Second pregnancy: what have changed?

I have written already a post about my first pregnancy and you can find it here. Even though I have lived the experience of being a mum, second pregnancy made me to ask questions as well. There is no pregnancy the same.

Disorders - same or not

There are disorders that will be the same as queasiness or back pain, because these disorders are related to the changes that we have in our body. For example queasiness I had less on my first pregnancy, but back pain was felt more in my second pregnancy.

Feel baby's movements

I was reading that for sure in my second pregnancy I will feel baby's movements before that in my first pregnancy, I would say that both babies I have noticed on my 20th week of pregnancy.

Food

On both pregnancies I felt like I am 24h hungry, this feeling hasn't changed. The only thing that was different was the kind of food that I was keen to eat more. On my first pregnancy I ate chocolates, and a lot of sweet things. While with my second pregnancy I ate a lot of salt things and I didn't like sweets.

Duration of delivery

Oooh yes, here is so big difference on its duration. With first baby it last almost 12 hours, and with second 3,5 hours. Researches say that on the second delivery, our muscles are more elastic and our body maintain something like "memory" about what have happened once in our body. Our body is marvelous and it can do miracles.

Breast feeding

With second baby breast feeding is much easier, because it is prepared for the suction, while with first baby almost one month I needed to get customized with the process. Very first days of breast feeding with our first son, was painful, while with second son there was no pain. And breast feeding is a pleasant process.

                                Aren't they cute?

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Discipline for a toddler. Maria Montessori inspired.

Recently, I began to read Maria Montessori book "Casa dei Bambini", or Children's House, translated to English, and I was really inspired how she approached on education of discipline for kids that were learning by her method. Children were keen to listen her and develope their potentials at the highest level.

What do I mean with discipline for a toddler by her method? A lot of mums already know about montessori games which develope fine motor skills on babies, toddlers and kids. But most of them don't know how she obtained that all these kids were doing what she wants and play the games she porposed to them to play.

Every week on Children's house, nurses took measurments of the kids, and this measurements were taken in the day of the week that was born the kid, for example if the child were born on Monday, then all the measurments(height, weight, skin color, eyes control etc.) were taken on Monday. To make this process easy for a teacher, M. Montessori made for every kid a card with all necessary measurments and basic data about the kid. Kids loved the idea of these cards as they felt important to the school and they were keen to help the teacher to take all their measurements.

I hope I grow your interess to read her book and I won't tell you nothing more. I am sure you will ask now, how these cards are related to discipline? In my case it has a direct impact to make a discipline that works for my toddler.

I proposed to make a card as well, not on paper, but on the board as I thought it will be easier if I will have to make changes during the week. This week I continue to make it on the board, but next week for sure I will do it on paper and I will share with you a sample. This card, was done for the whole week and includes all the activities he makes during the day, like going to the toilet alone or playing alone, watching cartoons and eating. And all these activities were marked as 'v' meaning that this activity was done very well by our toddler. Our toddler was happy when he saw, that some activities done by him were appreciated by us. It is ok that some activities are done easier and others less or even when he doesn't like to do, but that mark of 'v', and our appreciation means much more for him than his effort to make what we want.

- Before this card, we had very difficult his meals without a cartoon (we do not let him watch tv or other screen activities, and screen activities were permitted only during the meal) and he neglected any kind of food without a cartoon. With this card it was soooo easy.
- Washing hands and teeth were a process that was easy before the card but he didn't wash his hand regularly, only when he wanted. Now, he is washing his hands and teeth more times that it is necessary, only to get this recognition on the board.
- Put all his toys at theirs place and cleaning the space where he plays. Before this card it was mostly impossible, now he is doing almost every time.
And much more things that I have been impressed after appling this method. Here I want to mention that we proposed all recognitions to be marked only if the kid is doing the activity alone. If he needs to go to the toilet he has to go alone, to eat as well he has to eat alone without any help. We, parents, have the main job to observe if our kid is doing correctly the activity and have to help only if we see that our kid can't do it by himself.

Here is the board of our last week recognitions:

And here is this week card, it is optimized to other activities we want him to do by himself.

This method works, and I am happy of the results. I don't have to negotiate with my toddler when he needs to eat or to play alone without me. I do not have to scream any more when I have to put suncream in the morning, he knows that if the thing is not done there won't be any recognition on the board and that is it.

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Learning shapes, montessori activity for a toddler.

Some weeks ago, I proposed to my toddler to learn shapes. This activity comes to my mind, once I have seen he is learning shapes at the nursery and I thought, that it is a great moment to make this task easier for me and for him by repeating these at home. As well, I was looking for some interactive video on youtube as he could make association with all the knowledge he got during few days. Looking now, I want to say that I am very proud of my son and his quick ability to recognize all the basic shapes.

Steps we took for learning shapes:

1. Nursery activities

2. Montessori games with matching shapes. (these games he used to play from 1 year)

3. Emoticon made from cut paper

4. Making crafts from shapes. In our case circles.

My toddler was very happy once he saw the usefulness of shapes and how many crafts can be done from them. Discover shapes with toddler,  it's too much fun.

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Zoo fun activity. All wild animals in a single place.

Our toddler loves animals, I think all kids love animals, domestic or wild ones, doesn't matter. We decided that it would be a good present for our kids to buy a familiar one year pass to Barcelona Zoo. Because this park is very big, going there with a toddler and a baby, makes impossible to see all animals in one day. And the decision to buy a one year pass was a good one, as we have seen all animals just going there 5 times.

Apart of the great number of animals inside of the park, there are some interactive parks for kids to play, as well places to eat and enjoy the atmosphere of the park.

I leave you some images of our visits there.

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No sew sensory book. Quiet book for a toddler. Steps to make your own no sew quiet book.

It was some time that I wanted to make a quiet book for my toddler, but the idea that I have to sew all the little pieces and then order these to a quiet book, stoped me from making this quiet book. Last week I have seen on pinterest a lot of options of a no sew books. So, I thought that is just a great idea for me and for my toddler.

To make a no sew book what you need:

1. A shape to measure the desired size of the book

2. A felt for the base of the book ( I choose different felt colors for the base)

3. Hot glue gun

4. Scissors

5. Pen or marker

Now, it's time to decide how many pages will have your book. Once you have decided the number of pages that will have your sensory book, it's time to cut the pieces and split all the pages with hot glue gun.

Now it's time to create and to make this book useful. I used some fine motor skill ideas and montessori pages.

Below you can see our no sew sensory book pattern:

1. Hourglass and baloons sensory book page

2. Matching windows and doorof the hous sensory book page and learning the finger signs of numbers 1 to 5 sensory book page.

3. Collect flowers, fine motor skill quiet book page

4. Montessori activity with a shoes quiet book page and LEGO brick sensory book page.

5. Caterpillar fine motor activity quiet book page and buterfly change of colors sensory book page.

6. Directions sensory book page and crayon box uiet book page.

7. Matching world map continents quiet book page.

8. Number association quiet book page and octopus fine motor skills sensory book page.

9. Montessori transport quiet book page and montessori watch quiet book page.

10. Heart puzzle sensory book page and maatching shapes quiet book page.

My toddler loves this quiet book, and I enjoyed making this for him and his little brother. It took me 2 days pf hard work and it was worth it.

How do you like our sensory quiet book?

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Paw Patrol and Robocar Poli meet in one game. Screen free inside activity for a toddler.

In our family there is limited time for youtube videos or any other screen activity. It is complicated to manage this with a toddler, I recognize it, so, every time we have to invent new games for our kid. The last idea, was to keep our toddler busy with his beloved toys from paw patrol and robocar poli.

I created a miniature city where paw patrol dogs and robocar poli help citizens, all toys meet each other in one simple game. Our toddler loved this idea, he felt as he is inside of the cartoon.

 I needed for this: our living's room table (it is big enough to create miniature city), foam blocks, citizens (our toddler's toys) and of course paw patrol and robocar poli.

What I have observed from this experience:

1. Our toddler enjoyed playing alone with his toys. Usually he wants us to play with him if he is not waching something.

2. He developed his leadership skills, as he had to manage with all his toys and help citizens of miniature city.

3. Damian created his own story of paw patrol and he didn't need cartoon to play or to stay quiet for a longer time.

I am happy of this experience and for sure we will repeat it.

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Create your kids a good habit to travel. Collect them great memories.

Our toddler loves traveling and we always try him to have a good experience and to remain with great memories from each of our getaway or holiday. He loves planes, trains, cars and even public transport, as every toddler he gets bored if our trips last more than an hour, but we to take some toys for him, or sing songs with him, and always have fun.

Now, we have a baby who is just 2 months and he doesn't have such experience as his brother, so we thought, it is good to begin one day. Our first getaway of the last weekend were Tossa (Tossa del Mar) in Costa Brava. Our baby boy, I think, will be a great traveller, as he stayed very quiet all the way from Barcelona to Tossa, I was impressed as I didn't expect him to be as quiet as he was.

We have been at the beaches of Tossa, enjoyed great weather and not as cold water as I have expected there to be. We have visited the castle and other lovely places of this amazing place in Costa Brava.

Our family, for sure, got another great traveller to the board, and we will share with you our experience as traveling family of 4.

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Toddler outside activity. Playing with sand.

It is summer and one of my favorite outside activities is to go to the beach. But what to do, if you have a toddler, who enjoys a lot sea and beach, and a newborn baby who can't stay more than an hour at the beach, and you have to go or early in the morning or late in the evening? The answer is to go to the park and play with toddler there with sand...hmmm...not the same... I know... Even though, my toddler loves sand and even more he adores time when I play with him. Once he is a big brother we spent less time together, as he has to play with daddy or alone while mummy takes care of little one. And I feel that we have to play and spent more time together.

Playing with sand - is a great montessori and fine motor skills activity.  And of course, is one of the easiest activity when you want to spend some time with your toddler, to disconnect from all the things that are not done. Toddler develops his imagination, thinking, concentration and in the same time he knows that there is a person who appreciate his work.

Try to play with sand with your kid, I asure you that you will enjoy even more than your kid.

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