How to Play with your Baby!

Finding new things to do with an almost seven month old can be tricky, which is why I'm glad I have a monthly subscription the Today's Parent magazine!

This months magazine had a great article called "How to Play with your Baby". The article finds fun in simplicity. Really, babies don't need hundreds of toys surrounding them, because a large wooden spoon from your kitchen drawer will be much more entertaining to them anyways.

A baby will learn just as much from play and parental interaction as they will from an expensive "learning" toy. A couple suggestions from the article are:

Splish Splash! Supervised messy play time with water! The article suggests spreading a plastic table cloth out on your floor and letting your baby play with various sponges, spoons, cups and water safe toys. It suggests a shallow pan that isn't easily tipped. Maybe not the best suggestion for clean freaks or the busy parent who don't have time to supervise.

Shake, Rattle and Roll! Fill empty clear plastic eater bottles with fun unusual items! Rice, buttons, jello, or soapy water! Just make sure the lids are tightly secured with packing tape to prevent crafty chewers!

Finally, the most fun especially before bath time! High (chair) Art! My suggestion would be to strip your little one down to their diap, feed them their supper and then let them play! Homemade finger paint, play dough, thick pudding or jello -- things that are safe to ingest if they put their fingers in their mouth.

Those are my favorite ideas, which Monster and I shall be trying soon! Click HERE for the whole Today's Parent article!


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Healthiest Babies - Mommy Group

Turns out the mommy group wasn't so intimidating. I'm not sure if it's the right one for Monster and I though.

The group I attended today was called "Healthiest Babies" and from what I understand, each week they have a "theme" discussion for about an hour, serve a healthy lunch to everyone and then it's free time to meet and chat with each other.

Today's theme was reading. The group had a guest speaker come in and talk about the benefits of reading to your children, and how to be a good "reading" role model. She also told us about various resources for borrowing books or buying them cheap.

I didn't learn anything new from attending the group today, but I did get to see how Monster reacts to and plays with other babies close to his age. There were three girls all Monsters age (6 months-ish) or a little older. I plunked him down on the floor and he immediately started tugging on a little girls shoe.

He was so happy to be around other babies so close to his age. He spent most of the time playing with the two little girls and squealing in sheer delight! I just can't believe how friendly and social his is.

I plan to try this group a couple more times before giving up, but today I was also given a calendar of every other mommy-baby group our community has to offer. My quest is not over!


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