Thanks for stopping by! This page is a continuation of where I will talk about my views and practices in parenting my baby girl. I majored in Child Development in college, which is where I formed some of my opinions. Others have come from books, friends, and family. I would first like to state that even though other parents have completely different ideas on parenting, I do respect them and appreciate if their practices work for them.

Setting A Schedule

As I mentioned on the previous page, my husband and I made the decision to use PDF (Parent Directed Feeding) from the book "Baby Wise". It worked just as well as we had hoped and has completely lived up to all of its expectations. We are continuing to keep Hailey on a schedule, but not just for eating, sleeping and playing. We are also scheduling types of play. For example, to help Hailey learn how to play by herself and to also help avoid any problems with separation anxiety, we have her spend a set amount of time everyday (at the same time) playing by herself in her playpen. This suggestion was found in the book "Baby Wise II". At first it was a little difficult, but we extended the time period everyday by a few minutes. Now, she can easily spend 45 minutes amusing herself, which is pretty remarkable. We also set aside a specific time for playing together, which I will discuss in more detail below under "Fun and Education".
We have been lucky enough to share some of the wonderful techniques with others. For example, twice now we have taken trips which included very long plane rides. And everytime we had many people comment on what a happy baby she is, and how well behaved she is, etc. We truly feel that the methods that we have used from both Baby Wise books have by far attributed to what a great baby she is for us and for others as well.

Fun & Education

This is still my favorite part! The joy of watching Hailey learn has to be one of the very best things about being a parent. Over the months some of the things we do to help stimulate her have changed and some have stayed the same...

  • Talking to her, and talking about EVERYTHING!
  • Repeating the sounds that she makes to us. This is still one of her favorite games to play.
  • Singing to her. We sing different songs depending on the time of day. I sing soothing songs to her at night before bedtime, and fun educational songs during playtime. Songs with hand movements are the best, and really help them to learn things, like counting, or directions, or the names of objects.
  • Reading. This is still one of Hailey's favorite things to do. Even though we read many different books to her, she still has a couple of favorites... "Goodnight Moon" and "Baby Angels".
  • Flash cards. You can buy them or make them, whichever you prefer. I prefer to make them so that they are exactly what I want them to be.
  • And the newest thing is Baby Signing, which is so wonderful that I wanted to have a special section for it below, that I will go in to more detail.

Exercise is still important, but different than before...

  • Standing with and without help from anyone. (She can stand momentarily by herself once she has pulled herself up. And she can stand by herself from a squatting position. She hasn't learned how to stand by herself from a crawling or sitting position yet.)
  • Chasing her while she is crawling (we crawl too). This is one of her all time favorites.
  • Walking while holding someone's hands.
  • Walking with a push toy.
  • Walking around playpen and furniture.

Baby Signing

Parent who have used this technique know exactly how much fun this can be. The first key is to read the book "Baby Signs". The second step is to give it a try. The whole point is to make it easier for you and your child to communicate. It is easier for children to use baby signs before they are actually able to say certain words. And if you are worried that this will hinder your child actually starting to speak... it won't. As a matter of fact, usually once the child can speak the word, the sign for it goes away. In addition, with your child being able to sign, he or she will technically have a wider vocabularly.
Most parents already use some baby signs, for example opening and closing your fist to say bye-bye. But there are so many more things that your child could be able to say.
So far, Hailey, who is 10 months old, can say the following using baby signs...

  • Hi {Waving the whole arm}
  • Bye-bye {Opening and closing fist}
  • Fish {Opening and closing mouth, as a fish does} (One of her favorite toys are these links that are shaped like fish, she uses the baby sign to ask for them or to tell us when she is playing with them.)
  • Kitty-cat {Patting the back of one hand with the other}
  • Yaaaaahhhh. {Clapping} (This is how we end games or songs or to show her that she has done something well.)
  • Pat-a-cake (We use a shorter version of the song... Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's man, Roll it up, Roll it up, Throw it in the pan! So far, she can do the pat-a-cake part and the roll it up part. We are still working on the throwing part.)
  • Various body parts. For her head she shakes her head back and forth, and she pats her belly with both hands for her belly, and crinkles up her nose for nose.

We intend to teach her how to sign other animals like duck and elephant, and objects like books, and sooo many other things as she becomes more and more coordinated. I can't tell you how much fun it has been watching her learn these signs! And even though these aren't signs, she has also learned how to give hugs and how to give kisses, which both her Daddy and I really enjoy. =)

Well, that is all for now. I am sure I will more information as Hailey grows. If you have any comments or question, please email me. I would love to hear from you.



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