Free toys

I spent a few hours this weekend organizing all of the toys we have collected over the past 12 months for our twin girls. I really enjoyed looking at all of the expensive plastic toys that never get played with as compared to all of the improvised household items that are favorite toys. I thought I'd start a Topic where we could all post items that work great as toys. Here are the ones that get the most use at my house:

1. Small 4x6 plastic photo albums filled with pictures of my DH, me, our nanny, our cats, grandma, and the girls. Ellie and Viv LOVE to flip through the pictures and point at all the people they know. They squeal and yell out our names and even kiss the pictures.

2. Wooden spoons. These are great teethers. They're also good for waving in the air and banging on the floor. My girls will alomst always grab the spoons before any of the plastic teethers or toys we have.

3. The bottom of the exersaucer. We cannibalized one of our saucers when it became obvious that the girls weren't interested in sitting in the saucers anymore. The top is now sitting on the floor; they can climb on it and play with the toys (which they do from time to time). The bottom, however, is the favorite toy. About six inches of the legs (the green parts, if you look at the picture) are still attached and the girls really enjoy putting things into the hollow legs. They drop balls and blocks and tiny stuffed animals down there and then pull them back out. This will entertain one or both of them for up to 1/2 an hour. Sometimes they sit in the base and other times they sit on the floor and lean in. Either way, it's great baby fun. We have this saucer, but I think it would work with any typical saucer: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?p...ellingItem=true

That's all I can think of at the moment... what about all of you? What are your twins' favorite "free" toys?

Tricia

 

What a great idea about the exersaucer! I may have to resurrect ours from storage....

Seriously, are your girls pointing to pictures and saying names? Have they been doing this for awhile? Wow, I don't think mine are anywhere near that! But, I haven't tried -- I know Nadia *loved* her photo albums (I made some with her playgroup friends, too), but she was a bit older.

Mine love bulb syringes, LOL. We have a handful of the blue hospital ones, and they are definitely the coveted items around here.

 

Gotta say tupperware! Especially the lids, it's pretty amusing to watch them hold up a clear lid in front of their face and run with it and then take the lid away and back again. Alright, so my amusement threshold is pretty low But hey, it works for me!

We still have the exersaucer around too. We just took the cloth seat part out and they pop in and out of the middle section all the time. Sometimes both of them try to fit (that doesn't work real well!)

Those are the biggies I can think of off the top of my head...

 

They seem to like spatulas alot. They like colorful things, so if they seemed bored with their toys I'll give them an orange to play with. They hold it and study it , its so cute.

 

QUOTE(Becca34 @ May 6 2008, 08:05 AM) [snapback]758142[/snapback]
What a great idea about the exersaucer! I may have to resurrect ours from storage....

Seriously, are your girls pointing to pictures and saying names? Have they been doing this for awhile? Wow, I don't think mine are anywhere near that! But, I haven't tried -- I know Nadia *loved* her photo albums (I made some with her playgroup friends, too), but she was a bit older.

Mine love bulb syringes, LOL. We have a handful of the blue hospital ones, and they are definitely the coveted items around here.


Becca - yeah, my girls have been fans of pictures since about seven months old. At first they fell in love with the boy on the Cosco diaper box, then it was pictures I cut out of baby magazines. We taped those up to the walls of their playroom and the girls would crawl over and touch the pictures and babble. I created the photo album when they were about 11 months old. For the first week or so they would just hold it and look adoringly at the pictures, but in the last few weeks they point to the picture of their dad and say 'daddy'. They do the same with the cats and our nanny. The one picture they don't seem interested in is mine!

I second the opinion on bulb syringes. The two we have from the hospital are hot properties here. I keep them in a drawer and only bring them out for particularly fussy times as a special treat.

 

Water bottles filled with anything at all are big hits here. Others include aspirators, spoons, cups, large boxes, and baby hangers.

 

Ditto to the water bottles. They love to squeeze them and make noise.

 

Ok.. SO my babies like... The wipes.. (when they are still in the bag) They make a crunchey noise.. They love boxes and playing with diapers. I have also taken the gerber puffs canister and put some dry beans in them and taped the lid. They LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
Bumbos have also become climbing obsticle (sp?)