Chiku's toy collection

We made a very big decision that we will not flood Chikoo with toys and make him feel bored with all them at one go. Let the boredom with toys,  happen one toy  at a time.

So I took out a wooden toy which is a series of colourful rings which we can place one on top of another on a cenral pole and top it with a wooden piece shaped like a face with two green colour pigtails.This toy was introduced sometime back. He was fascinated by the colours and the various shapes the rings assume. The face of the girl had held his attention and interest for the maximum time.I would say lot of stories about the girl and made her turn her head in all directions. Then I used the rings to make sounds by clapping them. He has to wait for some more time to see me or D roll those rings on the floor and he can go and fetch them. So we extracted the maximum out of this doll for a few days and it has now gone back to the cardboard box.

There was a battery operated toy which had a horse and a rider and could make really loud sounds mimicking the neighing of a horse and the song of the horse rider ( a cowboy if you must).It would move all over the floor and of course turn and move in a right angle if it encounters an obstacle. Though the words were very loud, it was not clear what the song was. We concocted our own version as, " dora mutta kozhi mutta pottu daam". We made our own 'sangathis' from this skeleton and had lot of fun. Intense research by the parents had them zero in on this song as a Brazilian rap dance song on youtube. This toy is reserved for really crisis situations, when Chikoo will be stunned at the colour, noise and movement, all in one toy, all at the same time. Now it is sitting in the carboard box waiting for the batteries to be replaced.

There is a very colourful rubber ball which can also double up as an educational toy at a later stage. There are the numbers 1 to 10 , with number 7 missing! There are all these colours in various slots. It bounces well but not too much to startle a small baby. It served a lot of purpose one day, when I kept using the ball and twirling it in my hand, then bounced it for a while, and then threw it and caught it between my hands and kicked it to the far end of the room and picked it up and brought it back to him.The last one could  not last long, as it meant back and forth running around from my side. I then threw it in the air and caught it with lot of fanfare. That's it.It worked for a few sittings and spotting a waning of excitement from Chiku, it has gone back to the cardboard box.

There is this toy which is meant to help a baby when he is learning to crawl. Chiku has turned over and trying to move but is yet to succeed.So for now this colourful toy has to be used to amuse him in some other way. It is a cylindrical thick plastic toy where you have to blow to inflate it It has lots of tinkles and noise making stuff inside, so even if you just roll it around it creates soft sounds to draw and hold the attention of a baby.Not much supervision required, so I give it to him when I am nearby but busy.He tries to hold it, but cannot, so tries to tap it and squeeze it between his hands, and then try to roll it around. Since this takes various shapes and sizes, depending on your aerobic fitness that day, it keeps popping in and out of the cardboard box, dressed as a different toy each time.