Pasta Sensory Play

I don't like using food for art or play, but at the moment Isabella will put everything in her mouth. Repeatedly. So it needs to be safe in that way. I bought the cheapest pasta I could find and let her explore.

Things she (hopefully) got from this:
- texture
- capacity (filling and emptying containers) She loved tipping the bowl over and I'm hoping she learnt that she shouldn't do this when she's eating her food!
- the sound it made on the tray which she really enjoyed too and
- properties of the shape such as rolling.

What I got from this: something different to entertain her with minimal mess and a few minutes to sit back and watch her! Although she still plays best when I play with her demonstrating what she can do with various things. Occasionally she will come up with her own ideas ;-)
And I got that I need to get Andre's camera out more to get better pictures!!

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.

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.

Baby Play: Ice Cubes

It's been really hot here lately so I made Isabella some ice cubes to play with. I filled a muffin tray with fruit pieces and water and froze it overnight. She enjoyed exploring these new icy cold toys. At first we just had them on the tray and later we put them in water to watch them melt quicker. The ice cubes with berries in coloured the water purple.

Ready for the freezer

Of course it has to be tasted

Seeing what happens to the ice in water.

And checking whether it tastes different now!

A Portait a Week: 29/52 - Getting creative with another box

This week's portrait -playing hide and seek.

Isabella's nappies and nappy bin cartridges arrived in this lovely big box. Big enough for her to crawl in, so I turned it into a little house. I hung ribbons at the entrance for decoration, for her to crawl through, touch and pull at. Then I cut three windows from each of the other sides, each at a different height. She looked so cute peeping through them that I then drew around them to make them look like picture frames and so frame her little face when she looked through the window. We also had a puppet show and the bunny played peekaboo with her which she loved. We chased each other around the outside of the box crawling and played hide and seek behind it. So much fun from just one box!

Baby Sensory

Isabella has an absolute blast at Baby Sensory each week. Yesterday was the last class of the term (although the next term starts next week so not much difference) and so we had a baby party. Each week's class has a different theme. We've had pirates, sea, spring and Easter to name just a few. For the baby party this week there was dancing, singing, balloons, bubbles, musical statues (if you can imagine babies playing that!), coloured ribbons, glitter pom-poms, instruments and more. I wish I could have video'ed Isabella while she was dancing. She really got into it, shaking her head, wiggling her bottom, singing and even tapping her foot to "Cotton eye Joe"!! It was brilliant! She got so excited and was so happy. She really really seems to love music.

These pictures are unfortunately some of the worst I've taken. I had to use my phone and take them while sitting behind her and so using the front camera on my phone which is even worse quality. Also while making sure I didn't get anybody else in the picture because you just don't photograph other people's children here and especially then don't post them online! And these photos hardly show how much fun she was having. Shoving a phone in front of her face while she's laughing kind of spoils that moment of fun. I'm hoping when my sister comes to visit one of us will then be able to take better photos while the other does the activities with her.

But here are a few photos and a short video anyway to give you an idea of what we do at Baby Sensory.

Doing my warming up exercises right before
the class starts. (not really- she was just getting
ready to go explore before class)

We start off with a hello song. Isabella paying
close attention to the teacher singing and signing.

Make some noise!

Free play time- we tried out a walker for the first
time. Isabella ended up going backwards as she
pulled it towards her instead of pushing!

In the ball pond (inflatable baby pool filled
with lots of balls).

Here Isabella was playing on an inflatable
matras which is usually covered with a different
fabric each week and different toys on to play
with. Bouncing and rolling fun!

Every party needs balloons! We're holding on to a stretchy fabric,
sitting in a circle. The balloons are then bounced on top.

This photo doesn't show much but there were loads of bubbles
everywhere and Isabella was just staring at them in awe.

Baby Sensory from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Baby play: Touch your toes!

Isabella started noticing her feet last month, but was not yet able to grab them. She could reach to about her knees. So one evening I decided to sew some ribbons onto her socks to encourage her to grab her feet. She won't leave her feet alone now, especially when she wears a babygrow with cute feet (her ladybug and cat babygrows have smiley faces on the feet) or when I'm changing her nappy. Today I even caught her putting her toes in her mouth!

Baby play: Wooden spoons and a pot

Isabella is really becoming very interested in everything around her. Every day she's more comfortable and able to sit up (supported) and is now starting to reach for things while she's sitting and not only when she's lying under her play gym. She tries to touch everything in her reach now. Maybe one of the reasons why she's sleeping less during the day at the moment- she's too eager to learn and explore everything around her.

So yesterday I gave her two wooden spoons, or spatulas actually and a pot and showed her how to tap them against each other as well as on the pot. She eagerly took over from me and managed to reach forward and accurately aim for the pot quite a few times. I just love seeing how interested she is when she realises we're playing with something new.

Here are a few pictures, not the best as I had to try and take them with her on my lap.