What am I teaching the baby?

Isaac seems to need more structure to his day so that he doesn't get into trouble, so I am working on spreading out his free play time with more structured play times. Sometimes I play with him, sometimes the girls (more likely one of the girls at a time) play with him, and then sometimes he plays alone. Here are some of the activities we have been doing lately.

Puzzles- He loves to help me put them back in place and then clap for himself. Occasionally he gets one in by himself too.

Reading- He is sitting stiller for longer now and seems to enjoy books even more. He likes to pick them out himself now occasionally. His favorites are McDuff's Favorite Things, Five Little Ducklings, I See a Monster, and Noah's Crew Came Two by Two at the moment. These are all touch and feel books. He also enjoys lifting the flaps on the monster book. We always read two books before naps and bedtime as well.

Singing- He is loving the songs with hand motions these days. (I am seeing a pattern here. He's a hands on kind of guy.) His favorites to join in with are Patty Cake and Twinkle Twinkle. He loves to "Roll 'em" in Patty Cake and to do the twinkly stars and make the diamond for Twinkle Twinkle. He will even do this when the song comes on in the car all by himself.

Physical activities- We roll the ball or practice walking.

Walks in the stroller- We walk to go pick up the girls a couple times a week. He loves the stroller when we are outside, but walk inside a building and he is ready to get out. Don't know why, but he is much better at staying in the shopping cart than he was a few months ago. I wear him in the sling so often out of convenience and speed and I think he gets used to being carried around when we are shopping. He is heavy though, so I only do it if it's a fast trip into a store.

New activities- I am trying to do one new activity each week with him. In the last couple of weeks we have done a fine motor skill developmental game with pipe cleaners and an ice cube game.

Here is Isaac enjoying the pipe cleaner activity while I cook dinner.

Here is the whole gang enjoying the ice cube fun!


Isaac mostly sucked on it and moved them around with his hands, not quite able to pick them up with a spoon to move them yet.


The girls had way more fun than I thought they would moving the ice around with various tongs and spoons. Then we turned it into a science lesson and watched the ice melt at high speed when we put them in hot water. My plan was to make cucumber lime popsicles afterward to demonstrate freezing in opposition to melting, but our cucumber molded much to my dismay.


I love Genna's tongue hanging out in all her concentration!


**Isaac is fever-free now by the way!**