Baby Sensory Classes

We've been going to Baby Sensory classes since Isabella was 5 months old and we both absolutely love it. It's not easy to get photos of her at Sensory class as I'm usually doing the activities with her and there are also many other children around and I don't want to be photographing other people's children without permission. With my sister here we were able to get a few more photos having an extra set of hands, although they are still just quick cell phone snaps and a little blurry at times with all the movement going on!

Shake your maracas!!

Isabella loves bouncing on Rody the horse. With regular ear chewing in between bouncing.

So many different toys to try out during exploratory play time.

She so enjoys climbing over things right now.

Exploring picture cards.

Baby Sensory from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

This week's theme was water and the children actually got to splash in a very shallow paddling pool in warm water which Isabella enjoyed. Getting wet was optional and we were warned so came prepared with a change of clothes and a towel.

Splashing in the water and catching bubbles.

This is Isabella scuba diving! (Or crawling under the sea!) We hold a large blue parachute
above the children which has 'fish' and 'sea grass' dangling down from it.

Isabella went in under the 'sea' with one purpose and that was to catch herself a dolphin.
She brought it back out to us and wouldn't let it go.

"Daddy can I have my own real dolphin please?" 

Aunty Mon singing while Isabella keeps giving her dolphin some love.

Baby Sensory water theme from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

A Portrait a Week: 35/52 -Family day at the farm

My sister arrived last week and so Mom and Jürgen came for a visit this weekend too. We spent Saturday in London, Isabella's first time there! And today we all went to Bucklebury Farm Park. Isabella and I enjoyed it so much a couple of weeks ago that we decided to take the family there too and so her weekly portrait is from there again! You can read more about Bucklebury Farm Park here.

We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day. We went on a tractor ride to see the deer, Isabella and Simone pet the goats and guinea pigs, we had lunch under the trees and just enjoyed wandering around looking at the other farm animals and enjoying some family time.

Baby Play: Spaghetti

With my sister here to help we had a little bit of a messy play session at home on a rainy day. We cooked some spaghetti, and once it had cooled let Isabella explore it. Of course there was lots of tasting and also pulling, squishing, and flinging spaghetti about. She really enjoyed this new sensory experience. And after all this fun she got to have more fun splashing in the bath to wash any sticky spaghetti off. Next I want to try some painting with her.

A Portrait a Week: 34/52 -Farm visit

We visited Bucklebury Farm Park with friends this week. It was my first time there and we enjoyed it so much. I think the highlight was a tractor ride to feed the deer. Isabella even got her hand licked by a deer! She also got to pet little goats, rabbits and guinea pigs and was so very brave to stroke all the animals. There was just about every farm animal you can think of, llamas, alpacas, pigs, cows with their calves as young as two weeks old and many more.

I won't be putting more photos up on here as they're all on fb already, but this was one of my favourites of Isabella this week looking very farm-girly!

An early love for books

Very urgent expression, asking me to read to her.

Since coming back from holiday Isabella is crazy about books. She won't let me pick her up from her cot whenever she wakes up before I read a book to her. She has a few books next to her changing mat to look at while I change her nappy en she has books downstairs which she can look in herself or repeatedly hold out to one of us to read to her over and over. All board books at the moment so she can look at them herself without damaging them. I hope her love for books continues!

She enjoys lifting the flaps herself.

Daddy's turn to read before bed time.

A Portrait a Week: 33/52 -Accessorising

Isabella received these sunglasses from her Ouma Sarie who got them with a magazine she bought while we were on holiday in South Africa. Now all of a sudden over the last few days she has started asking for her sunglasses -she spots them even when they're out of her reach somewhere and points saying 'da'. She also has pink baby sunglasses and now she carries her two pairs of sunglasses and two sunhats along with a muslin cloth through the house. Some of it in her mouth or on her head while she crawls around. All she still needs are some beads around her neck and a handbag/ purse to complete the look!

Isabella's first real word

Isabella has been saying 'mama' and 'papa' along with the other usual first sounds babies make like dada, nana etc. Sometimes she'll say mamma to me but sometimes she'll also say pappa to me whether she's just making sounds or really asking me where her pappa is. So it's not been clear whether she really are saying these sounds and understanding their meaning.

But yesterday it was really clear that she knew the cat is called 'kat' in Afrikaans and was saying 'ka-ka' over and over when we saw the cat in the garden and again when it came in while she was having her dinner. You have to listen carefully in the video as she only whispers it.

Eerste regte woordjie: kat 14/15 Augustus 2014 from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

And that after she's been so scared of the cat but also so intrigued by it. We think her next word will probably be 'yoghurt'. That was what she was grumbling for in between looking for the cat in the video. She had a little bit of yoghurt with fruit puree after the risotto she had for dinner. Then gave me such a dirty look when I told her it was finished that I got her a little more. Tried it again after the second lot was finished. There was no more fruit left so I gave her plain (homemade) yoghurt which she finished too. She just loves loves our plain yoghurt even though it's quite tart. So yes, if she could she'll be saying yoghurt soon. Maybe we should put off telling her what it's called as she might drive us crazy demanding it then!

She's understanding so much now too. She can follow most instructions such as come here, turn your toothbrush around (when she's chewing the back of it instead of the front), go find daddy (when he's still lying in bed and I got her up) and of course when we say 'where's the cat' she looks out the window searching for it.

She can now also wave and clap although it still takes her brain quite a while sometimes to get the message to her hands. And can touch her head and her hair when asked (these two words sound quite different in Afrikaans so is easier for her to distinguish between the two I think) and crinkles her nose and sniffs when asked where her nose is. Next we're working on eyes and mouth :-) It's amazing how much she's learning at the moment.