“Mom? Are you and dad busy?” asked our daughter-in-law on the phone one day. She sounded a tad frustrated.
“Not at all. What do you need, honey?” was my quick reply.
It turns out she was desperate to clean the wood floors in the main rooms of her house. But Baby Sebastian (now 5-years-old) had just started crawling everywhere, making it impossible for his Mommy to use a broom. She’d gather a little bit of dirt, and he would head right to the pile.
“And now he really doesn’t like being in his Pack N Play,” she said, referring to the safe environment she has in their dining room just for such occasions. “Do you think we could have you and dad in the Pack N Play with him?”
“Let’s give it a try,” I said.
Via FaceTime, we talked Sebastian about every day. Doing a 5-minute video chat is best with babies, I have found. We loved when he grinned from ear to ear when he saw his “flat people” on the screen.
Sebastian’s mommy and I hung up our phones and both grabbed our iPads. She propped hers in the Pack N Play along with Sebastian. But could Grandpa and I entertain him in the now undesirable Pack N Play? I sure hoped so.
Success! We talked to Sebastian, played peekaboo, and sang songs. Recently I read about the tremendous benefits of frequently reciting nursery rhymes to babies so I grabbed my favorite book Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever and read some to him. He rocked back and forth to the cadence of The Three Little Kittens and other rhymes.
When Sebastian picked up a rattle, we said, “Shake shake shake!” He did and we applauded as if he ran a half-marathon.
Between Grandpa and me, we kept the banter and the entertainment going, and remarkably our ten-month old was entertained for about 15 minutes, enough time for floor cleaning. Of course, his mommy checked on him regularly and was never out of earshot.
What a joy it is to actually be of help from more than 2,000 miles away. I can’t wait for “flat people” someday soon to become three-dimensional again!
Are you able to help out by video chatting? Please share in the Comments section below.
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