With increasing mobility comes an exponential increase in accidents! The most drama one to date is Daddy and the Fan.
I came home from work one day to find The Husband's knee and the Fan both bandaged. Apparently Marc crawled so quickly that he dragged the fan's cord along with him. The fan tipped over and just like slow motion, The Husband saw it topple. He ran as fast as he could to catch it and got it just as it was about to land, which meant that his knee bashed the edge of the fan at an angle. As a result both the Fan and The Husband got injured. And the kid sat on the floor oblivious to the unfolding drama around him.
Of late Marc has also been knocking into lots of things. He gets a weekly bruise on the head. He recently discovered that he can make noises by knocking his head on the wall, so he does taps his forehead lightly repeatedly to hear the "tok" sound!
Whilst this stage of his development is EXTREMELY tiring, its also a time of great adventure and learning. I've recently read a book about teaching babies to read. The amazing this is that apparently babies can learn to read by recognising words. The problem is we print words too small so their immature visual pathways cannot distinguish the words. The reading program involves flashing different words for a few seconds each day. We started on it a couple of weeks back but its so hard to continue when I'm not around all the time. He loves flash cards though, he can sit through repeated rounds of alphabets and screams for more. He will only sit through it if we flash through the cards fast enough - otherwise he gets bored and crawls away.
He can take a few unassisted steps. He used to like us to hold his hands and help him to walk but he pushes all helping hands away now. He can wave properly, but I'm still waiting for him to learn to clap. His latest tricks include shaking his head vigorously from side to side when he doesn't want something. He can raise both hands in the air which we call "Hallelujah". And he loves to play with saliva...
And I realise now that all the things we thought were odd in Marc are perfectly normal! His new buddy, Ollie does the same thing so I'm assured that either both of them are very odd, or perfectly normal. I'd like to think its the latter.
We visited an indoor playground today called Fidgets. The place is full of expat mummies with their kids, and most were much older than Ollie and Marc, so we had to supervise them quite a fair bit. What I like about the place is that its entirely padded - so even if they fall its cushioned. It was pretty crowded for a weekday afternoon. But they have a nice cafe area and everything is very child friendly. I think its ideal if your child knows how to walk steadily, because all the adults were totally tired out at the end of the visit from having to block falls and prevent accidents!
Discipline is also a difficult issue to tackle. Every parent has their own methods and Marc's is not easy to handle. So far, the only person he listens to is Daddy. When he's naughty and I attempt to discipline him, I get no reaction whatsoever. Its hard for me to discipline him, because I feel I miss out so much of time with him already, so on weekends I usually let him have his way. I only put my foot down when he's doing something downright dangerous or being very rebellious. I still give him the benefit of the doubt most times and assume that he's cranky and tired, hence the bad behaviour...I just hope he doesn't grow up to be an indulgent brat!
