Annoying toys for small children

[sobrique]

Right, well.
I'm in need of some suggestions for annoying toys for small children. So far I'm thinking messy, noisy or both.

But wait, erm. Yeah.

My lovely sister (She who posts as csi_ellie occasionally) had a baby this morning.

Will be called Logan, and was born at 0302, and weighed 8lbs 12.
I have no idea if that's good or not, but I figure it's heavier than a steak (even a really big one), so that's probably not a bad thing.

Convenient timing I feel, as it's just in time for Fathers day. (By the way slackers, fathers day is the 15th of June. That's 2 weeks)

So anyway, I feel it's my duty as uncle, and annoying older brother to ensure little baby Logan is corrupted and given every opportunity to annoy the hell of of his parents. (Just watch, I'll get a restraining order in the post in a few days).

To this end, I'm thinking:
Glitter.
Fingerpaint.
Playdough.
Things that make noise. Especially those that aren't battery powered, and can't therefore 'run flat'. Like rattles. And recorders.


Anyway, congratulations Ellie and Gaius.

(BTW, Google Calendar is awesome. Does anyone else use it? It works quite nicely with GooSync too, to synchronize with some phones, like my N95)

Comments

[warmage.livejournal.com]

its 3/4 stone, that's about as much as (I'm guessing) 3 or 4 pair of running shoes?

[warmage.livejournal.com]

oh, ON the topic... anything that sings a loop of "It's a Small World" has to go at the top of your hit-list. Second are "ticklish" toys like Elmo and the such. I don't have time today to seek out examples you can get in UK but maybe tomorrow I can do so.

Congrats, Onkle Ed.

[elrohana.livejournal.com]

Early Learning Centre. That's all I have to say....drums, keyboards, annoying pull-along toys that make noise, things that light up and make noise....we went there when we became godparents, and its almost as much fun for adults as the toys are for the kids.....

[ephrael.livejournal.com]

There isn't much thats really annoying that you can get for new babies, most of it tends to say '18 months or over' on it. Maybe a bear with a noise in it.
However, as he ages, may I recommend all musical instruments (especially drums), kerplunk, and hungry hungry hippos.

[phyrbyrd.livejournal.com]

I bought my nieces an ocarina each, a set of panpipes and one of those thunder tubes - you know, the horridly loud ones with the spring, that you shake?

[dr-wez.livejournal.com]

There's some sort of kids program from Northern Europe that I forget the name of, which gave rise to the term "sports candy". You can get little dolls of characters from that that talk when you manipulate their limbs. They are extremely irritating in the hands of small childs.

[gingerboy.livejournal.com]

You're thinking of LazyTown, my daugher's got the Stephanie doll. Thankfully it's not been played with for more than a few minutes at a time, so the 5 repeating phrases haven't managed to get too annoying... :-)

[callylevy.livejournal.com]

Congratulations to your sister! Can I just check, however, "Gaius" is not the same Gaius who used to go to Warwick Uni, in my year, is he??

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Very probably is, yes. I'm only aware of one who went to Warwick at all, and certainly only one who was a member of Sci-Fi.

[malal.livejournal.com]

It is the one & the same.

[malal.livejournal.com]

And by that, yes Feral (now tamed) Dog Boy has mated with the line of Evil Geniuses. I Fear for the world.... ;-P

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

And yes, his is, therefore, my brother-in-law.

This I feel is a good thing in general. At least one of my (extended) family I understand tastes well enough to find christmas shopping less than a chore ;p

[callylevy.livejournal.com]

*grins* Agree to all! It is a wonderful and scary thing that Gaius is:

1) tamed
2) married
3) part of Ed's family
4) a father

Oh my, might have to go have a lie-down now. Please pass on my love! Haven't seen him in a ludicrous amount of time.

[zaitan.livejournal.com]

If you are interested in a very unique rattle, then you could try speaking to my mum.

http://www.ruthfacey.co.uk/jewellery.asp?pieceID=12

[purp1e-magic.livejournal.com]

Congrats to you on becoming an uncle, and more so to them on their new parenthood!

8lb12 is a good birth weight. To give you an idea of the normal range, 6lb is small 10lb is big. Both of mine were just over 7lb.

If you want a toy to be annoying it's got to be really good fun for the baby. That way the parents feel guilty about hiding it away at the bottom of a toy box. I generally don't mind most toys - if I find it irritating, most other parents find it tear-your-hair-out annoying. My top 2 most annoying toys:
1: a mechanism by which a set of toys climbs a set of stairs, then slides to the bottom again. As an adult, it's interesting for 2 minutes. After an hour, you get a bit irritable. After a week I took it apart an took out the squeaker, but Simon still played with it until it was more than just a little bit broken.
2: a musical telephone that you can't switch off with an over-sensitive button. You could bury that at the bottom of the toy box, but it'll still play Yankee Doodle at top volume whenever someone takes a toy out of the box or jumps on the far side of the room. The advantage of this one is that Simon has played with it for 5 years and counting, and Sophia has loved it since birth - so much so that I even replaced the batteries despite hating the dratted thing. Variations on the theme would be light, sound or motion senstive musical toys. By the way, batteries running flat just makes them all the more annoying!

You won't get messy toys for a newborn. Everything a newborn has is clean - sterelised bottles/ dummy/ teethers ect. Usually they are starting to explore by themselves before you stop sterelising, and they have to be able to follow instructions about what not to try and eat before you let them at paints, glitter or playdough. You can, however, pave the way for messy toys later on down the line. Toys with self-contained mess are usually suitable for babies - things like squishy coloured/ glittery putty stuff inside a plastic pouch. They are usually embedded in soft toys or on the front covers of books.

For something more immediately messy however, you may want to look at bath toys. They're not messy of themselves, but the splash potential is there.

Hope this helps.

[gingerboy.livejournal.com]

As already mentioned, a drum of some sort has scope - especially if the drum stick is not attached and so can be used to thump other toys / furniture / siblings.

We have a duck pond game - the 12 ducks rotate around a 12" round duck pond and you have to take turns picking up a duck to see if it has your coloured shape on it's backside. Unfortunately it makes a quacking noise as the ducks rotate around, and has no time limit. They often press the button to start it going and walk off leaving it quacking away...

[csi-ellie.livejournal.com]

Ed you seem to assume you are the most evil member of our family. However I have absolutely no qualms about telling Logan that his uncle is mean and just chose not to give him a present rather than going out of my mind!!

Logan is much larger than a steak, and i would not suggest you try eating him.

Gaius and I are quite happy that Logan can make enough noise by himself at the moment but when you come and baby sit you can find that out for yourself. We are teaching him to be evil and so far he has weed on himself and is trying to get us both as well.

Give me a ring when you want to visit your very cool nephew

Ellie