Things I wish I'd known - Part 2

Welcome to part two of my series on things I wish I had known sooner about parenting.

Today's topic is TOYS!

When buying toys before Josiah's birth we didn't really know what we were doing and just got what we thought would be good. As time has gone by we have been surprised by what toys have and haven't been a success. For example, we got ourselves a Blossom Farm Sit Me Up Cosy thinking it would be better than a standard play mat. Josiah loves the animals that come with it and enjoys their sounds and textures and how easily the legs fit in his mouth. However, the sit me up cow bit has been very little use at all to be honest. Whenever we used it to help prop him up while learning to sit he just fell sideways and got his head wedged between the two rings! For our next child I will definitely be investing in a play mat with hanging toys above it instead.

Now, instead of me telling you what toys aren't good, let me tell you which ones have come out as favourites. Here's my tops toys list:

1. Stacking cups. Josiah has a set with holes in the bottom making them fun for pouring water out of at bathtime. The bright colours, building towers and knocking them down, learning to put them inside each other and being able to pretend to drink out of them all make these a huge success in our house.

2. Wooden spoon. Great for teething, for banging things during the 'learning about noises' phase and generally just fun to wave around to work on spacial awareness. Be sure to only give your child an old well worn wooden spoon so as to avoid splinters.

3. Teddy bear. This is Josiah's bedtime bear. He loves cuddling his bear as he falls asleep and now he's a bit older he falls asleep chatting to his bear (cute but kinda annoying at 4am). The knot in the hat is also great for sucking on and teething. The bear is so light and soft that he has been able to pick him up and throw him around the cot from a very young age and I have no fear of him accidentally being smothered by the thing. I've had to go out and buy a spare bear so I can wash the original as it's been so chewed and well loved.

4. Books. Josiah loves books and now at 8 months old is really loving ones that have different textures he can feel. He also has a couple of cloth books that he loves because he can turn the pages by himself and the pages make different noises when he turns them. Some favourites we have found are...
Squishy turtle and friends - a cloth book that has an octopus with felt legs, shiny fish, an oyster to open and various other textures to feel.
Poppy Cat's Farm - a board book with cut out windows that teaches animal noises while playing hide and seek.
That's not my snowman - there's a whole range of these board books with different textured bits on every page.
Baby Touch - Rainbow - he doesn't actually own this one, just gets super excited looking at it in the book shop while daddy reads boring books. It's a brightly coloured board book with textured bits on each page. It's part of a series of textured books teaching things from animals to vehicles.
Baby Teether Book - a board book with a chewy teething bit and rattle. Great for taking when you're travelling as it's like 3 toys in one.

5. Textured soft toys. Josiah has a toy dog that has to be one of the best designed toys he owns. It's got different colours and textures, a mirror, rings round its ankles that make it easy to grab and teeth on, a jingly sound and skinny legs he can easily grab. He loves this thing so much he's almost chewed the poor things ear off! Here's a video of when he first got the dog for Christmas last year.

Lamaze do a great range of these brightly coloured, multi textured, noise making toys.

How about you? What toys would you recommend?