The Joy of Infant Play

Three Short Activities:

1. Alouette Mirror Play- He got a big kick out of sitting on my lap in front of our long mirror while I held his hands and placed them accordingly on body parts while singing the song.

2. "Football"- A great gift now that he is learning to grasp was our holy football.  He was actually able to hold it and look at it and bring it to his mouth.

3. "Reading" a Book- Kill two birds with one stone and get some tummy time in while looking at pictures. We propped ourselves on our favorite Boppy pillow and read our book twice!

One Long Activity:

1. Baby Massage - We haven't been doing this as consistently as I had first intended but it's still nice every once in a while.  I do incorporate some massage techniques with some natural oil (purchased at Whole Foods) during bath time. He LOVES having his legs massaged!

The Joy of a Hot Day

While visiting New York I remembered why I don't like summers there.  The heat and humidity were deafening, especially for someone whose favorite season is winter.  I probably put my baby down and taught him to entertain himself more just because it was so sticky. My parents do not have AC in the house. However, they do have a pool but I was really hesitant to put my 10 week old into a chlorinated pool so we mad a make shift infant pool...

Materials:
Baby Tub
Towel
Small Boogie Board

He enjoyed it most of the time :)

The Joy of Infant Play

Although I'm an occupational therapist, work with kids on a daily basis, and part of my degree focused on child development, the first time I had awake time with my son I was at a loss of what to do with him. So I'm tracking my activities.  It helps when I think of how many slots of activity time I have during the day and have a slew of activities to choose from.

Three quick activities:

 

1. Patty cake - We have several patty cake type games in Russian that mom can do solo with clapping or you can hold your baby's hands and "clap" with them while smiling and singing.

2. Bicycle legs - I like to do different rhythms of bicycle legs while counting to the rhythm. Also most all of my activities and counting come out with a made up song. I substitute my own words to well known, everyday songs. Which works out better because I never know the right lyrics anyway.

 

3. Scarf Play - Thanks to a friend of mine, I now have another purpose for my headscarves, besides attending church. N enjoys tracking the scarf movements, feeling the wisps, and his first games of peek-a-boo.

One long activity:

1. Dancing with your baby to music - It's never too early to start dancing with your baby, in my opinion. Besides it gives me a little workout as well.