Well, it's official....Lily took her first steps on May 26th, 2012. The entire family took bets while we were in Texas as to when it would happen, and I think Granny (Jim's mom ) is the closest; she chose May 28th. Now, she's definitely not "walking," and we had to pretty much trick her into it, but she did it! Jim and I were sitting about 3ft away from each other walking her back and forth between us, letting go of her hands and coaxing her to walk. Most of the time she would drop to all 4's and crawl the rest of the way, but then she finally took a step toward me one time before falling into my lap. When I picked her back up she just squealed with excitement and had the biggest smile on her face! We couldn't believe it, but it seemed like she understood what she did! She did it a couple more times after that with more coaxing, but soon got frustrated with us. Maybe now that she knows she can do it she'll try harder. I have a feeling it will be like when she rolled over - she does it once by accident, then doesn't do it again for another 2 or 3 weeks.
Also, I want to write this down so I'll remember it for the next kid - I started doing "independent playtime" with Lily this week. It's something that I read about while I was still pregnant, but just thought it sounded silly and a little overkill. The concept is that you put the baby in the playpen for a certain amount of time with only a few toys, and it encourages them to be creative with the toys and work on their focus and concentration. We started on Tuesday (after a disasterous first swim lesson and I decided something needed to change) and my goodness it has made a huge difference in less than a week! I started with 5 minutes twice a day, and we're only up to 10 mins now and I just can't believe the improvement in her attention span and ability to entertain herself already. I felt like I was starting to become Activities Coordinator all day long, which is exhausting with a child that has a 5 second attention span. I couldn't leave the room, or even get up off the play mat all day or she would start whining, like she was saying "entertain me! I'm bored!" She would do this thing where she would crawl in and out of my lap, sucking her thumb and whining, again like she was bored and didn't know what to do with herself. Now I notice her playing with toys longer, and playing with stuffed animals that she never paid attention to before because they didn't "do" anything. She's so much happier too; I don't think she gets so over-stimulated anymore because she's not constantly looking for new input. I don't use the playpen because our apartment is too small to have something like that out consistently, so I put her in her crib instead. I play some Disney music for her and open all the curtains and door to make it totally different than naptime, and so far there doesn't seem to be any confusion between naptime/playtime. I will definitely be starting this sooner for the next kid. I think I did the typical first time mom mistake and felt guilty leaving her by herself for any significant length of time. Everyone always says to talk to babies constantly to help build language skills, so that's what I did. I would just lay next to her all day and talk and babble, and I realize now that she's become dependent on me for entertainment, and it was becoming exhausting. Supposedly a 10 month old can do independent play for 30 mins twice a day, so that's what our goal is. I'm hoping someday this will make an easy transition to "quiet time" when she drops her morning nap.
To make this post even more random, I have to include this pic of the munchkin with a pacifier. We were playing on our bed and I gave her a seldom used diaper bag to explore the contents of and she found a pacifier and put it in her mouth. I told Jim to take a picture quick because I think babies with paci's are so cute, but she doesn't ever use one. When I looked at the picture later I realized she had it upside down. Poor girl doesn't even know how to use it!
Also, I want to write this down so I'll remember it for the next kid - I started doing "independent playtime" with Lily this week. It's something that I read about while I was still pregnant, but just thought it sounded silly and a little overkill. The concept is that you put the baby in the playpen for a certain amount of time with only a few toys, and it encourages them to be creative with the toys and work on their focus and concentration. We started on Tuesday (after a disasterous first swim lesson and I decided something needed to change) and my goodness it has made a huge difference in less than a week! I started with 5 minutes twice a day, and we're only up to 10 mins now and I just can't believe the improvement in her attention span and ability to entertain herself already. I felt like I was starting to become Activities Coordinator all day long, which is exhausting with a child that has a 5 second attention span. I couldn't leave the room, or even get up off the play mat all day or she would start whining, like she was saying "entertain me! I'm bored!" She would do this thing where she would crawl in and out of my lap, sucking her thumb and whining, again like she was bored and didn't know what to do with herself. Now I notice her playing with toys longer, and playing with stuffed animals that she never paid attention to before because they didn't "do" anything. She's so much happier too; I don't think she gets so over-stimulated anymore because she's not constantly looking for new input. I don't use the playpen because our apartment is too small to have something like that out consistently, so I put her in her crib instead. I play some Disney music for her and open all the curtains and door to make it totally different than naptime, and so far there doesn't seem to be any confusion between naptime/playtime. I will definitely be starting this sooner for the next kid. I think I did the typical first time mom mistake and felt guilty leaving her by herself for any significant length of time. Everyone always says to talk to babies constantly to help build language skills, so that's what I did. I would just lay next to her all day and talk and babble, and I realize now that she's become dependent on me for entertainment, and it was becoming exhausting. Supposedly a 10 month old can do independent play for 30 mins twice a day, so that's what our goal is. I'm hoping someday this will make an easy transition to "quiet time" when she drops her morning nap.
To make this post even more random, I have to include this pic of the munchkin with a pacifier. We were playing on our bed and I gave her a seldom used diaper bag to explore the contents of and she found a pacifier and put it in her mouth. I told Jim to take a picture quick because I think babies with paci's are so cute, but she doesn't ever use one. When I looked at the picture later I realized she had it upside down. Poor girl doesn't even know how to use it!
No comments:
Post a Comment