Baby & Preschool Fun With Photos

While I was trolling for pictures of my firstborn’s snarled hair, I stumbled on bunches of photos from little games  that I’d play with the girls when they were little, and I thought that they might help some folks out there with babies and toddlers while away the long not-exactly-winter. For a little while, we had a stash of photo paper and color printer, so I’d print pictures galore. If you order all of your pictures, you can have some extras like these on the computer waiting for the next time you need to order a few extra pictures to make the price per print go down. I’d recommend printing the pictures out wallet-sized and then laminating them for maximum use.

One game we liked to play (this was probably starting when M was about 1 year old) was scavenger hunt. I had a bunch of pictures of household objects, like this bath toy:

or this measuring cup.

Then when I needed a minute to myself, I’d send her on a hunt. For this one, it helps to include objects that aren’t always in exactly the same place, like a shoe or a toy.

The variation on home scavenger hunt is the grocery store edition. I took pictures of items that I buy frequently at the store, and then a daughter would be in charge of whatever photo cards she had.

MMMmmm. . . love me some Cabot anything.

And we go through a surprising amount of Kalamata olives.

I also took pictures of various places that we’d visit regularly.

The girls loved the Crossings.

This was more an attempt to communicate better than a game. When the girls were very little, we’d talk (and by that I mean, I’d conduct monologues while they’d look attentive and occasionally babble) about what our plans were for the day.

How is it that Hannaford never recruited her as their poster girl?

Later, I was trying to teach them about the calendar and our routine, and I’d post the pictures on a little poster board.

Huggin' the old-school Tyke. Anyone else remember Marcy & this mangy puppet?

This reminds me that at some point in each girl’s toddlerhood I created a visual clock with explicit instructions not to get out of bed until after 6 am.

Our midwife's office

And, okay, this wasn’t part of any game, but the midwife picture reminded me, and I couldn’t resist.

How cute is this girl? Can you guess what she’s doing?

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Got it?

She’s checking the imaginary baby’s heartbeat!

That’s a toy mixer that she’s using at a fetal doppler thingy.  She was dragged to many appointments. Usually by the end she’d be astride my hips, wedged in the increasingly small space between my pregnant belly and my thighs.

Cute W got into the photo fun act, too. When M was driving her riding toys too recklessly, he made her a little fake driver’s license. Then when she’d crash or speed too quickly, he’d take her license away and tell her it was suspended.

Anyone else have fun with photos?