Play time!

All throughout my pregnancy Alfie was the most chilled out little baby, he never went mad with the kicking, I had no terrible hardships during his gestation (what a word!) and his birth was pretty easy and happy. He's been the exact same now that he's out, a happy, relaxed little baby! 

Fred and I were keen on starting Montessori from birth and this is our first stab at it! He's 14 weeks old now and just starting to engage with people and objects around him. In the last few days we've started to introduce a small selection of toys, prior to this his happiest moments were when he was looking at someones face and singing songs with them or studying his black and white banner.

These photos were taken when he was only two and a half weeks old. At this stage a baby can't see further than 8-12 inches. Their vision is so poor that they struggle to distinguish colours and find it easiest to focus on high contrast images in black and white...As usual, I didn't believe the experts and their alleged facts until I saw it in action for myself!

Alfie's reaction to the black and white hanging was instant! From the first second that we put in front of him he couldn't tear his eyes away! It was the first time that he had really focused on anything and taken some time to study something.

We could see his eyes travelling all over the whole chart until he found a square that caught his attention then he would begin his search again.

I was so surprised by his reaction. His little face is pure concentration! He stayed like this for several minutes, letting his attention flow to different areas of the chart.

As he got older we folded the chart into a pyramid and let him stare at it while he did his tummy time which he also really enjoyed but his favourite way to play with it is still while it's hanging from his baby gym.

PS. I love the IKEA Leka baby gym, because it's so easy to adapt it and change out the mobiles, added bonus it's a bargain at £20. It's fairly plain and not 100 miles from the Montessori/Waldorf ideal that we would want for Alfie. So far we haven't messed with it too much but I LOVE this tutorial to modify it from Put Up Your Dukes. When I get a bit of spare time (lol) I'm going to try and do something similar.