Musical Counting is Fun!

Leji removes and repositions most of the stickers from her counting blocks

I'm grateful my daughter learned how to count up to 20 in English and up to 10 in Mandarin at 18months. We also try counting in Filipino and Spanish but she finds the long words too challenging to pronounce up to now.

Eg. 1= one (1syllable), yi (1 syllable) vs. isa (2 syllables), uno (2syllables);  2= two (1syllable), er (1 syllable) vs. dalawa (3syllables).

I trust she'll get the hang of it eventually; we speak in the vernacular at home anyway. No pressure.

We count everything whenever wherever as long as she feels like it: stair steps, birds, crayons, paper, flower petals, storybook characters, pirate coins on Disney Junior and even her clothes in the laundry basket. We started doing this practice long before she could repeat words/syllables properly which was around the time she learned how to sit and pick up objects.

Apart from physically counting toys and singing the classic "Ten Little Indians" here are some toddler videos on YouTube which helped made our counting sessions more interesting:

1. Sesame Street: Feist sings 1, 2, 3, 4

I didn't know who Leslie Feist was until I saw this (she sounds similar to Colbie Caillat to me).  My daughter thinks she's as cool as Beyonce and Barbie.  There is another Sesame Street pop music video about numbers featuring the a capella group Pentatonix but this really is her favorite with all the chickens and penguins prancing about.

2. Badanamu: Party on the Ocean Floor

Mother-of-3 and personality development coach Karen Agustin-Ostrea got us hooked on Badanamu when we complained that we were tired of watching The Mother Goose Club on Netflix. This lively song is one of Leji's favorites while we eat merienda in the afternoon.  It's amusing to watch her do the dance moves.

3. Fun, Fun Elmo: A Mandarin Chinese Learning Program

The only Mandarin words that my brain managed to retain are the stuff I learned in preschool. Some experts claim that exposing babies to multiple languages activates larger areas of their brain, making more room for knowledge acquisition (for math and science) later on in life. So now I try to expose Leji to as much fun Chinese as possible. With constant repetition & hand signs, I think Elmo's a pretty cool friend :)

4. Little Baby Bum: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

No amount of warning could discourage Leji from jumping and acting like a little monkey before bedtime but at least this helped her learn how to count.

5. Ten in the Bed: ABC KidTV

There are many versions of this song featuring various animals, crayon colors, and stuffed toys.  "The little one" is quite cruel to his bedmates but it's a funny alternative to singing "Ten Little Indians" in reverse.

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Raising a Musical Toddler

Inconvenient as it may be, we try to expose our toddler to as much musical stimuli as we could.  I've read about how experts attest to how it could help strengthen bonds, boost language skills, and open doors to more exploration and fun. So we try to take her to concerts and make her watch dance videos on YouTube (Badanamu, Beyonce, Barbie Nutcracker, etc.)

When I was pregnant I even considered enrolling in a classical voice class on my third trim to add to the concerts and plays which I inevitably exposed her to as I covered for TV.  She kicked hard in my womb over Mozart, Jed Madela, and Autotelic. She raved over the Game of Thrones musical score and expressed her excitement with the heavy drums of the battle scenes.

But then I gave birth prematurely :/ It was a miracle that she could utter stuff like "guh"= I wanna burp, "mi"= I want milk, and "goo"= poop early on.  Most of our friends who don't have kids wouldn't believe this because we never got to record her early vocabulary on video; they think my husband and I were just hearing things due to lack of sleep. But despite their disbelief, decoding her cries early on helped us A LOT. Thank God. The prenatal musical exposure probably helped in developing her early communication cues.  I hope we'll have the same luck with the next baby :p.

She started humming Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Barney Song at three months.  Whenever she gets tired, she would initiate humming Rock a Bye Baby to lull herself to sleep whenever wherever.  Really cute... although when does this during homily and she fusses when I don't allow her to latch when she wants to it isn't so amusing :/.

I enrolled in a one-on-one musical theater training class after her basic vaccines.  It was just a short two-month course which exposed her to basic chord progression once or twice a week.  I took advantage of my K'tan baby carrier while I vocalized and sang popular hits from broadway.  I found it easier to sing while I carried her weight. My teacher was happy to note that as early as six months, she could identify the major from the minor chord!  She happily carries the tune when it's a major chord and gets fussy when it's not haha!

More recently, we attended a Battig Scholars' Concert at St. Scholastica Manila and the nuns who sat with us were delighted that Leji knew when to clap as part of the audience.  I just had to remind her to tone her voice down as she excitedly identified the instruments she recognized from Grolier's Talking English.

"Mommy! Violin!!! violin!!! Big Violin! Daddy Violin! Cello! Mommy, Mommy, laki Cello! Ooooohhh daming guitar! Mommy ang daming guitar! Bakit dami guitar Mommy? hahaha...DRUMS!!! Diba drums yan?"

Hubby was a bit embarrassed by how noisy she was as she pretended to have her own violin (she opened a bottle of hand sanitizer and pretended the tube was her bow) which she conveniently turned into a percussion instrument for Act2. She pranced and danced afterwards and imitated some sopranos by the time they played the AVP before the finale. We really had to take her out and let her sing in the washroom. May the rest of the audience body forgive us.  But it was truly a wonderful learning experience for her; thank you Sister Mary Placid for inviting us over.

A few days after, we're blessed to get to attend another musical event. Kuya Ed Manguiat graciously allowed us to watch the UP Singing Ambassadors' anniversary concert with her. Leji excitedly picked her fluffiest dress when she found out that we were watching another "stage party."

It was a trickier event for my two year old because it had longer acts; I had to apologize repeatedly to our seatmates whenever she felt an urge to dance, breastfeed, or go to the washroom during the performances. Part of me wished we could hide forever amidst the curtains near the exit. But I am truly grateful that I get to expose her to such intimate musical functions as these contribute to her self confidence and general appreciation of the world.  Hopefully it's all worth it :)

Leji enjoys the UP Abelardo Hall stage and lights 

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Co-sleeping our way to Tandem Feeding

Leji plays with her cup after drinking milk

Everyone talks about how happy they are when they breastfeed; I guess this is society's way of coping with the undue stress and pressure that comes with it. We have to encourage each other to trudge on so our children can enjoy the benefits.

Making room for our second child, we purchased a single bed from Mandaue Foam's anniversary sale last month instead of buying a standard crib or playpen for his nursery.  Our toddler is getting taller anyway and she's kicking for more space in the bed during the wee hours of the morning (she sleeps horizontally most of the time :p) We added a memory foam lining to make our current bed as high as the Flex Foam Mattress bed we chose.  We'll add a modern Moses basket on top as soon as the baby comes as a SIDS precaution as it seems better than a rocker that forces the baby in a semi upright position. We purchased a Swaddle Me By Your Side basket with see-through side panels and a firm neutral coloured sleeping surface.

Early on during my pregnancy, we tried to see if our toddler could be persuaded to sleep in her room in our new home. She selected the space herself (we asked her which room she liked best even before buying the property) and we decorated it with her favorite toys, furnished with easy access cabinets and a Mickey Mouse toddler bed.  We even had a music box to soothe her and nice night lamp. But it was all in vain.  She understood that there is a new baby coming.

During the daytime, it isn't a problem when I leave her there. But at night, it's a whole different story. We don't need a baby monitor to hear her cries of protest; she's a natural in voice projection. You could hear her cry for hours in all three floors of our house (God bless our new neighbors).  In less than a month, she learned how to tiptoe and unhinge the door.  She also climbs over fences and foams when necessary.

My mom suggested I should go for traditional forms of punishment (e.g. spanking, food/milk deprivation, etc.) to discipline my toddler.  However, I've attended positive parenting conferences and they encourage to treat children with utmost respect no matter how unruly they get so they can learn how to grow into better individuals thru their parents' example.  It is tiring and unnerving to control my temper when she seems to delight in copying PJ Mask stunts on TV at home when it's already her bedtime (especially now that I'm pregnant and emotional most of the time) but I'm blessed to have a supportive husband who allows me to stay home at this point in our lives and volunteers as my reliever when I really can't handle my emotions anymore.

She became clingier as my milk supply dwindled; I didn't expect that it would be this challenging to bring into this world her constant buddy/playmate. They detected a subchorionic hemorrhage in my uterus on my second month of pregnancy and I was instructed to be on full bed rest at home (no more shoots for a while!).  We really tried to make her stop latching; it was too painful for my uterus when she latches but heart wrenching when I hear her cry.  There was a time I couldn't carry her and my poor hubby had to stay up late just to console and cup feed her.

Now on my final leg of pregnancy, I'm allowed more freedom to play with her as the hematoma regressed. We decided to call her room "the playroom" instead of her bedroom and added several blue and yellow panels to her play yard to accommodate her new playmate.  I now make her abstain from afternoon latching to encourage longer sleep at night.  She also learned how to be friendlier when she talks to her baby brother in my tummy now that she is a "big girl."

I haven't been successful in weaning her off breastmilk completely though; she insists on latching even after I give her cups of fresh milk.  It seems harder to teach how to self soothe when you co-sleep.  Now I'm brushing up on tandem feeding and praying for a good milk supply when the new baby comes to accommodate them both.


It seems we don't have local material available for tandem feeding; even our doctors and our parents are wary about it.  They say the older child would get jealous more and the younger baby would suffer.

Contrary to traditional beliefs, books and articles on the subject claim it is safe and beneficial to the entire family. They say we should trust our bodies more so that it could provide what is necessary for both children.

"... there is no one 'best' approach to the challenges of breastfeeding during pregnancy and tandem nursing; each mother must follow her own inner voice as she balances her needs and her children's needs. Trust yourself." -- Hilary Flower in Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond, p. xix

I just go with what I feel is natural; with God's grace I hope I can successfully tandem feed.  If not, hopefully my toddler wouldn't feel so bad about having more fresh milk in her cup.

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