Life seemed speed up for DD. After she learned to crawl, within two months, she mastered a series of large motor skills from crawling, pulling herself up to a standing position, climbing upstairs and downstairs, cruising, to the most challenging one—walking. This month’s baby training offered her exercise and practice she needed for standing alone momentarily and, eventually, putting one foot in front of the other.
1. New kinds of play: Crawling enabled DD to exercise larger muscles and we don’t mind to help. I allowed her to practice climbing stairs up and down as much as she wanted. M also taught her to turn her body 180 degrees on the top of the stairs.
Once she mastered both directions and turning, she applied them to other fields. She could climb onto the bed, couch, window seat or any higher level and come down completely by herself. This new kinds of play enabled her more mobility and freedom to explore the surrounding world. They also made her feel confident about herself.
2. It is fine to say Goodbyes: When M and had to go out, to ease DD’s separation anxiety, we tried to make departures short and sweet. We tried to avoid prolonging her agony with extended goodbyes. Sometimes Grandma took DD to the backyard while we sneaked out of the door. We also tried to come back home as soon as possible.
I also helped DD feel more independent by not hovering over her all the time but still let her know I was around. For example, I would wait several minutes to look for her when she crawled to another room. Sometimes she preferred this way since she was going to sneak to the place to play with the forbidden toys (e.g. Daddy’s keyboard and mouth, phone, alarming clock, etc).
3. There is nothing wrong to be polite: When I asked DD to hand me a ball or toy, I said “thank you” to her. When I accidentally forgot to check the food temperature and burned her mouth, I apologized to her. When M came back home from work, I held DD and waived “hi” to him.
There is nothing wrong to teach her the basics of good manners at this age. Although she probably didn’t get the idea just yet, it was never too early start. Plus, this was a perfect way to expose her with Chinese words and related contexts.
4. Learning our amazing body: I taught DD Chinese words for each part of her body, such as eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, fingers, back, tummy and etc.
I pointed to my arm while saying the word. We also watch the power point presentation, which I produced for my blog. I repeated each word following the presentation. DD enjoyed snuggling with me and watched the presentation with great interests.
At the same time, I introduced the concept of numbers. I presented her the index finger and said “one”, then both index finger and middle finger and said “two”, and then index finger, middle finger and ring finger and said “three”, and etc. She was fascinated in watching me.
Related posts:
Baby training, month 11
Baby training, month 10
Baby training, month 9
Baby training, month 8
Baby training, month 7
Baby training, month 6
Baby training, month 5
Baby training, month 4
Baby training, month 3
Baby training, month 1-2
Baby Training, First Year, From Lina | Lina | 
July 7, 2009 3:48 pm | 
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