After the initial rush of excitement when my wife told me that she was pregnant, there was a little voice of fear in my head. This voice asked what on earth you do with a baby beyond feeding it and keeping it clean. As I work in primary schools, I know how to entertain children as young as four, but below that I was very unsure.
It's a question that I'm still grappling with today, almost six months into this adventure. It can be daunting when Jake wakes up at half 6 and you know that he won't be ready for a nap for the next two hours or so and you know that he's likely to scream if he gets bored. You can eat up a certain amount of time by feeding him and changing him, and this often turns into a little conversation as he quite likes being on his back on the changing table with his feet to play with and an adult to smile at.
Beyond that, I've found little routines help to keep him occupied. We'll sing songs for a bit until he gets bored and then try reading some books. We then normally go downstairs where I put him in a chair and potter in the kitchen. He likes to play with different toys there as well as watching me, the cats and the washing machine intently.
The other thing for Jake is that taking him outside will always keep him happy. I decided to test this today by taking him by bus into town and exploring the city museum. He was as quiet as a mouse for the whole trip and started babbling halfway round the museum quite contentedly. It was an outrageous success and kept us out of the house for four hours and one that we'll be doing again.
I guess a certain part of it is that you find something that works and do that until he's bored and ready to move on. He's very good at telling you when he wants to do something else and as he grows up he'll start being able to do more and maintain concentration for longer. For now though the little voice is being kept quiet as I build my repertoire.
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