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!

On the heels of a hands day with Veronika, today was all about feet… and those adorable piggy toes of course.

The idea, as with the day we devoted to hands, was to pick a body part and make it the focus for twenty-four hours. I recited a few nursery rhymes that feature feet (This Little Piggy is an obvious choice). I also sang ‘Clap Your Hands’, but made up verses about feet: stomp stomp stomp your feet; tip tip tippy toe; wiggle wiggle wiggle your toes etc.

I then pulled out a few stuffed animal friends to show her their feet.

It was fun to play with a clean pair of baby shoes!

We read books about feet, including Dr. Seuss’s classic The Foot Book…

…and one that focused on toes.

Finally, I pointed out feet to her wherever we saw them throughout the day. Look, mommy’s feet are in slippers!

 

One fun exercise to do with your baby is to pick a body part and devote the day to it. So today, it was all about hands for me and Veronika!

To start, I sang nursery rhymes that prominently feature hands. Examples include Where is Thumbkin or If You’re Happy and You Know It.

For the latter, I changed the words so all the versus applied to hands: if you’re happy wiggle your fingers; shake your hands; etc.

Next we read books that featured hands. There are lots of great body parts books for babies, so turn to the relevant pages and focus on those.

I pointed to the hands of the people in the illustrations.

I also pointed out hands throughout the day. Mommy is cooking with her hands. Mommy is writing with her hands.

If you have paintings around the house with hands, show baby those, too!

Veronika is definitely trying to tell us (and her toys!) something these days; that girl can babble! And she keeps up a steady stream of chatter when she plays or looks at us these days, as if to say, “Can’t you understand me?”.

In the past, I’ve advocated turning your baby’s syllables into words. “Ga” can become garage or goose, for example. But today, I flipped that around. If she “hmmmed,” I “hmmmed” back at her. If she said “ga ga ga” (a favorite these days), I replied “ga ga ga” or “la la la”, trying to pick up on her rhythm.

Wouldn’t you know, she loved it. It was as if I had learned her language, and she was praising me!

One way to get her going is to read the newspaper by her side. I read my news and she “reads” her Hello magazine. Pretty soon she was babbling up a storm. I responded back with my own sounds – all the news that’s fit to babble!

We kept it up all day, and big brother Travis loved it. “Everyone talk like Veronika!” he said on our walk. You can see her delight when he copied her.

This was a great way to get an older sibling more focused on your baby’s sounds, especially if they are frustrated that baby isn’t “talking” yet.