Dad's fun games

Isaac has these soft (reversible!) nesting cups that, for whatever reason, have a hole in the bottom. Isaac chews on them with reckless abandon. I stack them on each other, hide things underneath them for him to find, and tell him about the colors and the patterns on the cups. I got nothin' on Dad. Dad made up this killer game tonight (see illustration above) where Isaac was a little fishy and Dad was the worm. Here's how the game goes: Dad puts his fist in one of the cups and pokes a finger through the hole in the bottom, wagging it gently to get Isaac's attention. Once Isaac looks, then the finger disappears! (ooh! where does it go?) After a short time, the finger slowly creeps back out and waves seductively at Isaac. Isaac reaches out to grab the mysterious finger, and if he succeeds, Dad starts barking. This drives Isaac to giggling fits.

Another popular new game Dad helps Isaac play is Catch. We have a spiky blue ball that is easy for Isaac to grab and chew on, but it also retains excellent bouncing properties. A few nights ago, we were all chillin' on the floor, and I was rolling the spiky ball back and forth between me and Buddy. Dad tells me to bounce it over to Isaac. Dad sits behind Isaac holding Isaac's arms, and when I bounce the ball to Isaac Dad brings Isaac's arms around the ball to "catch" it, eliciting shrill Mothra-baby screams of glee from Isaac. Then Dad helps Isaac to let go, "throwing" the ball back to me. I think we could have repeated this sequence into next Tuesday and Isaac would have still been awake. Anyway, we are all (especially Isaac) very impressed here with the inventiveness and baby-appeal of Dad's games.