Routines

Actually, my days with Lele are pretty much routine.

Each morning after he wakes, I will let him play around in the house for a while. Then it'll be self-feeding training.

I will prepare a snack of cooked vegetables (usually broccoli or cauliflower cooked in water till soft) so that he can self-feed. I think Lele is showing signs of being left-hander cos he will hold the spoon with the left hand. A few times I tried to switch hands but met with protests. Oh well... left-handers are more artistic right? Lele can use his right hand to pick up the food and put it on the spoon (held by the left hand) before putting the spoon into his mouth, fairly accurately. However, he still needs training in order to be able to scoop up the food directly with the spoon. Self-feeding can be messy but the mess is reduced because cooked vegetables are easier to clean. Lele takes all his meals in his high chair, so the messy area is confined to a smaller one. And since Lele takes the snack as his first food upon waking, he is quite hungry by then. This means he will be very interested in eating the food before his eyes and not play with it by throwing them around...

After the snack treat, he will go for a walk with me in the neighbourhood while having his milk from a straw bottle. Right now, Lele is still taking milk from the milk bottle and I'm trying to wean him off that by providing milk from a straw bottle instead. He is happy to drink from the straw bottle because he can walk around holding the bottle! However, he drinks less milk this way.

After the 45-60 mins walk, we will come back home where he will have his bath. Besides arranging toys for him to play with, I will also prepare a cup of sweet gripe water for him. Lele can drink from a cup but with spillage. Hence he needs more practice in controlling the flow.

Nap time follows. Lele's nap's usually between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Sometimes he will sleep for 3 hours. The day before, Lele slept for 3 1/2 hours! As expected, he refused to take a 2nd nap later on. Upon waking, he will have his lunch (of brown rice porridge). I would love for him to self-feed this meal, but Lele refuse to feed himself. He would rather be fed. I think this is because he was frequently stopped in his earlier attempts to self-feed when he was much younger at 10mths old. Then, he was interested to hold the spoon and feed himself. But my MIL thinks it messy and would usually swipe his hand away when he reaches for a spoon. I totally disagreed with this and stated my opinions several times, to no avail. She thinks I am being too anxious and that Lele will pick up self-feeding when the time comes. I was still working then and she was the main caregiver. Hence I had little control over how she did things..............................................................................................................................................................

Perhaps because Lele could sense his grandmother's disapproval, he started refusing to self-feed porridge. Hence I will start with encouraging him to self-feed snacks and then move on to an entire meal.

After lunch is playtime, of free play, story books, flash cards and some scribbling, followed by a short walk in the neighbourhood before coming back up for milk and nap.

After the nap is some playtime followed by bathtime, bedtime story and sleep at 8-8.30pm.

I must say Lele is quite a good sleeper. He can sleep till 7.30am the next morning for a stretch. If I feed him some milk while he is still asleep at 6am, he will usually be able to sleep till 8am, sometimes 8.30am.

Hmm...