[Angelaosaurus-rex]

What game's what activity's??? I need ideas!

[ShannonMVT]

Give me ideas for Matthew's age too! All he wants to do is climb on me and everything else!

[Resi]

I'm awful about playing with Oliver. I never know what to do and get bored fast when trying. At least when the weather warms up we can go to the park and for walks.

Oliver likes to be chased down our halls. I will work on his shape sorter with him and other stacking toys. I've tried coloring but he is too young. I've pushed him around on his riding toys but that is tiring fast!

We do a Gymboree class once a week. It's great to get out of the house and he has fun. I wish we could do another out of the house activity during the week. I might do story time again at the library next month along with Gymboree.

I'll tell you what I do even though Jack is only 8 months

storytime with music and games at our public library

he is starting a play class next month sort of like gymboree but cheap, where he gets to climb on obstacle courses and do activities and songs

jumperoo

scatter toys and let him play

read

nursery rhymes and songs with hand movements

sit and work on things like clapping, pulling off and putting back on rings on his ring stacker, putting objects in and pulling them out again, etc.

play ball - I roll it and try to get him to roll it back

walk/help him cruise

go for walks and I point out stuff, let him touch stuff

play with him with his toys - make them talk, etc.

point out body parts

fly him around the room, lol

sing and dance with him. We do this a lot.

do counting games since he really likes fingers

we are starting swimming soon!

roll around on the floor with him and act crazy


at Landen's age I would paint with him, look at flash cards, go on walks, go to museums, do puppet shows, simple crafts, stuff like that. Having sing a alongs to songs and dancing would be fun too. I don't think he is too young to build a fort with you, play with balls, stack blocks with you, and do little exercises (fun ones, hokey pokey, jumping jacks, touch toes, etc.) as well. Babies are fun, yay!

[Frozendesire]

I ditto all ^ that!

Curtis is older so we are doing a bit more advanced stuff but really things just get a bit more organized, neater and easier... the activities stay the same lol. Now we have a little Dustin that follows along and messing everything up but we all have a blast!

oh and a modified version of hide and go seek! We do peek a boo right now, but it is basically the same thing. Maybe he wouldn't get it at first, but eventually he would understand it a little.

I remembered some more, lol

I plan on getting Jack a magna doodle soon. That is a great way for them to "draw"

playdoh- you can make your own that is even edible.

How about get some plastic dinosaurs and play dinosaur attack! lmao

tumbling - doing summersaults. sort of in the exercise category

dress up! Maybe get some crazy hats from a thrift store or somewhere else. He could wear daddy's shirt too

make paper airplanes and fly them. You would be doing the making most likely, lol

rock band - tell him he is a rock star and let him go to town on your pots and pans

Ooh and since spring will be here you can plant a mini garden together. Maybe use a planter or large pot and start with seeds. Then tend to it every morning together. That could be fun!

[Chelnae6]

Well Miki is slightly older at 3 but here's what we do:

We draw

We color

I'll tell her to draw me few pictures of certain things

She loves watching movies (thats like most of what occupies her lol)

She looooovvvesss puzzles

We sing songs like ABC, or we'll spell out her name

If I play the Wii, I'll give her a remote that obviously isnt working so that she can play

I'll read her a book and then she'll "read" it to me and then I'll tell her to read it to her doll baby

She now has a Tag Jr

We'd let her play with our home computer whenever we were both on our laptops

Go to the park (when its warmer)

Go to the pool (when its warmer)

Play chase or tag

Just sit or lay on the couch and watch TV

[ShannonMVT]

Michelle has some great ideas! I do a lot of those things I just never really thought about it. Or at least I try and he climbs on me instead.
I was reading awhile back that a fun thing to do with crawlers is set up an "obstacle course" of stuff they have to crawl around or over to get to something.
I think with Matthew I am going to open the baby gate and supervise him climbing our stairs each day in an attempt to wear him out, LOL. Also "booty bumping" down the stairs with him in my lap and teaching him to do it once he gets bigger. We had so much fun as kids having booty bump races down the stairs.
I want to buy or make flash cards that have things on them like animals and so forth so I can name them. Books of course are good but many of them are so "busy" I'd like something more simple.
You could let him play kitchen with you and give him his own pots/pans and let him mimic you. Or actually he is so advanced I saw him helping you make cupcakes on FB! That looked like fun.
I just joined a mom's group and we are going to have playdates with other babies. We went to one last week and Matthew loves getting to go somewhere new (doesn't care about the other kids yet).
There are the old standbys of "this little piggy" "itsy bitsy spider" "patty cake" and um, I'm sure there are more...

[Angelaosaurus-rex]

Dude all such simple awesome ideas! Why the heck did I not think of these LOL!!!

I do color with him.. but not every day because he likes to take off REALLY fast and color on walls, inside the toilet bowl and my brand new couches. So I only do it maybe once a week.... and this is where the mommy guilt gets me. I know I should suck it up and do it daily. He does hide and I'll go find him. Its pretty awesome because he will hide behind a pillow with his feet hanging out and giggle like crazy LOL! We used to go on 2 walks a day but now that its 7 degrees out we don't. I feel like I am not stimulating him enough, and when I try he runs off like all whatever mom. I don't know maybe its just mommy guilt but I feel like I should be doing MUCH more.

Another thing a bit off topic Landen has no routine at all. I try and try and try and nothing sticks. And I get criticized all the time from other moms for this. And I am pretty sure its my fault because I am a very unorganized person. And I hate when people tell me to try harder because believe me I don't like this about myself. I do try harder then hard. Its just me and I can only fight who I am so much until I make myself unhappy, kwim???

Ok that was more of a vent hah... but input is welcome!

[Mars]

Now that Amara's walking with confidence, she's really into going into the yard and playing there. She likes for me to try to chase her so she can "run" and she likes to play with a ball as well.

Indoors we do pretend play where I act out crazy stories and make funny faces and sounds. She thinks that's hilarious. She's not really into sitting still for storytime anymore. She used to love that but she just wants to go, go, go now.

We also dance to nursery rhymes (I use the ones from youtube) and she likes dancing.

Peek-a-boo is also great when putting her clothing on and she's into action songs like Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, etc.

Recently I've found that she enjoys mimicking writing. She does it with straws so I've been hunting around to find these "magic colors" which only work on paper and not walls. My sister has some for my nephew that she brought from Canada. I'm hoping to find them here or I will have to order them. I'm really not ready for the wring on walls stage.

[Angelaosaurus-rex]

Originally Posted by ShannonMVT

Michelle has some great ideas! I do a lot of those things I just never really thought about it. Or at least I try and he climbs on me instead.
I was reading awhile back that a fun thing to do with crawlers is set up an "obstacle course" of stuff they have to crawl around or over to get to something.
I think with Matthew I am going to open the baby gate and supervise him climbing our stairs each day in an attempt to wear him out, LOL. Also "booty bumping" down the stairs with him in my lap and teaching him to do it once he gets bigger. We had so much fun as kids having booty bump races down the stairs.
I want to buy or make flash cards that have things on them like animals and so forth so I can name them. Books of course are good but many of them are so "busy" I'd like something more simple.
You could let him play kitchen with you and give him his own pots/pans and let him mimic you. Or actually he is so advanced I saw him helping you make cupcakes on FB! That looked like fun.
I just joined a mom's group and we are going to have playdates with other babies. We went to one last week and Matthew loves getting to go somewhere new (doesn't care about the other kids yet).
There are the old standbys of "this little piggy" "itsy bitsy spider" "patty cake" and um, I'm sure there are more...

I let Landen climb the stairs every time I am not in a hurry to get up them (if I am not racing to the toilet lol). He LOVE'S it like its a special treat! I bet Matthew will love it too! Landen did LOVE making the cupcakes!!! It made a giant mess lol and he "helped" me clean up. Unfortunately his cleaning makes a bigger mess in the end but he has such a proud I did it face!