Somehow twelve months have passed since Birdie joined our family. It hasn’t been an easy year, with all the feeding difficulties, serious illness, behaviour challenges, having to prepare for a move which didn’t happen, and starting my own business. But every step of the way has helped us to learn about ourselves and grow as individuals, as parents, and as a family. And right now, we’re happy celebrating twelve months of our sunny little Bird.
We’re trying to be more conscious of how much stuff we bring into our lives, and more simple and activity-focused (rather than presents-focused) in our holidays, so I reined in my impulses and we bought two presents for Birdie: a soft doll and a bus. He loves things with wheels and putting in/taking out objects, so hopefully he’ll love our choices. He hasn’t opened either of them yet - he received a toy over the weekend for Easter, plus I brought A’s old locks and latches board out of storage today. That’s enough novelty for a just-turned one year old! We’ll help him open one of the gifts this weekend, and one next week. We’ve postponed birthday cake until the weekend as well. He saw some dear friends today and had his first taste of cake-like muffin, but that’s enough for a little guy in one day. I scrapped my plans for a birthday crown for this year. He’ll have one next year when he’ll enjoy it and possibly even wear it for a few moments!
Birdie has been a Montessori baby from the start and at a year old, he knows how to choose work off his shelves and will sometimes choose to sit at his table and do an activity. He loves stacking, nesting objects, imbucare/posting activities, and doing simple puzzles. We’ll be introducing some varied size puzzles soon, along with a coin posting box, a ball tracker, and some basic pouring and threading activities. We have introduced him to basic care of self activities, and he’s responsible for collecting his shoes from the low tray before we leave the house. He is also working on wiping his face after meals, and pouring water on his hair in the bath. It is amazing to see how capable even a pre-walking child is if they are given patient, loving instruction and the time to try it for themselves. Very recently, I’ve reintroduced his low table and chair (it was too early before, because he couldn’t get in and out of the chair himself). He’s loving using it, although the distinction between working at the table and working on the table has yet to be mastered!
Gross motor activities are of course the main use of Birdie’s time. He hasn’t climbed the Pikler triangle yet, but uses it to stand and pushes it around the room. He also loads up his wagon walker and pushes it about. Crawling, pulling up, and experiencing the trampoline are all favourite pastimes. Although A walked right on his first birthday, Birdie is moving at his own pace and isn’t walking yet. There’s no hurry! He spends time ‘helping’ in the kitchen with his learning tower, paddling in the sink and seeing how gravity works. Every day he is capable of a little more helpful, meaningful activity.
An explosion into language hasn’t quite happened yet - it would be very early for it, really - but Birdie has a few words which are clear to us, and a few signs. He can communicate that he wants a cracker or ‘packet’ (fruit packet’), a bath, a drink, his dummy, and that he is finished. He has also begun to sign ‘toilet’ using the born ready chest slap when he is eliminating, so we will definitely be swapping over to training pants and working on potty learning as soon as he is walking. A few words come and go: cat, ball, book, blueberry (which just sounds like bubbling with a pointed glance at the blueberries).
The year between one and two is one of my favourite times with children: the rapid acquisition of language, walking that turns into running and climbing, discovering and then mastering self-care activities like pouring, eating with cutlery, toileting, basic dressing. I can’t wait to see all the things he learns this year as he grows into a proper little person.