In addition to a rousing two-sided game of peekaboo and some impressive stacking skills, Harlow is building up an arsenal of games to entertain herself at all times. In fact, she’d love to teach them to your babies so they can play them with you too! Just give her a moment to explain the rules.
GAME #1: Throw Things on the Floor
How to play: Game is best played from a highchair, stroller or carseat. Then purposefully drop items on to the ground, pitching a fit as soon as they hit the floor. When your opponent picks the item back up and places it within your grasp, smile briefly, then drop it again. Keep repeating the action until your opponent refuses to pick up the item. Then cry louder. If your opponent looks like he/she has lost the will to live but picks it up again regardless, YOU WIN!
Bonus points if you are in a stroller and hold off crying until you are several blocks away from the discarded item. Watch your opponent scramble! Good fun.
GAME #2: Screech Or Shriek
How to play: This game is played like Hot or Cold, except since you cannot form words, you will be using screeches and shrieks. This increases the difficulty level of the game since screeches and shrieks sound basically the same. Begin the game by shrieking at the refrigerator. Then watch as your opponent pulls out one healthy food item after the other. Express your disatisfaction with increasingly loud shrieks or screeches. If, after ten full minutes of ear-piercing sounds, your opponent still can’t decipher what you are asking for, you may offer one clue in the form of “pointing”. Just don’t point at any one thing too specifically. That’s cheating. If at any point, your opponent gives up and gives you a cookie so you will just the shut the hell up, YOU WIN!
GAME #3: Crumple Important Papers
How to play: To begin this game, locate your opponent’s work bag. That’s the one with the laptop in it and a few isolated typewritten papers. Remove papers and litter them about the house. Then try to destroy them before your opponent finds out what you are up to. Beyond crumpling, acceptable methods of destruction are ripping, eating and dripping the contents of your sippy cup on top of them. Once destroyed papers are discovered, chances are your opponent will be pretty angry. But he/she can’t really be mad at you. You are a baby. Therefore, YOU WIN!
GAME #4: Capture the Older Sibling’s Toy
How to play: Begin by pretending to be occupied with a toy suitable for your own age. Any stacking toy or sorting cube will do. Wait until your older sibling has either a) perfectly placed every piece of furniture in her doll house, b) lined up all her match box cars at an imaginary start line, or c) spent hours building a complex city using a variety of different block sets. THEN POUNCE. Grab as many items as you can and hold on like your life depends on it. Watch as the sibling starts screaming and your opponent comes running. Then stand back in awe as your opponent determines no one (not even the sibling who was playing with the toys originally) is allowed to play with them. You win!
GAME #5: Closet Free-for-all
How to play: Wait for your opponent to leave her closet door slightly ajar by accident. Then, when she isn’t looking, wander in and pull everything in reach to the floor. Open a sock drawer, take out the contents one by one, separating the pairs as you go. (Separating sock pairs is key to your success in the game. Try to put each sock as far away from its match as possible.) Make sure clothing, socks and shoes are strewn everywhere so that the floor of the closet is not visible. Then wait for your opponent’s return. Make sure to wear your best smile. If your opponent gasps audibly? YOU WIN!
GAME #6: Free the Tissues
How to play: There are several boxes in your home full of pillowy soft goodness waiting to be handled by your sticky little snot filled hands. When a box is left within your reach, dig in and pull out as many tissues as possible. It is not necessary to tear them. Merely pulling them out of the box will alert your opponent that you are ready to play. Usually, your opponent’s first move will be to put all the tissues back into the box— even though they now look like a crumpled mess. That completes Round One. Then wait for your opponent to become distracted, and pull out all the tissues all over again. ALL OF THEM. Yes, every last one. At this point, your opponent will usually stuff the tissues back in the box and move it out of your reach. No matter, you’ve already won!
GAME #7: Change the Channel
How to play: When your older sibling is watching her favorite show on the television, scan the couch for the remote control. If your sibling or your opponent is holding it, wait for them both to get distracted and put it down. Then stealthily sneak over to the remote, pick it up and aim it at the television. Push every button on the thing. The more buttons you push, the more possible points you can earn.
Earn one point if you pause the show, two points if you switch the channel and three points if you turn the television off. If you somehow switch the channel from your sibling’s show to an episode of Elmo’s World causing mass commotion by everyone in the room? YOU WIN!
GAME #8: Steal the Phone
How to play: Wait until your opponent leaves his/her phone unattended. This is tough since the phone tends to be in your opponent’s hands at all times. When you finally get the phone, RUN. Go to another room, hide under a table, shut yourself in the bathroom. Then mess with the phone as much as you can until you are discovered. Press the icons until those little Xs appear in the corners. Click “OK” every time you are prompted by a screen that asks if you would like to “DELETE”. I know you can’t read but just try to alter the phone as much as possible. If, when your opponent finally gets her phone back, her first words are “Shit! Where’s iTunes???”, YOU WIN!
GAME #9: Unravel the Toilet Paper
How to play: Similar to “Free the Tissues”, but with the added advantage of the roll being attached to the wall, so your opponent will not be able to move it to a higher place. Start by unraveling the toilet paper until there is nothing left on the roll. Then take the paper and rip it into teeny tiny shreds, spreading it as far and wide as possible. Leave the bathroom, go play in a common space and wait for your opponent to discover the game on her own. If your opponent replaces the roll, wait until she leaves the bathroom and then play the game again. If your opponent decides to go to the bathroom, switch to Game #8.
GAME #10: Barge into the Bathroom and Refuse to Leave Making it Impossible for Your Opponent to Pee in Peace
How to play: Self-explanatory. For bonus points, walk right up to your seated opponent and put your arms up like you want her to you pick you. If your opponent puts you in her lap while she is seated on the toilet, knowing full well this will make it impossible for her to go to the bathroom, YOU WIN!
What games does your baby play?
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Somehow wiggle your way out of the supposedly safe 5-point car seat so the opponent has to suddenly pull over onto a side street (bonus points if there is no side street and she has to stop on the shoulder of a busy highway with cars whizzing by at 70 mph) to strap you back in. You’ve really won if when the opponent looks back, she nearly wrecks the car as she sees you hanging halfway out of the car seat reaching for the non-child locked door handle.
My 2 little ones play a game called “run away!!”
Basically you grab anything that could or might be of some importance and run away with it, if you get caught you lose…..
Phone, Keys, Remote, Book, Newspaper, Ipad, Headphones, Cushions from sofa, Pillows from bed, Quilt / blankets from beds, Washing basket etc etc etc ………….
Its better when both children play as they can egg each other on.
We play Cook Book Tower Of Death:
Pull all cook books off shelf into a pile on floor.
Climb cookbook tower.
Fall off cookbook tower.
Cry.
Repeat until bedtime.
This is awesome. Can we add a game called “The Great Dog Food Race”? This is the one where ninja baby goes every so stealthily into the kitchen with the dog food and just stares at it. Until the opponent comes running along… Grab a chubby handful and stick as much into your mouth as you can before you’re scooped up and finger swept. The more pieces that come out, the more points you earn!!!
I just want to say how much I appreciate the casual yet focused look Harlow is sporting in this pic.
Bonus points if she has to stop during a rain or snow storm, or in a crappy part of town.
I hated this game!
OMG my kids know this game too!
Even better is when they get into the wet cat food and smear it not only all over themselves, but the floor and the wall too. Try getting that stench out of your house!
one good game that is really harmless.
put a telephone book in a bottom drawer of the kitchen.
let baby discover telephone book and rip out pages one by one. parent can throw them in recycle bin. the paper is thin, fun and crinkle-y. hey look, the telephone book is actually useful for something. every-one’s a winner!
(these days, one of those books may be a collector’s item, I don’t know. we had a couple left on our front step back when my now 5 year old was a toddler. I haven’t seen on in a while!)
ha !- my baby isn’t crawling yet, but I am sure he will discover this game. right now, he just tries to see how much dog fur he can get in his mouth before we separate the 2.
That is amazing, my 13 month old son plays EVERY ONE of these!
This is spectacular and spot-on. How about adding the timeless classic “Nap Ninja” game? For every half hour you push back the clearly-needed nap, you win 5 points. Bonus points everytime your opponent throws hands into the air and talks to the ceiling. If you are able to go all the way and skip the nap altogether, you win. If your opponent, at any point, lays down on the floor and stops speaking, you win. If you can get into a full-blown tantrum during the game, you win for life.
Here’s some help for winning #9 when you’re opponent is a toddler:
http://hintmama.com/2013/09/12/todays-hint-6-ways-to-save-toilet-paper-rolls-from-toddlers/
And a trick for winning #6 is to take most of the tissues out of the box and just give the toddler opponent a few in the box to play with.
Tee hee! So far Dylan (4 months old chronologically, about 2 months old when adjusted for prematurity) is working on his control on grabbing things – he can see what he wants and will fling his arm out to try for it but so far he mainly punches his toys in the face. It was funny until he recently discovered that while nursing, he can pop off, turn his head, and – look, there’s Mommy! Oh boy, let me try to touch Mommy’s face! Which basically results, right now, in him smacking me in the face over and over again. (He’s seriously cute while doing it though, and since he’s not really trying to smack me but trying to touch my face, I patiently let him do it. lol)
However, I can say that our dog Milo regularly plays “Closet Free For All,” and he too loves socks the best. And he can grab a bunch of socks from the closet and run downstairs with them to scatter them all over the house! And the cats have played the toilet paper unrolling game many times! lol. What’s the most fun is if Milo manages to find an unsecured toilet paper roll, because then he will grab it, and run downstairs with it, and shred it all to pieces. Aren’t you glad you don’t have pets too? ;-P
Bonus points are awarded for getting toilet paper in the toilet while the opponent is sitting on it. And triple bonus points are awarded to the 14 month old who opens doors and interrupts other siblings naps.
My baby boy loves to play steal and hide stuff for later
Bonus points go to important stolen items like cell phone, shoes and car keys but food items freely given at meal and snack times ate acceptable too Go around the house stuffing items in crevices and places that only you know where they are watch your opponent as they scramble to find their things or their expression when they finally find the moldy sandwich.
Albeit this is more for the verbal crowd, but I have a feeling Harlow could still manage quite nicely. I call it Mission Impossible “I want Momma to help me. No! I want to do it myself! Mommy Help me! Noooo, why are you helping? I do it myself! Go away! Waahhhh, where are you going??”
Both of my kids loved to play ‘hide the high value banknotes’, where you take either EUR100 or $100 depending on where you live at the time, and disappearing it from all sight, forever and ever.
There is also ‘drop one cat biscuit into the cat’s water so that mommy has to change it, again’ which is very popular on my house.
How about “Hair-pulling Extravaganza”? Here are the rules: whenever there is hair near you that is more than an inch long, you pull it. This includes your opponent’s hair, your older sister’s hair, the dog’s hair, and dad’s armpit hair. One point for every “Ouch!” 5 points for every hair that is successfully pulled out; bonus points for every dog hair you eat. If you make your 4 year-old sister cry, YOU WIN!
Seriously, is this a boy thing, because I don’t remember my daughter ever pulling my hair:/
“Free the tissues!” — Bahaha, too good! This is absolutely hilarious and precious. Thanks for sharing!
My 2 year old plays something like this except the cat helps. He pulls out a page, hands it to the cat and laughs hysterically as the cat shreds the paper into tiny pieces. As soon as the cat stops, he is handed another page. It’s amazing how much shredded paper the two can make in the amount of time it takes for me to run upstairs to gather laundry.
*sigh*
How about “Who can pinch the hardest”. The baby always wins because as much as I want to pinch him back to show him that it hurts, I can’t bring myself to hurt him. This game is always played with a very cute almost toothless smile, the baby’s (not mine). LOL
This is my son to a T!!
Maybe a boy thing – my 2 yo is an ace at this. He has his own twists – find someone who’s lying down, stretch their hair out and sit on it. Also fun to do, try to get earrings and hair entagled. 20 points if the opponent loses the (gold) earring in the process of detangling everything and spends 30 mins on her knees on a beige carpet trying to find it
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The favorite around here is “Crayon Smash”. The opponent buys nice chubby (as in more durable) crayons and places them in a metal crayon box. Ask opponent to open box by incorporating the shriek game. Throw the crayons as hard as possible so you go from 16 big crayons to 152 little crayon fragments. For extra fun throw the crayon box so the hinges break, enabling you to access crayons whenever you want. Be sure to peel off all that paper wrapping into a million little pieces and store it in crayon box for later throwing. When that box hits the wall you have your very own confetti party. You win!
my little boys favourite is ‘hide the potatoes’. He discovered it when he was about 8monts old and he’s nearly 2 now. Basically when the opponent (me) the turns her back (preferably while cooking dinner) steal a single potato and hide it somewhere in the house. Toy boxes, washing baskets, underwear drawers, washing machine etc are all appropriate hiding spots. Repeat until opponent catches on and begins to hunt for missing potatoes so they can resume dinner prep.
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