Over the past week, we have been introducing more activities for Darius, mainly for fun and to keep him entertained, while having learning as an added bonus.

First, we have taken out the Pooh playmat (see Pooh Bear Bumper Playmat) from the wardrobe and moved it into the living room, as I felt it was beneficial to have a proper activity area for him, even though he is not mobile yet. Also, the checkered board (see Preparing Materials For Learning) to improve his distinguishing of contrast have been placed on the playmat too, resting by an adjacent wall.

This way, I can conveniently carry Darius (during his alert, good mood times) to the playmat, have him seated on the mat while I support him, to look at the board. He is usually interested in the board, as with distinctive contrasting colours, babies can finally see something which they can identify, thus motivating them to train their eyesights.

I will then point to any square in front of him and say ‘Black’ or ‘White’ (in Mandarin), taking the opportunity to teach him some words. I jokingly mentioned to Cat that his first words could become these instead of ‘Papa’ and ‘Mama’.

We will also place him tummy down, letting him feel the surface of the mat, and encouraging him to lift up his head so he can hold his own head sooner. Unlike in the past when he would immediately struggle and start crying, he will stay quiet while turning his head towards the board and look at it.

But after around 5 minutes later, he will get impatient and start to move his body, by kicking his feet and using his toes to push himself forward. However, he has yet to understand the importance of using his arms to propel himself forward. He probably has not gained enough strength and co-ordination skills to do so anyway.

This was one instance when he started to move his body onto one side and attempting a flip-over:

We are also encouraging him to express himself more verbally and not by crying or showing tantrums, by talking to him often and responding to the sounds he made.

Since last week, he has started saying more ’ooohs’, ‘aahhs’, ‘ah-goo’, ‘hur hur’, instead of crying, which he used to do very frequently. This is probably because he had found new ways to express himself instead of frustrating himself over failed efforts to communicate with us.

In this video, he did not utter much sound but was focusing his eyes on Cat while she played with him, when he was seated on a cushion on our sofa:

This video shows some sounds he made:

There were cases when he would only respond with a particular set of sounds when doing certain activity, such as when I showed him the checkered board and starting pointing and saying the colours, he would go ‘ohh gaaa gaaa’, which sounded like a giggle or some kind of acknowledgement. Haven’t heard him say that ‘phrase’ during other occassions though.

With conscientious effort and observation, one can find a lot of interesting things and changes on their babies, and we certainly observe a lot of changes in Darius everyday. It’s amazing how fast the brains of babies are absorbing things and developing each day.

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