things to remember

We do actually spend time in places other than his bedroom. It’s just that when we’re out I don’t feel inclined to lug a heavy camera and frame photos – I’d rather be doing than photographing. Hanging out at home, however, is an excellent time to take photos. If I can get the very mobile child to leave the camera alone.

This boy loves the outside – to be in the outside, or to look at the outside:

Roo got a haircut from his Daddy today. It was seriously long. Mullet-long. I used to think I would like long hair on my baby, but short is much, much better.

This is his ‘oooh’ look – he is literally saying ‘oooooh’ at this moment. I think it just means he’s seen something interesting

. I’m so pleased to have captured it. It’s adorable, and one day soon he won’t do it any more.

Roo is sharing things with me now:

I bought him a snow globe at the op shop today and it was a hit:

Until he caught sight of the camera of course:

Roo *loves* putting things in and out these days. He does it with his train and the screwdriver (putting the screwdriver down the hole left by a missing screw), and with the train and his toothbrush, he does it with the tube of Bonjelour putting it into and out of its cardboard packet, he will put an icypole stick through an empty toilet roll, a shampoo sample bottle down the drain (after removing the grating, and yes, the shower was blocked twice before we removed all offending sample bottles), rolls of toilet paper into the toilet bowl, sleep toy into the toilet bowl… all variations of the theme of ‘what can I fit in here?’. There are a few missing pieces of toys that I am starting to wonder if I will ever find.

I ordered these miniature knobbed cylinders on a whim, since I didn’t think Roo would be ready to use them for some months yet, but they fit nicely with his current obsession. He appears to be quite far away from getting them into the ‘correct’ slots, but he concentrates intensely on them:

Other observations of Roo at 14 months:

-He is standing very well. Sometimes when I put him down, he wants to be put down standing instead of sitting. His physical boldness is amazing. He is fantastic at climbing. This afternoon I was standing at the bookshelf and spy out of the corner of my eye a baby levitating in mid-air – or at least, so it appeared! He had climbed up on our Ikea Poang, had his hands on the top of the back, and his feet braced half way up the back, using his arms to hold him up high above the top. He was immensely pleased with himself, and I expect it is the highest he has ever been under his own steam. He got himself back down again just fine, too. He is constantly climbing, and the day that he can walk and carry his chair around at the same time will be the day I wished we didn’t live in a rental and could anchor the furniture to the walls.

- He is fascinated with the toilet & with people using it. He pulls at his nappy when it is wet. He can go for long periods nappy-free without an accident (up to an hour). I suspect if I was a more passionate early childhood educator I would have started toilet training him, despite the fact that he isn’t walking yet. I’m not ready for that! I have gotten his potty out of the cupboard, so we’ll see how far we get with introducing the potty.

- Doors. He loves to open and close them, and he gets upset when they are shut and he can’t open them again. Especially if he has locked himself into a room. Although sometimes when he locks himself into a particularly nice room and it’s nearly naptime, he just lies down and goes to sleep. He is also fascinated by the doorhandle to his room, and grabs at it whenever he is carried past it.

- He understands when someone is leaving, and when it is me, he gets upset. This only just started in the last few days.

- He now knows that grates lift out, and has a good go at every grate he comes across. We may have lost some pieces of toys down the outside drains, in addition to the blocked shower incidents.

- He has the bath plug figured out. He’s just not strong enough to lift it out with water still in the bath. I have had a circle puzzle out for a week or so, and I notice he takes pleasure in lifting the circle out and replacing it whenever he wanders past. For the first few days I thought he wasn’t touching it because it was always put together, but now I’ve seen him using it I know it’s just because he likes to put it back together. He still finds the square and the triangle too difficult, and loses interest and starts throwing them.

- He has started putting himself down for small rests that aren’t naps – just quiet time or closing his eyes for a few minutes. This morning it was on our bed, usually it’s on his own.

- He loves animals. He points and makes noises at animals in real life, television and pictures. Every animals is ‘doo doo’ at the moment, although we’re working on differentation.

- His non-verbal communication is coming along. Last week I got impatient when he was crying and told him he had to tell me what was wrong with either words or symbols, and showed him the symbols again. It was like a lightbulb went off, and since then he has been using sign language when he is hungry or thirsty, and he is being very clear. It’s amazing to finally have clear communication. However, I have discovered that he is hungry a lot! He wants to eat all afternoon from about 3pm. I would love it if he would start signing clearly for a nappy change, since I often miss the pull at the nappy.

- His skills at drinking with the glass are fine, but his cutlery skills are poor. He doesn’t use it at all really. He did show some inclination a few weeks ago, but because we haven’t kept up with assisting in cutlery use consistently, he’s gone back to using his hands or wanting us to feed him. We are in the process of rearranging the main room with the by-product of fitting in his low chair & table into a more accessible spot, so we might be able to be more consistent with him once we have this set up for him to eat lunch at. I hope to find some small shelves and set them up next to the table so he can start setting his own table for lunch and snacks. If anyone knows where I can find some simple, small shelves that don’t take up much space please let me know in the comments!

I provided a dish, a jug (to be the ‘volcano’), vinegar, bicarb soda, and food dye… the kids did the rest.

They had a *wonderful* time. Afterwards, their father took them through the chemical makeup of the compounds, ions, molecules, reactions, bases, acids, all those things that aren’t my speciality. Later, we discovered that the mixture had eaten through the finish on the table! Good thing it was a cheap eBay table that is too small for our family now. All future science experiments will be conducted outside, and I am now sold on the cleaning power of vinegar and bi-carb soda.

Roo and Daddy played with playdough!

I saw, I pinned, we did!

I missed the submission deadline for the Young House Love Pinterest challenge, despite getting all motivated and actually making two of the things on my Pinterest boards. Turns out, when one challenge closes, another one opens! The Pinterest Make Me Challenge – thanks Alyce & mummytofive. (By the way, the project Alyce blogged about was fabric memory game tiles for Roo. Lucky baby – and he appreciates them too, carries them all around the house.)

Today I decided to do a third project from my Pinterest boards: Finger painting with edible paint. I got the idea and recipe from one of my favourite blogs, How We Montessori. Almost everything I do is copied from somewhere, and this blog in particular inspires many of things I am doing with Roo at the moment.

As for the details, I mixed up the recipe in the inspiration post, which is one cup of flour to one cup of water. I only used less than half, so if you don’t want enormous amounts of paint just make half. Although next time I might put it all out to see how that changes the play. I ended up using a stick blender to get it smooth.

I then divided it into three and mixed in three different coloured food dyes. I used a lot more dye than I thought I would, since I wanted vibrant colours. Roo was naked, in his Ikea Antilop high chair. I used the tray that comes with the chair, it is perfect for these sorts of things. I had a towel underneath the chair to catch the inevitable drips.

Once the session was over I put him straight into the bath. I was relieved to see that everything was easy to clean up, and the only things that were stained were my fingers and a little bit of his arm – everything else washed off or out easily. Oh and the strap on his high chair now has purple spots, which I’m ok with. My fingers are almost back to normal and its only a few hours later.

This was definitely not finger painting, more of a sensory experience. Roo is not really interested in crayons or drawing, and I think he liked this mostly for the experience of colourful goop on his hands. For the next little while, I will probably put out only two colours, so that the end result is not brown. The only reason for this is my own distaste for muddy brown.

Here follows a photo essay entitled ‘My First Paint’. I won’t blame you if you don’t make it through… I took a lot of photos. On the other hand, Aunty Monika, eat your heart out.