What To Expect Books Giveaway

The What To Expect series is now on its fourth edition!

The most recent updates to the What to Expect When You’re Expecting book include answers to dozens of new questions and a detailed week-by-week fetal development section in each of the monthly chapters, an expanded chapter on pre-conception, and a brand new one on carrying multiples. There is an expanded section for work place concerns and additional material covering physical, emotional health and nutrition.
Since I am not a parent, I have never read any of the What to Expect books, but when they generously offered to give two sets of books to two of my readers, I wanted to check them out. So I decided that since I work with babies, it would be useful to read What to Expect the First Year.

So far, I have been surprised about how much information this book covers. It covers everything from baby’s first medical exam, advice for soothing a colicky baby, signs of common illnesses in babies to baby’s first bath. It has a detailed section on breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding and the advantages and disadvantages of both. The month by month chapters show you what to expect during each month of your baby’s first year. The developmental chart of milestones is meant as a guide, but as the book reminds us, each baby is different and will develop at their own pace.




After your baby’s first birthday, What to Expect The Second Year picks up where What to Expect the first Year left off.
This book covers milestones (from first steps to first words, first scribbles to first friends). There are chapters on growth, feeding, sleeping, behaviors of every conceivable kind, discipline (including teaching right from wrong), and keeping a toddler healthy and safe as he or she takes on the world. There is a developmental timeline of the second year with special milestone boxes which help parents keep track of their toddler’s development.


Two of my readers will win a copy of each book! Meaning three books for each winner!
How to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which book you would find the most useful.
Additional entries:
2. Follow @play2grow on Twitter and leave a comment on this post letting me know.
3. Follow @whattoexpect on Twitter and leave a comment on this post.
4. Follow play2grow via Google Friend Connect or subscribe by E-mail and leave a comment letting me know.
Please be sure that you leave an E-mail address in your comments so I can contact you if you win.
If I do not hear back from you within 48 hours, another winner will be drawn.
The giveaway ends on Friday July 20th at midnight Eastern
Thank you and good luck!

When I Play I'm Learning

I saw this on Welcome to Explore Education. It reminded me of the infants I work with and what they are learning through all the little things they do. It all has a purpose and I wanted to share it on my blog as well.


Caring for the Little Ones - When I Play, I Am Learning
by Karen Miller
Child Care Exchange
When I smile and coo back and forth with a special adult, I am learning I can make
people respond and that I am lovable.
When I play with my hands and feet, I am learning that those things are part of me
and I make them move.
When I turn an object over and over, I am learning that objects look different on
the other side.
When I make my mobile move by kicking the crib, I am learning I can make things happen
by moving my body.
When I crawl into small nooks and crannies, I am learning where I fit and about shapes
and sizes.
When I push objects off the high chair tray, I am learning that things fall downward
and are still there, even when I cannot see them.
When I fill and dump containers, I am learning that I can make exciting things happen.
When I crawl up and down steps, I am learning to coordinate my arms and legs and
balance.
When I push, pull, and haul objects, I am learning how heavy objects are and how
they move.
When I play peek-a-boo, I am learning that things and people exist even when I cannot
see them
When I lift flaps, I am learning to hide things and make them reappear.
When I look at books, I am learning to use symbols and to know that pictures represent
real things and have names.
When I stack objects, I am learning about shapes, sizes, balance, and gravity.
When I fit things inside each other, I am learning the relationship of negative and
positive spaces.
When I play pat-a-cake, I am learning to have fun with someone else.
When I play “Ring Around the Rosie,” I am learning a game with a rule — don’t fall
till the end!
When I imitate the actions of other children, I am learning that I am one of them
and can do things other people do.
When I chant sounds, I am learning the melodies, sounds, and rhythms of my language.
When I stick things in holes, I am learning to line things up properly
to fit.
When I bang objects on the floor, I am learning that things make all different kinds
of noises.
When I push a ball back and forth, I am learning it’s more fun to be with others
than by myself, and it’s fun to take turns.
When I pretend to feed my doll, I am learning what it feels like to nurture someone.
When I say “Hi” and “Bye-bye,” I am learning social interaction and what it feels
like to be a valued member of the group.
When I climb on a climber, I am learning balance and coordination and developing
strength.
When I scribble with crayons,
I am learning that I can make marks by moving my hands, and I can affect the shape
and quality of the mark.
When I line up blocks to make a road, I am learning the relationship of shapes and
to use symbols.
When I play with little people and cars, I am learning what it feels like to be a
giant.
When I dance to music, I am learning to enjoy music and to have fun with others.
When I splash water, I am learning to control this variable substance and create
my own fun.

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day volunteering with the infants and toddlers. I spent part of the morning with the infants. I played with Baby L and Baby C. They’ve grown so much. They are both walking and Baby C even says some words. She always says hi to everyone when they walk in. At one point, she picked up one of those soft rings and brought it over to me. Crawling Baby thought it was funny when I put it on his head so I did the same thing to Baby L. Baby L and Baby C laughed. When she’d try to steady the ring on Baby L’s head, it would always fall off. After it fell, it’d role across the room. Baby L chased after it laughing and then brought it back to me to do over again. Then we played a game of peak-a-boo with me sitting behind a shelf which they had fun with, but I had to stop when they started throwing toys on the other side where Baby E was laying. One of the toys actually hit her, but she didn’t cry.

When they brought the babies outside, there wasn’t anything for me to do so I went into the toddler room for a while. I saw Crawling Baby for the first time since his transition. Well, he’s not a crawling baby at all anymore. He’s been walking for a while now and last week was his first full week in the toddler room. He seemed happy mostly playing by himself. Sometimes he’d try to get involved in what the other kids were doing, but since he’s so young, it doesn’t work. He either doesn’t understand what they are doing or they don’t want him to play. Most of the toddlers are ready for preschool so they are ahead of him. He thought it was neat to hold a bucket up to his face and talk into it. I think he liked the echo. Another toddler who I’ll call M came over and they started sharing the bucket. M is older than Crawling Baby and he talks a lot more, but he seems to like spending time with him. Crawling Baby and I walked around the room a few times and I brought out the bubbles which they all loved.

I also saw D. She has changed so much as well. She has small conversations now. When I first met her, she didn’t say any words. When she realized I was there, she ran over to give me a hug. Every few minutes while I was there, she came over and wanted to be picked up. She reaches her arms up and says, “Up up.” The problem is that she’s really heavy and when I want to put her down, she doesn’t want to get down. That happened recently when her grandmother was late picking her up and she wanted me to carry her around the whole time. She has a funny personality. She’s nice, but has an attitude too. I’ll miss her.

It was unusual, but the babies slept for most of the afternoon. When Baby C woke up, I spent some time with her, but then Little Guy and Baby E woke up. They both like to be held, but we got Baby E settled down on the floor. Little Guy really wanted to be held so I held him for a while and then put him in the squishy seat next to Baby E. He was okay for a while, but wanted to be held again. For the rest of the time, I sat holding Little Guy and watching Baby E talk to her toys. There was one toy she was trying to grab. When she couldn’t reach it, she would make a fussing sound like she was frustrated, but when she was able to grab a toy, she’d start laughing. Little Guy smiled while watching Baby E too. When I left, they were all playing and happy.

It was my last day with the babies because it looks like I’ll be taking a job with them maybe next month. I’m not sure of the details, but it’s with one of their preschool rooms. Only a couple toddlers were ready to move up so they haven’t opened the room yet. Now there will be enough kids so they offered me a job in that room. The good thing is I will already know some of the kids. I will miss the infants and toddlers though, but sometimes, I can stop in to see them on my breaks and who knows. Maybe I’ll get to work with this age group again in the future.

Floor Time

This morning, I spent some time with Baby E, the youngest baby. In my opinion, she spends too much time in the swing so when I’m there, I like to hold her or give her some time on the floor. Last week, we put her and Little Guy on the floor side by side. They enjoyed looking at each other and their reflections in the mirror. Today, I held Baby E for a while, but decided to give her some floor time. She was hesitant and cried for a few minutes. When she calmed down, she started kicking her legs and reaching up with her arms.


I noticed that she was playing with her pacifier so I brought her a set of keys to play with as well. She reached for them, but didn’t try to take them from me. To get her more interested in the keys, I moved them from one side of her to another and I noticed she was tracking my movements. I offered her the keys again and this time, she held on to them. When she dropped them, I made up a little game where I put the keys on her belly and asked her how they got there. This made her smile and laugh. Sometimes she’d move the keys and sometimes she wouldn’t, but she found it entertaining. Another thing I did was lay on the big ball and role over to her. She liked when I’d end up above her on the big ball. I’d reach down to touch her feet or hand and she’d usually laugh. Infants at her age need a lot of face to face interaction.

Next, I gave her some time to play on her own. She continued to play with her pacifier and the keys, look around the room, coo to herself and kick her feet around. She spent about forty-five minutes on the floor until she got tired. It’s important for infants to have floor time every day not only for interactions with those around them, but for their healthy development and their own free exploration. I’ll end with a post written by janet Lansbury called Set Me Free - Unrestricted Babies (And Equipment. She explains the importance of giving babies opportunities for free movement.

Ten Activities to do with Infants

Here are ten activities that we regularly do with the infants.

1. Books:
Books are great for children of any age. Reading exposes infants to language, pictures in the books expose them to things they don’t normally see and having books around can spark an interest in reading. The infants enjoy looking at books themselves or when we read to them. Reading to babies has so many benefits, but to keep this post short, I won’t go into them all here.

2. Bubbles:
Bubbles are great for younger infants to track. Older infants can work on their fine and gross motor skills while popping or moving around trying to catch the bubbles.

3. Coloring:
We introduce our older infants to fat crayons. They will put them in their mouths, but we sit with them to show them what they are supposed to do with crayons. Some of them like making marks on the paper and others don’t care for it, but it’s apart of exposing them to creative arts.

4. Exercise ball:
Those of you who read the blog know I use the exercise ball a lot with the babies. I use it to rock them to sleep, bounce, play games etc. The ball can be comforting or a way to help older infants with gross motor skills depending on the activity.

5. Mirror exploration:
We have a variety of mirrors around the room accessible to our younger and older infants. Today, I sat in front of a mirror with Baby E and Little Guy; our two youngest infants. They’re too young to realize it’s their own image, but they were fascinated. I set up a mirror for Baby E on the floor and she liked watching herself move.

6. Music:
We’ll sing songs or put on music for them. Music exposes children to language and gets them to move around. Our oldest infant who has moved up to the toddler room loved to dance. I don’t usually do the singing, but I like to help the babies move to the music.

7. Sand box:
We have a sand box on the infant playground that the babies love. It’s filled with buckets, shovels, trucks and other sand toys. The babies usually just explore the toys, but some of them start dumping the sand in and out of buckets. They will eat some of the dirt, but that’s something we’ve all done as children. Most of our infants spend most of their outside time in the sand.

8. Shaving cream:
We allow the older infants to play with shaving cream. Sometimes we try to contain it by giving them a tray, but other times, it gets spread across the table. The babies enjoy squishing and spreading it around. Occasionally, we add paint for color or to make paintings. We do watch the infants closely so they won’t put too much in their mouths.

9. Walks:
We take the babies on walks as much as possible. Walks allow babies to get fresh air, hear and see different sights and sounds and learn new words as we describe what’s around us. Walks are also soothing for many babies.

10. Water play:
For water play, we put water in a small tub and let one or two babies play at a time. We’ve used water by itself for splashing and exploring. We’ve also added objects to the water such as fish or ducks. There are lots of possibilities for water play. If there’s a puddle on the playground, the older infants can explore it. The best thing about this activity is that it’s fun!

New Friends

The new school year has started which means we have several new friends to get to know. The first is another Baby J, but since there’s already a Baby J who is older, I’ll refer to him as Little Guy. That’s kind of his nickname right now anyway because he’s so small. We aren’t supposed to call them by nicknames because of the NAEYC standards, but once in a while, we call some of the babies Buddy or other nicknames, but we mean no harm by it. Anyway, he started when he was six weeks old. Now he’s closer to nine weeks and he’s already grown since he started. He loves to lay on the floor on his blanket and look around. That seems to be his favorite place most of the time. At other times, he can be fussy, but he’s usually happy after he gets fed. Some people are bothered by the fact that he hates his pacifier and gets really mad when someone tries to put it in his mouth. If only we could read his mind! I know he must be wondering why anyone would try to shut him up with that. After I tried giving it to him a couple of times, I’ve stopped because he obviously has his preferences. I think we should respect that instead of trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth just because it works for other babies. He’s one of those babies who fights going to sleep, but he isn’t the only one.

There’s Baby E who just started last week. She is tiny and looks like a baby doll. That’s the first thing I said when I picked her up to feed her. She’s six weeks old and is another one who doesn’t seem to want to ever sleep. I rock her to sleep, but she wakes up as soon as I put her down. She enjoys being held and likes to sit facing out so she can look at everything. I always make sure to have her leaning against me for support since she’s nowhere near old enough to support herself while sitting. We have Baby S who I’ll meet next week. She started last Wednesday. She’s a year old and I don’t know anything else about her.

We have some new friends in the toddler room as well. I met M about two weeks ago. He’s pretty quiet most of the time, but likes to get involved in what the other kids are doing. I’ve seen M playing drums and pretend to water plants with D. He also likes to pretend to drive using a steering wheel that’s mounted to a wooden post on the playground. He likes to look at books. He kept pointing out different babies in a picture book we were looking at together. Then there’s F who I’ve only met once so far. She started this past week. She fit right in and even started climbing the shelves and tables. We had to tell her to get down, but she seems to love her new school. She spent most of her first morning with us on the climber going up and down the stairs and slide.

In the preschool room, there are at least eight new kids who I’ve never met. Most likely, I’ll be only interacting with them out on the playground since I don’t usually work in their classrooms. It’ll take me longer to get to know them. There is also a new teacher in the toddler room and she has brought many positive changes. She’s brought organization, fresh ideas and she has introduced new toys, books and activities. I think this will be great for the toddlers this year. I will share some of those activities in later posts. For now, I’m looking forward to getting to know our new friends.

Water Play

Since this week’s theme is the ocean, we did some sensory play with the babies. We were supposed to let them play in the mud today, but we decided just to start off with sand. It was in a low sensory table, but the babies were having trouble standing, holding on and trying to play with the sand. So we decided to take the tub out of the table and put it on the ground. This way they could sit in it. While most of the babies were napping this morning, Baby L and Baby K were the first ones to try it. Baby K freaked out and didn’t want anything to do with the sand so we put her in the swing. She loves the outside swing. Baby L loves the sand and he kept putting it into his mouth. He kept playing with a shovel and a turtle scoop. Eventually, we had to take him out because he was eating way too much sand. The sand turned out a little like mud since the tub was still wet from the water that was in it yesterday.

Then this afternoon, the classroom supervisor brought in some seaweed. Since seaweed dries out quickly, we added water to the tub, but we dumped the sand back into the sand box. This was also nap time for most of the babies. Babies J, K and L were awake. Baby K freaked out even worse this time so she went back into the swing. Baby L loved the water. He kept splashing and splashing. The water would get all over him and the ground which made him laugh. He tasted the seaweed and I wondered what he thought of it. It couldn’t have been that good. Baby J also tasted the seaweed, but he wasn’t as excited about the water. He splashed around a little bit though. I was disappointed that Baby C and Crawling Baby didn’t get to play with the water and seaweed. I would’ve liked to have seen their reactions.

Then when I was about to leave, they were setting up a painting project and tomorrow, they will get to color and play with the mud. The babies are having a busy week.

Learning Something New

I know I haven’t written about the babies in a couple of weeks. I’ve been busy with work and school. Lately, at the end of the day I don’t feel like writing. My weekly favorites have been missing as well because it was quicker and easier for me to get them using the twitter client I have to use. That hasn’t been working properly for a while so I haven’t had time to go through my tweets manually from the website. Anyway, I hope to get back to blogging regularly soon, but if I’m not writing much it’s because I’m busy.

The babies are doing well. Baby L is now crawling. His new favorite thing is to look out the window and bang on it. He’ll sit in front of the window and babble to himself. Today, we tried letting him walk with a push toy, but he’s not ready. He doesn’t understand that he has to put one foot in front of the other. He was fascinated with how the wheels turned on the toy. He kept spinning the wheels and rolling the toy back and forth. Most of the time, he was hitting me with it, but at least he was enjoying himself. He’s also been introduced to a lot of new foods in the past few weeks. He was extremely picky before, but now he’ll eat just about anything. Another game he likes now is when I role a ball away from him, he’ll crawl after it. He’ll bring the ball back to me so we can play again. He’s also replaced Crawling Baby at the gate as you come into the room. He likes to stand there and see what’s going on. We have to move him every time we want to get in or out.

Crawling Baby is now walking. I saw him take a few steps a few weeks ago. Now he’s almost running, but he usually falls because he’s going too fast. Yesterday, he grabbed my hand and we walked around the room a few times. He got new shoes this week which he loves. We know this because he doesn’t even try to take them off. He didn’t like the sandals he had before. I think the shoes give him better balance. Anyway, he likes to walk back and forth across the room from me to the couch. He’ll do that with anyone who will sit and wait for him. In September he will be transitioned to the toddler room. It’s crazy that he’s moving up already. Today he got to play with shaving cream and some paint. He liked the squishy feeling of it and got it all over the place.

Baby C is also crawling now. She also walks while holding on to things. She was having fun walking in front of a push toy today. She’s also learned to clap her hands which she does often. She’ll babble when I clap her hands for her, but when she does it herself, she’s very quiet like she’s concentrating. She’s teething right now so she wanted to snuggle for most of the day. I also played games with her and Baby L on the big ball where I’d lift them over the ball and back down to the floor. I’d sit them up on the ball and bounce the ball while holding on to them so they wouldn’t fall. They seem to like anything to do with the big ball.

Baby K has gotten better about being at the center, but I haven’t seen her much. She’s leaving later in August. Baby M and Baby J can sit up by themselves now, but I haven’t seen much of them either. Baby M naps a lot when he’s there. He’s also slower to warm up to unfamiliar people so he doesn’t interact as much with me except when it’s my time to feed him. He doesn’t mind that, but he squirms a lot and it takes a while for him to finish the bottle. They are all growing and learning so fast. By the next time I see them, I’m sure they will have learned something new.

Make Him Laugh

Today, the babies were busy. I played with Baby L and Crawling Baby for most of the morning. Crawling Baby played in the tunnel, bounced on the big ball and walked around with a push toy. He’s getting even better at walking. He was able to walk while hanging on to the couch. When he got to the end, he grabbed the bouncer and finally was able to walk towards the window. He likes watching the kids and when I went over to him, he cried for me to open the door. He wanted to go outside, but it wasn’t very nice out this morning. We played peak-a-boo with the big ball which he thought was funny. A lot of stuff we do is repetition from day to day or week to week, but that’s what the babies need.

While I played with Baby L, Crawling Baby was busy reading. He likes to flip through books and babble to himself. It’s funny to watch because sometimes he’ll look at the same book and babble for at least ten minutes. Lately, he’s been showing more of an interest in books. For a few minutes, he was sharing his book with Baby L. It was sideways while they were looking at it, but they kept feeling the textures on the pages. Baby L would try to take it away, but I did my best to keep it between them so they could both look at it. They didn’t mind. I don’t expect them to share because they don’t understand how, but as long as it wasn’t frustrating them, I thought it was okay. For a long time, Baby L played with different rattles and spinning toys. I found a mini phone on the shelf which I was going to give to them, but when I tried to see if you could lift up the phone, the thing snapped in half. Luckily, no one noticed and I just shoed it to another teacher who threw it away. I figured it was poorly made since I didn’t pull the phone that hard.

During lunch, I fed Crawling Baby. He was so disappointed with the soft tacos that he barely ate and eventually, he put his head down and fell asleep. At snack time though, he wanted more and more yogurt. After two bowls, we decided that was enough because he wouldn’t drink his milk either. Since he still seemed sad and tired, I’d make funny faces right before each spoonful of yogurt to make him laugh. He usually tries to feed himself, but luckily, after a couple of spoonfuls, he realized that he couldn’t pick yogurt up from the table. He started to cry again later because another teacher had wiped his nose. He hates things like that. Anyway, he was standing holding on to the couch and my hand and I was sitting half way on the couch. I purposefully slid off the couch to make it look like I fell and he thought that was so funny. He pulled my hand to help me up and we started all over again, but this time, he’d pull my hand to make me fall off. Finally, he saw Baby L standing in front of the mirror so he went over there and almost knocked him over.

Baby L can use the shelf or the wooden bar in front of the mirror to pull himself up. He did that for the first time today. Baby C can also walk holding on to the couch, but instead of crawling, she roles everywhere. They brought out one new toy that I thought was cool. It’s an inflatable duck that you put water in and there are little things floating around inside. The babies liked watching the floating things and hitting the duck so the water made a little splashing noise. That’s the closest thing to water play we’ve done so far except Crawling Baby finding some puddles outside. Overall it was a pretty good day.

Music and Sand

Today I spent a few hours with the toddlers, but since there were a couple extra teachers, I spent most of the time in the classroom cleaning and taking care of other things while the kids were either napping or outside. Towards the end of the day when there were only two kids left, one of the girls decided she wanted to play the drum. It’s a medium sized drum with two sticks. We both took one. Her drumming was loud of course so I showed her that she could drum quietly as well which didn’t last long. She kept trying to put the sticks back into holders on the drum, but she couldn’t quite push them in. I’d get them started for her, but then she realized it worked better if she pushed them in with her foot. We also tested what the sticks sounded like when moved across the drum and on three different balls. After a while she pushed them away and went back to loud drumming with both sticks. One of the supervisors came in and told her that she loved her music. They had one of those stability balls in the room so she loved bouncing on that too. She thought it was fun to fall off. This girl usually gets into trouble almost every day, but today she was doing great. She didn’t get in trouble at all and on the playground, she skipped around telling everyone how happy she was.

I stopped by the infant room to see if the teacher in there needed help. Crawling Baby came over to the gate and started to whine at me so I picked him up and talked to him for a few minutes. When I went to put him down, he started to cry so I tried to get him to play with a couple toys, but then the teacher suggested I take him to the sand box. He was happy out there. He liked watching me shovel sand into a bucket. I’d do it in different ways. Sometimes, I’d slowly let the sand fall into the bucket or quickly dump it in which he thought was funny. I started to dump the bucket because I thought he’d enjoy seeing the big pile of sand, but he didn’t want me to. He wanted me to keep shoveling and patting. I started to tell him about the texture of the sand when he spotted his mom on the preschool playground. I held his hands and we walked over to her. She told me how much Crawling Baby loves the sand box, but I think he was glad to be going home.

First Steps

Today was a long day. Most of the babies were fussy and I was tired. We were going to go for another walk, but things got in the way. We spent a lot of time outside on the playground though. Baby L had fun playing in the sand box and Baby C was happy on the swing. It was funny how the babies were fussy and unhappy inside, but when they were outside, they were happy. It was a nice day because it wasn’t too hot or too cold. Crawling Baby wasn’t himself this morning. He played a little bit, but wasn’t all over the place like usual. After lunch, they took his temperature and found that he had a fever so his mom came to get him.

While playing this morning, he stood up using the shelf and took two or three steps on his own. One of the teachers said he did that yesterday as well, but these were his first steps that I saw. I think he’ll be walking within the next few weeks. In August, they might be moving up to the toddler room. I told him that I’d have to go visit. They grow so fast!

Splash

Today, we did mostly the usual stuff with the babies. There were only four of them. This morning, Crawling Baby was the only one awake so we brought him outside to the sand box. He liked tipping a bucket over and moving a shovel around in the sand. I took another shovel and showed him how to put sand in the bucket, but he was more interested in tipping it over. That’s okay though, he’s just getting used to the sand. As he was crawling around the playground, he found a puddle which he enjoyed playing in. His clothes were soaked afterward and he got cold, but he really likes playing in the water. On the infant playground, there’s a hill and on one side, there’s a slide that goes from the top to the bottom. Crawling Baby had fun sliding down, but he wanted to crawl up the slide instead of crawling back up the hill. I watched him try and try for at least ten minutes. Eventually, he did it on his own! I was surprised that he didn’t get frustrated and give up. He fussed a few times and I’d walk down the hill to where he was on the slide. He’d look over at me and then get back to what he was doing. He was happy to reach the top.

This morning, Crawling Baby started hiding in a tunnel. This tunnel is underneath this wooden play pen type thing. It’s a wide tunnel that has two sections. It has four entrances, but two of them are blocked off by walls, but it’s easy for them to crawl in and out. I was sitting in the middle of the room and he started babbling from the tunnel to get my attention. I peaked in the tunnel and he’d laugh. Then I’d hide and he’d peak out at me. This went on for a few minutes until he found a rubber duck inside the tunnel. He threw it out at me and I threw it back in. It’d bounce around a little and he’d laugh. To make it more of a challenge, I started throwing the duck to the back part of the tunnel. Crawling Baby would go back there to get it, but he’d still throw it the same distance. Instead of it landing near me like he wanted, it’d only land in the front part of the tunnel so he’d have to throw it two or three times. That didn’t last long. It was kind of frustrating for him so he went back to only sitting in the front part of the tunnel. After that, he wanted to sit on my lap and we looked at books. He misses his morning nap that he doesn’t get anymore.
In the afternoon, Baby L and Baby C loved catching bubbles. The other teacher would blow the bubbles and Baby C would role after them. Baby L kept reaching up with his hands. Baby C would babble and Baby L would giggle if there was a big bubble. I knew the toddlers went nuts for them, but I had never seen how the babies reacted to them. It was too bad Crawling Baby was napping because it would’ve been funny to see him chase and pop them.
The other teacher also brought out this mat that when you crawl or walk on it, it makes different sounds. There are bell and honking sounds, but at the end, there’s a splash sound. Baby C liked rolling over the mat and wasn’t quite sure where the sounds were coming from, but she enjoyed it the most out of everyone. Crawling Baby figured out that the sounds come out from this plastic box. He’d hit the footprints and realized that’s how it makes the sound, but surprisingly he didn’t crawl on it. Baby L just sat next to it and hit the footprints that were closest to him. I’d hit the other ones so he could hear the other sounds. I think their favorite was the splash, but they liked the other sounds too and kept dragging the mat all over the place. The babies had a fun day!

Taking a Walk

Today was a slow day. There were only three babies there for most of it. There’s Baby K who’s new and Baby M who isn’t usually there on Wednesdays. They are both fussy babies. Baby K is because she’s new and has become only attached to one person. Baby M is difficult to feed, put to sleep and he gets fussy over little things that wouldn’t bother the other babies. I saw his happy side a couple of times today. The first was when he was in the swing outside. He kept laughing and babbling. The second time was when he was sitting on the couch with one of the teachers and he kept laughing at her. Baby L wasn’t there today, but I spent some time with Crawling Baby. I helped him walk and he actually stood on his own for a few seconds before falling down. They brought this circle that he likes to sit in. It’s made of squishy material and has a squeaker, a bell and other things attached to it. He wasn’t interested in those things, but they had some balls like you’d find in a ball bath and he liked throwing them out of the circle. He thought it was so funny when I’d throw them back in. He’d hand me a ball just so I could throw it. He thought it was extra funny if the ball would hit the bell or bounce really high. He was occupied by this for a long time. Of course, he’d laugh if I had to go crawling around after the ball. Another thing about him is that he loves to eat. After his lunch, we brought him outside to play in the sand box. Since there wasn’t much going on, I brought my lunch outside. He shouldn’t have been hungry, but he kept trying to take my food. I had to hold the bowl up in the air so he wouldn’t grab it. He goes nuts for food and babbles non stop while he eats. When it was time for Crawling Baby’s nap, one of the teachers was amazed that I could get him to sleep. He usually doesn’t go to sleep fast, but all I did was put him in his crib, cover him and after rocking the crib for a couple of minutes, he was sleeping. Other times I’ve gotten him to sleep by giving him his bottle while sitting with him. When he’d fall asleep, I’d take the bottle away. He was so tired that he didn’t even wake up before I left.

This morning, we decided to take the babies for a walk before it got too hot. We walk down streets that have very little traffic. We stopped at the water front to show the babies the water, but the only one who was awake was Crawling Baby and he was barely awake by then. It was a nice walk. If the babies were awake, they would’ve seen lots of birds and different plants along the way. It’s nice that we can spend most of the day outside with them now. For most of them, these are their first experiences playing outside. A few of the parents have commented that it’s so cool that they get to play in the sand box because they don’t have things like that at home. I’m sure we’ll go on lots of walks and the babies will have plenty of play time outdoors this summer.

The Birthday Boy

Today is Crawling Baby’s birthday. He turned one. I felt bad for him because he wasn’t having a good day. They are trying to change his schedule. Instead of having two naps, they are trying to only let him have one longer one in the afternoon. Crawling Baby doesn’t like this and gets grumpy without his morning nap. Even though he was in a bad mood, we still played. I made him laugh by crawling after him and when he’d turn to face me, I’d crawl behind him. Then he had to turn around and start the game all over again. He also kept throwing keys and other toys off the shelves. I’d take the toys and put them back on right after he’d throw them off. He apparently enjoyed this because he kept throwing the keys on the floor. It didn’t seem to bother him that I kept picking them up. We bounced on the ball which he enjoyed. He also likes to stand behind the ball and I pull him up onto the ball and role it then slowly lower him back down. I saw an improvement in his walking today. He had better balance and stood up quicker, but he’s not ready to walk by himself yet. He’s almost there! I hope he enjoys his birthday at home with cake and ice cream! Before I left, I told him to have a good birthday at home. I know he doesn’t understand the words, but he knows that I’m being kind to him and that’s all that matters. He started to cry when I left. He always follows me to the gate. I felt bad because he wanted to play some more, but I had to leave.

There was a new girl who I’ll call Baby K. She’s six months old and already wasn’t feeling well after only starting yesterday. This morning, Baby K and Baby C were on the floor. Baby K was sitting and Baby C was rolling around. Baby K thought it was so funny that Baby C was rolling back and forth. Baby C would role over almost on Baby K’s lap. Baby K would laugh or babble whenever Baby C got close to her. Baby C would laugh too which made the whole thing funnier. I like to see them interact. Baby K would try to touch her head too which Baby C didn’t mind.

Baby L was also on the floor, but he was playing with some interlocking plastic toys. He wasn’t building anything. He was more interested in chewing on the toys and babbling. I sat next to him for a while and he kept hitting my arm and laughing about it. I’d make funny faces or noises and it made him laugh too. After everyone fell asleep except Baby L, we decided to take him outside. He fell asleep in the swing. After he woke up, we brought him over to the sand box. He thought the shovel and bucket were the greatest things. He kept chewing on the dirty shovel which we thought was gross, but he was pretty happy about it. He had sand all over him which took me a while to clean off. The other babies came outside too, but they were either in the swings or in the jumper.

Later in the afternoon, I was sitting on the floor with Baby L, Baby C and Crawling Baby. They all wanted my attention at once. Baby C rolled over, Baby L started to fuss and put his hands up in the air and Crawling Baby crawled over and started pulling on my shirt. Since Baby L can’t crawl, I put him in my lap. I was showing him how to clap his hands and he kept hitting my leg. Baby C brought some toys over with her and wanted me to sit her up so she sat next to me on my right. She kept putting her head in my lap and grabbing Baby L’s face. Crawling Baby also was trying to sit in my lap, but Baby L kept pushing him away. After a few minutes, he found a dump truck and sat on my left while moving it around. Baby L was interested in the dump truck too so he kept grabbing it from him. Eventually, Crawling Baby came around to my other side and started playing with a bucket that Baby C had found. Then it was time for me to go so I gave the babies a hug and told them I’d be back to play with them next week.

Outside Play Time for Babies

Today, there were six babies. It was a nice surprise to have Baby C there all day. Usually she’s only there for a couple hours in the afternoon. Baby M was there as well. He’s one of the youngest and is pretty fussy. There were a few times where we couldn’t figure out what he wanted. He was so tired, but wouldn’t fall asleep and when he did, it was only for about 20 minutes. That’s nowhere near enough sleep for him. I spent a lot of the morning playing with Baby C since Crawling Baby and Baby L went for a walk with the toddlers. Baby O was also with the toddlers since she’s transitioning over. By June 1st, she’ll be over there all the time.

Baby C and I played with rubber duckies, plastic fish and a few different rattles. She kept laughing and smiling while playing with the toys. We rolled and bounced on the big ball. She liked when we sat on the ball and I’d role it back and forth. It was like rocking and she almost fell asleep. When Baby L came back from the walk, he and Baby C played together. Baby C kept grabbing the bunnies on Baby L’s feet. He had one of those onesies on that has feet with bunnies on them. They kept grabbing each other’s faces and taking toys from each other. They didn’t seem to mind though. It looked like it was there way of playing together. Crawling Baby came over with a book in his hand and sat in my lap. Baby L wanted the book so he took it away from Crawling Baby. The tables were turned. Usually it’s Crawling Baby that takes things away from Baby L. Crawling Baby started to fuss and tried to take the book back. I got it back for him, but a couple seconds later, Baby L had taken it again. Crawling Baby got fed up and crawled off to do something else.

We played our game with the round squishy thing. I found out it was for the front of the squishy seats. It fits in the seat so that the baby doesn’t fall over. Crawling Baby didn’t chase after it this time, but laughed when it would hit things. He was amused when I’d crawl after it. So when he’d laugh, I had to role the round thing and then crawl after it. After doing this a few times, he started crawling after me. He’d wait until I’d ask if he was going to come with me and then he’d crawl over. He especially liked when it’d hit the gate. Another thing I noticed about Crawling Baby was whenever I’d leave and come back into the room, he’d rush right over. He kept sitting in my lap. It’d only last for a few seconds before he was on the move again.

It was such a nice day and we were finally able to take the babies outside. Crawling Baby played in the sand box. Babies L and M were on the swings. Baby O had come back to the infant room and she played in the sand box too. When Crawling Baby got tired of sitting in the sand box, he tried the rocking horse. After rocking on it a few times, he was done with that and started exploring the grassy area. He stood up holding on to the fence, but then wanted me to hold his hands while walking up the hill. Then he decided he wanted to crawl on the tar path, but there was an open swing so I brought him over to it. He fought me as I buckled him in, but he didn’t cry. After I pushed him and he started swinging, he loved it. I don’t think he realized what it was at first. They had some other things on the infant playground. There were a couple of slides, a small climber and some other things they can rock on. They had a grassy area that they can crawl around in and a few of them can fit in the sand box. Crawling Baby’s socks got dirty from the sand so we had to take them off. It was funny to see his reaction when his bare feet touched the grass. That was when I had to leave, but it was nice to see them having fun outside.

Surprise Visit

During my short break yesterday, I went over to the infant room. I wanted to stop in to say hi to the babies. When I walked in, Crawling Baby crawled over to the gate, started to stand up and reach his arms up for me to pick him up. I picked him up over the gate and gave him a hug. I told him he was my buddy and asked how he was doing. Then we went to play. The first thing he did was stand on his own for a few seconds before falling. We walked around the room a couple of times. He stopped to look at a truck. While he was busy with that, I walked around the room to talk to the other babies. Baby J was busy with his bottle. There’s a Baby M who I don’t get to see often because he’s usually not there on Wednesdays, but I stopped to say hi to him. He was babbling to himself while in the jumper. Baby C was sitting in a play pen type thing surrounded by soft toys. We looked into this mirror with soft edges. It was pretty big so Baby C liked looking at that for a few seconds. She was playing with a big plush frog, but she wanted to be picked up so I picked her up and talked to her for a few minutes. I was running out of time so I looked for Baby L, but he had left early. I felt bad because Baby C started to cry and I wanted to see Crawling Baby again before I had to leave. Luckily, they were warming up Baby C’s bottle and I sat with Crawling Baby for another couple of minutes. We looked at the truck and I started to play a game with him where I rocked him back and forth. He’d laugh because sometimes I’d pick him way up in the air. He likes games like that with some form of surprise. They always make him laugh or smile. He’s easily entertained. Then I had to get back to the toddlers, but it was a nice little break.

Growing Up

There were only three babies for most of today. Baby J left this morning because his mother didn’t feel well and decided to go home. Then Baby O left at 12 O’clock. That left Baby L and Crawling Baby until Baby C came this afternoon. One of my assignments was to do an observation of infants so I picked Baby L for the first part of my assignment. I wanted to get the first part finished up before Crawling Baby got there because he’s rough with everything and I didn’t want him to get near the laptop, but it didn’t work out that way. I started my observations and things were going well until Baby L needed a diaper change which took a while. Then a few minutes later, they decided he needed a nap. That left me with only about five minutes of real observation so I had to try again later. After he woke up, I started observing again, but this time, Crawling Baby was there. He only grabbed the laptop once, but he was pretty rough. He grabbed the screen and started pushing the keys. I was able to distract him with a ball I found on the shelf. I rolled it fast across the room and Crawling Baby went after it. Baby L was interested in the laptop too, but he wasn’t so rough. He touched the screen and felt the texture on the back. He was interested in my typing for a while. He kept watching me. Luckily, I know him so he wasn’t bothered by me sitting near him just watching. He probably wondered why I wasn’t playing with him instead, but I was able to after the observation was over. One thing I noticed about him today was how vocal he was. Not too long ago, he only babbled once in a while, but he’s learning new sounds and tries to communicate using sounds a lot more.

I sat with him in the rocking chair for a while because he seemed tired again, but he wouldn’t go to sleep. He was fascinated by the picture on the wall and he kept babbling to himself. He kept grabbing my hand and trying to get me to play games with him instead of sleep. Eventually, we gave up and put him in the swing. He actually slept for an hour and a half which was surprising. He also took both of his bottles today which surprised us too. Crawling Baby didn’t want to sleep either. He finished his bottle and wanted to look around and squirm instead of rest. Eventually, I got him to sleep, but he woke up earlier than he should’ve and was cranky for the rest of the day. We couldn’t get him back to sleep even though we tried. When Baby C came in, her mother said she was tired too. We tried putting her down for a nap and she kept babbling to herself and laughing in her crib. Eventually, every one of us had gone in the crib room to try to get her to sleep. For the most part, she’d just cry and want to get out of her crib. We took her out for a while longer and then eventually put her back in the crib, but she still didn’t want to sleep. I don’t know if she fell asleep or not because I had to leave.

This afternoon, I did the second part of my observation with the three of them. That worked a lot better, but it almost didn’t happen because they were trying to get Baby C and Crawling Baby back to sleep and if they had napped at that time, I wouldn’t have gotten it done. Luckily, I got some good observations to use.

I played with Crawling Baby for a while. I made up a game that he thought was fun. They have these tube shaped squishy things that I think are used for them to crawl over. Anyway, I kept rolling one across the room and Crawling Baby would chase it. Then I’d chase him and he’d laugh. When he’d reach the tube, he’d point at me and want me to role it again. When I’d role it and it would hit something, he’d laugh and go over to wait for me to role it. I also used the big ball with the three of them again. They enjoyed bouncing on it. I tried looking at books with Crawling Baby, but he wanted to close the book instead of looking at the pictures.

Baby C was sitting up by herself. Two weeks ago, she needed help. She doesn’t like being on her belly, but today she ended up that way a few times. She’d start fussing, but we’d let her because she needs to find ways to get into another position by herself. We know that she knows how to role over so after some fussing, she actually rolled over and seemed happy again. . She doesn’t mind rolling over when there’s something around her that she’s interested in. Everyone’s favorite toys this afternoon were three rubber duckies. Crawling Baby even brought one with him when it was time for his bottle. He kept hitting the bottle with it. In two weeks, Baby O will be moving up to the toddler room which means that Crawling Baby will be the oldest. It’s strange to think that when I started, these babies were only five and nine months old. Even though only a few months have gone by, they’ve grown so fast.

Baby Buddy Movie

Here's a video of babies who are playing together. they are starting to develop social skills even at this early stage. Here is the link to the original post with the video by Janet Lansbury. She promotes allowing babies to explore and play on their own and respecting the feelings of even the youngest babies.

At the center where I work, we try to let the babies interact as much as possible. I notice that with Baby L and Baby C, they learn from each other a lot through immitation and a little friendly competition. they always want to do what the other is doing and they are so interested in each other.

Baby Ball Games

I spent most of the day with Baby L. He still has his ear infections and I think his teeth were bothering him. He had a rough day. When I first got there we played for a little bit with some toys and a big blue ball. He likes pushing it even though that’s the only thing he can do because it’s so big. He likes to scratch at it too. He wanted to sit on my lap for a while and eventually fell asleep after trying to sit with him on the couch and in the rocking chair a couple of times. I had to hold him during his nap which was only a half an hour. While he napped, the other teacher got out some shaving cream for Baby O. After only 30 seconds, there was a huge mess and she already wanted to move on. The teacher got out some plastic foods which all the babies enjoyed.

Crawling Baby was there today and ever since I’ve started volunteering I notice that when he’s brought in, the family members just leave him in his car seat and leave. Maybe they’re in a hurry, but I figured they can at least take him out and get him settled. I think one time; his mom took him out of the seat. Usually, it’s a guy that drops him off. It’s either his dad or uncle because I’ve heard that sometimes his uncle will bring him or pick him up so I’m not sure. It’s not a big deal. Everyone has their own way of doing things. Anyway, I took him out of his seat right away and brought him over to the shelves which he quickly cleaned off. He also was interested in the plastic foods. His favorite is usually the corn on the cob which we often leave out for him, but today his favorite was a slice of cheese. He kept chewing on it all day. Of course, Baby L was playing with the foods too and Crawling Baby kept taking them from him. There were lemons, bananas, hamburgers, peaches, ice cream, a slice of pizza, eggs, hash browns, steak, toast etc. Baby l’s favorite things were the eggs, hash browns, toast and an ice cream Sunday. We joked that he was going to be a breakfast person. The thing is he’s starting to eat solid food, but is not enjoying it at all. He just cries most of the time when we try to feed him. He even won’t accept his bottle most of the time. He’s a picky eater anyway, but since he’s been sick, it’s been worse.

Baby L was fussy today so I tried something new. I sat on the blue ball and bounced which he liked. I also sat him on the ball and bounced him while holding on to him. He thought this was fun. To get him to sleep this afternoon, I started by bouncing on the ball and then when he stopped fussing, I rolled back and forth on the ball which made it like rocking. I’m not sure why the rocking chair didn’t work for him this time. Maybe it was because the chair was noisy, but the ball seemed to work better. I also held him for his afternoon nap.

Crawling Baby and I played games with the ball too. He didn’t like bouncing on the ball so I tried rolling him over it. I held on to him and pulled him across the ball towards me. Sometimes, I’d pick him up in the air and other times, I just let him role across the ball. He laughed at this and I used this to distract him when he’d start to bother the other babies. We also played a version of peak-a-boo with the ball. I’d hide behind the ball and role it to the left or right so he’d see my face. He thought this was funny and if I didn’t move the ball soon enough, he’d start tapping on it. Baby O and I would push the ball back and forth and sometimes I’d push it across the room so she’d have to chase it. Baby C also got her turn on the ball bouncing on it with me holding on to her and bouncing while sitting on my lap.

Baby C and Baby L were both playing with the foods and when one would pick one food, the other would try to get the same food. It started with the bananas. I asked Baby L if he wanted a banana. He took it and I looked over and Baby C had picked up a banana too. Next, Baby L had two pieces of bread and then Baby C wanted the third piece of bread that was left. When Baby C went back to chewing on the banana, Baby L dropped his pieces of bread and grabbed the other banana. Baby C still can’t sit up fully on her own. When she sits in the squishy seat, she often falls back and ends up on her back. Today, she wanted to get closer to the foods because after her snack, another teacher put her in another part of the room. Baby C started rolling over. She moved quite a bit, but would get frustrated because she didn’t have much control about where she could move. I praised her for rolling over. I could tell she wanted to crawl, but when she was on her stomach, she couldn’t use her arms to pull herself forward so she went back to rolling instead. Even though she fussed, I let her keep rolling and eventually she got close to the foods so I helped her sit up and brought her seat over to the area. Baby L was sitting on his own for most of the day without a squishy seat. He fell over a few times and we helped him back up, but he’s pretty good at sitting on his own now. It was a busy day for the babies and me.

When We Work Together

Today, I spent most of the morning with the toddlers. There were more than enough people in the infant room and the teacher in the toddler room really needed help. When I walked in, there were four kids crying and one lying on the couch by herself. I’m not sure what got all of them so upset. I’m guessing it was that some of them got to go for a walk outside and others didn’t. Some of them go on one day and the rest of the group goes on the next day. They even take a couple of the infants that are going to be in the toddler room in the next couple of months. Anyway, I helped calm them down. They walked around the room crying for a few minutes, but then I distracted a couple of them by pointing out the box of markers on the table. They quickly started dumping the markers and watching them role across the floor instead of drawing. The ones who were interested in drawing insisted on drawing on everyone else’s papers instead of their own. One girl kept telling a boy to draw on his own paper, but he wasn’t listening. Eventually, we picked up the markers and they moved on to other things around the room.

A group of them started playing with the big foam blocks. One boy remembered the bouncing game from a few weeks ago. A couple of the foam blocks are rectangle shaped and those work the best because they can sit on them and there’s enough room to bounce. Anyway, he told me he wanted to bounce so I held his hands. A girl came over and said it was her turn. I asked the boy if he heard his friend say it was her turn. He said it was still his turn so I let him bounce a few more times. Then the girl reminded him that she wanted a turn. He sat on the block for another few minutes while saying, “Mine and my turn.” I wasn’t sure how to let her have a turn without just taking the block away from him. Then I thought of a way they could work together. I suggested that he could hold her hands while she bounced and then when it was his turn, she could hold his hands. He hesitated, but I helped him stand up. She sat on the block and he grabbed her hands and they started laughing when one of them would bounce too hard and fall off. I had to remind them once in a while whose turn it was, but they figured out that its fun when they work together. Then another boy got involved and we had to add more turns, but he moved on to something else pretty quickly. The boy wanted his own block so he tried the squares, but he found that they were too small for bouncing, but we finally found another rectangular block. They enjoyed bouncing next to each other too. They also built a huge tower together and loved when someone else knocked it over. That meant that it was time to rebuild.

When the other toddlers came back from lunch, I saw D again. She was the girl who says, “Got you!” Her newest game is to sort of hide behind a chair. Of course, she can’t really get behind it because it’s an adult sized chair which is partially against the wall. I can still see her, but she says, “I got you” from there. Eventually, she’ll run out and across the room. She’s trying to talk a lot more. I don’t understand most of her words, but she is trying really hard. Most of the time, I know what she’s asking for though. She was asking for milk today which I could understand. She’s learning to use a regular paper cup, but she crumples it and the milk spills, but she’s trying. She’s grown so much since I met her in February.

In the infant room, I spent more time with Baby L and Baby C. We put them in the squishy seats again. They always reach for each other and like to look at each other’s toys. Baby C babbled a lot today and was excited to get in the jumper. There are keys on the jumper that you can press and they make musical notes. She loved hitting them and figuring out that they made different sounds. Baby L also discovered this earlier in the day. I was sitting with him and pressed the keys a few times to let him hear the sounds. He tried imitating me, but his hands aren’t strong enough to press the keys. Finally, he’d press his cheek against them and they’d make the sound. He spent a lot of time doing this. He also liked playing with a rattle that was hanging from the top of the jumper. I’d make it swing from side to side and he’d catch it. When it was just hanging there, he’d shake it and babble about what he was doing. At least that’s what I think he was babbling about. We also played with a ball. I’d give the ball to Baby C because she actually would grab it with both hands and would drop it. Of course, it’d role all over the place. Baby L would only push on it while it was in my hand and it would fall. Then he’d reach his hand out to touch the ball again. He also kept scratching it, but didn’t figure out that he could use both hands to hold it. He also showed interest in a big blue ball that they have for the older infants. The ball is at least twice his size, but he wanted to play with it so I’d gently role it over to him so he could touch it and he’d push it away, but then would try to reach for it again. It would get too far away from him though and he’s not strong enough to crawl after it. I have a feeling he’ll be crawling soon because he’s already showing interest in chasing after objects and will lean towards them while stretching his hands out. For now, we are enjoying the stage that Baby L is at because he loves to be held, but is just as happy to be playing by himself.