What Do You Do With Your Baby?
As I think everyone must notice pretty much all our pictures of Vi are inside. It has been a cold, long winter here in Michigan. We have ventured out a few times with Violet when it gets above 30 degrees outside. I feel bad that she hasn't had a lot of exposure to nature. But honestly there isn't a whole lot to do with her outside when it is that cold. So the indoor pictures will continue until we can get out more. She has been totally enamored when we do go out. She will just sit in the bjorn or her stroller and stare in silence at everything. It's so fun to see her take it all in.
I am looking for suggestions of things to do with a 5 month old inside all day. Our typical day starts out with me feeding Vi and getting dressed for the day. Then Vi watches her baby Einstein wild animals DVD while I eat breakfast and clean and do whatever else I can get to in the 27 minutes of her show. She loves it. Honestly she doesn't even break eye contact. Then we do tummy time and sing songs and either do bumbo or standing. By then she is ready for her morning nap. She sleeps for about 1.5-2 hours. Then we read books listen to primary songs and bouncer time. Then she will eat again (she is on a 4 hour feeding schedule). After that it is a lot of repeat with reading or tummy time or play mat until her afternoon nap which is the same 1.5-2 hours. She will take one more power nap in the evening usually around dinner or a little after. She will also have tummy time before bed. I am just in need of other activities to do with her until we can go outside. That might not be for another month or so. So calling all moms. Please give me ideas of what I can do with her that are age appropriate.
Here is Vi this past Sunday. We did a little photo shoot with dad because they were just being so stinkin cute together.
4 comments:
Hey Lauren! You don't know me but I'm Nate Christensen's wife and I saw your post on Facebook. I remember feeling similar to you and our little girl was 5 months in the summer! It is just hard I think to know what to do to keep both you and your baby insane throughout each day.
One thing I would suggest is going to your public library's "Book Baby" or storytime. I started taking Mary around 5 months and even though she didn't know what was going on, the singing and stories is awesome for their development. It is also a fun way to get out of the house and meet more moms! Good luck with this long winter!
Get an old water bottle and fill it with with dry rice. Grant also liked the the empty wipe container (the small ones with the little flaps that open). Show her how to turn the pages on the books you read, and let her turn the pages while you read. You'll be amazed how fast she picks it up. Grant was doing this by 5 months.
Play disney music and dance with her in front of a mirror so she can see what's going on.
Roll her around on an exercise ball.
Discuss everything with her: the shape of the taco shells you're making for dinner, the different ingredients, how many tsps of a certain ingredient are going in a recipe, the texture, taste, how many 1/4 cups make up a cup. Any thing that you're doing, just talk about it, and act like she should be interested.
As far as venturing out while staying indoors, Logan and I do errands most days. I spread them out so that we do them all week long, instead of all in one day :) Have you heard of the mommy and me matinees at AMC theaters? The closest AMC is in Livonia, but they do a movie at noon on the 1st Tuesday of the month, and the showing is for moms with kids. Logan and i did that every single month in Chicago last summer and we both loved it! You could go swimming indoors, walk around the mall, or come over to my house for some social interaction :)
For indoors, it is hard at that age. They want to explore and do things but they can't crawl or be as active as they would like. At 5-6 months, we played Pandora channels, used the exersaucer, played peekaboo, read books, played in the bath or with some random kitchen utensils. I set down our cheap mirror from Target on the ground and let Logan have fun looking at himself and play with the mirror. I don't remember if she can sit up by herself yet? A crawl ball was fun, even though he couldn't crawl. His play mat was just starting to get old at that point. You could paint her nails :) Once you start feeding her solids, that can take up some more time. I would put the clean laundry all around Logan and let him play with it while I folded.
Sorry that is a really random, jumbled list! I remember what that age was like, and I hope the weather warms up soon! Going outside really opens up your possibilities!
The only thing that really came to mind was the exersaucer. I put my kids in it around her age and they LOVED IT. They would usually play contently in that thing for a good couple of hours. I think Vi would love it. Get one with lots of gadgets around it. Great investment. Good luck!
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