Hellobee

I’ve always found it fascinating how endlessly entertained babies and toddlers can be by the most mundane objects. Our extended family loves to buy toys for Jackson and both grandmas are constantly trying to give us new things, but I try really hard to keep the toys in our house to a minimum – half the time, Jackson prefers playing with random objects around the house that I never thought he’d show any interest in! It’s hilarious to see what he enjoys playing with and how he likes to use objects that I would consider pretty boring, but we love to encourage him in this creative play and it’s great that he is so easily entertained by things that aren’t even meant to be played with.

Here are a few of Jackson’s favorite “toys” that aren’t actually toys.

1) Our tape measure. Oh my goodness, the joy in this kid’s face when we let him play with the tape measure. He will run around for forever measuring things (everything is “17”), pulling it out, and watching it go back in. It’s actually hard to get any projects done around the house when he’s around, just because he keeps stealing the tape measure!

2) Anything with buttons. Jackson loves our remote controls, the baby monitor in our room, and anything else that he can press buttons and pretend like he’s “working.” Sometimes he’ll hold them up to his ear like a phone, and I walked into my bedroom the other day to find him sitting in my bed with the baby monitor saying “Oh I’m just texting Daddy.”

3) Pots & pans. Jack has loved to play with our pots and pans literally since he discovered that he was able to crawl into the kitchen without being carried in there. I keep them on an open shelf on our kitchen island, so he has easy access to them and I regularly find shoes, toys, and the occasional sippy cup of milk hiding in my pots when I go to cook. Sometimes he’ll also steal one and run off to the living room to put all of his toys in it. It’s a great way to keep him occupied…until I need to actually use them.

4) Notebooks. Jackson enjoys a good coloring book, but what he really loves to do is get a notebook and a pen and go to town. He regularly makes “grocery lists” and then hops on his bike and tells me he’s going to go grocery shopping. He’ll sit for upwards of half an hour just drawing on page after page. Before kids, I remember always saying I would never let my kids ruin all of my favorite notebooks with scribblings, but here we are.

5) The broom. Every time I start to sweep Jackson comes running in begging to help and has been doing so for over a year now. He has a major infatuation with sweeping and if only he were a bit more accurate I would probably never have to clean my floors again! We tried buying him a small kids’ broom so that he could play a little more comfortably, but it just doesn’t hold the same allure as the big broom.

6) My closet. Not technically an object, but Jackson could sit and play in my closet for hours if I let him. He loves to try on my hats and my shoes, pull everything out, put it back where it belongs, and just generally wreak havoc. It’s so strange to me that this tiny little room is so much fun for him, but if we hang out in my bedroom for more than about 10 minutes it is almost guaranteed that he’ll end up in there at some point.

What random objects does your toddler enjoy playing with?