Free (or nearly) toys

As much as _I_ like the fancy toys, sometimes dd is as happy, or happier, with the freebees. :)

- She loves the spatula I gave her from my kitchen, as well as the bowls.
- She loves playing with towels.
- She loves plastic hangers, especially plastic hangers with clothes on them.
- After she was quite petulant about not getting to type on mommy's keyboard at work, our sysadmin thoughtfully pulled out a dead keyboard from storage and cut off all the cords. It's one of her favorite toys - so many buttons! And they make good clack noises.
- Free AOL CDs
- magazines and catalogs
- and of course, the ever popular cardboard boxes.

>- She loves plastic hangers, especially plastic hangers with
>clothes on them.

You might want to rethink the hangers as toys. My daughter got a plastic hanger caught in her mouth when she was about one year old. She wedged it all the way back and turned it so the hook was down her throat!

My daughter has the weirdest collection of expensive and freebie toys. She loves them all. A couple of things the first poster dind't mention:

CUPS! Empty yogurt cups, cups from kids meals at family restaurants, empty plastic containers from food you buy in the supermarket, etc. She loves stacking them and building them into towers.

BOTTLES! I drink the sparkling bottled water in plastic bottles. Whether they are individual or full-sized, my daughter loves playing with the empty ones. Sometimes I even put some tap water in there so she can see it sloshing around. A friend of mine put Cheerios in one and made a rattle/musical instrument for her 10 month old. Just make sure you are using the kind with screw on caps they can't get off and choke on.

BROKEN ADULT TOYS! My daughter loves playing with old remote controls, telephones, computer keyboards, computer mouses, calculators, etc. Take the batteries out (or make sure the battery compartment is well-sealed) and her go! She loves to walk around the house 'talking' on a 'real' cordless phone.

Another thing that is (almost) free is the 'free' children's software they advertise in those baby flyer envelopes you get in the mail. We got a package called Reader Rabbit Toddler for 'free' ($3 shipping cost was all we paid). It officially starts at age 1, but she didn't get into it until about 16 months, and still isn't into all the games at 20 months but there are some she loves. All you have to do to play is move the mouse, no clicks necessary! This often keeps her busy for 30 minutes at a time.