The more you model the behavior of saying and waving bye-bye, the sooner your baby will understand this important gesture of human communication. Today, Veronika and I played a few fun “bye-bye” games.

For the first, I hid a toy inside a box, first saying, “Bye-bye toy!” I made sure to give a little wave.

She eagerly reached right into the box each time to dig out the toy, and we repeated the process over and over until she tired of it.

Another adorable version is to sit your child on one side of a door frame. With a big smile and wave, say, “bye-bye!” and then disappear around the corner. Immediately pop back into view and say, “hello again!” I remember this getting huge smiles from Travis as a baby, and now it was Veronika’s turn.

Finally, say bye-bye all over the place throughout your day. You can do this when you leave a location (“bye-bye library!”) or a person (“bye-bye Grammy!”). Veronika looks like she wants to give a wave, and the more I model, the sooner she will.

On a personal note, we turn today to say “bye-bye” to our apartment, the only home Veronika has ever known. Here’s to new beginnings and many hellos to come!

I had a nice realization this morning that Veronika never uses a newborn’s instinctual cries of “neh” or “heh” or “eh” anymore. Her babble is big baby babble!

My favorite these days is when I catch her in avid conversation, usually either with her food or her toys. She’ll try out new sounds (p and w are favorites in her repertoire these days), and it looks like she has a whole animated story going on in her head.

Today I made a point of talking back. Whether I imitate her consonants and vowels or use real words, Veronika looks so pleased when she “talks” with us.

For further fun, I sat her down with big brother Travis and let the two of them have a “chat.” Travis – who is so eager for Veronika’s first word – loved this game, which soon had them laughing between the babbles.

Here’s a quick clip of a chat today!

Any activity like this will only help foster your baby’s language development, so talk early and often.

Babies just seem to love containers, especially finding one with various items inside and dumping them out. Contain that natural inclination with these variations on in and out games!

For the first version, I simply filled a shoebox with a few toys, trying to make them novel for Veronika; we had a few new squishy balls, empty So Delicious yogurt containers, and some favorite soft toys.

The entire goal of the game was for her to reach in and pull things out, then fill the box back up and start all over again. She was up for it!

The shoebox proved to be a little too big for her to lift and dump, so I eventually transferred everything to a small toy bin. I showed her how to upend this.

What a fun game, mommy!

For the next version, I got a little more technical with language learning. Use a plastic bowl instead of a box (just to mix things up!) and add different toys.

Pop beads are a fun burst of color for babies; just be sure you have these joined in secure loops, since the individual beads can pose a choking hazard.

This time, I first said, “Put in,” and encouraged her to place items in the bowl.

Then we reversed it: “Take out,” I said, each time she reached in a hand to grab out an item.

Note: ‘take out’ happened a lot more than ‘put in’, which I expected! But repeating the words each time will help your baby learn the concepts.

I also encouraged her to hand toys to me, using an open-hand gesture and language.

This is a great game to play on repeat as your little one nears that exciting moment of first words!