My daughter and I have done a few different activities together at home but typically we have set things that we do from day to day. That would include sitting on the over-stuffed chair in front of our giant window in the front room and watching. We watch the occasional car or truck that drive up and down the street, birds that sometimes flutter in the trees, and the even more occasional passer-by. When that includes a dog, she gives a, “ooh, ooh”. My baby girl enjoys the outdoors and looking from the other side of the window is almost as fun as the walks that we go on.
We also play with toys downstairs, in her bedroom, and read books. Other days, she runs my errands with me. Walking down isles in the grocery store, the fabric store, or the library is fun for her to see the many different objects and people all around. I also try to put together play dates once or twice a week. Even though she isn’t quite a year old, that interaction with other babies is awesome! Of late my neighbor asked for help in letting her dog out and that provides more interaction with animals.
As I said before, sometimes I am able to put together fun ideas that aren’t included in our normal routine. Two months ago there was a free day at the zoo and we invited one of our playmates. A few weeks ago I made a spider web in our laundry basket. I laced a thin, white rope back and forth through the openings. Then I slid several of her toys underneath and encouraged her to get the toys out of the web. That went … okay. After lots of encouragement, she finally got most of them out but she didn’t seem all that interested. On to another one. Last week I brought out my dressing mirror and gathered a stack of different hats, a long necklace of mine, and a few scarves. We played dress up in front of the mirror and made faces.
My baby takes two naps per day and eating also takes a while. When she takes a nap I try to get in the projects that I can’t do so easily with her right around. Between that and our outings and playing, it gets to be a full day quite easily. One year old baby activities can be almost as fun for the parent.
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