Simple Activities to Enjoy with Your Baby
So much of the connection and love you and your baby feel comes from little moments you share together in your day-to-day life.
Thankfully these moments are also not very complicated. When you make eye contact with your baby and see them looking back in delight, in that instant, your connection is strengthened. Here are some of the most sweet simple moments to experience with your baby and strengthen your bond.
Interactive Play That Babies Love:
- Making eye contact and smiling
- Being read to
- Being sung to
- Hand rhymes like Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Being bounced or rocked
- Showing them you can copy their hand movements
- Silly sounds – copying their sounds
- Repetition…of just about anything
- Kisses, snuggles and “blowing raspberries”
- Pointing out ceiling fans and other wonders of the world
- Peek-a-boo
- Playing this Little Piggy
- Making toys disappear and reappear
- Looking in a mirror together
- Rattles, bells and crinkly toys
- Being “flown” around – baby Super Man
- Showing baby family pictures
- Dancing together
- Swishing hands in the sink
- Taking on and off glasses or hats
- Touching different textures – fuzzy blankets, rough rocks, bumpy oranges…
- And of course, making faces
These are not situations that you need to spend a good deal of time setting up and planning for – just ways to enjoy the opportunities that come naturally during your day for playing with your baby.
From the sweet looks you exchange while nursing to the babbled conversations about your day, you're building up your baby's sense of safety and love. We all have our silly and endearing baby games we play – which are the ones you'll remember when you have grandkids?
Alissa Zorn is an author, and founder of the website Overthought This. She's a coach and cartoonist passionate about helping people overcome perfectionism and shame to build authentic, joyful lives. Alissa is certified through the International Coach Federation and got her Trauma-Informed Coaching certification from Moving the Human Spirit. She wrote Bounceback Parenting: A Field Guide for Creating Connection, Not Perfection, and is always following curiosity to find her next creative endeavor.