Baby Learns to Play and Develops Motor Skills

Our baby angel, Ariana, recently turned 3 months old. She’s growing like a weed and learning new things daily. The other day, she started playing with her hands. She would cross her fingers together. We were thrilled! She’s developing motor skills! But she does not LOOK at her hands while she plays with them.

Periodically, I’ve tried to encourage her to play with her gifts that our dear friend, Debbie, sent before the baby was born. The package states an age range of “0-12 months”. DH and I were surprised by the lack of toys for newborns in the stores. So I had searched diligently for compatible age range gifts to register for. This set was one of the few available. Of course when we brought the baby home, and all she did was eat, sleep and produce diapers, we realized WHY so many toys say 3 months+.

The supposed experts say that babies love to look at faces, whether they are real or fake, as early as the first few weeks. So I’ve been showing her the “smiley space face rattle” for quite some time. She never seemed too interested. But lately, she’s been smiling when we show her this toy. It has a mirror on the back. But she seems to prefer the face.

Today, however, Ariana really seemed to enjoy this toy. She giggled and cooed at the face. And she followed it with her eyes back and forth, up and down.

I decided to test the developmental progress even more. So I helped her put her little hands around each side. She held on with two hands for a few seconds. Then she let go with one hand and actually passed it to her other hand!

I knew she must be having a growth spurt, because she’s been eating non-stop lately. But it looks like she’s making some major developmental strides as well!

I guess I should enjoy the time that her opinion about toys is “take it or leave it”. We have years of toy envy to look forward to. But I’ve admittedly been swayed by marketers and industrial psychologists to want to make the biggest impact in helping my baby learn. This is accomplished by bright and contrasting colors, various textures, weights, and sounds. Apparently, the Sassy products get rave reviews for babies of all ages!

I just wish the toys had been this cool and thought provoking when I was growing up!