You’ve spent a lot of time preparing for your baby, and now that they’re finally here, the fun can begin. You can show them all sorts of cool things, dress them up in cute outfits, and play lots of games with them. Many of the games you’ll play will just be for fun, but they’ll also offer a lot of enrichment for the little one.
A few of these fun games can be found below. They’ll be pretty fun for you as well, helping you destress from the process for filing a complaint with the GA medical board, still finding time to take care of yourself or anything else that is filling your life with strife.
Explore Noisy Shapes
This game is pretty simple and is made even easier if you’re already stocked up on baby toys. You’ll collect many objects of varying shapes, colors and, most importantly, sounds and show each one to your baby.
Show off the different colors and do whatever is required to have it make its noises. Shake it, squeeze it, spin it, make it look fun. When your baby reaches out for it, let them have it. Watch as they focus on the toy as they explore it.
They’ll squeeze it with their little hands, slowly turn it as they try not to drop it and they might even copy what you did to try and replicate the funny noise it made. Eventually, their exploration will end and they’ll probably drop the toy.
When this happens, start showing off the others until the baby reaches out for one again, then rinse and repeat. The point of this game is to increase their muscle strength in their hands and improve their sensory skills. Of course it’s also just fun to watch babies concentrate on things, so that’s a bonus.
Narrate Your Life
As you do chores and things around the house your baby will be nearby so you can keep an eye on them.
They’ll also be keeping an eye on you, though, because they’re curious about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You might even catch them miming your actions. Even if they seem to be distracted by a toy or the fun things on their little seat, start talking to them.
You could explain what you’re doing, ask what they’re doing, come up with a cute story or even just start saying nonsense if you’d like. They’ll listen to you intently and might even babble back.
The more you respond to their babblings, the more they’ll keep doing it. Before you know it, they’ll even start doing this with you as they begin saying words.
Stop and Smell the Roses
The point of many baby games is to strengthen their muscles, engage their senses and encourage them to be curious about the world around them.
For example, one of the activities mentioned above was about letting your baby explore toys that made different noises in different ways. A problem with many of these games is that they mostly engage the child’s sight, hearing and touch. Smell and taste are often ignored, though the baby will remedy the latter by putting everything they can into their mouths.
The sense of smell can be a bit harder to engage. Luckily there’s an easy remedy to this: letting your baby smell flowers. Take a trip to your local plant nursery or botanical garden and get your little one to explore the sweet smelling flowers with supervision.
Be careful what you let them touch, though, since many plants are poisonous to eat or have sharp thorns or needles on the stem for defense against insects and herbivores.
Perform for an Audience of One
Talking to your baby will certainly encourage them to talk back, but have you considered singing to them?
You can sing nursery rhymes and baby songs like “Wheels on the Bus” or even your favorite songs and they’ll be delighted. Singing soft lullabies may help them get to sleep and will further associate your voice with comfort and safety.
Dance with them, too. Put on a good dance song, put your baby in their bouncy chair and watch as they start bouncing to the beat. Bop along with them, clap your hands and cheer them on and their excitement will grow as they pick up the pace and dance with you.
Encourage them to dance with you however they can. That could mean wiggling or even copying your head bops. The more fun you have, the more likely they are to copy you and have fun, too.
Playing with Mirrors
You’ve probably played games like peek-a-boo with your baby before and were probably delighted by their little giggles as you did so.
If you enjoyed this game as much as your child, then you’ll be delighted to know that one simple item can enhance this experience: mirrors. Find a baby-safe mirror and show it to them.
When they look at themselves, ask who they’re looking at. When you pull them away or hide the mirror, ask where it went before showing it to them again and excitedly exclaiming something like, “There it is!” You can also show them their favorite toys or even yourself in the mirror and play similar games.
When you’re not actively playing with your baby, let them explore a mirror on their own. They’ll move around, talk to it, touch it and much more to try and understand what this strange object is and who’s looking back at them—you might even catch them dancing if you’re lucky!
Try to encourage your baby to explore the mirror by setting it up near them during tummy time and just let them explore. Remember, while they do need to play with you to form a strong bond and learn, they need to play on their own to explore the world at their own pace.