Who needs toys?

I can see you!

Babies are amazing. We buy them hundreds of different toys and spend a small fortune on batteries, but they seem to spend most of the day playing with anything but toys!

We have a morning routine in our house. As soon as Felix has woken up, we make sure the laundry door is shut (or he will try and eat the cat food), we shut the bathroom door (or he will try and climb in the bath and pull the towels onto the floor), and we shut the gate at the end of the hall so he can't get into the lounge room or the kitchen. He likes to have a bit of a play before breakfast time, but inevitably will spend that morning time playing with everything except for toys.

Daddy's bedside table is always a fun place to start. There is almost always an empty coffee mug up there which Felix will grab straight away. He enjoys the sound the car keys make inside the mug or a pen, or anything else Daddy might have left up there. Then there is the Xbox controller. Felix has learned how to turn it on and does it almost immediately. If he can't find that, then there's always the TV remote! 

Cutest basket of washing ever!

Felix loves to open and shut the drawers and will choose an item of clothing each morning to 'try on'. He sits in front of the mirror in our room and pulls the clothes over his head, admiring his skill. Most often it's a pair of Daddy's underwear, although he has been known to have a bikini top on his head. After checking out his reflection for a while, he crawls off down the hallway with the item of clothing still hung around his neck. Pretty adorable really.

Today Felix spent a lot of time playing in the empty washing basket with a hand grip of Nathan's. I think he sat there for about 15 minutes smiling and laughing and thinking it was hilarious! Other days I've found him playing inside an empty toy box or on top of a suitcase I was packing to go away. He seems to have a great imagination already and enjoys inventing his own games. 

Yesterday he pulled a stack of 5 plastic cups out of the kitchen cupboard. He sat on the floor for ages unstacking the cups and then stacking them all back up again. It was really exciting, because although he can sometimes stack a couple of blocks on top of each other, he usually won't do it unless I'm sitting with him encouraging him. To see him stack the cups all by himself over and over again was awesome. Funny how some of his biggest learning experiences are with odd things from around the house. 

Having fun climbing on and off the suitcase.

Remember me talking about Felix having a few sensory issues with a couple of random things we'd come across?  His Early Intervention Playgroup Teacher, Jackie, suggested putting some of these items in a box for him to discover for himself. It seems to be working. I just bought some of those shower loofahs,which had previously terrified him, and put them in his toybox. He is still not overly keen on them, but isn't showing fear when I show them to him any more. He even had a very brief game of catch with one of them this morning. We will keep persisting and hopefully he'll overcome his fear.