"Mommy, I'm Bored!!!!!" is starting early around here....

Whenever we're out and about places, people always comment on what a good baby Gunnar is. They say, "He's always so happy! It seems like he never cries! He's always so content!" etc. etc....and they would be both right AND wrong in their observation. Gunnar IS always very happy and content when we are out and about, surrounded by plenty of people, and with lots of things going on for him to watch and listen to. However, when we're just hanging at home, it's a little bit of a different story. He's not BAD, but if he's not eating, sleeping, being held, or being walked in his stroller, there's a really good chance that he's fussing.

He has, what I think, is a pretty decent amount of toys, and they seem like fun toys, as baby toys go, but he seems to get very bored with them, very quickly. Sometimes I have him play alone on the floor, while I get things around the house done, but most of the time, I play WITH him, and even then, he is very unimpressed with these toys. For the longest time, he wasn't old enough to play with toys, then he finally reached the age where he was, and he enjoyed them for all of like two weeks, and now he seems to think he's OUTGROWN the toys, and wants to move on to more grown up activities.

Anyway, I don't want the poor guy to be bored and unstimulated all day, so I've been racking (wracking?) my brain trying to think of ways to interact with him that His Highness will find satisfactory, and today, I came up with two ideas that seemed succesful:

1) Sitting on the front porch- we've sat out in the backyard quite a bit, but he seemed to enjoy this more. We were able to watch the cars and trucks go by, the neighbors jogging, the work crew next door working on the house, etc. He was very fascinated with picking the leaves off of the plants out front, too.

2) A game I coined "We're Going on an Adventure". We started at the front of the house, and the goal was, in each room, to find something interesting to explore. So in Nason's office, we dialed numbers on the phone, and listened to the dial tone. In the kitchen, we took apples in and out of the bowl. In his bathroom, we turned the water on and off in the sink, and let him dip his toes in it. In the living room we smelled candles. In his bedroom, we looked at the pictures on his walls, and named each person. In our bedroom, we played in front of the mirror. In our bathroom, we flushed the toilet over and over, and watched the water swirl around. In the dining room, we opened and closed the blinds, and stared out at the neighbors house next door. Oh, and I should mention...as we walked from room to room, I sang "We're going on an adventure. We're searching for something cool" to my own little tune. Ha ha. Sounds dumb, but he liked it a heck of a lot better than playing with his (apparently) crummy toys.

So.......those are my two ideas for the day. Anyone else want to toss out some creative ideas of things to do with a six month old???