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Real and Purposeful, or duh, I Knew That

Thank you, everyone for comments on the last few posts. And I mean everyone, not just my pal Adoptive Mama who likes to sing baby M’s praises.

Anyway, I title this post such because it’s Montessori tenant #101–children need to do things that are real and purposeful. So OF COURSE the Divine Miss M wants everything in techno-black, because her parents are using everything in techno-black (see previous post).

I knew this to be true about toddlers, and preschoolers especially, but hadn’t really thought about the implications for babies. That’s why she wants THE remote, not A remote. That’s why she wants MY cellphone, not A cellphone. IMO, at the tender age of 7 months she’s already figuring out what’s real and purposeful.

I could wax on about other assorted Montessori tenants all day, but I already wrote those papers when going for my Montessori diploma. So instead I leave you this link, it takes you to my FAVORITE Montessori supply company. There are lots of great parenting articles there too.

Now should you click through and start reading all about the floor bed, the silliness of bottles, the toilet training at 1 and think, “OMG! I had no idea that Michelle was SO out there!”, I say, take it all with a grain of salt.

If you’re Uber-Mom with a kid who lives in a bubble, MAYBE you could test every theory. If not, just take what works. Afterall, the Divine Miss M is currently in a “baby container” known as the exersaucer and doing just fine!

I think that’s it for today. And if you haven’t been lately, check out our photoblog . It’s the Babe’s 7th Month photos posted!

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Toys I’d Like to Market

Like most babies, the Babe has more toys than she could possibly explore in one lifetime. I try to rotate through the cache, and lately she’s been really excited by her Fisher Price piano, Fisher Price Learning Pots and Pans and a few other things. But she’s also been really interested in EVERYTHING we use on a daily basis–cellphone chargers, powercords, sunglasses, cell phones, so on and so forth. It seems that she’s really drawn to black plastic.

So yesterday afternoon I tidied up her toys, and gathered all of the black techno items and placed them in a basket.

the “baby” toys

the “big people” toys

I put her in the middle of the room, and what do you think she went for? The unattractive black basket filled with every day stuff.

So I think we are going to stop going to the toy store and start going to Goodwill. There, we will purchase broken appliances and gadgets, and she will be in 7th heaven.

Seriously, whoever thinks that babies are drawn to bright colors is obviously wrong. I think a line of industro-techno black plastic toys (no sharp edges, no cords long enough to strangle) would do quite well. Of course, if they were 100% safe, I guess that would take the fun out of them!

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Ticking through Nap Time

Obviously, the best thing about today is finding the above ticker at Lilypie.com! So exciting! And so bizarre to know that we are half-way to the Babe’s first birthday! Yikes!

So yesterday’s naptime got even better. I decided to read, and ended up sleeping…for AN HOUR. Yes, the Babe took a 3 hour nap, and I slept for a whole hour. Since work was a little nutty last night, I was happy that I had a some recharge time.

I’m thinking she may be down again today for awhile–she spent most of the mid-morning and early afternoon climbing the stairs. I’m glad we have the time to practice, because I don’t see the point in chasing her away from something so central in our home. We will be installing a gate soon, but I also would love to have her master the stairs so it’s not too much of a safety issue.

In other news, I think I’m going to design a set of baby toys in “electronic black”. Depending on how long nap time lasts, I may post photos today or maybe not til tomorrow. You’ll soon see what I mean.