1. Baby's drawer. Give your baby a low drawer in the kitchen, her room, or whatever room you wish. Fill this drawer with toys and fun things for baby. We have a drawer in the kitchen that is full of toys and plastic bowls and spoons. She loves to take things out of this drawer and play with them while we're cooking or just playing. I also encourage her to put things back in the drawer when we're done and once everything is put away we say "All done!".
2. Baby Talk. If you haven't already communicate more with your baby. Talk to them, read to them, repeat what they're saying. A good thing to do to help your baby learn associations is to adapt their speaking to new words. if your baby is 'da' alot associate it with 'do' and 'di'. This way it isn't a large leap to start developing new words and vowels.
3. Where'd it go? A game we play alot is hiding an object under a blanket or towel and having her find it. I always start by showing her the toy. Once she's played with it or looked at it I show her that I put it under the towel. Once she pulls it out I excitedly praise her and we rinse and repeat. She loves this game and it really only took a couple tries before she really became a pro at it.
4. Name the face. Start pointing to objects on your face and naming it for her. Point to your nose and say "that's daddy's nose". Then you can move on to pointing to her nose and saying "Thats baby's nose". As your baby starts to grasp this, start forming it as a question "Where is baby's nose? There it is!". This will build on her communication skills and be educational at the same time.
5. Help me stand. By now I'm sure your baby is pulling up on everything. We are strongly encouraging her to explore and try to walk. As much as I hate seeing her grow up I want her to be curious about the world around her and able to explore it. We stand her up on the coffee table and move objects around the table and praise her when she moves to it. She's gotten this down pat and now we have a hard time keeping up with her.
As always look for new and exciting ways to play with your baby. They're sponges at this stage and we try and throw everything that we can at her to help her develop. Never be afraid to try something different to keep your infant entertained.
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