Planning for his toys: Age 4mo

At four months old, Ali is excited with things that he can reach out and hold. He has already graduated from face recognition -- he knows when Atuk (grandfather) is around or passes by, even observes that his Uwan is smiling at him. He is also keen at making use of his tiny fingers; whenever feeding time comes, he is all so helpful at feeding himself that he is working hard at coordinating his hands that at times, they got in the way.

It is not Ali's first toy. Uwan has collected all the spoons from his formula milk, combining them to make a rattle-like toy but she figured that Ali could graduate to a more creative, fun-filled activity. So, here goes.

So what would be good for him?
Fisher-Price recommends that a 4mo will be able to identify familiar faces. Hands coordination is within his interest, besides the fact that he is easily tickled by things around him. (Yeay!) He would be extra interested with his hand movement so toy-grasping will likely to take place. It is a combination of three abilities - cognitive, emotional and physical

Criteria to look into:

• Something for the hands, maybe a rattle
• Something that he can shake with 
• Big enough to hold for his small fingers
• Something colourful
• Something with a mirror

Maybe a drum rattle. Here's an inspiration but my heart skipped a beat as soon as I saw the price. Hopefully, I could scout for something cheaper but of the same function. That would be interesting! 

By the way, Ali has already started to smile looking at his own reflection whenever we passed by a mirror. Big laughter will escape his chirpy heart. Will need to capture that moment for records sake.

Maybe an ABC book like this one featured in a youtube link.

Within two weeks' time, he should be able to adjust the positioning of his grasp. So, I should be focusing on making his grab objects. Ali should be able to grab things, which he has shown on several occasions. He owns this cartoon-filled flannel blankie so this morning, I caught him trying to grab the cartoons on it. Grabbing his milk bottle is another instance of his trying to hold objects. What I need to enhance is the ranges of objects -- big vs small items, colourful, ranges of shapely items (round, squarish, triagular, etc).

Here is something that I need to evaluate on Ali's physical ability as a 4mo. So, based on this link, I will need assess Ali's supine position of his age.

• Does he show interest while exploring objects with his hands?
• Is he able to gauge interest with objects either horizontal or vertically post in front of him?
• Are there movements in his forearm, wrist and individual fingers while visually connected with the object that he is observing?
• Do his legs bang down on the surface?

Here is a checklist for Ali's physical progress.