What to do with 6m old

[Audra]

Any ideas on how to keep a 6m old amused. Each day she goes on her mat with mobile over head, in her ring with toys and a mirror, a bit of baby einstein, another activity arch. We do a bit of reading. The days are long though and I'm always scratching my head for ways to amuse her and, even better, for her to amuse herself.

Any ideas?

Take her for a walk in her buggy, go to the park, can you meet a friend for lunch one day, go to baby groups, try a trip to a museum or gallery depending whereabouts you are (for you as well as her - makes you feel like an adult again!) - basically babies like looking at new things, with an opportunity to sleep as and when they feel tired - at this age, DS loved to go outside.

I used to do 'normal' things too. Meet friends, walk in the park, go to galleries, go shopping etc. Swimming is good too. Also, ds liked to play with saucepans and other kitchen stuff.

pots and pans are fantastic idea
is she sitting yet? when she is, choose a low cupboard in the kitchen and let her pull her dishes and other non breakables out and put them back in, also sit her up with cushions and let her reach for her toys.

Hold her up at the window for ten mintues at a time and just talk about what you see

Do you havea door frame bouncer? What about noisy toys, rice filled and sellotaped up plastic boxes

My ds3 loves the doorway bouncer (the other 2 hated it) - it kills 15 mins if that helps!! I know what you mean about entertaining them although I'm lucky that ds1 and ds2 are quite good at that!

could have written this post audra, except ds is 15 months. it's a bit easier now - between 6 and 8 months was quite tough as he wanted to be mobile and wasn't. Out and about was definitely the answer for us. We went to baby group Mon am, music group mon pm (one that only cost 50p), NCT gettogether tues pm, swimming weds morningetc etc. A good book is How Not to be a Perfect Mother, and she too says HAVE PEOPLE ROUND, hardly matters who, they love it. If you haven't got much in the way of baby stuff happening around you, maybe you could take a deep breath and organise some? Very best of luck and it will, slowly, get slightly less boring.

yeah audra, agree with others here, get out and about.
Doesn't matter that she is so little, you can go to the park and feed the ducks! mother and baby groups near us always welcome babies (means more toddlers inn yrs to come!) and there are usually lots of other mums with little ones.
Is there an NCT bumps and babies group near you? That was how I met a lot of mums with same-age babies. Or how about meeting up with ante-natal mums (if any?)
What worked for me was a regular programme, swim Monday, health clinic tuesday, PEEPs group wed, see a friend thurs, toddlers Friday. If you have something to go to, even if it's popping round the shops, it keeps you sane and her amused. hth

Thank you for your advice. I must look for some groups to go to when I move house in a month and must get to some. The area I live in until next month is pretty dismal so knowing I'm moving, I haven't bothered to look into it much here. Trouble also is, that I am self employed and work from home. When I am on top of things I can leave the house and relax but when I'm not, which seems like always at the moment, I have to squeeze in some work every chance I get. So I'm usually looking for ways to amuse her at home.

aaah that's a bit tricky. IIRC what they love at this age (actually, at any age) is to do what you are doing (eg mine love to cook/garder/hoover with me).
Can you get her in the kitchen while you do jobs, busy with something safe - pots and pans, a drawer full of plastic plates etc. Or watching the washign machine? (is she a bit old for that?)
If she mobile? If not it's almost easier, my ds2 loved some black and white toys with faces/shapes etc on them; or you could make her a "discovery box" full of interetsing textures, colours, pictures, tissue paper, torn up newspaper, fabric etc for her to explore. Keys to rattle, shaker, etc etc