February felt like it went by at the speed of light, so here we are already at 14 months! A quick update and a few things we’ve got up to this month.

Also just wanted to give a quick word to International Women’s Day. Having a daughter has made me even more passionate about women’s rights, empowerment, and health/well-being than I ever thought possible. Part of the reason I started this blog was to help support women in their life journey through health information. As I continue to research for this blog (and of course, as a woman myself), I recognize how large the gap is for all women in general, but specifically for women’s health and well-being. A lot of the resources that do exist that are supposed to support these things can be misleading or created with the wrong intentions (such as fitness “groups” that target freshly postpartum women). I hope to provide a resource for women that is useful, reliable, and most importantly real and relatable. That is why I continue to share monthly updates about Maggie, or occasionally write that passion post about a topic relevant to women’s or family health. I am a real person – a woman – behind this blog. And I am so proud to say that!

You should already know this, but when I say women I mean all women. Always.

On to the Maggie update for this month:

Maggie’s saying more words!

Mama and dada have been staples in our house for awhile (and dog and cat), but Maggie is saying a few more things now like “up” (her favourite) and “all done” when she finishes eating. She also says “baby” (about her doll) and “ice” (her and the dogs favourite treat from the freezer)!

She says a few other things like “this”, “that”, etc. I’m loving hearing her little voice and she loves to hear it too!

She can climb on every piece of furniture now.

Yep, used to just be she *tried* to climb on everything but now she can successfully climb onto the bed and the couch. The good thing is – she also knows how to get off safely on her belly! It is still a very anxiety inducing event for me at this point because I worry she will fall off (she has had some near misses on the couch) but I’m glad she’s starting to figure out how to navigate the big people world.

Maggie has a lot going on beyond just milestones – she is growing, enjoying daycare, moving around way faster than ever before! She screams with excitement and laughs more – we know she loves seeing the dog run outside for example. She is very social – even with everyone in masks, when people wave at her from afar she usually smiles back! She can be shy too though – but not anything outside of what I would expect for a baby her age. I was really worried about how COVID would impact her in terms of socializing, but I honestly have not seen any negative impact so far. She loves daycare, other kids, animals, and seeing and interacting (at a distance) with other people. So for those who are worried because their young baby/child has been at home for a year with them – don’t fret. They are truly incredibly resilient and I am sure they will do fine! You’re doing a great job.

What has Maggie been up to?

Daycare

Maggie is at daycare 5 days a week right now and she keeps busy there. Every week I share some of her crafts or artwork from daycare on my insta story. A mom friend on IG gave me a great idea of what to do with all this art work – take photos and make them into an album! That way, you can keep any really sentimental art but you can just keep the photos of the other, less sentimental pieces so you don’t become a child art collector (if you don’t want to). For now, I’ve kept it all – but I plan on taking photos and putting any special pieces away soon. Anyways, just thought I’d pass on a mom hack from a wise mama! Dana shares all sorts of great tips on her IG, you can check her out here.

Outdoor time!

As the weather starts to warm up, we’re trying to get outside more on the weekends! I am so excited for spring and summer this year with Maggie walking and wanting to explore. She has been fascinated with the backyard for some time and we can finally get her out there now. We were of course, also enjoying the snow when it was here! Maggie loved playing in the snow and she went sledding a few times at daycare and with us.

We grabbed Maggie some Jan & Jul Toasty-Dry Winter Boots for the snow and I love them! Easy to get on and off and they really do stay nice and dry.

Colouring

Maggie loves to colour – with crayons or markers, so we got a bunch of different types. I also ordered her some custom crayons from Colour By Letter on Etsy. You can use our code MAGGIE10 to get a little discount at checkout if you’re looking to grab some new crayons!

All the other markers and crayons we have we just grabbed at my fave place – Dollarama. I also periodically get colouring books there for different holidays – last one I grabbed was for Valentines day. It gives us something to do on days where I can’t think of anything more creative, plus it’s somewhat relaxing for me to do too haha!

A few DIY activities…

We tried a few new things this month. One was sort of a “fail”, but it probably would have worked better for an older child, or maybe one that isn’t as interested in deconstructing things!

1. Pom Pom Drop – sadly, didn’t get any photos of this one because as I mentioned this was a bit of a “fail” for us. However, maybe fail is the wrong word because Maggie still had fun with the toilet paper rolls we used to make this. I basically just taped toilet paper rolls to our back sliding door and got some pom poms from the dollar store. You can use toilet paper or paper towel rolls (or both) to do this. Then I gave Maggie a few pom poms and let her drop them down the tubes – I demo’d for her first. She did it a few times but then promptly ripped the rolls off the window and began yelling into them. A different twist, but still fun for her! She also likes using them as a “telescope”. So one activity turned into another more imaginative one – love it.
2. Puffs Container Fine Motor Activity – Maggie has done something similar at daycare, and I always see photos of her enjoying this so I decided to try it myself with an empty Puffs container (but you can use any similar type of container, Lil Crunchies works well too!). Just cut a slit (or on a bigger container you could make multiple) in the top of the plastic lid big enough for some popsicle sticks and ta da! All ready for play once you grab some popsicle sticks from the dollar store! Baby can put the popsicle sticks through the slot – it can be challenging but I love watching the little brain work as they do this! We got some larger ones and small coloured ones that I also used for the next activity…
3. Popsicle Stick Push with an Egg Carton – Same idea as above, but use an empty egg carton. I coloured on the bottom of the egg carton to make different “colour” slots. We bought coloured popsicle sticks and cut holes in the bottom big enough for them. Baby can push the popsicle sticks through the holes – and when they are bit older, they can match the popsicle stick colour with the slot colour! You can also do this with the egg carton open, and have coloured spots for pom poms! So all these activities are basically interchangeable which is amazing!

I wrote recently about Maggie’s love for stack & sort toys. Her favourite one the past month has been her Melissa and Doug shape sorter, which I talked about in that post. She still needs guidance but is able to move the shape around to fit it in the spot. She plays with this a lot right before bed time with her dad, and she’s getting so good at problem solving and moving the shape to fit through the slot. It’s crazy how quickly they learn!

This month we are having some of the restrictions lifted in our region, but it probably won’t make much of an impact on us beyond Maggie being able to start some swimming lessons (in a distanced and COVID safe environment). In collaboration with AquaTots, I’ll be sharing our experience on Instagram and I’ll probably write about it a bit afterwards too! I can’t wait to see her enjoying the water and it’ll be good prep for summer.

Until next month!