Sunday, April 20, 2008

Hours of fun with a $3.00 toy!

KB has usually been good about actually making use of a lot of his toys and playing with them. At least it made me feel a little better that money (and batteries!) didn't go entirely waste. For example, he has played a lot with this "Alphabet pal" toy. He still enjoys the tunes for the different letters. The other day, KG while crawling and stopping suddenly to examine some unexpected treasure in her path kept thumping her feet on the caterpillar legs of this toy randomly. I was giving KG his lunch and his eyes suddenly lit up as if he heard a favorite song again after a long time. Every time her feet randomly hit a key, he would say "P - pop goes the weasel" or "X" or whatever alphabet that tune stood for. I bring some of his baby toys back from the garage every now and then for KG to enjoy and KB in fact seems to enjoy it just as much. Return to babyhood! :)

The one "toy" which has been a super hit of late (well, besides the ball which he loves to play with in different ways) - three dollars worth of balloons in different colors. He just loves balloons! He likes to run behind a bunch of balloons and kick it up before it hits the ground. The latest and more interesting way in which he plays with the balloon is to make one of us blow the balloon but not tie it after that. We just hand it over him and he pretends like it is a rocket or just says it with the same gusto as a take off, "One, two, three....Re...lease the balloon! Whooosh!". Because of the air that is getting expelled, the balloon just randomly flies around like a little jet plane! It is actually great fun to watch even for us adults.

The other thing he does with the balloon is to spin it on the floor and see how much he is able to spin it. What happened by chance when B blew his balloon for him has now turned into another little game for him. When B was handing over his balloon to KB (for the grand release) the released air pushed his little car on it's own. So now, KB brings different objects to us - his little diesel truck, his Thomas Train, why, even his big ride on train and asks us to blow air into the balloon and he releases it behind one of these objects to see if it moves! He has been playing these balloon games nearly every day now for the last two weeks! It seems to be going strong. My brother visited us this weekend and of course was roped into blowing balloons soon after he came! Well, our lung capacity will improve pretty soon! I will be glad if more such three buck toys provide hours and hours of making merry!

10 comments:

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

I can't believe this !!! That balloon whoosh thing was a hit sometime ago as well in our household (like 3 months ago). We still play it whenever we are in the mood. This thing about the stuff moving because of the released air, we haven't made that discovery. I'm going home and doing that today pronto ! :)

Kumpi said...

hey howdy, nice catching up with all your blogs. cool, the layouts are different everytime , this one looks quite similar to mine :)

Maggie said...

That's quite cool, the way he figured out all the different ways to keep himself occupied. This is something I'm hoping Moppet will learn soon - right now, she needs someone to play with her all the time....

Anonymous said...

Parents ivest sooo much in toys, but at the kids really have fun with the basic toys. How wonderful!
Noonie give him different kins of objects to be pushed by the balloon, then talk to KB abt why he thinks this toy moved/ddn't move/moved fast/moved slow..etc and do a post of that conversation, will ya? Would love to read what he thinks is happening. Just don't give him any lessons on weight of the obj and things like that, just his ideas.

Oh, get a ballon blower gal.

noon said...

Poppins - yeah it's so much fun right? The whoosh thing...
The other game is not as much fun as the whoosh game though! :)

Vids - Good to hear from you. Will mail soon...
layouts - I am so bored of mine and I don't particularly like the templates - but somehow this one seems minimal - keep coming back to this...

Maggie - Well we have to be around to blow the balloon for him...and he esp likes the game is I am around and scream "wow...wow" and what not as the balloon is going all lover the place...

UTBT - He is so particular about things - he will only let us release the balloon air on objects he asks us to! :) I just let him bring what ever...I did try asking him about why he things it moves - he said "Balloon diesel tanker'aa thalli vuttutthu" and brinsg yet another little care...he was too involved in his game to answer me...but will catch him again some other time to gain alittle insight into what he is thinking...
We have an air pump in the garage - but KB enjoys it if we blow it up for him...I should get one of those little hand pumps for ablloons...

BangaloreMom said...

Hey Noonie

Whats up? Have been mailing you the last few days. Very busy?

Rohini said...

My brother got A the Alphabet Pal too and I have to admit that it is one of the first expensive toys that has sustained his interest and survived his rough handling...

noon said...

BM - got my mail I assume?

Rohini - yeah it does survive rough handling and falls quite well...

Aryan-Arjun said...

Wowo..one.. two... three release is so cool...I will try to play with Aryan...
Good post..
AM

Anonymous said...

So true. While money is needed for day to day survival, it sure can't buy happiness. We can learn a thing or two from kids :)
At my home turf, color pencils, markers and paint are on top of the chart. I have been wanting to get her a bike, but all she wants is one more box of paint :)