How to entertain a one year old

“While we try to teach our children all about life,

our children teach us what life is all about.”

- William Saroyan

Um, excuse me...but where did June go? I swear it was just Memorial Day weekend, and all of sudden next weekend is the 4th of July. (Check your calendars if you don't believe me!) We've been away almost every weekend at some sort of celebration or family event, but the weekdays haven't offered a lot of time to recoup either. Why, you may ask? Well, because Emma basically has two modes - play and sleep - both of which she attacks with full force.

So what kind of things keep us busy during the day?

We play with toys

 

Emma's not short on toys, that's for sure. So we make sure that we rotate them in and out of play pretty often. She's always coming up with some new way to play with things, and we end up finding them all over the place and hidden in and under things. Her current favorites are her Little People, her snap beads, and her big Legos. She also taken to carrying around blankets and pillows everywhere to make herself a pad.

 

 

We do puzzles and play games like peek-a-boo

 

Some times we try to focus her attention for a bit by doing things with her like puzzles or sorting shapes. It's still quite challenging for her because she's just now learning about shapes and sizes. Plus, she doesn't always have the hand-eye coordination to get the piece exactly where she wants it. I think her favorite part of it is really just taking it all apart anyways.

She also has a few Fisher Price learning game apps on our iPhones and has become quite adept at knowing when to touch the screen and how to swipe things. They're good in a pinch when she's getting fussy or needs distracting!
 
And of course, her favorite game to play is still peek-a-boo! She's way more sneaky at it now. She's gotten to the point where she uses different things to hide in and knows how to slowly reveal herself or peek out just enough for you to make eye contact.

 

 

We play dress up (kind of)

 

We're definitely not at full princess super sparkle stage yet, but we do like to be silly and wear things around the house from time to time. Necklaces and crowns made from her snap beads are almost a daily thing, and sometimes she brings me her lots of links to make necklaces and bracelets too. She mostly enjoys just taking it off and putting it back on. Or putting it on mommy and daddy instead. It's fun to introduce her to new ways of playing with ordinary things, like making blankets into capes. Although she has no idea what a cape is or means, it is still introducing her to creative play.

We read - a lot

 

So one day in May, it got very quiet in my house. Suspiciously quiet. I knew Emma was playing behind the couch, and when I looked back behind it, I found her sitting on the floor reading one of her little books. It was the first time I'd ever seen her do it herself. I read to her daily and had recently put some little 5 page board books in her toy bucket, but all she had done up to this point was carry them around and try to gnaw them to death. But there she was sitting as pretty as can be turning the pages and intently studying the pages. Now, it's a daily occurrence. She goes and finds her books and looks through them or brings them to us to read to her. She's usually got books stashed all over the place, and we've even taken to keeping some next to the changer to keep her from squirming and fussing during diaper changes. I love my little reader! 

 

 

We play with Lizzy

 

Whether she likes it or not, Lizzy gets plenty of daily exercise with Emma in the house. Sometimes it's from playing ball with Emma, and sometimes it's from running away from Emma's continuous fascination with her. Emma loves to give Lizzy hugs and tries to chase her all over the house. Lizzy's a pretty good sport about it all. I mean, she does get paid daily by Emma in the form of Cheerios and other dropped food from the high chair, so it's not too bad of a gig!

 

We have play dates with big and little people



We love having visitors and going to visit people at their houses. Sometimes the college kids stop by to check in on us (and play with Emma's toys). It's always good to hear from them and about all the exciting adventures they're having and all the things they are learning about. We also try to get together with our friends Charlotte and Kristy to play and have mommy time. Charlotte's just 2 months older than Emma, so they're perfect playmates!
 

We hang out with family

 

Since we've had a lot of family events lately, Emma's gotten lots of time to hang out with all her grandmas and grandpas, uncles, and cousins. With birthday parties, baby showers, and weddings, our weekends have been full, but it's definitely a blessing to have such a close link to our families.

We took this video at Kevin cousin's wedding. Emma was having a fun time running around the dance floor with all the big kids, and she learned an important lesson too: The only boy who won't break your heart is Daddy.

 

We play outside

 

We've been enjoying the relatively mild start to the summer here in Houston by trying to get outside as much as possible. We've been going swimming or playing in the water at least twice a week, and Emma just started taking swim lessons through a Mommy and Me class two weeks ago with our friends Charlotte and Kristy. I think the class has already given her quite a bit of confidence since she's not one for really staying in the floats anymore. She wants to be out in the water where the action is. I can't tell you how fast these little kids learn! Emma loves being outside and is the first to run to the door whenever we get our shoes on.

We try new things

 

So, Emma's not afraid to try new things, especially if it looks like it would be fun or interesting. Sometimes, she's stubbornly defiant about it too. Like she's trying to tell you, "I WILL do this." Some interesting new firsts for us: having your child run off with the cart in Staples, letting her help walk the grandparents' dog, trying to feed herself with a spoon, and even having her dip her chips in salsa and liking it.

 



And at the end of it all, we sleep. And we sleep hard.

 

 

 I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they,

who are so fresh from God, love us.

- Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop


Click here to view more photos and videos from the past two months!