16th month old milestones

Dear Alex,

Plenty of stuff happened this month and honestly, I’m glad I keep a record of your growth and behaviour on this blog, otherwise, I’d never be able to remember so many things! I’ve always regretted not having a blog earlier to pen down my thoughts while watching your sister grow actually… so many milestones I should have noted down. Anyway, this was what you were up to this month!:

#1 You can take off loose fitting T-shirts.

Fortunately, you don’t do this often! Otherwise, you’d really never recover from your cold!

#2 You love triceratops and even tried to pronounce its name and you can pick it out from a whole bunch of dinosaurs when I ask for the triceratops.

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#3 You are proficient in comprehending instructions, even new ones with just one demonstration of what I want you to do.

#4 You can successfully self-feed for a meal:

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#5 You love taking kiddy rides with your sister:

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#6 You love copying everything your sister does!
You’d rush to the toilet, climb up the stool and spit after I’m done brushing your teeth even though there’s no need for you to do so! πŸ˜›

#7 You love to sit at the corner of the toilet to wait for me:

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#8 You are obsessed about your weight:

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You’d drag out the weighing machine from under the counter and weigh yourself a few times a day!

#9 You can fix duplo pieces together:

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#10 You enjoy your pull-along toys:

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#11 You can express the need to change your diaper.

When I brought you to the nursing room at West Mall, you knew exactly what we were there for! You pointed at your chest and said ‘milk milk’. Then when I asked if you wanted to drink milk first or get changed first, you patted your diaper and said, ‘wet wet’. πŸ™‚

#12 You have stopped mouthing small objects, about 98% of the time.

And so, I’ve let you play with shaving foam with your sister during your bath and I’ve started you on some fine motor skills activities, beginning with these three slotting activities.

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#13 You love hanging out outside the house doing activities with your sister

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playing with chalk

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helping to clean up

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playing with leftover dough

Another exciting month ahead, my little one! I wonder what you’d do this upcoming month! πŸ™‚

xoxo,
Mummy

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3 slot-it-in activities for toddlers

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My little one has more or less stopped mouthing small objects so I felt that it was time to let him try out some activities to hone his fine motor skills.

#1 Coins

We started when he was 15 months+ with slotting coins into an old coin box. He absolutely loved this activity so when we bought a dinosaur money pot for him, he was thrilled!

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#2 Pompoms

The second activity I introduced to him was a really simple one – stuffing pompoms into a container!:

activities for toddlers

Initially I started with just a recycled plastic cup (which already comes with a pre-cut hole for the straw).

activities for toddlers

Whee!! Shake the pompoms!

Subsequently I had to make find new containers as the plastic cover was too flimsy and with all the stuffing of pompoms, it started to tear and the edges became a little sharp. You may want to change the plastic cover only if the container isn’t spoilt. These containers are easily available and cheap too.

activities for toddlers

The proud little boy!

Currently, I’m using a tin can with a plastic cover which is of good quality – even after cutting a hole through it, the plastic edges are not the least sharp. πŸ™‚ View the upcycled container here.

My little girl loves this activity too so we practise turn-taking when she’s around and would like to join in the fun.

#3 Pipecleaners

activities for toddlers

Using a recycled puff container, I pierced a hole in the plastic cover, just enough to stuff in a pipe cleaner. Bend the pipe cleaner in half, snip, then make sure you bend just a bit of both ends of each halved pipe cleaner in so that the sharp wire doesn’t stick out after repeated use. The photographed containers here have been upcycled (view them here).

These are super entertaining activities for my little one and I’ve brought these along on long car trips to occupy him. If you’re looking for a cheap and easy to put together busy bag activities which focus on fine motor skills, these are great!

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Posted in Fine Motor Skills, Homeschooling, Sensory play | Tagged | 2 Comments