Activities with Gaby at 2+Months

I am thankful for feedings and diaper changes. It gives me some sort of definite activity to carry out with Gaby whose physical and mental abilities are still so limited.

Other times while she is awake, I talk to her, trying to draw out smiles and coos. (Gaby has a lovely gentle voice. I thought all babies sounded the same until I heard boy babies with lower rougher voices and other girl babies with different vocal qualities too.)

I sing "Heads and shoulders, knees and toes", "If you're happy and you know it, pang pui (fart)" while playing with her short limbs.

I read her IKEA picture cloth book to her, introducing each item and almost having a tune to sing to her with every object featured.

"Gab darling, look at this colourful rainbow. Somewhere over the rainbow..."

"Gaby, here's the sun peeking out of from behind the rainbow. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine... And seven raindrops! One.. two.. three.. Raindrops keep falling on my head..."

"Oh! And it's your favourite spider here! An itsy witsy spider went up the water spout.. Oh, let's visit Mr Spider again. Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet..."

That is how I extend four pages of pictures to a ten minute activity.

Then there are the butt crunches I do where Gaby loves to sit on me as I go up and down. If she could squeal in delight, I think it would be as I lift her up. This activity seldom fails to draw a smile from her as she looks down on my face for a change (she is afterall always looking up at us).

Gaby's favourite butt workout movement

Drool danger

Gaby cannot wait to grow up, it seems. She pretty much wants to be in the seated position most of the time. Imagine lying down for most of the day. You cannot see very much, even of your own body. Gaby, probably like most babies her age, is a watcher. She likes looking at things, especially if they are dynamic and moving.

However, she cannot yet support herself in a sitting position, so that means we have to carry/hold her. I recently found that I could prop her up in the corner of her cot (supervised, in case she topples), and she loves it. She can sit there for a good ten minutes or more, freeing my hands as I fold the clothes in front of her or vacuum/mop the room.

In this position, she looks surprised when she spots her feet.

In her own little corner

Another way to keep Gaby occupied in her cot is by placing objects strategically within her reach so she can move them. I discovered this by accident when I saw her playing with the shoulder straps of her white sleeper. She was so amused she could move objects, even with her uncontrolled arm movements.

These days, I hang a cloth from her mobile and leave the tail of the cloth next to her hands. As she tugs at it accidentally, her mobile moves, and this keeps her sufficiently entertained for good fifteen minute periods. I do not even have to keep winding up the mobile.

Set-up for self-entertainment