At this age babies recognize your voice, your smell and your face. They do not need physical toys, you will be their toy. I used to play with my babies from the very beginning and I could see their progress day by day.

	Hold your baby in your arms and swing him/her gently and say, "I love you" and while saying that kiss him/her on the forehead. This game will bond the baby to you.
	Babies react to changes in your tone of voice. When you raise your voice your baby will usually respond in his/her own voice. Hug the baby, look into his/her eyes and respond to his voice.
	Sing to your baby while you change a diaper.
	Baby is happy when he/she sees his mom's face. Get closer to his/her face and sing a song.
	Babies like to watch faces especially faces of people they love. Make various funny facial expressions to your baby: Smile, laugh, lick your lips, send a kiss and raise your eyebrows. Just use your imagination. Sooner or later your baby will respond by imitating those faces. Even though this game is just an amusement for the baby at this stage, it is actually the first step towards developing visual and emotional skills.
	Put your baby on his back and gently move his/her legs in a cycling movement.
	Talk to your baby and tell him/her what you are doing. This will help your baby develop his/her language.

If you want to better understand your babies, try to be a baby yourself. Lie on your back. What do you see, hear and smell? Doing so can help you create baby games of your own. I invite you to share your baby games with other moms on my website. Just create your own web page.

Three to six months

At this age babies are more friendly and smiley. They know how to communicate with you and even start the first steps in developing their language. Babies develop their hand–eye coordination which enables them to hold objects and bring them into their mouth. They also learn how to roll over in order to reach for objects around them. At this stage babies need fewer hours of sleep, so you can take the advantage of that and play with them. I enjoy every minute when I play with my baby as you can see in the movie.


Here you can find some games to play with your baby at this age:



Sit with your baby in front of the mirror and say, "who is that baby?" Raise his/her hand and say," hello baby." Ask the baby questions about his body, "where is your leg?" and say, "hello leg." Keep asking him/her questions.






	Babies love to watch revolving objects like dryers or washing machines.
	Babies like to watch moving objects. Take your baby for a walk outside to watch the flying birds, leaves moving in the wind and passing cars.
	Lie on your back and place your baby on your tummy. Raise him/her and then bring him/her down close to your face. Repeat this action several times. While doing that, ask him/her, "where is my baby?" and then answer, "he/she is here."






Put your baby on his back, hold his ankles, bend and straighten them gently. This physical exercise that operates the muscles, prepares the body for walking.






Babies utter a lot of voices, so by imitating those voices when talking to your baby you encourage him/her to talk. Actually, these voices are the beginning of conversation between you two.






	Babies like bouncing games. Put your baby on your knees, hold his/her hands start bouncing and sing him/her a song. Those games help babies keep on balance which is very important to the development of crawling.
	Put the baby on his/her tummy in front of a ball. Encourage the baby to reach it. When mission accomplished, praise him/her for that.

Six to nine months

	Babies love to hold keys and to drop them onto the floor. Hold your keys in your hand and say,"One, two, three, I will drop the keys". Do it in front of your baby then put the keys in his/her hands and repeat the reciting. Open his/her hands and let the keys fall. After several games your baby will know what to do. This game develops your baby's fine motor skills.
	Hold the baby in your arms, walk in the room and sing a song.Lift your baby up and bring him/her down while singing.
	Babies love to play peek-a-boo games.Soon, your baby will learn that even thought he does not see an object, it still exists and can be found.This game enables your baby to develop cognitive skills such as abstract thinking and memory.

	Hide your face behind your spread-apart fingers and say," Where is mommy?" Bring down your hands and say," Here is mommy."
	Use a small piece of light cloth that your baby can pull off easily, put it on his face and say," peek-a-boo!" and pull off the cloth.
	Peek around the corner of a doorway and ask your baby, "where is mommy/daddy?" If your baby doesn't find you, come out and reveal yourself.
	Babies love to hold objects in their hand and to bang on surfaces. Give your baby wooden spoon and praise when he/she bangs on the surface.
	Babies are fascinated by pictures with bright colors and sharp contrasts. Give your baby a book and talk to him/her about the picture that he/she is interested in. Reading to your baby will stimulate his imagination and improve his communication skills.