Favorite toys & play equipment for 6 to 12 month olds?

[joyful mommy]

Hi,

Would some of you share your favorite toys and inside play equipment for 6 to 12 month old babies. I'm thinking roughly of the age when they're too heavy for their swings, are learning to sit on their own, may start crawling, but aren't yet walking. :)

I've read enough to cause me to shy away from exersaucers, but am looking for other suggestions . . . . What do your babies like at home, at relatives homes, at play group, at your place of worship, or at a Parents' Day Out program they attend?

Thanks!

-- Joyful Mommy

[Saartje]

What DS (10 months) likes best (and has for months):

Activity Garden (by Little Tikes -- unfortunately discontinued, and it's so popular the eBay prices are or were ridiculous; I found one on Craigslist)

Kitchen implements (spatula, wire whisk, heavy bowls, and most especially spoons: guaranteed way to entertain him at any restaurant is to give him a spare spoon to play with)

Foam-filled fabric blocks (homemade, though I expect you can buy them some places, too; he's liking these less now, but they were a big hit for a few months)

Yellow plastic ducks (meant to be bathtub toys, and often are)

Board books (We're fans of Sandra Boynton.)

Certain toys that used to be attached to his Gymini: The ladybug (with crinkly wings), the elephant head (with beads on a handle), the monkey (with bigs eyes and stretchy legs), and the plastic butterflies

Blocks, two at a time, to hold in each hand and bang on a table. He also likes to sort through a batch of blocks of different colours, to find two that are the same colour but different shapes and carry them around.

Recently, he's taken a great liking to any toy with wheels, and pushes them back and forth all over the floor.

ETA: When he was in the not-yet-crawling (but creeping all over the floor) stage, he liked the Lamaze inchworm. We joked that he wrestled with it like a fictional hero wrestling with a sea serpent.

[CBB]

DD loved the Leap frog learning table, still plays with it. Other favorites: board books (also a fan of Boynton, and Karen Katz), balls, peek-a-block train. Her favorite game in playgroup is definitely Parachute - she would jump and scream in excitement. Oh, I forgot about the gymboree bubbles.

[smiliedds]

Boarb books, board books, board books... Once in a while, peek-a-blocks. The rest of the time, he would just go around and bang on our furnitures.
I wish he would like the other toys we bought. But it seems like he just want to chew on the board books most of the time.