My New Favorite Toy

Grace discovered a new toy yesterday!  It prompted me to do some research on baby development and educational play.  What would we do without Google?

At 6 months a baby...

• still loves faces most of all and is learning to recognize people other than mom and dad (Gigi, we can skype with you soon).
• can see colors and will gravitate towards bright colors and high contrast.
• loves different textures, especially when she can explore them with her tongue.
• is fine-tuning hand-eye coordination and no longer just bats aimlessly at toys.
• can learn how to stack toys and the difference between in and out.
• is learning about cause and effect and is fascinated by toys that make noise when manipulated.

Some of our favorite toys right now are:

• the Tiny Love gym that we picked up for free (yay!) at the Mom2Mom swap table back in the spring.  Tiny Love is a great baby toys brand.  They incorporate shapes, textures, sounds, colors, mirrors, etc.  Grace can pull the toys off the gym to get them into her mouth and is particularly interested in sucking on their tags.  She rolls all over the mat (I will often find her 90 or 180 degrees from where I put her).  I'll put her on her tummy facing the mirror to get some tummy time but she prefers to lay on her back so she can see her toys.

• the rattle we picked up at Gigi's house.  This toy is so old I can't find a picture of it online!  Grace shakes it so vigorously that sometimes she smacks her head with it.  Daddy wants me to find a softer rattle :o).

• Sophie the Giraffe.  It's a cool texture and great for teething and squeaks when you squeeze it.  What could be better?  This toy apparently is all the rage these days.  We got it as a gift from one of the brokers Zane works with.  It seemed rather random at the time but now we love it!

• our "night night bear."  We introduced this toy to Grace to give her something to cuddle with in bed and trigger "it's night night time."  Oftentimes she sleep with it under one arm while sucking her other thumb.  This picture is from a while ago, back before her thumb replaced her monkey.  Where has my little baby gone?  

• and finally... Grace's new favorite toy, the toy that inspired this whole post, the classic Fisher Price staking rings.  (And by the way, only moms, dads and grandparents can tolerate this many pictures of the same thing...but look at all those different expressions :o))