Body parts

As Maximus turned 11-months and now moving into his 12-months, his learning process has stimulated and progressing pretty fast. He can recognise some body parts begining from the eyes both in English and Mandrin. When he reached 11-months, his ganny used to use his hand puppet bear and asked him where is the puppet bear's eyes. Then happily Maximus will point or poke the eyes. Then I follow through the learning in English and till now he knows the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. But can only recognised it on the puppet!

I proceed with stimulating the learning using his own body parts - eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, legs and even his penis! But he is yet to capture all and I do not put much expectiation on this since I associated this as academic skills.

Neverthe less, I do play with him games that involved his body parts especially the "Round, a-round the garden" and he can use his little pointer and to go around his own palm. Next I am planning to teach him the "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song just to induct him into recognising his whole body parts.

Yesterday, my MiL told me that Maximus can show his bumb-bumb (butt) when she asked him in Mandarin. Since she wants to potty train him especially in doing is motions then it's a good start.

Solitary play to onlooker play

Solitary play happened at 1-year and below when a baby played alone to entertain himself. Solitary play is a type of play that we usually observed among babies below 1-year old and from solitary play they moved on to onloooker play. Onlooker play occured when a child watches another child or children at play and doe not become an active participant but will be amused or entertained by their play. Occasionally, these toddlers will look at each other playing but it’s just a curious phrase in their development.

I put Maximus into a group play for at least an hour in a mall when Jin was busy negotiating with a car-dealer. In the beginning it was just solitary play on the rocking pony. When I wanted to place him with the other children, he whined a little. But slowly he started to explore the environment, looking at the play equipments and the other children playing, screaming and running around. He was just curious and checking out those equipments one at the time.

Then he noticed the play house, started to crawl into it. Playing peek-a-boo with me for a short while before he proceeds to exploring on his own. Then, those children came into the play house to play together. Maximus was just looking at them but not playing with them. So the children started to lose interest in them.

This is an example of how Maximus has switched his type of play from being into a solitary player to be an onlooker player. It’s common for babies like Maximus to just enjoying playing together with other children but not with them. I hope to give Maximus more exposure to experience those different types of play in his childhood development since I am equipped with the theory, now it’s the practical or experimental stage.

It’s really interesting observing Maximus in his play. Playing in the early years in childhood is a learning phase and helps them to learn, nurture and develop. Especially when Maximus is turning one, I am sure he will go through a different milestone in his developmental stages – equipped with different skills and knowledge. Hence, I wish to provide him an extended environment for him to explore and learn rather than being cooped in his on environment (at home) continuing with his solitary play. In additional, with being into the parallel play after 1-year-old, soon Maximus will be able to ease into associative play at 3-year-old and cooperative play at four.

Parallel play - children play separately at the same activity at the same time in the same place but do not play together.

Associative play - chidlren are still focused on seperate activities but there is a considerable amout of sharing, lending, taking turn or expansive coomunication.

Cooperative play - represent the hight level of social maturity. Play actively with a common goal and will be working together to acheive the goal.

Coping with biting and tantrum

Parenting a soon-to-be toddler can be a time of a heartfelt joy yet tremendous frustration. It's also a wonderful discoveries too. It's an experience for every parent when their baby is moving into toddler's stage but not there yet. So, packed with enormous amounts of patience then a huge dose of serenity when deal with the "in-between" behaviours. What do I mean by "in-between"? Well, they are not exactly baby anymore but not yet a toddler too... so it's like half-past-six especially in gauging the understanding of discipline, rules and also "reward-punishment". So, how do I cope with all these "in-between" behaviours?

My Maximus is soon turning one-year and displayed some of the negative behaviour especially in biting and throwing tantrum!

Biting! When he was much younger in months, my mother in law kept on associate biting as he is teething. So he bit everything and everyone just to "sooth" his teething problem. Teether doesn't sooth him, so my mother in law gave him napkin and the teets to bite. Now, as he grew older in months, the biting continue with biting the couch, biting grandpa's leg, biting mummy's arm, biting daddy's shoulders or biting grandma's hand! Do I still want to associate this with teething? The answer to it is a big NO!!! My mother in law won't be right this time... it has turn into a bad habit! Maximus enjoys biting anyone at any time... and it's not fun, nor cute. It's painful. But how do I cope with it? He doesn't know anything about punishment. Do I need to inpose it to him? Well, the normal traditional ways are: give chilie (too cruel but don't work because Maximus can take chilie), smack him (he can't understand that action), give his own hand to bite (Doh! He is smart and won't bite himself) or bite him back! (tht's not the way)... So what should I do? I am yet to equip myself with strategies to cope and handle these biting behaviour. I read about it in books and internet but what's the most suitable ways is yet to be discovered.

Tantrum throwing...hah! Jin always associate Maximus's tanturm to me. He said he inherited it from me. Well, this is not something that can be inherited... so I better get to the solution to the problem. Of course at the moment whatever we did is chasing out tail and not gaining anything but I am sure soon Maximus will learn to understand when he turns into his toddlers stage at his later months.

Check out this video on how Maximus show his tantrum when he can't get the CD case to open... And of course whatever I said don't make any sense to him.

Tactile Sensorial Activities

During the younger month of an infant, his sensory skills have started to discover the environment around using his 5 senses. These mulitsensory activities will later help this infant to be less anxious about his external world. This is according to Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic theory regarding objective anxiety among infant and young children. In short, these sensories help my little Maximus to be an explorer. However, this little explorer dislike certain textures such as the thorny, furry, and soggy texture.

For thorny, I got Maximus the touch durian. One day, Jin wanted to have durian, so we went to the pasar malam (night market) to get some durian. Maximus was very excited but when I gave him the durian shell, slowly but surely he touched it using his finger tip. Then he refused it. I guess he can sense that it will hurt or injured him.

Furry texture is also not his favourite especially the sense of the cotton. I also recalled that during his early months, I made some corn starch mixture and put him into the tub with him. He refused to touch it and gave a disgusting look. Maybe I should try it again at this age and check if he has grown out of the anxiety on this texture.

Giving infant and young children this tactile sensorial activities will surely will enhance his sensory-motor development. Maximus has a strong grasp in his fine motor developement since his early months. At 3 months, he had learned to explore his fingers, open and closed them and looking at them. This is the part and parcle of their fine motor development which eventually most infants will acheive it. But I believe that with a little enhancement and experiences given, these skills will have a better grasp.

I will plan for the next snesorial activities with Maximus and make comparission to it. I hope there will be a difference in his acheivment. Check out for photos too.

Baby's vocabs and sign language

Little ones' brain are like sponge and especially during this sensitive period learning is rather at the peak! Maximus is picking up his pace in learning. Each day, I discovered new things that he has mastered and improved i.e. in his motor skill, language skill or cognitive skill. Even his characters and personality is getting more obvious too. I am always looking forward to spend my time with him-observing him, exploring with him, learning new tricks and skills and playing with him. These are the best moment especially I am thrilled with his acheivment.

Maximus has moved up to graps new vocabs. Othe

r than being able to understand simple instructions, he can express some of his wants into words by using the sounds. I am sure when he begins talking formally, he sure will be a little parrot and very talkative too. When Jin and I talk, he will try to make some sounds to as if he want to join in our converstaion.

1. Yesterday, he spoke "up" (using the sound of "ark") while pointing up because he wanted to go upstairs.
2. Then he heard the plane flew by and it was out of sight. Not only he showed the "no-more" sign but he even reported it to his grandma but babbling all sorts of sounds while using his hands and sign language.

I used to train some single mothers about baby's sign language. This is an obscure language but proven to work as a communication between baby-parents. There are basic signs for those common things such as milk, sleep, drink etc.

I recalled training some single mothers in using these signs in order to create a communication with the babies under their home-based care.

There are no fix signs yet. And my opinion, we can even create our own signs with our baby.

For further reading on baby sign language visit here.

Maybe for my next baby, I may want to try inpose the sign language since I forsee that I will be the one taking care of him/her full time. Anyway, that's the future plan.

Maximus's 1st visit to his Great-grandma

It's my desire to bring Maximus to visit his great-grandma in Bahau since the day he was born. However, due to the long distant and narrow route we waited till Maximus is a little older. My grandma lives in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan. It's not convenience for her to travel or to move about due to her stroke attacked many-many years ago. Therefore, it should be our responsiblility to bring Maximus to her. This is the 4th generation in the family-line and I am sure she is very happy to meet Maximus. I considered Maximus is being so blessed to have 2 great-grandmas (paternal and materal) to love and pampered. My maternal grandma has seen Maximus since he was born but the other grandma is not as fortunate.

This Deepavali break opened an opportunity for us to bring Maximus to his great-grandma. Of course his great-grandma was so happy to see her great-grandson. Although she just sat on the lazy-chair and not moving much, she was a little more chatty than usual (as I thought). She commented that her great-grandson is smart and handsome! Well, that very usual then.

We are glad that Maximus meets his great-grandma. Life is short and soon she may be gone from this world. So at present I hope that she will be happy especially seeing another generation of her's in the family line.

He is walking alright!

My Maximus is walking with confidence now! From day 1 he started his first few steps to now, he shows progress in walking! Back in Melaka during this recent weekend, he got more practices in walking because of the carpeted floor in my mother's house. He can even walk from one couch to the next or from the coffee table to the couch without being asked. Each time when he walks a little more steps or ready to walk, I don't get the opportunity to grab any of the recording devices! Darn! All I have seen are firstly recorded in my own memory...

Anyway, I am sure there will be more opportunities to record down every moment of him walking... My Grandma said that Maximus should be walking well when he turns one! I will see about this then... there are more to learn in walking properly such as being able to stand up independenly without support. At this moment, he can only stand up with support and then only balance himself to start walking.

I am sure the day will arrive soon...

Go...GO...Go!

As babies transits to the toddlers stage, from cooing to babbling and making sounds, in their later months they begin to form words from the sounds. It's all about catching those sounds that they made and trying to give a positive responce in reassuring them that those sounds mean a word. As a parent, I am always paying close attention to my lil one each time I heard him making a new sound. This i can reassure him and respond to him by repeating his sounds into proper words. Then he will be so excited and continuing using his new vocabs.

Yesterday when I reached home from work, Maximus greeted me with his warm smile and lifting his arms for a hug and to be carried. As usual I will lift him up and hug him. Yesterday was different! As I carried him, he pointed to the door and started saying "Go, go, go!" indicating that he wants to go out! My usual respond is to repeat the sounds into proper word "Go?" Ok, let's go... but where does Maximus want to go?" Hence, he pointed again to the door.

His tiny little voice and fingers are such an amazing things to me. That little voice echoes in my heart and soul, bringing joy to me. I am so proud of his acheivement... However, we are still trying to get him to say "Mummy or Daddy" but instilling the sounds of /ma/, /mi/ or /dah/ and /di/... hoping that one day he will eventually get that sound!

More that I have learnt in my early childhood degree course, I know the stages of the vowels and consonants sounds that a baby can make naturally, and sounds of letter "m" and "d" aren't the easiest sounds... but it's our joy when our lil one started calling us! hehe... sounded like I am putting an expectation on him. Anyway, his other first words are a great acheivment. his first words are:

1. book (he says it as "buk" without the vowel blend)
2. bird (he says as "bek" without the vowel blend of "ir" and the sound of "d" sounded like a "t" or a "k")-cant really figure out the last sound but he meant bird because he looked up and pointed in the sky when a bird flew by.
3. dog (he says it as "og" without the "d" sound)
4. car (he says it as "ar" - without the c sound)
5. recently was go-go-go (with very accurate pronounciation)

His sensitive period began during his late 9 months where he began to learn things at the fastest. And his learning continue on daily. We just need to discover his new ability every day.

Learning through imitation

Learning is a process to gain knowledge or skill by studying from experience. Yes, the experience is the keyword. An educator or a parent who educate the child will usually create a learning experience to allow learning process to take place. There are different methods of experiences that can be created and one of it is to imitate.

This process of learning from imitating is the fastest method for baby or young toddler. It's like "monkey see, monkey do" or as a copy cat. Most of Maximus's skills in doing certain things are from imitation. He watches and laughs before accuired the skill. There are many examples such as sticking out his tongue, making the vroom-vroom sound, the red indian ritual, clapping and etc. He picks up these skills instantly as he watch and learn. Everything begins as a fun, funny and playful process nevertheless he learns from it.

This video shows how he laughed at his daddy's action. He then tried to imitate his daddy... So at the end we are the one laughing. It's fun and playful too...

Maximus was laughing so hard that he eventually got tired. Yet, he still wants his daddy to show him the action. This is just a game using my lip gloss! Hah... daddy's creativity but acceptable!

First few steps...

Finally, we witnessed Maximus taking his first few steps to walking. We were so excited over it and keep on getting him to practise walking on... In the beginning it was only 2 steps then he will throw his whole body towards us and we will catch him. But after few attempts, he started to be more confident and started to take more steps before reaching us. I even tried dangled candy so that he can continue walking on...but I think he knows his limit. Each time when he lost his balance he will go down into squartting position and started to crawl.

So since he started learning walking, this means I have to be extra cautious! Some of my friends commented in the facebook that I will be chasing after him, he will be running very shortly... well, these are feedbacks from those experienced parents. I am sure I will be enjoying this moment as how I enjoyed the other milestone!

I am beginning to plan for his walking activities... hehehe... we can take a walk in the park, during holidays we can bring him walking on the beach! In addition, I can start packing picnic basket and have picnic in Taman Tasik. I have been wanting to go there with Maximus since he started crawling but never get the chance. Wow! Fun activities ahead with him... cool!

Nevertheless, I am also fearful of "Falling", "Bumps" and "Climbing"... As an active little boy I am sure Maximus will be as excited with his new skill too! He will sure to try climbing up the stairs instead of crawling, he will be also walking everywhere the house and start opening cupboards (he did this even before he walks)! But I have to keep a full watch and allow him to explore around... Surely God will watch over him too.

Climbing up the stairs (advance stage)

This blog is the follow up of Maximus's ability to climb up the stairs. Now, this is the advance stage of his ability to climb up the stairs. He can climb up the entire flights of steps on his own and with confidence. Of course, we monitor him as he climbs. It's very easy now to bring him upstairs since he is ain't light! So, we put him down and watch him climbing up till he reaches the top.

When he acheived this skill in the beginning during his early 10 months, he was a little afriad to go all the way up. Now as he entered into his eleventh month, he has shown a better skill and confidence in doing so. But he will want to climb up all the time even without supervision. Therefore we have to block the staircase with the couch to avoid him from going through. Of coure I am very excited and proud of his acheivement but will have to keep a very close watch over his safety too.

Climbing up the stairs is his first acheivement in the climbing skills. Other than that, Maximus is able to climb up the stool, to the coffee table just to get his hands on the television. He is also learning to climb the bed, the couch and every chair. My MiL was hoping that he won't learn to climb out from his walker, otherwise we can leave him in the walker anymore.

It's really amazing to see how his physical development has progress to another level. It's all happened in a very natural way - all the sudden we noticed that he can climb! Nobody taught him to (other than up the stairs).

As Maximus moves from one level of the milestone in his development to the next, we really get all the excitment, and fun watching him "showing-off" his skills.

Enjoy the video!

A month before turning ONE

Today marked the date that Maximus has turned 11-months! It's 1 month before turning the big ONE year old. As his mummy, I am pretty excited over it! What do I expect from this 11-months old baby that soon to be a toddler? Well, there are so much changes and development happened month-by-month as he grows. Of course I am expecting him to WALK!!! Yes! His first step... Although he has shown sign of walking as he cruise along the furniture, pushing the stool to move about and standing without support for a few short minutes, I am sure he will be taking his first step very much sooner than I thought.

I recalled the day when Maximus was able to cruise along the furniture, he was 8-months old or so, and i was already telling him not to start walking at 10-months old. But now, I can't wait for him to start walking... it's such a fickle-minded mummy am I! Sooner or later, Maximus will be independent walking around and about. We will soon be chasing after him too.

Hence, I know I will have less chance carrying my little boy to cuddle and bringing him around. He will be walking on his own and maybe refused to be carried too.

Well, whatever happen... let it come as it may. Whenever it happened, I am sure I will be so proud of his acheivement. So, check out for the blog when I will be writing about Maximus's first step or walk. hehe...

On the other hand being a 11-months baby, Maximus has 8 teeth, biting and chewing much. Chatting away and learning fast. He is able to:

1. climb up the stairs as fast and with confident.
2. scream for attention.
3. knows and can remember what he wants and doesn't want.
4. recognise the programme on tv or pictures that he likes. Eg: the ad on Colgate, picture of cars in every printed materials.
5. choose his food from the plate, pick it up and start eating it.
6. Push along the stool or walker to move around.
7. Press the switch "on" and "off" on the remoto control, telephone and the suis.
8. Drink from a straw
9. Follow along a story from the story book and turn the pages.
10. tell by pointing what he wants and where he wants to go - in other word, he can order people around.

There are so much about Maximus that I can't catch up recording it, taking photos and even remember jotting it in my journal or blog. But I am enjoying every moment of his development. Thank God that HE is always there to bless us and watch over our Maximus. Praise Jesus.

Toy Car Ride

During the last visit to Melaka, Maximus's cousin (Leroy) was so generous to lend his little car to Maximus. We wanted to buy this rides (car / motorbike) for Maximus but then MiL stopped us because she said it will be a waste of money since the child will outgrown it. And, she is very right. Leroy has a lot of these rides "parking" along the living room in his house. There are the car, motorbikes and bicycle, but he hardly ride on them now. He is 3 and the next thing we know, he will probably learn to cycle instead.Maximus was very excited over the car when he first saw it. We even got the opportunity to bring it home for him to play and ride on it. Well, I would think it's a good loan because we can test out before really deciding to get one. Back at home, he was riding on the car for even less than 10 minutes. He came down from it and started exploring the car instead - turning it upside down and playing with the wheels.I am glad that we didn't dash into buying the toy car rides earlier as it will be a waste of money!

Maximus with his youngest yee-yee giving the cheeky grin as he "test-drive" his 1st toy rides.