Wee Wee Wee!

One of our favorite games with Baby L is the one where we say "Where's your ______?" and she points to the body part and says it. She's only 16 months old, so it sounds like this:

Me: "Baby L, where's your head?"

Baby L: "Het. Het. Het." (taps her head)

Me: "Where are your eyes?"

Baby L: "Eyes!" (She blinks really fast.)

Me: "Where are your ears?"

Baby L: (She responds by tugging her cute little ear lobes.)

Me: "Where are your hands?"

Baby L: "Heh. Heh." (She waves.)

Me: "Fingers?"

Baby L: (She wiggles her fingers.)

Me: "Belly button?"

Baby L: (She points to her neck--which seems odd, but it's because in the book Where's Baby's Belly Button, Baby L lifts the flap on the belly button page, and the baby in the illustration has her hands pointing to her neck! Click on the link to see what I mean. It's adorable.)

Her cutest response of all?

Me: "Baby L, where are your toes?"

Baby L: Grabs her toes and says, "Wee wee wee!"

Note: The reading teacher in me is very proud of the text-self connections my baby girl is making here. Usually we think of readers bringing what they know from personal experience to help them understand books. Strong readers read a text and stop and think, "What does this remind me of?" But here, it's the other way around. It's as if Baby L is looking about her body, and thinking, "Hmm... what book does this remind me of?"

Playing With Food Words!

If one of my neighbors were to walk by our front door at breakfast time, this is what she might hear. "Ba-na-na! Ba-na-na! Ba-na-na! Yaaaay!"

Later at lunch, she might hear, "Zu-chi-ni! Zu-chi-ni! Zu-chi-ni! Yippeeeee!"

And at dinner, "Spa-ghet-ti! Spa-ghet-ti! Spa-ghet-ti! Woooo! Hoooo!"

It all started yesterday when Baby L was eating bananas for breakfast. She looked a little distracted, so to get her attention I started to "cheer" for bananas by tapping on her highchair tray for each syllable. Ba-na-na. Bang-bang-bang. L smiled in delight and banged her tray right along with me!

As I clapped and tapped the syllables to banana, the teacher part of my brain kicked in and realized that this is exactly what we do when we introduce new word wall words each week. We clap them, we tap them, we write them over and over, we say them over and over and cheer for them. The repetition of the clapping and cheering helps children develop phonological awareness (familiarity with units of speech that includes syllables, words, rhymes, and individual sounds)-- and it's fun! Give it a try. Go bananas!

How to Play The Woooooooooooooo! Game

I've always been pretty good at being silly. Having spent my entire life surrounded by small children, I'd say I'm pretty much an expert in silliness at this point.

I'm sure you've met people in your life who did not know how to be silly. In fact, you may be one of those people. So, if you happen to have trouble thinking up silly things to do with kids, here's your first lesson: How to Play the Wooooooooo! Game.

Now that Baby L. is almost five months old, she's really developing a great little sense of humor. And one thing she thinks is just HI-LAR-I-OUS is when I say Wooooooooooooooo! You have to start in a low pitch and get higher and higher up to a little squeak.

If you really want L. to crack up, you start the Wooooooooooo! from a foot or two away from her and then zoom your face in closer to hers as your voice rises. She usually cracks up by the second or third Woooooooo! Patience is key.

So, for all you non-silly people, now you know how to do at least one silly thing. When you come up with some more silly things to do, post them in a comment on this page!