Unfortunately Little Bug has regressed some with Independent Play. :(

We are up to 17 minutes but more often than not, some of those minutes are spent unhappy instead of happily playing.

I’m sticking with it though because apparently it isn’t unusual for this to happen.

Also, I think there are some factors that are playing into Little Bug’s unhappiness during IP.

* She is starting to teeth again (incisors). She’s been whiny some during the day and has had her fingers in her mouth, which is a sure sign to me that she is teething.

* She is the definition of clumsy right now! She is always falling or getting herself into precarious situations that she can’t get herself out of! Twice now I’ve had to run into her room during IP because of an “I’m hurt” cry. I console her until I know she is fine and then I leave again (which of course brings a river of tears). I thought I had made Little Bug’s room completely free of “bo-bo” inducing areas, but this girl can get herself into mischief faster than I can blink.

Even in just the month that Little Bug has done IP, I’ve seen some positive changes in her, which gives me the encouragement to keep pressing on and hope that all this is just a phase or due to the factors I mentioned above and will soon resolve itself.

Little Bug now plays on her own happily while I am cleaning up after meals. She used to cling to my legs and whine the entire time and I could barely move around the kitchen to get stuff cleaned up!

Little Bug will go to her toy basket and get something and entertain herself. This morning she sat and read books to herself while I was folding her laundry. That was a first for her and a step in the right direction. I want to be able to do certain chores (like laundry) when Little Bug is awake because I feel it is important for Little Bug to see me taking care of things around the house. Life isn’t all about playing – there is work involved too! I also plan to have Little Bug help with chores so I can teach her at an early age good work ethic. (She normally does want to “help” fold laundry but today she chose to read which I was most excited about because at this stage in the ballgame Little Bug isn’t much help when it comes to folding laundry!!)

Overall, I’ve seen an increase in attention span. Little Bug used to never play with a toy for more than a minute (it seems) but now I will catch her studying the toy and actually playing with it longer than a split second.

Maybe this is because she is getting older, maybe it is because she is doing IP daily or maybe it’s a factor of both. I don’t know.

Either way, Little Bug definitely needed to increase her attention span, so I am happy with these results so far.

- Elaine