Parent Interaction Is Your Child

Your baby is 30 weeks old today!  Have you been keeping a journal of all the milestones she has reached?  Your baby’s first tooth, when she first rolled over and when she made her first sound are all bits of information that you may want to record in your journal.  There are a lot of mothers out there that put everything on a scrapbook and I envy their creativity!  You also have the option of going to the stationery store and buying the journals that are pre-made for you and all you have to do is fill it in and maybe get some pictures printed.  This week, there may be several emerging skills that you may want to put in your baby journal. 

Your baby’s fine motor and cognitive skills continue to develop as she begins to hold onto two objects at once.  She may be holding onto her favorite rattle in one hand and upon seeing an interesting block, she grabs it with her free hand.  My son, at one point, held a rattle in one hand and my bracelet in the other. 

As your baby’s receptive language continues develop, she starts to recognize that certain objects have names to them.  For example, if your baby is drinking milk from the bottle, it is quite common to talk to your baby and say, “do you want your bottle?” and “here’s your bottle.”  Soon, your baby realizes that when you say “bottle,” it’s the object that she gets her milk from. In short, words are becoming familiar to her.

I can’t state enough the importance of playing and interacting with your baby as well as  repeating the sounds she says.  This is because you are your baby’s best teacher especially when you interact with her through play.  Your baby will start to imitate some of your actions like patting your leg or a surface.  She continues to take in a lot of information from her observations.