Indoor and Outdoor Fun

My previous post touched on how I discovered about the magical three hours a toddler needs daily, in the form of physical activities. This post is mainly about the activities I do with Blake on a regular basis, adding new activities along the way when I discover them.

Indoor Activities

Some of the activities Blake and I enjoy doing are playing hide and seek (he will hide, and I will seek), allowing him to climb up and down furniture, dancing to some of my favourite tunes, and running around the house playing catching.

But our favourite activity of all time has got to be water play! Be it a bubble bath, or just water on its own, it’s a sure hit for both Blake and me J

We bought a mini pool from Toys’R’Us, and some bath toys to make water play at home fun! The mini pool is super awesome for use on rainy days. Blake can have water play, rain or shine! Whenever we have water play, or bubble baths, I will bring in my ipod and speakers to up the level of fun with all the songs I can sing along to. Hehe.

 

Every once in a while, I will also like to pick Blake up and put him on the sofa and start tickling him. Making him laugh wastes energy, and it’s super fun too! Haha.

Outdoor Activities

When it comes to outdoor play for Blake, sky’s the limit!

What we do on a regular basis is to bring him out without a stroller, and make him walk most of the way on his own. Not only will Blake be able to get all the walking and exercise he needs, we also have one less big bulky item to bring out! We take public transport (especially the bus) everywhere we go, so this was a HUGE load off our back J On top of that, we don’t have to rely, and squeeze with people in the elevators to get from one level to another! Total freedom for all of us!

There is just one tiny problem… If Blake is too tired to walk, he will want to be carried, and might fall asleep. If this happens, I’ll have to carry him everywhere I want to go! And at almost 12kg in weight, that’s quite a load! Luckily, we still bring the baby carrier (we’re using Babybjorn Synergy, by the way) so there is some comfort there.

Another one of our favourite outdoor activities to do is swimming! I try to bring Blake to the swimming pool at least once a week. He started out being really afraid of huge water bodies (read all about it here). It took me months, after we stopped going for about a year, to get him to fall in love with swimming pools! And now, whenever he sees a big body of water, he will want to jump into it!

Evidently in love with water, Blake wanted to join the pink dolphins at the Dolphin Lagoon Sentosa for a swim.

Another huge hit for Blake are playgrounds, be it dry or wet. As long as he sees one, he will want to go and have some fun in it. Thankfully, most of the time, I’m able to pull Blake away from playgrounds when we are in a rush to get from one place to another. I do try my best to let him play whenever possible though.

And then there are days where the weather is awesome – cloudy with good winds. These days are great for times to stroll in the park, where Blake will have an endless road to run on! Parks are not something we do pretty often, even though we stay just opposite one. Haha.  We got Blake a tricycle to ride with when we go to the park, but he seems only keen to sit on it at home, and not out. I wonder why! I think I’ll try the tricycle again when we’re bored, and out of ideas to drain his energy. Hehe.

The last on our outdoor activities list (for now) is bubble play!

Blake loves to chase the bubbles, and would go crazy laughing when we start spraying/blowing the bubbles. So much so that the entire ground level will have his laughter ringing throughout!

So these are all the activities I have been doing with Blake for the past few months, only going at it more actively in the last 2 weeks or so, after I read the article.

I even did a test the other day, by not giving Blake at least 3 hours of activities. By evening time, he was cranky and grouchy, refused to eat during dinner, and kept throwing tantrums! The following day, I packed his schedule with non-stop activities, stopping for a nap and meals, and he was very cooperative! I truly, truly am a believer in the three magical hours. Do try it to see if it works on your child!

P.S. Do take note though, if you’re going to the swimming pools or wet playground, do invest in swimmers’ diapers.

P.P.S. all these activities done with Blake also means less time for him to be with his pacifier! I’m sure he will wean off of it soon, on his own! J

The Magical Three Hours

There comes a time when we parents notice some behavioral changes in our young ones. As early as a few months old, some of us would have noticed that our babies have began to learn how to throw a tantrum or two.

Blake started showing signs of throwing tantrums a little before 12 months old. It started with really crazy cries, when he does not get what he wants. Over time, it progressed from crying, to throwing of things, and to all out kicking and punching.

There was even a period where he will slam himself backwards onto the floor, and hurt his head in the process, making him cry even harder. Once he knew that by doing that, he will feel pain, he started to lower himself slowly to the floor when he is throwing tantrums. It was a funny sight, in an extremely frustrating moment.

Being a first time parent, I was at a complete lost as to what I should do when Blake throws tantrums.

Initially, it got me really worked up, and I’ll completely lose it. I would shout at him, and beat his diaper-padded buttocks. I admit. I am pretty short tempered. Whenever this happens, if Sean’s around, he would deal with the situation for me, while I went elsewhere to cool off. If he’s at work, he would either message, or call to comfort me.

After a few months of this crazy tantrum cycle, I knew something must be done immediately to stop this vicious cycle. I went to research on how to deal with tantrum throwing toddlers.

Some experts suggested reasoning with them. I tried, and it did not work. I’m guessing your toddler needs to be able to communicate with you verbally for that to work.

Some suggested the ignore method, which I use personally, but it’s quite a long and noisy process because you will have to let your toddler cry till they know they are not getting any attention from you. And, it’s probably not the best method when you’re out in public places.

Other suggestions included the naughty corner, and reward system. The former would be good, if Blake knew what was going on, and knows how to sit still in a corner. The latter was not something I was very keen on because every time I think of rewards, I was thinking of the need to buy toys and whatnots. After further research, I realize that a simple hug, or a kiss, or anything fun is also a good reward for a toddler! But just the reward system alone was not enough. Something else was needed to help reduce it further.

Then, I came across this article. It has nothing to do with dealing with tantrum throwing toddlers, but trust me; the answer is in the article.

This article was posted by The Asian Parent a while back. It said that toddlers between 1 – 4 years old need an average of three hours physical activities daily in order to develop positively, physically.

I showed Sean the article, and we decided to do as advised. What harm could it possibly do? It’s always good to have physical activities, and to get a head start in leading a healthy lifestyle. It might also motivate me to return to my own exercise routine, and this time, I will have a little partner along with me! J

So for the past week, we did physical activities with Blake whenever we could, clocking 3 hours or a little more. It also helped that he went to school for most parts of the day, where they do quite a lot of physical activities too (and help with some disciplining) – this was also included in the 3 hours.

Then we begun to notice changes in our little boy – less tantrums were thrown, more laughing and sitting still, he even started going to bed on time! His appetite became much better too! It really is quite amazing to see this change. It was definitely not something we expected! We are guessing that by wasting his energy on all these activities, he does not have the energy to throw tantrums. It also puts him in a happier mood too.

Before anyone thinks this method gets rid of tantrums completely, well, it does not. Blake still throws a little tantrum here and there, especially when he wants to attempt something rather dangerous during the physical activities, and we forbade him. But he recovers very quickly from it when we get him to move onto another physical activity!

Getting enough exercise and play really puts all of us in a better mood! J

Not sure what kind of activities to do with your toddler? Look out for my next post. I will share all the indoor and outdoor activities I do with Blake.