Spring had arrived, and the little infant who had been confined to the bedroom finally had a chance to see the outside world.
Whenever Wen Qian carried the baby to the window, she would get excited and wave her arms and legs.
However, the early spring weather was still very cold, so Wen Qian didn't take her out of the house.
She was afraid that if the baby got used to the outdoors, it would be difficult to soothe her later.
Children really do grow and change every day. Now, Little An'an had grown plump and rosy.
Sometimes when Wen Qian woke up, she found that the baby had already opened her eyes and was quietly waiting for the adult to wake up.
Until Wen Qian looked at her, she would happily kick her legs.
Wen Qian thought that when Little An'an turned six months old, she could take her out. If she needed to work in the woods, she could put the baby in a cradle in the same field as herself.
It turned out that the baby could play by herself very well, as long as she could see Wen Qian. Otherwise, she would feel insecure and become very anxious.
So Wen Qian piled up many quilts in the cradle and placed the baby in it at an angle, so that her line of sight was high enough to see Wen Qian.
At that time, there were no bugs yet, so she didn't need to cover the cradle with a mosquito net. If it were summer, she would need to cover the cradle with a mosquito net and apply insect repellent.
In winter, there was no choice but to stay indoors, so Wen Qian didn't go to the hunting cabin to hunt for ermines. But in spring, they had to plant crops for food.
The sheep were taken out of the house and tied to wooden stakes in the ground, allowing them to eat the grass within the range of their ropes.
Little An'an already considered the rabbits and sheep as part of the family, so in her free time, Wen Qian would carry her to watch the rabbits and sheep graze for a long time.
Spring had arrived, and Ni Sha brought her a pair of shoes, slightly larger than Little An'an's current foot size, saying they were for when she started learning to walk.
Before Wen Qian had a chance to tell her neighbor about the shoes, Ni Sha had already given them to her, so she asked Ni Sha for advice.
It would be great if she could make shoes for the child herself in the future. Ni Sha had never hesitated to share her experience.
After all, when Big Jin and Wen Qian had first moved here, the Ni Sha family had been very supportive of them, and Wen Qian had also helped them a lot when they first moved in, according to what Big Jin had heard.
They were willing to exchange seeds and various other things with Wen Qian, which undoubtedly helped them a lot in their early days of settling down.
Moving into the forest, they would have taken several years to achieve a decent life if they had relied solely on themselves. But with the neighbors' support and exchanging various seeds, they were able to adapt quickly.
Not only did Ni Sha bring her shoes, but she also reminded Wen Qian that the baby could gradually start eating solid foods. The things the baby could eat here were similar to what adults ate, except for the seasonings.
Another thing was that the food for the baby had to be mashed very finely, and Ni Sha was already experienced in this, so she told Wen Qian about the precautions for various solid foods.
There was an old saying that close neighbors are better than distant relatives. Although they didn't live particularly close to each other, it was better to maintain good relations with neighbors and live in harmony. If she had enemies around her, it would be difficult to live a peaceful life.
Fortunately, except for the Liu Family, the other two neighbors were people of good character.
Since Wen Qian didn't go to the hunting cabin in winter, and she didn't see any signs of them in her area during the autumn repair period, she thought her previous warning must have had a significant effect.
It was also possible that their child had left this place, and now only a couple lived there.
Big Jin's family knew that the Liu Family's child had left, but no one knew where he had gone.
They had never seen this person in the village or small town before, so he had probably gone farther away.
Last year, they heard that the Liu Family had started raising pigs. Old Liu had caught some piglets and brought them back, exchanging goods with people from the village, planning to farm and raise pigs from then on.
These things were told by Old Liu's wife to Big Jin's family, and most of the labor actually fell on this wife.
Old Liu felt that hunting was too troublesome, so he came up with this idea and gave up hunting. After that, he didn't want to do anything else.
He would work for two days and then rest for three days, spending each day eating and sleeping, and at most going to the market.
He placed all his livelihood on raising pigs and didn't even bother with farming, completely lacking a sense of crisis.
Relying solely on one way of obtaining food could easily lead to trouble in this forest, but he couldn't be bothered to care.
The reason he lived like this was because his wife took on most of the responsibilities. When their son nearly killed him, he blamed it all on her.
He rarely disciplined the child, so the child's disobedience and disrespect were definitely because she didn't teach him properly. Similarly, when the child grew up and abandoned his parents to roam far away, he didn't hesitate to vent his anger on his wife.
In short, all the mistakes were someone else's fault, and he could never do anything wrong. Old Liu lived comfortably with this mindset.
His wife, although she felt wronged, still accepted her husband's constant blame, believing it was just her own bad luck.
Wen Qian thought that since Old Liu had stopped hunting, he probably wouldn't come to her area and cause trouble anymore, so she didn't investigate further.
Her current goal was to save money and food as usual, and then raise her child.
Being so young, Little An'an was curious about everything she saw – the birds in the trees, the flowers by the road, and Wen Qian working in the fields.
As long as Little An'an saw Wen Qian, she would stay quiet and not fuss or cry. She would watch Wen Qian washing clothes by the well, planting vegetables in the courtyard, and babble incoherently, who knows what she was saying.
Wen Qian had also tried talking to her, thinking that after the child learned to speak, the first word she would say might be "grandma" since Wen Qian had said it countless times.
Ni Sha's child could already walk and talk, making her even more exhausted.
She couldn't take her eyes off the child for a moment, and the saying "a quiet child is up to no good" was so accurate.
If the child made noise, she could figure out what she was doing. But when she was quiet and not sleeping, that's when Wen Qian would find her causing trouble.
At this stage, educating the child mainly involved water and fire – don't play with water or touch fire, including freshly boiled water.
Getting young children to stay away from these things is quite easy. Pour in hot water, remove the bottle cap and let the child touch it - they'll know it's hot and will walk around any hot water bottles they see in the future.
The same principle applies to fire. Let their hand get close to a burning flame, and they'll feel the heat. Get closer and it becomes uncomfortable. Knowing it will cause discomfort, they'll naturally stay away from fire.
Learning about pain, heat, cold, and spiciness prevents young children from encountering too many dangers, as they learn to avoid them on their own.
