Toys of the moment

Jolly loves chewing on ceramic. He's loved plates for a while now, but his new thing is mugs. He gnaws away at them happily, the fiestaware squeaking as it slides back and forth on his upper gums and clinking on his two lower teeth. We've also substituted more traditional materials, like wooden spoons, but his favorite definitely seems to be the ceramic surfaces, even including the edge of the bathtub.

By the way, speaking of ingestion and bathtime - we tried using a washcloth and it is now an approved alternative method for conveying bathwater into the mouth, in addition to slurping up directly. Yum yum yum. But failing to drink the bathwater at all is not acceptable.

Silverware is also fun, especially our teaspoons. He's currently delighting in testing his gag reflex by shoving handles to the back of his mouth, but he's also discovered percussion, and enjoys banging objects on other objects with great glee. Throwing things down is entertaining in the same way, except then he realizes that he no longer HAS the thing he threw down, which is a bit of a problem.

Fabric is still great fun to put in the mouth, but hard objects seem to be the biggest favorite right now, in part because they bang and in part because they just seem more fun to chew on. Wooden rattles are also a good time to flail around, but I think perhaps it's the mimicry that makes cups and spoons even more exciting, since he sees us putting those into our mouths. (It should be noted that we do not slurp on our plates, though.)

Other games that are hilarious right now include standing up with support and then throwing himself down. This is like extreme bouncing. Regular bouncing is fun, but not as much fun as launching himself into a random direction other than down. We suspect that this may not be the best behavior to encourage, but it's still a great deal of fun to catch him as he squeals with glee.

Lastly, the strings on our sweatshirts are still great toys, but the string category has now expanded to include pajama ties. He's now managed to untie the bows, too!