Mastering toys

Liam has mastered two of his toys. The push cart that he puts different shapes into and his crate of blocks. He can fit the shapes into their holes and he can put all the blocks tightly back into the crate. (And gets much applause from us when he does these things again and again.) So last night I thought it was time for us to buy him the pound-a-ball.

I put Liam to bed and headed to Target to buy this fun toy last night.

So this morning I opened the pound-a-ball packaging and let him at it. All he had to say was "oh" and grabbed two of the four balls and kept rotating them so he could hold all four. He loves balls, balloons, anything round. So it took me a few minutes to get his attention on the hammer and the pounding, but I had no luck getting him into the real purpose of the toy as a whole. He was content with carrying a ball in each hand and "sharing" them with me for seconds at a time.


About ten minutes later he wandered back to the base of the toy and set up the balls. He picked up the hammer and pounded two of the balls in and chased the third one that got away! I immediately got the camera ready to record him doing it again. It was a one time deal. He never did it again. I was disappointed but proud at the same time. He got the concept and wanted me to know (or wanted to see what the fuss was about all by himself). He continued carrying the balls around and "sharing" them with me over and over.

We got home from work this evening and we worked with him some more on the pound-a-ball. He tried it one more time successfully then started chasing the balls again. He must be pretty smart. We need a new toy that is more advanced apparently. I would like to get him some of those wooden puzzles, but they are so expensive. Maybe there are toys like that at thrift stores. I will have to investigate. We certainly need to keep that little brain stimulated. I hate putting him at a stand still.