Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Trials with my toddler!

Serene turns 18 months this Saturday and last night, I was looking at Eli and thinking- gosh this was how small Serene was at one point in time.... Its difficult to decide which stage is more fun, when they are cute cuddly babies or over energetic toddlers who amuse you with their antics!
Serene is at the "discovery" stage now.. as she grows taller and more independent, every object around her is given its due( and sometimes overdue!) attention.She now reaches the knobs of my gas stove... so I have taken to cooking only when they both are down for their nap.My beloved suede chaise lounge in the living room today got a protective coat of Vaseline mixed with diaper rash cream on it! any of you out there who could provide tips on how to get rid of the stain- I'd be grateful :-)
She has also become very observant- it suddenly puts such a huge responsibility on us as parents and she watches our every move and mimics it! the other day she started picking her nose- causing P and me to get into an argument about WHOM she learnt that from! Consensus reached was: she probably saw someone at the park!
Arguments with the husband also need to be handled very carefully now... she understands the change in tone and looks very startled.P and me, if we have to argue, now smile and each other and do it!!
I was reading an interview with First lady Laura Bush last night.She is a trained teacher and author to children's books.She has said that you should read to your kid when they are 1, 2 years of age- they absorb like a sponge at this age.So all you parents out there, take some time out of each day to read to your baby.I do it with Serene and can already see the difference it has made.She recognises so many pictures now and knows when exactly to turn the page.. its amazing!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

HI Christine, I totally agree with u about the Reading to ur baby. We have been reading to Jaden since he was 8 months. Now he loves books. Given a choice with toys or books he choose books. At age 1.3 he knew most animals (even things like Jaguar, macau) and could say words like triangle etc. So i would recommend reading to every mom. Serene is at a wonderful age..enjoy it..Jaden favourite thing to say these days is "ALRIGHT i will do it"!!!

Christine said...

Hi Lorraine,
Serene so loves her books too. She keeps coming to me with a book to be read :-)
Any books you could recommend?

Unknown said...

We would initially read books with lots of colors or shapes or animals. Then someone gifted us the Disney collection. Its bout 10 board books...each one on a different topic like "animals and their babies, "opposites", "alpabets" and even "monsters". he loves mickey mouse and most disney characters so he could really relate to this. Now he chooses his books, he always manages to find the BOOK section of any store and sits there and finds a book for himself. then for the rest of the month thats his favourite!