How do you keep your five month olds entertained?

My girls will be five months old soon and are sleeping a lot less and wanting to be entertained a lot more!! I have two activity mats that I alternate them on, various dangly/squeaky/rattly/linky toys that I shake at them and/or let them play with, I read to them, bounce them on my knee, rock with them, put them in their bouncy seats, etc. That about covers it. I feel like I am always doing the same things - any ideas on how I can keep them entertained beyond what I am already doing??? I would be much obliged! Oh yeah - and I recently ordered a baby bouncer (called Merry Muscles - it's like a Jolly Jumper but is supposed to better for them) and have an exersaucer that the in-laws gave us but I haven't assembled it yet because I am not sure if they are old enough for it. They both have good neck control/strength and can sit up with support. So my second question is when did your LOs start using an exersaucer?

 

At that age mine all LOVED the Jumparoo and excersaucer!!!
I also encourage tummy floor time. I know a lot of them hate at it at this age but it's so good for them!

 

Good question! My boys seem to be bored in the afternoons, we are looking into buying excersaucer as well, my older daugter Claudia loved hers.

 

We strollered -- a LOT. Lucky for us, it is nearly always strollering weather here, even in winter (as long as they're appropriately dressed).

They started using the exersaucer around 4 months, but only for 5-10 minutes at a time.

I also found that they were sometimes entertained just by watching me do whatever I was doing -- cooking, folding laundry, etc. Not that I did much of that while they were awake, but sometimes it was good for a few minutes.

It is soooo much easier once they can sit up independently -- it was like a paradigm shift. We could plunk them down on the floor mat with some toys and they would stay happy for 20-30 minutes as long as we were nearby.

 

We sing to them as well as read books to them- nothing fancy, just books with pics on them which I ID for them. They LOVE to 'sauce. I was told it
was fine as long as they have good head control. If they are too tippy, we supported them with rolled up blankets squished around them.

 

I forgot to mention books! My LO love them and so did C at this age.

 

My LO's love the exercausers. We have one that is stationary with a lot of toys around it, they can swivle around and play with them all. Then one that is a bouncy one. It's great. They each play in them and keep themselves occupied for a long time. We try to rotate toys in and out too so that they don't get sick of seeing the same ones over and over. We'll wait like a week or so, that way they are like a new toy. I know the TV isn't the best thing but we have some of the Baby Einstien videos that we play for them sometimes.

 

Thanks everyone for your responses - I will be hauling out the exersaucer ASAP!!