Activity Time

So far, I have blogged about Hannah’s feeding and sleeping. That leaves us with activity time.

Like many Singaporean parents, the kiasuism spirit got me into starting her early with reading and listening to music. My best friend, Doreen, helped me purchase a book with bible stories for kids so that I can read to her. Initially, I just pick up any book (e.g. magazines, baby books) to read to her but thought it would be nice to read children stories as well. Well, Hannah is not always interested in the reading. She’s usually attracted by the surroundings.

I discovered that she pick up words better whenever I interacted with her. I would normally let her rest on my (big and fat – sigh!) thigh and talk to her. She would respond by smiling and trying to mouth something in return. So far, she has tried to say ‘okay’, ‘hello’ and ‘er(4) le(4)’. The latter means hungry in Chinese. She must have picked the Chinese words from my confinement lady as she often used that on her during feedings. I doubt Hannah know the meaning of the utterings. But she sure enjoys trying to say them. ‘Mommy’ and ‘daddy’ seems harder for her to pick up though.

Besides reading, she likes to stare at mobiles and coo. Mobiles are really great inventions because they help to free up time for care-givers to tend to other matters in the house while keeping the awake baby occupied and visually stimulated. I would place Hannah in the playpen and play classical music in the background and turn on a fan to move the mobiles (and keeping Hannah cool as well). I also like to hang other colourful objects (e.g. clothes pegs) as mobiles to add to her interest.

There are times when I need to buy lunch from the coffee shop across the road and if Hannah is restless or fussing, I’d bring her along in my sarong. She likes that too. So far, she would doze off in the sarong after a while.

Whenever Yang is at home, Hannah likes to interact with him too. She also watches TV with him or stares at the computer’s screen when he’s playing computer games. She might want her first computer very soon! Hee hee.

I don’t know about this but it seems that Hannah cry/fuss less when she is given more interaction time with us. A need for the human touch? Relationship building? A sense of security? A filling of her emotional bank? Well anyway, babies change with time and so I will have other things to muse and write about then! :)