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.

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.

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.

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 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.

A Quiet Rainy Day

All the babies were there, but it was a quiet day. A couple of them came in late. I spent a lot of time with Baby L. First we played on the floor. He was sitting in his squishy seat playing with plastic keys and some other rattles. He kept babbling to me as I pointed out things about the toys. I was pointing out some letters on the keys and the shapes of the buttons on the phone. I know he couldn’t understand what those things meant, but he was very interested. He had some time on his belly, but he got frustrated with that. He wants to crawl, but he’s not strong enough yet. He moves his arms, but can’t move his legs to follow. He also played with a squishy toy which he liked. He kept squeezing it and putting it in his mouth. He’s teething right now so we gave him a frozen teething ring which he used until he fell asleep. Baby L and Baby C are the same age so they like sitting together. Today they both played with sets of keys. They always smile and imitate each other. It’s funny to watch. Baby l has an ear infection so during his afternoon nap; I had to hold him while he slept. I tried putting him in one of the swings to sleep since he feels better sitting up, but he woke up when I was strapping him in. I sat on the couch with him and he fell asleep and stayed asleep for 45 minutes. It was his longest nap in a long time. All the other babies were asleep and took longer naps than usual too. Maybe it was because of the rainy day.

Later I fed baby J and had to change his diaper. He’s usually fussy when being changed, but he was really patient with me. The diaper part didn’t take long, but then when I had to put the onesie back on, that took a while. I really hate all those snaps and how you have to line them up. At least he didn’t seem to mind.

Crawling Baby spent some time playing with his favorite phone and dumping out a bucket full of toys. We didn’t walk together today, but he kept walking with a push toy. I showed him and Baby O a book with scratch and sniff garden pictures, but they didn’t understand the whole sniff part. The scratching they understood right away. Baby O was gentle with the book, but Crawling Baby seemed like he wanted to rip it apart so I had to put it away. It was one of my books from a small collection and I didn’t want it ruined. I knew that would happen, but I thought I’d try anyway. They always have books out for them to look at as well. If I had my own classroom, I’d probably make a lot of picture books for them to look at. I know there are some you can buy, but I’ve seen a lot of good ideas for making them plus they can be personalized.

I sat with Crawling Baby during lunch and he’s such a messy eater. He wants to be independent and feed himself. We’ve tried to feed him with a spoon, but he knocks all the food off onto the table and then he’ll pick it up to eat it. After a few spoonfuls, I gave up and started dumping it onto the table. It’s a mess, but it’s great that he wants to feed himself. He loves all kinds of foods too which is good. Most kids I’ve worked with have been picky so this is a change. That was all for today.

Busy, Babbling Babies

There were four babies today. They were all sick so they kept us busy. It was just the usual teacher and I since the other people were out. There’s another teacher who covers breaks who was in there for a while, but mostly there were only two of us. All the babies would start crying at once and there weren’t enough of us to go around. I started the day with feeding Baby L who doesn’t like to take the bottle from anyone else but the usual teachers. He cried for a few minutes and kept pushing the bottle away, but surprisingly he calmed down and took the bottle for me. I was glad that he changed his mind because the other teacher was busy with Baby J who was screaming. I have the hardest time helping him relax so I’d rather argue with Baby L about the bottle. Plus he does everything else with me so I wanted to be able to feed him too. He drank most of it and fell asleep. We put him in the swing because he’s having a hard time lately sleeping in his crib. He’s getting over an ear infection so he sleeps better propped up.

Next, I played with Crawling Baby. He walked with me like we did last week, but I wasn’t feeling well myself and didn’t have much energy for that. He played with his telephone. He was holding the phone and babbling. The other teacher joked that he was ordering pizza. In the past week, he’s become a lot more vocal. He used a push toy for a while which he enjoyed. He loves anything that lets him stand up. We played a game today where he’d climb on my lap and then I’d pick him up in the air kind of fast. He had a huge smile on his face and I even got him to laugh a couple of times. When Baby L woke up, he played in the squishy seat for a while. Crawling Baby kept coming over and grabbing his toys. We kept having to move him away so Baby L could play with his toys in peace. The funny thing was when Crawling Baby would take a toy; Baby L would pick up another one. Then Crawling Baby would take the one that Baby L just picked and would drop the other one. Eventually, he stopped giving the other toy back and would keep all the toys for himself even though he had the run of the room. Baby L can’t crawl yet. He’s only six-months-old so he’s mostly stuck sitting somewhere for now. Baby L doesn’t cry or get upset when Crawling Baby takes his toys away, but I’m sure he wonders what is going on. I kept trying to get Crawling Baby back to his favorite corn on the cob or some newer bigger toys that the other teacher brought out just for him. It didn’t work though. He’s so interested in what the other babies are doing.

At lunch time, I fed Crawling Baby. He was the only one there today who is eating solid foods. He had some baked beans, cucumbers and a banana. I’d try to feed him with the spoon, but then he’d just knock everything onto the table. Then he’d eat with his hands which made a big mess, but I think he’d rather feed himself which is why he takes everything off the spoon. He let me give him a couple of bites, but after that everything hit the table first. He kept grabbing the bowl too, but I didn’t want him to dump it so I’d let him have a little at a time. It took me at least ten minutes to clean the mess, but at least he ate all his food and had fun with it. He really needs a bath after lunch time because he’s always a messy eater, but we don’t do that at the center. I did my best to clean him off though. The other funny thing is he constantly babbles between bites.

We played a little more until it was time for his nap. I gave him a bottle which he didn’t drink much of before he started to get sleepy. Then it was Baby L’s turn for his nap. He drank the rest of his bottle from the morning and then needed a diaper change. The other teacher was going to do it, but I had to redeem myself after the last diaper change. So I walked past her to the changing room. She found his diapers and wipes for me and it went pretty well. He didn’t bump his head or almost fall off the table. Half way through the changing, the other teacher left the room so I guess she was okay with it. He was even laughing and having a good time until it came to getting him dressed. It was taking forever because he was wearing one of those onesies. I was trying to button them, but kept lining it up wrong so the buttons were in the wrong places. I’m used to kids with standard clothes not everything in one. Since he started to cry harder, I brought him out to the couch so the other teacher could finish dressing him and I went back to clean the changing table. I saw how she buttoned it up though so I’ll know for next time. There’s always something, but at least it wasn’t a big deal this time.

Eventually, they were all sleeping until Baby J started screaming again. We could not calm him down and then the other two babies woke up. Baby J was handed to me and I could not get him to calm down. I tried the rocking chair, sitting on the couch, walking around, rocking while standing, bouncing, covering him up, and the bottle and finally, I had to put him down. This went on for about an hour. He wouldn’t take his bottle or stop crying. I put him in the swing so he could have some alone time. He cried for about five or ten minutes, but eventually, he quieted down. Maybe it was alone time that he needed after all. At home, he gets held constantly so it’s hard when he’s at the center because there aren’t enough people to pay attention to each baby all of the time. Meanwhile, the other babies were very cranky. Baby L kept crying no matter where we put him and Crawling Baby kept fussing while eating his afternoon snack. He didn’t want to play on the floor. He grabbed the telephone and sat in front of it crying. I felt bad because Baby J woke them all up and they were all so tired. At the same time, Baby C came in and was happy as usual. It must be weird though walking into a room where the rest of them are crying. It didn’t bother her though. She just jumped in the exerciser and babbled quietly to herself.

After a while, things were calm and we decided to put Baby L and Baby C in the squishy seats across from each other with some room in the middle for a few toys. They are the same age and like to sit together. They smile and laugh at each other. They were happy playing with rattles and watching each other. Baby L even tried to get out of the seat, but almost fell on Baby C. He had done that earlier today too and actually rolled around a little bit. I thought he’d get frustrated by this, but he enjoyed rolling around on the floor this time. Crawling Baby was very interested in the babies and their toys so he came over and kept grabbing the toys, trying to grab the babies and even slobbered on Baby C’s head. He’s so interested in them. It’s too bad he’s so much older. It’s only four months, but with babies, that’s a lot of time since they grow so fast. It was a very busy day.

Got You!

Today, I worked with the infants and toddlers. When I first got there, Baby J started to cry from the swing so I held him for a while, but he wouldn’t stop crying so the other teacher took him. He wasn’t feeling well. Later, Crawling Baby came in and he has a new trick. He can stand up while holding onto something, but can’t walk while holding on to something stationary like the couch. He’s figured out that he can walk if he holds on to someone’s hands. He grabbed both of my hands and stood up so I started to move backwards to let him catch up with me. We went around the room a few times, but after a while it was hard because I was on my knees. He was having a good time though. He played with his phone again and he’s found a new favorite toy, a plastic corn on the cob. He also kept dumping out a bucket of toys. I’d refill it just so he could dump it again. Baby L who I usually play with was on vacation, but it gave me a chance to play with and learn more about Crawling Baby.

Baby J fell asleep and Baby O who’s the oldest went for a walk with a small group of toddlers. Since only Crawling Baby was awake, they sent me to the toddler room where they figured they’d need more help. Since some of them were out for their walk, there were only four, but they were the rowdy ones. We colored, played with foam blocks and some of them found the balls they had out a few weeks ago. Today, they mostly loved rolling and chasing them around the room. They experimented with rolling the ball on the slide and sliding down after it. The girl who is the youngest and had trouble walking in the snow was there. I’ll call her D. Only three weeks ago, I never heard her say any words. She’d communicate by crying, sign language or just by taking what she wanted. The infant teacher is learning sign language and she teaches simple signs to the kids. Anyway, today, her dad left and she was upset about it. Any time she started crying, she’d say, “daddy.” She kept walking me around the classroom and especially to the door that leads to the playground. She got there late and missed the outside play time. She also went back to her cubby for her coat. I kept having to explain that she missed outside time and that maybe she could go out later this afternoon. She also likes to watch the preschoolers on the playground which she does often. Finally, she brought me to the climber where she likes to play peak-a-boo with me on the stairs. We played for a few minutes and she thought it was so funny. Finally, she tried to say “peak-a-boo.” Then I went to check up on the other toddlers and she ran after me. When she caught up with us, she grabbed me and said, “got you!” That was our saying of the day after that. Any time we’d play together that’s what she’d say. I was glad to hear her talking now. The other toddlers seemed to talk more as well. They are learning new words everyday. They recognized me right off too even though I haven’t been in their room for three weeks. I decided to stay in there longer than planned to help with lunch and putting them down for nap. It was a very busy morning.

I went back to the infant room, but Crawling Baby was asleep. The only one awake was Baby O. Her and the other teacher looked at books and she walked around the room from one toy to another. Finally, Crawling Baby woke up and I went to get him from the room where the cribs are. We played more with the toys in the bucket, looked at books and his new favorite pass time, walking with me around the room. I felt bad for him because he wanted to look at books with Baby O, but she kept pushing him away. He didn’t want to take it from her; he just wanted to see the pictures. Then she was sitting on the couch and Crawling Baby came over and was trying to hold on to the couch. He ended up touching her feet since they were hanging off the couch and she got really annoyed with him. the teacher told me she doesn’t like him touching her at all. I think he grabs too rough sometimes, but he means well. He came up to me later while I was holding Baby J and he was touching his head. I made sure he was gentle though. At least Baby L doesn’t freak out when Crawling Baby comes over.

In the afternoon, Baby C came in. I didn’t get to play with her much today, but she does a ton of babbling. More than the others. I had to feed and hold Baby J. I had to keep walking him around the room or rock him because he wouldn’t settle down. Eventually, we put him in a playpen type thing, but it’s made out of wood and is higher off the ground. Instead of mesh sides, it has sides like a crib. It has a blanket on the bottom and we put some soft toys in there. He started to fuss in there too, but the teacher said he needs to learn to soothe himself which is true. I held him for over an hour and if he gets to used to someone holding him automatically every time he gets fussy, he’ll never learn how to calm himself down. After a couple minutes, he was quiet. I’m not the only one who holds him for a long time. We all do because he likes it, but sometimes he needs some time on the floor or in the play pen. Before I left, I walked with Crawling Baby some more. When I had to leave, I found his corn on the cob and he was happy to chew on that while sitting next to a full bucket of toys.

Diapering Disaster

I worked with the five babies again today. When I got there, Baby L; the one who loves the squishy seat was awake and happy. I played with him for a while. He was in the exerciser when I got there, but wanted to be taken out. He played with the rattles and sat in the squishy seat for a while, but I noticed he wasn’t feeling like himself. He’s had a cold and sounded really stuffed up today. He seemed out of it so he sat in my lap for a while. He started to get fussy so I took him to the rocking chair. The other teacher explained that it was hard to get him to sleep, but I could try rocking him. Usually, they just sit with him on the couch until he falls asleep, but in my experience rocking has worked so why not try it? He squirmed a lot at first until he started looking at this picture on the wall of a boy and girl. Each time we rocked, he’d scratch at the picture. Eventually, he put his head back and fell asleep. It took about ten minutes. The other teacher was a little surprised. He usually sleeps for 20 minutes, but took an hour long morning nap. After he woke up, it was time for a diaper change. I was a little nervous about this because I’ve never changed a baby’s diaper. The only diapers I’ve changed were for older toddlers who were in the middle of potty training. Baby L was fussing, moving around, kicking and generally giving me a hard time about changing his diaper. The other teacher was standing right there making sure I was doing things right. She was nice about it, but someone standing over me makes me really self conscious and then I’m rushing to get it done as soon as possible. Then the rubber gloves make it hard to feel anything especially when you are taping the diaper. You can see it, but it’s still kind of hard to do that with gloves on although I’m sure you get used to it. Luckily, there wasn’t a mess in the diaper for now. Then when it came to putting his pants on, he kept kicking his legs around to make it difficult to put them on. Finally, I tried standing him up to pull up his pants and he hit his head on the cabinet above the changing table. He wasn’t hurt and only cried for a minute. I felt really bad though because he could’ve hurt himself and I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention. I was embarrassed too because the other teacher was right there watching my every move. She was nice about it, but I don’t want her to think that every time I change a diaper, there will be a disaster. I don’t mean to over react, but I’ve had experiences with people going overboard after I’ve made simple mistakes that didn’t have anything to do with children getting hurt. I hope other people have these horror stories too. I can’t be the only one.

After his diaper change, the foster grandmother at the center fed him, but later we played again. We sat on the couch for a while. I just talked to him and he played with my hands as usual. He did a lot of babbling today which was cute because it wasn’t all the same sound. From outside of the exerciser, he was able to pull down the toy that he couldn’t pull last week, but I could tell he wondered why it didn’t stay down where he had pulled it.

Then I spent some more time with baby J who is the three-month-old. He spends a lot of time sleeping in the swing because we have to strap him down to his crib and after we get him to sleep; he always wakes up when we buckle him in. It’s easier to strap him in the swing while he sleeps because he doesn’t wake up that way. We usually rock him to sleep in the chair first. After his morning nap, I fed him and he actually burped for me today which he didn’t last week. After his bottle, I sat with him on the couch for a while. He was happy just to hang out. He wasn’t playing with anything. He was just sitting there in my lap cooing and kicking his feet up in the air.

This afternoon, I spent time with crawling Baby who you can usually find standing up holding on to something. He likes to climb all over me. He kept playing with the phone on wheels and some other toys until he decided he wanted to practice standing up. I’d move backwards and he’d grab my hands, pull himself up and then try to walk towards me. It worked a couple of times, but then he couldn’t pull himself up anymore unless I was right in front of him so he used my hands for balance as he stood up and then climbed on my lap. He did this a few times until his family came to get him. He usually doesn’t leave that early. I didn’t get to spend any time with him this morning because he went for a walk around the neighborhood with the toddlers.

Before I left, I spent some time with Baby C. She’s the happy smiling baby girl. Today she had floor time. She’s learning how to role over and push herself around. She was getting frustrated a few times and at first, she didn’t want to move. I decided to put a few toys out of her reach so she’d have something to move towards. She liked moving towards the keys, but then got frustrated when she rolled over the wrong way. She started to cry, but kept kicking her feet. I reached out to grab one of her feet and she started to laugh so it became a little game. She continued to role around and was having a good time playing with the toys until she got hungry for her sweet potatoes. She’s a little younger than the babies who sit at the table, but with a blanket behind her, she’s able to sit in the big girl seat. She likes it and she was happy to be eating of course. That was it for my day with the babies this week.

The Five Babies

Today was my first day with the babies. I was a little nervous about it because I haven’t worked with babies before. The only baby I’ve had any experience with was my nephew, but that was years ago and pretty limited. The infant room only has one teacher and she seems nice. Soon after I got there, the youngest baby who is three-months-old started crying. He wanted his bottle so she gave him to me. It was awkward at first because of the way I had to hold him and the shape of the bottle. I don’t know how to explain the shape of the bottle other than it was arched. You have to tip it up higher than regular bottles. After he ate, I had to burp him, but he wouldn’t burp. Then it was time for him to go to sleep which he didn’t want to do either. He was fussy until we put him in the swing. I know some people don’t really like swings and other equipment for babies, but it really helped in this case. After he fell asleep, the other teacher put him in his crib.

During the time when this baby was hungry, another baby started crying from the other room where the cribs are. His story is he didn’t sleep much last night and he was cranky today. Sometimes he cries himself back to sleep, but after a while the teacher realized he wasn’t going to do that this time. He was fussy during his changing and then he wouldn’t settle down. It was a challenge with both babies screaming. One waiting for a bottle and the other waiting for who knows what. After a while, the second baby calmed down after he was put in a squishy seat with three sides. The front is open so he could crawl out if he wanted to, but he’s not quite there yet. The sides are made out of material they make mats with. He likes this seat and will sit there with a toy or two for long periods of time. There wasn’t anymore screaming after the first baby was fed and the other was in the seat.

There are six babies enrolled right now, but on Wednesdays, there are only five. The oldest is fifteen-months-old. The youngest is three-months-old and the others are between eight and ten months. When I walked in, the oldest one said hi to me. That’s pretty much the only word she knows. She loves books and kept walking around with them. Some of them were heavy for her, but she didn’t give up on carrying them. I looked at books with her and she became interested in some of the other toys on the shelf. The other teachers were surprised by her since she is at that age of stranger anxiety, but she came right over to me. Another baby came in mid-morning and he’s a crawler. He comes over to sit in your lap for a few seconds, but then he’s off again. He spends a lot of time by the gate probably wondering how he can make his escape. He likes to play with a telephone on wheels. He moves the dial, but bites the phone instead of talking on it. He also likes one of the exercisers, but he’s too heavy to sit in it so he likes to walk around the edge while holding on to it. He finds the toys interesting and I wonder why he always picks this one instead of the other one. It’s funny how they already have preferences. Maybe it’s because this one is a little taller and is perfect for him to hold on to while standing.

The baby who loves the seat was put into one of the exercisers which he really enjoyed. He loves to jump up and down and play with all the toys hanging from it. He could investigate each toy for a long time without getting bored with it. He especially liked this toy that when you pull it down, it vibrates and goes back up by itself. His problem was that he isn’t strong enough to pull it down so for now, I was doing it for him. Each time I’d pull the toy, he’d try to pull it down himself when it got back to the top. Later, he went back to the seat where he played with some larger rattles and a toy with a mirror. He likes to drop his toys over the side, but his arms aren’t long enough to reach them. I picked them up for him, but I’d put them just out of his reach on the seat so he’d have to move forward to get the toy. He’s pretty vocal. He makes a lot of sounds to get your attention, but doesn’t have any words yet. He’ll probably be a big talker later. He spent a lot of time cuddling with me and he had a fascination with my hands. He kept pulling them, scratching at them, squeezing them etc. At one point he scratched me pretty hard. His little nails are sharp enough to leave scratch marks. I scratched his hand lightly so he’d see what it felt like, but I’ve forgotten that babies repeat everything you do and it probably felt funny or good to him so he kept doing it. I wasn’t trying to hurt him and obviously he wasn’t trying to hurt me. Then I told him that his nails were sharp so he’d have to be gentle and I started playing with his hands gently.

We also had another lesson about being gentle today. The crawling baby and the same baby in the seat often interact. The crawling baby comes over and likes to check out the toys that he is playing with or just take them for himself. Sometimes, he’ll practically sit on him. Whenever he’d come over, I’d tell him to be gentle. He likes to get in the other babies faces and will grab them. When the other teacher told me this, I’d touch the first baby’s face gently and then touch the second baby’s face gently so they’d know what to do. It seemed to have worked for today because they played side-by-side for a little while with no problem. We have to watch this closely since one baby is bigger and more mobile than the other.
Finally, in the late afternoon, the last baby came. She’s a girl who is nine-months-old. I only got to spend about an hour with her which most of it was spent in the exerciser. She enjoyed herself looking at the toys and jumping. At the end, I took her out of the exerciser to hold her for a few minutes. She was a happy baby; always smiling. They tell me she’s always like that. All the babies seemed happy.
I enjoyed myself today and will work with the babies again next week.

WhatWe CanDo With a Ball

This week, we played outdoors. The girl from last week who had trouble walking in the snow still had trouble. She’d take a few steps by herself and then fall. She was having trouble getting up because she kept sinking in the snow. She’d laugh when she fell though so at least she was having a good time. After a while, she grabbed my hand and I walked with her if she wanted to go somewhere else on the playground. She’d even try to keep walking by herself after balancing by holding my hand, but she’d grab my hand again when she would start to fall. After going inside, she started to be clingy and constantly wanted to be picked up. One thing I noticed was that she likes looking out the window. I’d bring her over so she could watch the preschoolers play outside. One of her favorite games is peak-a-boo on the climber. I sit beside the climber stairs because there’s a little window there. I look through the window and she sees me from sitting on the stairs. Then I disappear. When she stands to look over the railing, she laughs because she sees me on the bottom. We had fun looking at our reflections in the mirror next to the climber. The toddlers like to press their faces right against the mirror. Some of the boys kept spitting on the mirror. They thought it was really funny, but I reminded them about the germs and they eventually stopped.

Most of the morning play surrounded three balls. Two of them are the regular smooth balls and the other one is bumpy and a little smaller. They discovered that they could do a lot with these balls. They could push them around the room like their trucks. They can carry them, they can role them, they can try to bounce them; they can sit on them and bounce on them. This only worked for some toddlers. The girl I mentioned needed the smaller ball and then she was able to bounce on the ball. She discovered this after trying one of the bigger balls. She’d fall off and after trying a few times, I asked, “what about the bumpy ball?” She tried that one and it worked much better although it was hard for her to keep her balance. We can play pass with the ball. It started with me and another girl on the floor. We’d role the ball back and forth. Then she started throwing it. A boy came over and joined into the game until he wanted the ball all to himself. We can take turns with the ball or we can fight over it. The girl noticed the other ball wasn’t being used so she brought that one over. We rolled it down the slide a couple of times, tried to bounce it off the floor and throwing the ball into the air. She saw that if she rolled the ball farther away, she could chase after it. Then more toddlers got involved with chasing the balls around the room. They practiced kicking and then chasing. Then I’d throw the ball in the air to see where it lands and the kids would chase it until they caught up to it. We’d start all over again with our game. Some even used the balls to knock over towers built from foam blocks. Playing with a ball is a great way for toddlers to develop those gross motor skills plus it’s so much fun!

Another cool thing that happened this week was they are starting to know my name. One of the girls kept saying, “Darcey, watch this!” Since most of these toddlers aren’t talking much yet, sometimes I forget what they can really understand and remember. I hardly ever hear them say the other teacher’s names and they work with them all the time so I was surprised when a couple of them said mine. When I came in, the girl who plays peak-a-boo came over and brought me right to the climber. It amazes me sometimes how much they know and remember even with someone they don’t see that often. Next week, I will be volunteering with the infants since there will be more babies.

Testing The Limmits

Today was the first day that we’ve gone outside since I’ve been volunteering with the toddlers. We were out there for a half an hour. I thought it was cold, but it was good for them to get out and get rid of all that extra energy. They mostly walked around in the snow, but some of them went on slides and on the swings. One girl got angry because she couldn’t get on the slide that was made for the preschoolers. That lasted a few minutes until she found something else to do. The youngest girl who is sixteen-months-old was cautious about walking in the snow. She started to walk and then fell down. She laughed, but seemed worried about what would happen if she got back up. Eventually, she stood there, but wouldn’t move. I walked over and asked her if she wanted to hold my hand and try to walk through the snow. She thought about it for a minute and grabbed my hand. We walked to the swing set that was a few feet away and she started climbing up the steps to the slide. Another toddler seemed concerned about trying the slide, but had a big smile on her face when she finally slid down.

After we went in, the toddlers worked on today’s art activity which was drawing with crayons. They were given a blank piece of paper and a large crayon. Each kid had a different color. We went around the table a few times repeating names of colors. The children were confused about which color they had. One boy had orange, but the girl next to him had green. The boy thought he had green and the girl thought she had orange. That was never really understood, but the kids had fun naming the colors. Most of the kids did scribbles, some crooked lines and dots, but a couple of them were able to draw shapes like circles and squares. One boy informed us that circles were round. After a while the kids switched colors, but the coloring turned to crumpling of papers. That was until one of the toddlers discovered that if you tap the crayon on the paper, you’ll make dots. Then everyone started doing that until the teacher asked them to stop because they were being too rough with the crayons. It went back to the paper crumpling until the teacher took their papers to write names on them.

It was back to play time where the boys were riding bikes and the girls were walking around, climbing on the climber or in the home corner. They kept testing their limits on the bikes. One boy was insistent on crashing into another one with his bike until the teacher said it wasn’t safe, but he continued to do it until he almost got the bike taken away. Then another boy decided that he wanted to play with a bike and a puzzle at the same time. The problem was that someone else wanted the puzzle and the pieces were all over the place. We were trying to keep the puzzles and their pieces together on the table so one of the rules was that if you wanted to work on puzzles that you had to stay at the table. Finally, someone else wanted the bike too. The boy was mad about choosing and decided he was going to dump out his puzzle pieces and then put the flat part of the puzzle on top of his bike seat. That way if he was sitting on it, no one could get it from him. Eventually, we noticed and told him to bring the puzzle back to the table. I helped him back to the table, but he chose not to work on the puzzles. Meanwhile, someone else took the bike because he chose not to use it. He was upset about this for a few minutes until another bike was free. Then the group of boys decided to tip their bikes over and push them around and try to ride them with the wheels in the air. They kept getting caught in the bikes and falling off so we decided it wasn’t safe. If you wanted to ride bikes, you had to ride them the proper way. One of the boys got really upset because after three or four times of telling him that he could either ride the bike properly or not use it, we had to take it away. I asked him if he was ready to use the bike the right way and he said no so I left it under the table. Eventually, he was able to think about it and decided to ride the right way.

Then it was back to the puzzle table. One kid decided to throw all the puzzle pieces on the floor and a few other toddlers joined him. I kept trying to clean up the mess, but they continued to throw the pieces all over the floor. They were also stomping on the puzzles and I thought they’d break them so I tried to tell them not to stomp on the toys. They threw pieces on the floor almost all the way through clean up time. After several times of telling them to stop, they did, but then they went on to testing their limits with another teacher while they were washing their hands for lunch. They played in the water, were messing with the toilet and not coming over when they were called. Lunch went okay and then we read books. There were a few times during the stories where the children were pushing, but it wasn’t a big deal. Then at nap time, most of them settled right down because they were so tired. One girl who usually wants to nap kept crying and didn’t want to lay on her mat. I tried to calm her down, but she kept getting up and running around the room. She’s the youngest and was recently moved up from the infant room. It’s taken her a while to get used to the routine. She doesn’t talk yet and she spends a lot of time near the door. She eventually settled down after one of the regular teachers sat with her. Most of them slept up until a few minutes before I left. They seemed happier after nap. I know there are days like these. This isn’t the first one I’ve had and it won’t be the last. It was a day of testing limits.

Towers, Slides and Finger Paintings

Yesterday was my second day volunteering with the toddlers. It was a little confusing at first because they had a few extra people there. There were two high school students who were there to observe. At least that’s what it looked like. Then a community reader came in and she sat in the reading area for a while. Some toddlers stayed with her the whole time reading books and the others chose to play in other parts of the room. They were really into the blocks still. When I arrived, they had the foam blocks scattered all over the floor. One of the toddlers started jumping on them again while grabbing my hands. This didn’t last long because she had found the container of small blocks. She wanted to build tall towers. I started building a tower on my own with the foam blocks. A few seconds after I had the tower three blocks high, a boy had knocked it to the ground. We laughed and I started to build another tower for him to knock over. This went on for a few minutes until he went over to cook in the kitchen area. Meanwhile, another toddler came over and handed me an empty bowl. I asked him what it was. He didn’t answer so I asked if I could eat it. He said yes so I pretended to eat and then asked if he’d like some. Then he took the bowl, pretended to eat and headed off to the kitchen area.

I went over to the small table where the little girl was building tall towers. I told her that her tower was really tall so she started knocking it over and laughing. After the tower was completely destroyed, she started rebuilding it. Another toddler came over and started knocking blocks on the floor. I kept picking them up and putting them on the table for the other girl to use for her towers. I started to label some of the blocks telling her which ones were round, square, white, red, big, small etc. she’d repeat the words as she built. I counted her two towers and then she counted up to four by herself. I think she thought she had four towers instead of two, but that’s okay. Finally, she found a new game. She thought knocking all the blocks off the table was fun. I told her she’d have to pick them up which she did, but it was really fun for her to keep knocking them over. Another girl noticed and she started doing the same thing only this time, she was scattering them across the room. That’s one thing about working with toddlers; you clean up even during play time. If we didn’t, everything would be on the floor all at once. I find it’s easier to pick things up that aren’t being played with. If they take them out again, it’s okay because we can pick something else up that’s not being used. I ask the toddlers to get involved by having them put books back on the shelf or by bringing foods back to the kitchen area. Even if they don’t put the foods back in the baskets, it’s a start to have them bring the things back to the right area.

The structured activity of the day was sponge and finger painting. They were using these foam sponge type things. They weren’t exactly sponges, but a thicker foam material. They were washable. There were hearts, numbers, dogs, rhinos, etc. The idea was to have the toddlers stamp with them. We had a few trays of paint with different colors and the toddlers could use any of the stamps or colors that they wanted. We practiced asking each other for stamps or other colors of paint since everything was divided up among three tables. This turned into finger painting after a while and stamping handprints onto the paper. A couple of kids decided to fill their whole paper with different colors. This was another mess to clean up, but it was fun for them. As long as it was fun for the kids, it’s worth the trouble. I saved the teachers some time by cleaning all the paint trays and stamps.

Later, they had a circle time where one of the teachers sang songs with the kids and looked at books. Those who wanted to participate could and those who didn’t were busy on the climber. It has a slide that the kids love sliding, crawling or walking down. Some even like to go up the slide. This is one place where there is constant negotiating. Kids are either in each other’s way or there are too many people on the slide or the stairs at once. I kept telling them, “One at a time on the slide, please.” After hearing this a couple of times, one of the little girls started repeating me when she saw too many people on the slide. For the most part, the toddlers listen.

In the afternoon, we ate lunch and then at 12:30, it was nap time. I was disappointed because I was there until three O’clock and they slept all through the rest of my time there. They usually wake up earlier, but they had a busy morning.