When you travel about 2500 miles for a vacation at the beach, you have to pack wisely or get bogged down with every possible thing you might end up needing while spending a week in a non-baby-proofed house with a very curious baby.
You may find yourself getting creative keeping that curious baby away from dangerous and breakable objects, which is exactly how I found myself during our recent trip to N. Cape May, NJ to visit my Mom.
Bear had little interest in the blocks, stuffed animals and trucks we leave at my Mom's place specifically for our visits and was crawling at lightning speed to anything he could find that might feel, taste or sound new. We don't want to discourage our little guy's exploratory nature, so we had to look around for things that weren't his typical playthings, but wouldn't end up shattered into a million pieces.
Fortunately, Mom orders water that comes in handy baby-friendly 3 gallon jugs. When Bear showed interest in the extra bottles on the floor near the dispenser, I grabbed an empty jug and showed him a brand new (made up on the fly) game: Block Drop!
At just over 9 months old, Bear is showing an interest in cause and effect activities and has the dexterity to plop a block through the top of a water jug, and he was off!
This game actually required quite a bit of skill and patience. If the block went into the jug just a little bit crooked, it would get caught and he'd have to start again. He stuck with it, though, and was very proud when he got the block into the jug.
Yeah, Bear, you did it!
After a few days, though, things needed to be spiced up and I happened to pass a display of ping-pong balls at the local grocery store. And so the game became Ball Drop!
PLOP!
Wow, look how big Bear has gotten!! He is picture perfect with those facial expressions as well :) Block drop sounds like fun, I bet the "plop" sound is well worth the effort of getting the block in there. Who needs "fancy toys" ?!
ReplyDeleteYes, he's huge!! Might catch up to your big guy soon! We definitely proved last week that fancy toys are a thing of the past - random household items are IN! :)
DeleteQuick thinking! Thanks for sharing with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! I hope to see you again today! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/07/eco-kids-tuesday.html
ReplyDeleteThat jug is awesome! I just love untoys. Thank you for sharing it at the Kids CoOp. So thrilled to be featuring this post as part of my toys for babies roundup. xo Pauline
ReplyDeleteThe jug is great! And now he wants to put everything into any cup, jar or bottle he can find! Thank you for the feature!
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