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

[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.