Playtime with dad

Sometimes it's challenging to keep coming up with new ways to play with my daughter.  It's easy to get stuck in a rut--one day, the most interesting thing you can do is throw a toy above her and then catch it, and then the next thing you know, that's old hat, and you'd better come up with something new!

The way I play with my (6 month-old) daughter tends toward puzzles and problem-solving, I guess.  Recently, she likes it when I move blocks from one box to another, and then give her both boxes to play with.  She'll carefully lift one block at a time, examine it, drop it, etc.  Peekaboo with a blanket covering a toy is another recent favorite, and silly noises, rhymes, and songs punctuate our days together.

The other night, I had just gotten out of the shower and was toweling off my hair when I heard peals of laughter from the nursery.  My husband was sitting on the floor facing the baby, who was on her tummy a couple feet away.  He (the husband) had one of those boxes in front of him where you punch a ball through a hole, and then it comes out the side of the box (like the one pictured to the right).  

He was shooting the wood balls out of the box towards the baby.  She was stretching out her arms and doing her best to intercept them as they skittered past, laughing maniacally the whole time.  Then he would gather the balls back up and shoot them all at her again.

Gratuitous cute baby picture

It would never have occurred to me to shoot wooden balls at the baby.  But she LOVED it.  Thank god for dads!

[Confidential to A., who has a bet with my husband that baby will beat A. at tennis before she reaches the age of 10:  Good luck.  I think they've already started training].