During summer, stuck at home and indoors in Dubai, I was trying to introduce Baby Ruhaan to many animals through ‘Old Mcdonald’s farm’. But on our big holiday in India, he saw dogs and cows first time on the street. Instantly doggie became his favorite street animal :). India is a very stimulating place for babies, a lot of colors, a lot of people, a lot of natural greenery and of course a lot of animals too.
Till we came back to Dubai, awesome weather awaiting us so we started our outdoor and park days.
Safa park has been our favorite park so far, mainly because of the lake and birdies around it. Kids love birds, Ruhaan was entertained mostly by noisy ducks. They don’t fly away quickly and they run behind food making quack-quack all the time.
Very funnily Ruhaan prefers to touch the grass only in Safa as compared most of the other parks ;). Still, he tries to avoid to touch grass by hand taking a lot of efforts, making a funny face. He crawls and inspects grass and tastes the dry leaves (yuk). They say if you allow the touch of different textures on your baby’s feet, they develop their balance better.
So I removed his booties and let him explore the surfaces right from slab flooring near the entrance of our building, grass in the park up to the sand. And I must say I can see the result.
On my Green Living front, I am trying different natural teethers for my baby, as it’s his teething time. I include raw carrot, dried dates, celery, but always have to keep watch to avoid choking. These teethers not only help babies for teething but also add some nutrition instead of polymer teethers. Thankfully Ruhaan’s first tooth came out without much trouble !!! I hope the same goes with rest, fingers crossed.
Another thing I specifically do with Ruhaan is, let him smell different things. Veggies, fruits, plants, trees everything. Most of the time I smell the food myself, before feeding him and then let him smell it. Unfortunately, that does not create his interest in eating more than a spoon or two, but it helps him to learn new odors. He recognizes good smells if he smells flowers (kept in flower shops in a mall), he smiles. He likes the smell of carrot/celery/apple/mint too. But I always have to be careful that things are not entering his nose.
It is an amazing experience as a mum to explore the environment, nature surrounding us. Taking all that in through our senses again with a baby and teach him to do the same! If we make our babies aware of nature from early on, it will be simpler to teach them how to live with nature in unison. They will definitely develop caring for their surrounding!
