Attached to stuffed animals

It is said children around 18 months start to show affections towards plush animals/dolls/whatever...well, he has loved his loveys and Charlie for a really long time but now he starts to like other soft things and show affection towards them. At some level, it is super-cute :) Maybe one day he'll start to show a lot of affection towards his mother, so far he kisses me on a command and there is still like 80% chance he says "no" :-) He would never say no to kissing Charlie. I'm trying not to take it personally :)

The drawing development

In this post I talked that his drawing skills are developing, now he enjoys drawing circles more than anything. His favourite colours are blue and white, but mostly the blue.

Teething

He has been teething for several days and he wanted to spend his days in bed reading or playing. Sounds almost idyllic, right? A toddler not running around, a pregnant lady has time to lie down and have a rest...BUT! I hate it. He is a constant talker (well, what toddler isn't?), but he has only a few syllables and mostly he says "m" "mmmm" "m-m-m" - instead of signing/saying what he wants or naming the animals in the book...so it required my full attention. Yesterday I had a horrible headache at the end of the day, but when he fell asleep, it miraculously disappeared :) Oh, and we had to read the same books over and over and over...pure fun...for him.

Another fun thing about the days in bed: he nurses as often as a baby and eats solids only a bit...I was a bit thinking about stopping the breastfeeding before but as he has so many more teeth to grow, it wouldn't be probably very smart move.

Yesterday I gave him the Lego Duplo set, he loves the car, no surprise there. It kept him busy for at least half an hour and he was quite quiet :) The bright side, he forgot about the books, so no more reading the same stuff again and again.

Giving him the Duplo made me realize that I really cannot keep anything away from him, which is the reason I normally buy his presents only a few days before the event. The good thing is that he doesn't care about the amount of presents yet and as I read somewhere, at this age it is more important to give him toys all year round depending on his development rather than events...of course, Lego is an ever-green toy but with some other things it might be true.

What we no longer do

Generally I don't promote activities which might end up in me cleaning after. Considering how much time everything takes us, I consider it as a smart move. He will eventually learn it...and I seriously do admire all mothers of toddlers who don't care and just let the kids experiment and then they clean after without sighing or any hesitations. 

Never stop growing

Even though I don't pay that much intentional attention to developing our son any more, there has been some progresses going on lately, it is happening naturally, my role is to be mostly a facilitator.

He starts to lining up anything: coins, drawing blocks, pictures from memory game, Lego blocks...but he destroys the line before I manage to take a picture.

The only picture I managed to take

He is an obsessive tower builder, he builds them out of building blocks, Lego, stamps, drawing blocks...

He also an obsessive railroad constructor.

He is also a big fan of books, the best ones are those without any text, just sceneries where he can find stuff. Lately he has noticed that there are same things on different pages (in story books by Rotraut S. Berner) - e.g. he is able to follow the penguin through the book. He also enjoys books with animals, he loves me naming them. 

Pairing. Don't have any picture, but he seems to enjoy finding the same pictures in the memory game box or in his books where he is supposed to find something in the scenery. I decided not to become and obsessive laminate machine user because now it seems like he has reached the age when printing and laminating would make sense. 

Drawing - from angry scribbling to more abstract drawing...his hand/arm is becoming more relaxed. Again no picture. 

Oh, and he is no longer afraid to crawl under a table! He is super slow and careful, but he can do it! So proud of him, seems like one of the biggest achievements of his life :)

Last Indian summer days

The last few weeks were unusually sunny. I mostly remember autumns in Estonia being cold and rainy. What a nice change, right? 

Just a cute picture from our morning walk.

Going grilling for the first time.

No interest in the fire, his motorbike and the water nearby were far more interesting

Autumn in our neighbourhood

We took a lot of motorbike trips

We tried to do most out of the weather...today, there were puddles outside. HE WAS SO HAPPY! I mean seriously happy, I felt moved watching him go...and thought every parent should get a rubber clothes for their tot and let them enjoy the water. No pictures, though, I am not very good at bringing my camera or phone with. I guess he likes the rainy weather far more than the sun.

Somebody doesn't like his hands getting dirty :)

What we're thinking for Christmas

Christmas is a whole topic for me because we (parents) come from a different cultural and social backgrounds, so it is kind of a challenge for us to make new Christmas traditions for Teodor as I would like it to be a magic time for him (dad doesn't care that much about it, so it's more or less up to me). But this might be a topic of another post when it will become more actual...now it's on the bottom of my to-do-list.

The presents, on the other hand, make my brain quite busy. We dumped the idea of getting him a play kitchen, contrary to the fact he would probably enjoy it we decided not to buy it because we simply don't have space for it. I guess we would be able to squeeze it somewhere but we recently realized baby no. 2 will need some space, too. We might get him a portable wooden cooker or maybe he can just use a chair as a stove. 

We do not want to over-do it with presents, last year he got 2 and it was just perfectly enough, this year we're thinking of max. 4. A limited amount of presents is quite a pressure because you have to choose carefully. So this is what we're thinking now, the list is not definite yet and probably won't be till the last days before Christmas Eve.

Rocking board

Available at vippa.ee. Seems like a genial toy, you can rock on it, you can sit on it, you can make a slide out of it, you can have it as a bridge for your cars, or a house for your dwarfs...The only con is "do we have enough of space for it?"

Lego Duplo

We have already bought both of these two sets...the question is which one to give him. The other one he'll get for his 2nd birthday. I am pretty sure he would love the figures from the first box and cars from the second one. We'll see where his building skills are heading, if more to concrete stuff, he'll get the first box, if it'll be more arbitrary, then the second one. 

Grimm's

Not sure which one, more probably the sorting bowls...or maybe both? 

Cat Mini Machines Set

This is what his dad wants to get him and that's totally ok, I am pretty sure he's going to love it the most out of all presents, yay for rrrrrrrr :)

Mess

I have been wondering lately when and how it happened that our living room is always a mess. 

Don't get me wrong, I am not a neat person, I do not take any pleasure in cleaning (I do enjoy clean, organized, neat spaces, but things get dirty/messy again, so there is no need to over-do it :)), but it used to be like he would be playing with one thing, then put it back (either me or him) and generally his play-space was always neat and organized even if the rest of the apartment wasn't. 

I see a few reasons for it: He plays much more without me sitting around keeping him a company, so there is nobody to remind him to put it back. He sometimes seems to want to have more things out, not sure why. Probably he thinks he might want to play with it later. Third reason, not very probable - he likes chaos. :) 

He definitely knows where the things go, occasionally he puts his stuff back, sometimes if I ask him, he would do it, sometimes (more often lately) he would say "no". So I do it instead of him, I believe in setting examples rather than pushing him. I also think I should improve my own cleaning after myself to be a good example. 

You know you are a busy mother when you find out that the shows you were watching last autumn (I kept watching only 2 in spring) are already in-season and many of them are airing already 4th episode. I became a tv show watcher only in Estonia and it seems like those times are over...toddlers are a great addiction cure :)

Birds

I couldn't believe it. He knows all the birds by their name. I mean he knows those, he always points at and I sometimes name them, sometimes we just say "a bird" - he has always been saying "bird", so I never suspected him knowing the names...until today. I casually asked him where a "puffin" was. And he knew. Mouth open. So I asked him about a baby ostrich. Again, he pointed at it. Then I got a camera and made this video. I'm seriously impressed and thinking that I have to learn all the beetles' names because I know like half of them which are in this book. 

18 months old

Last Tuesday he turned 18 months. I haven't done any overview of what he can do in a while but this feels like a milestone, so here it goes:

He has 4 teeth so far.
The biggest surprise of the week: He can throw all the shapes in the shape sorter - it came totally out of the blue because he didn't play with it for a while and suddenly he was doing it.
He can go up and down the stairs without holding, especially when he has full hands or is chasing pigeons (in the city centre)
He can do those one piece wooden puzzles and also two-piece puzzles.
He loves reading books, signing and making sounds.
He loves to play with his cars and train.
He loves loves loves the dog, he is his most favourite toy, he would like to fall asleep cuddled with him but Charlie is a jerk who doesn't like it.
He loves to stamp and draw.
He loves to ride his motorbike and run outside and jump from curbs.
He loves to rock on his rocking horse.
He loves to play with his bead mazes.
He loves to build towers.
He likes to throw coins to the pig (coin box).
He enjoys learning different parts of bodies (he now knows that a duck has a beak, dogs/cat have muzzle, etc.), he also is interested in part of cars.
He also likes throwing balls, especially to Charlie.
He can wash his head.
He can open his zips and take of his jacket with a little bit of a help. He can't do much of self-care because I don't pay much attention to it.
He still doesn't sleep through the night, he still nurses at night and during the day. He can't fall asleep on his own.

Grimm's pick for 18m+

OK, I would buy everything because their toys are genial! But if I had to choose 5, I would choose these and we are getting some of them for Teodor, not sure which one yet.

1. Leaning tower with felt applications

Teodor is one eager tower builder, so this is a sure choice :)

2. Sorting Game Rainbow Bowls

Ridiculously expensive, but soooo cute. So much cooler than those Montessori-inspired activities with tweezers and small fluffy balls.  

3. Building blocks - Owls or maybe the Dwarf village

Both would be great for a stacking lover.

4. Rainbow Bridge

Something cool for his train

5. Large Sailing Boat

Less plastic in our bathroom

Winter jacket drama

I want to write a post about his winter garment but this made me laugh a few minutes ago. He jut hates them both despite the amount of time I spent choosing them (obviously I bought the blue one).

Toys

The other day I read this article and, well, it made me thinking about the topic again as I am a strong believer in toys. Don't get me wrong, I definitely am not up for piles of toys nobody plays with but I am totally up for development and age appropriate toys.

I agree with the points mentioned in the article - it is wonderful for a child to grow up in a community, to help with real-life tasks, to spend a lot of time outdoors, to play with whatever they find...but it is unrealistic for me. I wouldn't like to live on the edge of poverty and wouldn't want my son not to be able to have nice things. I don't mean for him to have whatever he points at, but you know it is pleasant not to be an outsider. I remember when we were teenagers, my parents bought us a super-expensive PC Pentium 2, we were one of the first in the village to have a PC and we were so popular because of that. Again, I don't plan to buy him the newest versions of everything, I would like to raise not too consumerist child - but it is nice to spoil yourself from time to time, isn't it?
We take two walks per day no matter what the weather is like, but it is not really possible for him to spend there all day long except for summers because his mother is always cold while watching over him, plus I can't really do anything else. I don't have anybody else to watch over him.

If you choose the right toy and the right amount, I believe it can help to develop the child's motor skills, spatial understanding, creativity,...and it entertains the child while you are doing something else. Let's face it, most of us are most of the days home alone with the child/ren and I don't believe you want them always to help you..or you might wanna do your own things without the child and then the toys are a great helper.
I am afraid to write this but Teodor is able to play on his own most of the time we are at home - I hope after publishing this it is not going to change. He sometimes needs me to watch him play or to read with him but generally his toys are suiting his development and needs, so they entertain him quite well.

This was my view a few days ago...the Grimm's rainbow arch made me laugh, have no idea why he put it there.

Reading with his friends.

I am quite done with organizing his play or trying to develop him on purpose (I used to be a bit crazy before he turned 1), I mostly let him play as he wants to. If he wanders around and looks bored, I suggest an activity, sometimes he is happy with it, sometimes not, then I try something else...and sometimes I let him be bored.
As you have probably noticed from my previous posts, I pay quite a close attention to each toy before I buy it and it seems it pays off as most of the toys are played with. He has a very minimum battery-operated toys (e.g. the Melissa and Doug house is battery-operated but it came with no batteries, so it stayed that way), he has no blinking toys except for the FP dog, his heart blinks but I guess it is not over-stimulating, he has started to like the dog lately, he uses it as a music background for his other activities. What I'm trying to say toys are working for us and I definitely wouldn't want to give them up. I remember having nice toys as a child, maybe that's why I value them...?

To sum up, I didn't write this as an opposition to the article mentioned in especially if they have a reasonable amount and are age/development appropriate, if they force child to play with them actively, not just to push buttons to see what's going to happen...

Grimm's in our post box

Look what I found in our post box today.

It is like the cutest product catalogue ever, so colourful, so many many wonderful toys...I would buy them all for Teodor if I could and didn't believe that having too many toys isn't very beneficial for a toddler. 

If you haven't heard of Grimm's, google them, their products are awesome!

Our babywearing story

To celebrate the International Babywearing Week I joined several giveaways on Facebook (keep your fingers crossed for me to win a Tula carrier, I already know I didn't win Artipoppe wrap, booo) and also decided to write down our babywearing story.*

I got a used elastic wrap and Ergo carrier some time before Teodor was born, later I found out that the elastic wrap was totally wrong (probably Medley) and the carrier was a fake...well-spent money. Anyway, It took me two months before I started babywearing,  he was happy either in a stroller or sleeping in our Stokke daybed before, so why to bother, right?. The first weeks were just so exhausting that I couldn't find energy to give it a try...and once we did, we did it totally wrong. Lesson learnt - not all instructional videos on youtube are useful. 

July 2014, first and probably last try, the wrap was not supportive at all.

The carrier was my no. 1 choice from the beginning, he hated the newborn support or maybe I put him in it wrong, so we slowly started to try without it... 

June 2014, one of the first tries

...soon he would spend a lot of time being worn because he started hating the stroller. And he slept so well in it. But only if I walked. So we took a lot of trips to the malls, that helped me to keep sane. There was no other way how to make him sleep...I remember walking up the stairs in the evening and down and up and then Charlie would give up...and then finally Teodor fell asleep. Crazy times. 

Snuggled in on a cold July day, unfortunately I lost the fleece cover :(

When he was about 3 months old, he wouldn't latch...once I found out it is possible to breastfeed him in the carrier, breastfeeding was saved...the price I had to pay was a lot of babywearing because when he got finally sleepy, he would eat...Soon I started breastfeeding him anywhere, even on the streets in the city, on the bus, in the hobby shop...(the carrier actually gave kinda privacy)

Revolution came with a real woven wrap, Ellevill Zara...It was million times more comfortable than the fake carrier...

I found proper instructional videos, found out that the cross-carry isn't a rocket science...and totally fell in love with babywearing (I probably already was in love but having a proper wrap spiced it up :)

With babywearing another revolution came, I decided to go with attachment parenting, I mean I always inclined to it but wasn't sure if it is the right way but being close to our son for many hours every day persuaded me not to be worried to spoil the child.

Having a wrap was so handy when he had to undergo his two surgeries, the doctors and nurses had some comments on it but it turned out that they have never seen such a calm baby after surgery...I mean seriously, there was a child crying in the crib, 5 people were standing around and nobody would pick the child up...I don't know what the child's condition was, I just over-saw it, but this is how it seemed to me. Surprisingly enough, the staff had no comments on us bed-sharing. 

Once you have a wrap and are part of the babywearing community, you feel like you need more. Plus autumn was coming and a good woolen wrap was exactly what one needs, right?

I ordered Oscha Liberty Maya (why nobody told me it was as supportive as Ellevill?) and also Oscha Ring Sling (which I used only a few times, never learnet how to use it.) 

Our shopping trips would look like this, people seemed to judge me from time to time..

As you can see, he was getting bigger and bigger every month, so I was very motivated to learn to wear him on my back.

Unfortunately, never learned more than a simple rucksack because at some point he stopped to mind the stroller and with the weather getting colder, I didn't mind stopping babywearing him. I got a Lilliputi babywearing coat, but never learned how to close the zips when he was on my back (in the carrier) and when he was in the front, he would take his arms out...so the stroller was an easier option. Plus he slept longer in it. This happened when he was about 8-9 months and worked till he was 11.5 months. 

The only picture I have of the babywearing coat, me and Teodor.

Before his first birthday, he started screaming a lot, hated the stroller,...only the carrier seemed to help. But he was way to heavy for the fake ergo, so I order Tula. The best-spent money ever! So comfy! Since then, Tula is our best friend, there hasn't been a week when he wouldn't fall asleep in it...We use it a lot even now when he is 18 months...It is probably true that toddlers have a lot of problems to calm down and Tula is a great helper. 

In the time between Oscha and Tula era I got a Yaro wrap with linen, it was supposed to be very supportive, which it is, but Teodor didn't like it when I was wraping him on my back, so it's more or less unused. Might come handy when my belly grows too much and can't Tula-wear him...

¨

Anyway, babywearing isn't only for babies, toddlers do benefit a lot from it too...Even though he can run on his own, he seems to appreciate the closeness and he falls asleep in no time. When I make him sleep in the bed, there is always some screaming before and it takes an hour.

Two days ago

I definitely plan to babywear the second baby, this time totally from the beginning and I plan to become a that person who has a big stash of wraps :))

* I also intended to write our breastfeeding story when the International Week of Breastfeedinw was, but didn't find time. 

Worth it

Here is a list of things, which are, in my opinion, worth the money.

Stokke Tripp Trapp

A definitely a high-end high chair (itself it doesn't cost more than some fancier high chairs), the accessories can double the price, actually. For me it was an iconic chair, a must-have. What do I love about it? It grows with Teodor, he is always at the right height, the table is never too low or too high, now, 17 months old, he can get up and down on his own (we took out the front part of the babyset), which other high chair (if not a copy of tripp trapp) can offer it? He can have till he's a teenager. Myself remember loving those things from my childhood and didn't want to change them, so our son doesn't have to get used to another chair for at least 10 years.

Downside? The cushions we bought are not wipe-able, now it's ok as he is not that messy-eater any more.

Stacking cups from Mothercare

 

Likes them since he got them. So many possibilities how to play with them: throw them, stack them, practise pouring skills, flood the bathroom, make bubbles by pressing the cup against the water,... A lot of fun for almost no money.

Motorbike

Got it from his grandmother at the age of 15 months and is in love with it since then. 

Push and pull duck by Hapé

Is there any other better toy you can chase the dog with? Actually this morning I noticed he paid attention to its moving wings, probably he didn't notice before? Anyway, he sometimes brings it to bed, puts it in his own bed and then goes to sleep with me in the big bed :)

Rocking horse by Mamas and Papas

A very pricey rocking horse, but totally worth the money. I guess even a simple one would make the job, but this one is just soooo cuuuute. Different textures, a rattling and squeaky ear, he can put his finger into the horse's nose...Soon he learnt how to get down, little bit later how to get up. And he rocks almost every day. 

Brio train set

Another love at the first sight. At the beginning, he loved just the train, later he learnt how to keep it on the tracks, now he can build the tracks on his own and he loves it. Of course, he is not able to make a ring or the 8-shape, but he can put 4-5 tracks together and it's enough for his play. What I love about this toy that it can be extended with either additional track or parts, e.g. bridges.

Henré Tullet: Knížka (Press Here in English)

Of course there are other great books he loves, but this one is special. He loves all the tasks in the book and is able to keep focused through the whole book (like 20? pages). 

Coin box

His father made him a cute Montessori inspired coin-box, but he likes this pig so much more. Plus he can put the coins in also through its legs. Also an activity, which he is fond of for at least 3 months now.

Sticker books

Never-ending fun. Stick them and try to rub them off and then again and again :)

Ball run

Another toy made by his dad. It's super-noisy and he loves it. Since he got it when he was 12 months old.

Standard Tula Baby Carrier

Also very well-invested money. Now we need toddler version but it is so difficult to choose the pattern :(

Toys he used to like a lot

Melissa and Doug Latches Board

It would be his favourite toy for 4 months (cca 12-16/17 months), now he doesn't play with it that much any more as he can open all the locks, so it is not a proper challenge.

Magnetic fishing game

Another toy which used to be his favourite for at leat 5 months, he doesn't like it much any more. He likes to take the sea creatures out and wants me to name them.