group of people. On one hand there are groups which are complaining about the mess which they have around but nobody is willing to take action such as Go and CLEAN the mess you did! I hate that attitude. And really I realized that I can not stand the mess in the nature. I see that many people here are behaving like parasites. They are just taking without giving back and caring. They are destroying nature around themselves by trashing.
I learn since I was little that everything what I am bringing to the nature I have to take with me back. NO POLLUTION IS ALLOWED! And I am really happy of that that most of my nation also respect nature. I also saw myself that I can not be blind towards the mess which other people are doing so rather then bitching about the mess around me I go and take the action. I am not ashamed of bending my beck and CLEAN! And full of this feelings we visited beautiful park with natural river stream and waterfall. I could not stand that some of the people were messy so I cleaned the entrance near the waterfall and I felt really happy that the kids of other parents saw me. And I hope that be showing them the right way they will follow.
Look how beautiful park they have. Little excursion through Parque del Chorros
Keep nature beautiful and clean. By doing it we keep clean also ourselves. The beauty of nature is the mirror of our souls.
You know. We are simply dancing family. Our life is running in different rhythms. Sometimes it goes very softly but most of the time our speed is killing same as in Dominican or Cuban merengue.
I have to share with you one old story. You will have fun as we had. It is dated already into the year 2008 when I met Carlos. We were having nice time in Estonia (cold country, great place for two warm hearts!) and decided to go for dinner. We entered one pizzeria and ordered food. After we finished and were about to leave Carlos realized that I started to swing in the rhythm of salsa which was played in the radio. He did not hesitate. He took my hand, drag me into the middle of restaurant, with no dance place…….so he made it by moving chairs around us and we started to dance. I felt soooooo shy, I blushed and was a bit shaking but enjoying. Two songs passed and people in restaurant were looking at us also people on the street were stopping and looking through huge glass windows insight of restaurant Nobody probably have ever seen that.
And what happened after? We got huge applaus from the restaurant stuff and the manager brought us huge ice cream cup on behalf of the company to enjoy……….sooooo isn’t it great to let your feeling just flow and enjoy your life fully?
Dance with grandma and Edie…….move your hips!
Un poquito of salsa o merengue?
It is such a great if you love music and moving your body. I always wished to have husband which would dance with me and my kids. I hope that we are imprinting into Edie that he can dance whenever and wherever where he feels like to move his body, same as we do with Carlos.
As we say : There is no better way how to teach your kids then through you as Leading Example!
There is something in it, isn’t it? Have you ever think when you woke up in the morning that you have to have at least 100 years because you can feel every single muscle and joint in your body? Ohhhh yeah I did feel like that also. But you know what is good on that?
If you feel that something is hurting you it means that you are still alive!
(Smart words of my grandma).
But over the Christmas I have learned how big influence has your will and mental strength on our overall physical condition and look. I want to show you real living examples from my family. Two “young ladies” which enjoy their lives and do not care about their pains, because they decided to live no matter on their age.……….actually would you guess that mom is more than 60 and aunt over 70?
My mom and aunt from Venezuelan side:
Dancing is the best cure for any pain…..Baila Baila Bailateraphy!
You know I would love to be in their shape in their age. I hope that my strong will and personal persistence will lead me through any danger and weakness and as I work on my life now I will benefit in future too. There is nothing worst than letting things go and do not work on constant improvement. Somebody smart once said that: laziness is mental sickness and I am strongly supporting this opinion.
Do not be lazy be proactive and benefit from your work all life long. There is DO or not to do, there is NO TRY!
You know me my dear friends that I am box full of ideas. How to do this and that and I am happy for that that my brain is still working and not being lazy. So what I have in my had today is just very fast tip for those who forget to give their kids some merry go round into their car seat or seat in the restaurant and you want to eat calmly and make your baby to play.
Than I believe that most of women are wearing some scarf or shawl so exactly this thing is great for tighting your toys. Please tight one part to your hand or some other space if you have and other part to the chair of your child or somewhere close to him. The final effect is that by one of your hand you are moving scarf which is moving toys and baby is attracted twice. Once by the nonregular movement of your toys and second by toys itself.
And how this simple toy holder look like? Have a look what I mean by
Isn’t it cute and practical?
You can interact with your child and eat calmly in the same time
If you want to see little devil than you have unique opportunity now. Look at this little angle who is hiding insight his true face. But we as caring parents were able to capture his crazy devil moment. It was such a cute moment!
Definitely Edie is one of the most lovely kids in the world but sometimes (more and more often ) he is able to drive me nuts Like every changing of his diaper is instead of personal torture. I have to be very fast to catch him and I hear soooo many complains from him and I decided to share with you his another devil side.
Guys have a fun as I do and if you are living something similar with your kids than trust me I know how you feeeeeeeeeel!
Be careful our darlings are great manipulators and they try very hard to beat us. But we as parents have to be strong and trust me there is always some way to defeat them, because we compare to them have experience. This is our true power!
