We’re so thrilled to have a new baby in our family! Our daughter, Chrissy, and her husband, Tom, have a beautiful daughter, Arabella, born in the beginning of April! Now they have two children, Caleb and Arabella, and we have three granddaughters and one grandson!!!
Here are some ways we’ve welcomed Arabella into our family.
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A Montessori Baby Welcome to the World
Some Montessori families have home births, but my family likes to have babies at a hospital. Arabella had a natural delivery and was able to stay in the room with her parents, which is our favorite type of delivery when it’s possible. Caleb stayed with us while Arabella and his parents were in the hospital.
Visiting His Baby Sister in the Hospital
We were thankful Arabella was born after the pandemic and even after the cold-and-flu season this year, so she was able to have family meet her in the hospital!
Meeting His 1-Day Old Niece
Here’s Chrissy introducing Arabella to her brother, Will!
Meeting Their 1-Day-Old New Cousin and Niece
And here are Will’s wife, Chea, and girls, Zoey and Sophia, having fun with Arabella!
We use a topponcino for Arabella, like we did with the other babies in our family. It’s wonderful for children holding a newborn. And we have a topponcino on our floor bed for Arabella to feel secure as a newborn.
You can read more about the topponcino in my posts about welcoming Sophia into our Montessori family and welcoming Caleb into our Montessori family.
Welcome Home!
Welcome Home at Two Days Old
Here are Tom, Chrissy, Caleb, and Arabella at home when Arabella just turned 2 days old!
Visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s House
Since we only live two houses away, like Caleb, Arabella will get to visit Grandma and Grandpa’s house a lot!
Reading to His Baby Sister (and Grandma)
This was taken the first day Arabella was home. Caleb was already reading to her!
Grandpa with His Son-in-law, Grandson, and New Granddaughter
Terry, Tom, Caleb, and Arabella love having some special time together.
Mother, Big Brother, and Baby with Floor Bed, Topponcino, and Horizontal Mirror
From birth to 3 weeks, I like to have black and white images on the horizontal mirror by the floor mat. (At home, you could have them by the changing table or area.) Typically, when a baby is about 3 weeks old, it’s a great time to put up the Montessori munari mobile. You can see our newborn baby space here.
Grandma and Grandpa with New Granddaughter
My husband and I are over the moon and having so much fun with our new granddaughter!
Grandma and Grandpa with Brother and Baby Sister Grandkids
Our family feels perfect! It will be so much fun to watch all our grandkids grow up and follow their interests!
Some of Our Favorite Books about Welcoming a New Baby
These are some of the resources we used to prepare Caleb, Zoey, and Sophia for a new sibling and cousin.
Favorite Books for a New Baby Theme
Printables and Activities to Help Prepare Children for a New Baby
Montessori-Inspired New Baby Pack for DIY Cards and Counters, Number or Letter Matching, Number or Letter Basket, Bead Bar Work, Hands-on Math Operations, Number or Letter Salt/Sand Writing Tray, Letter Tracing, DIY Movable Alphabet, and Creative Writing (subscriber freebie, so just sign up for my free newsletter to get the link and password – or check your inbox if you’re already a subscriber).
Free New Baby Printables and Montessori-Inspired New Baby Activities
Free New Sibling Songs and Educational Videos
I have a sweet video and lots of resources for preparing a baby doll washing and baby care activity. These sorts of activities are very helpful for bringing out the nurturing side of a new sibling (or cousin). About a month before Caleb was born, I added an anatomically-correct boy doll to the doll washing and baby care area. I still have both female and male baby dolls for my grandkids.
Grandma’s Montessori Baby Environment
I have a post that tells more about the newborn baby space in my house. It’s very similar for Arabella.
If you’d like to know more about the fabulous Montessori mobiles for the first few months, check out my post on Montessori mobiles.
More of my Montessori home environment posts:
See “How to Create a Montessori-Friendly Home” for ideas for a number of levels. Here are some of my main home environment posts here:
- How to Prepare a Montessori Baby Room at Home (roundup post)
- How to Prepare a Montessori Toddler Environment at Home (roundup post)
- Preparing a Montessori Newborn Baby Space at Home
- How to Use Montessori Mobiles to Encourage a Newborn Baby’s Development and Delight
- Preparing a Montessori Baby Space with Shelves at Home
- Preparing a Montessori Baby Space in Your Living Room
- Preparing a Montessori Baby-Toddler Space at Home
- Preparing Montessori Toddler Spaces at Home (includes my Montessori toilet learning setup)
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 2 Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 2½ Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 3 Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 3½ Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 4 Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 4½ Year Old
- How to Prepare Montessori Shelves for a 5 Year Old
- How to Prepare Themed Montessori Shelves
- How to Prepare a Montessori Home Environment for Afterschooling
- Create an Attractive Home Environment from Montessori at Home!
- How to Set Up a Montessori Homeschool Classroom
- How to Prepare Montessori Homeschool Spaces for Babies through First Graders
- How to Prepare a Montessori Space in Your Living Room for Toddlers Through Early Elementary
Family Members You’ll See on Living Montessori Now
The blog posts are all written by me, Deb Chitwood. I have blog posts for all ages, even a category of posts for babies. That category will be growing larger! And I’ll continue to add activities for older kids, too!
You’ll see Zoey (10 years old), Sophia (6 years old), Chrissy (my daughter, Caleb and Arabella’s mom, and Zoey and Sophia’s aunt), Caleb (6 years old), and Arabella on our Living Montessori Now YouTube channel. Chrissy’s husband, Tom, composes the music for our videos through his site at MegaMusicMonkey.com. (Note: Tom has lots of Creative Commons music that’s free for bloggers – or anyone – even for commercial use with attribution.) You’ll also see new photos of Zoey, Sophia, Caleb and Arabella on Instagram! Chrissy will add photos of Caleb and Arabella to her YouTube channel and Instagram account as well!
My husband (Grandpa Terry) and Zoey and Sophia’s parents, Will and Chea, are always there in the background, giving love and support to all the children in our family, too. And Caleb and Arabella have loving grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins in England as well!
We hope you’ll join us as we continue having fun living Montessori now!
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