Impish Veronika has discovered the joy of dropping objects and making mama pick them back up again; this is actually an important skill, both for her motor skills and for object permanence (and for sense of humor!). Whether from the highchair…

or from the grocery cart…

…she is a little imp about it these days.

You can use baby’s enjoyment of this game to your advantage with at-home dropping games!

First, I sat with Veronika in front of a bin of toys that needed cleaning up and showed her how to drop one in.

Say a cheerful “oopsie!” or “dropsie!” with each toy that lands, to up the entertainment factor.

Pretty soon she was cleaning up all her toys without knowing it.

You can also do this game with socks in front of a low dresser drawer.

Okay, Veronika isn’t really helping me put away the laundry, but she loved watching me drop in the socks, or trying it herself.

The drawer wasn’t the right height for her to play by herself, so I set her up with an open box to continue the fun.

Perhaps if you play this enough, your little one will tire of it and you can end round after round of highchair dropsie.

Or maybe not!