I have been a bit quiet on the activities front at the moment, simply because almost all of the time we are at home Frida wants to be looking at, or having us read, her books. Current favourites include “Bouncing”, “The Cat in the Hat,” and “Slinky Malinky“, but really any and every book will do.
She delights in bringing us a book and then sitting in our laps and turning the pages for us, but she’s often happy just to pull them out of her baskets and off her bookshelves and sit quietly turning the pages. She definitely understands which book corresponds to which title as she will bring us a book if we say its name. It is very sweet to observe and I hope it’s a good sign that she will love reading like her parents.
We are starting to get a few words other than “dada” and “mama”; “ahnana” (banana), “boo / booboo” (breastmilk) and she joins in when we recite The King’s Breakfast with a delighted “marmar / marmarla” when it’s time to say marmalade.
When she is not looking at books she is still focusing lots of her energy on gross motor skills – crawling, standing, clambering are all lots of fun. We’ve been going outside lots to let her get a feel for doing these things outdoors. She’s really enjoying sandpits and still loves going on swings.
We have turned a big corner recently, in that Frida now enjoys having a bath! This may not sound like a big deal but for months she was terrified of them, even if I was in the bathtub with her. She would cry and cling to me, so we only have her one when absolutely necessary (around once a fortnight) and they lasted around twenty seconds! But now she really enjoys them and will happily splash about for as long as I let her.
I’m so pleased we didn’t try and push her into having them more often before she was ready; a good lesson that children will do things in their own sweet time.
In terms of activities her musical instruments and mirror are still getting used regularly, as well as her colour panels. But really her attention at the moment is on books and moving, so I’m not pushing her.
