1 month activities with Luke

It's hard to believe Luke is already a month old.  He has gotten so big this past month and can do so many things.  I always tell him to 'stay little', but he hasn't listened, yet.  I'm hoping he will listen to his Mommy better as he gets older....we'll see.  
I wanted to share some of the activities Luke and I do during his day.  I've compiled these from multiple sources and some just came up with on my own.  I'm hoping blogging about this will help me remember for my other children.  Some of you are thinking, he's only a month old, how much can he really do?  It's not so much as what he can do, but how I'm interacting with him during the day.  
The biggest thing I do with Luke is talk, sing, talk, talk, sing, and talk to him.  I fill his awake time with lots of language.  I try to tell him what I am doing all day long...i.e. 'Mommy's changing your clothes, out comes one leg, now the other' etc.  I don't use pronouns, instead 'Mommy', 'Daddy', 'Luke', so he gets to know who everyone is.  At this stage in his development he doesn't know who 'I' and 'you' are, so using our names will help him identify everyone.  During his awake time I will use an empty toilet paper roll to talk to him.  I put it up to his ear and say things like 'Mommy loves you.'  This is just a way to mix it up when it comes to language.  Kevin and I also read to him, even if he's not really 'tuned in' to the book.  We try and read the same books to him over and over again.  Kevin reads some of the same books he read to him when I was pregnant.  Kids love repetition and I think Luke finds some comfort in the words of some of our favorite books: Brown Bear  by Eric Carle, The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, etc.  He has heard these books dozens of times.  Brown Bear is a great book for babies because it has high contrast images.  I have been attempting to show Luke the pictures, but he isn't too interested, yet.
Luke is most alert in the morning and this is when I read to him and do some tracking and motor activities.  I use a rattle to work on his eye tracking.  I shake it on one side of his face and bring it across to the other side of his face.  This helps him learn how to track and focus on objects.  I have been doing this since he was a week old and he has gotten so much better at focusing these past few weeks. 
I also put Luke on his playmat and move his legs in a bicycle motion.  This will get him ready for crawling and walking, which hopefully he will not do anytime soon!  I want him to stay little!
The last thing I do is simply to hold and cuddle him.  Luke knowing he is safe and loved is the most important thing at this point in his development and it's pretty incredible for Mommy and Daddy, too!
Being at home with Luke is absolutely amazing and I am a blessed Mommy to be able to spend my day with him everyday!

our basket that stays in the living room

working on tracking