Endless toys are on the market for babies and children of every stage and age. When I originally selected a small handful of toys for Kaia for the baby registry last year, I tried to choose things that would be interactive and provide some sensory stimulation, and I guess some of them are labeled as “Montessori” type activities. At around the 3-month mark, she loved playing peek-a-boo with Shungu, the elephant stuffed animal “blankie”, and she also enjoyed Babar, the multi-sensory elephant that was gifted to her. She loves anything that plays music, so the few “baby Mozart/Beethoven” music toys got a lot of use. She still occasionally plays with Babar, and she stil loves the music toys. But her favorite toys now… are not actually toys. They are random cardboard boxes we have from deliveries, plastic bottles from Chris’s beverages he brings home, sealed shut pill bottles. Most of all, though, her absolute favorite toy… is my phone. I guess I can’t be surprised: she sees us on our phones constantly, so she’s eager to see what all the fuss is about on these magical, mysterious screens of ours. Plus, she also gets to watch videos of herself on them! I try to limit her screen time a lot, and I almost always give the phone to her while it’s “locked.” But she’s absolutely obsessed with it and babbles endlessly when she’s fiddling with it. The other “toy” she hasn’t tired of? All her pacifiers!

There’s a phone attachment on her baby walker, and while she does shake it and play with it, she probably has zero clue that it’s supposed to be a “dumb” phone. One day soon, she will laugh when we tell her.