February has been cold and dreary, but we have managed to still have some fun. We finished celebrating Valentines Day and moved on to learning about our bodies. Isla has had a lot of fun learning about her body, especially what's on the inside. If you ask her what she's made of, she'll probably respond with "cells!" or "I'm a Grinch". She has an obsession with the Grinch that I think she has watched a total of 3 times, but I'd rather not get into that... haha
We have spent time learning about a few different artists this month. Isla is very creative and has enjoyed painting like the artists we've studied. We've also used other mediums of art like sculpting and drawing. Learning to make faces with playdoh or paint has sparked conversation about her own body and face.
She even had her first pedicure (done by mommy) as part of our body unit. She calls them her "beach toes".
Isla has taken a huge interest in the alphabet lately. She's always pretending to read and points out letters on everything. Her ABC song goes something like "ABCD, LMNOP, PRS, PUV, WXYZ" haha. I've been very intentional about not pushing the agenda to teach those measurable school skills that everyone seems so rushed to teach their toddlers. I've seen it posted in my mom's groups- "my toddler is very smart, they know all their letters". I don't think that is a mark of being advanced and it's sad that learning like that trumps so many other really good things like play. However, if my child is interested I'm going to set her up for success with exposure and opportunities. So, our next unit will be on the alphabet in the most play-based way possible. Ok, getting off my soapbox now.
Here is everything else we've been up to:
Ewan has had a slow start to solid food. He didn't show much interest in the beginning and then ended up with thrush and was really not interested. So we have just started in the last couple weeks. At this age, Isla was well into her baby-led weaning journey (you can read about her start to food here). But Ewan still doesn't fully meet all the criteria to start BLW, so we've started with purees and have offered some safer BLW foods like a banana that easily mashes when he sucks it. With Isla, we saw amazing benefits to doing BLW instead of pureed baby food. For one, I personally think it aided in her lack of pickiness. She is an adventurous eater and always has been. It has also fostered a lot of independence in regards to eating. I never spoon fed her, she did it all by herself. She drank out of a cup early on and was properly feeding herself by one. They claim BLW produces less picky eaters, allows for the baby to naturally listen to their body by regulating their own intake of food, and allows for a lot of great learning of textures and taste. Neither way of feeding your baby is right or wrong, but I found it benefited Isla greatly. Plus I once read this article about how much rodent feces, lead, and bugs are in shelf-stable baby food and I wanted to gag. But Ewan is still not sitting as great as he should be to start BLW and is just now expressing interest. So for him, we are doing a mix of both purees (that I make for him) and BLW. We'll get there eventually.
Isla helped me cut some papaya for her and Bub.
Other than that, we haven't been up to much. It's been so cold that we haven't gone outside, which has really affected everyone's mood. We started going out a lot more this week and it's LIFE GIVING. I can feel the depression and anxiety leaving my body when I'm outside. We even took a trip to our favorite nature preserve, but never made it out of the parking lot because the rain gutter was so fascinating :)
And little man turned 6 months old. It's hard to believe he's been with us half a year! He's the happiest baby around. All you have to do is talk to him and he'll shoot you a flirty smile. He wants to be held ALLLL day, is beginning movements of crawling, is sitting up by himself for a little bit, and is learning a new trick every day. He wakes twice a night to feed and gets up between 5:00-6:00 for the day (not bad compared to Isla at this age). He is a champ napper! I'm so blessed to be his mama :)
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