Your Baby's Fav Toy When He Was Sitting/cruising/walking

The best toy we had when my daugher was that age and starting to learn to walk was a diaper box. We kept that thing for months. Because it was empty she was able to push it around and walk with it. We bought her a toy walker (a push truck) and she got really frustrated trying to manuever it around. With the diaper box she had no problems. Best toy we ever had to keep her entertained and the cheapest! :)

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My son got a busy ball popper (playskool, I think) for his birthday last week and he loves it! Especially when he gets to chase a ball that got away. He also got one of those heavy-duty plastic shopping carts and pushes it around the room.

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We do have a leapfrog musical table (thanks for reminding me...it is downstairs, I need to pull it up). Our first son LOVED that when he just started to pull up onto things.

I don't know what I would have done w/o a walker. We have stairs too, but are just extremely anal about having a gate up. Honestly, it is just as much a risk when they are crawling as when they are in a walker...you just have to program yourself and everyone else in your house about the gate. My family calls me the "gate nazi" because I literally remind them about it every single time they come over (which is at least once a week!!).

You know what my kiddos LOVE to play with - tupperware containers with lids, wooden cooking spoons, measuring spoons, and measuring cups.

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Walkers are not safe when parents don't watch their kids while in them. That being said, my son LOVED the walker. And we have two different sets of stairs. We just put up gates, and he scooted around to his hearts content.

Couple of thoughts...
1. No walkers, now that he's cruising he will be walking soon and it will quickly be an "attic item".
2. Have him pull up on the exersaucer and "cruise" around the outside playing with the different items. My son loved his long after he needed to sit IN.
3. Take half of his toys and put them away. In two months, rotate them and it will seem like there are all "new toys"! Things that are really "too young" should go away permanently, but when there are too many options, kids gravitate toward the "familiar".
4. We had the Fisher Price music table and my son loved it! He got it for his 1st birthday and it replaced the exersaucer as his "stationary" toy.

Toys he liked:
- anything musical- the Mozart Cube is amazing, but can be hard to find
- blocks
- "chunky" cars and trucks
- books
- "cause-and-effect" toys- if he "does" something to the toy, something should happen in return!

I second CJR. *Every* time we got our daughter a special toy, she ended up preferring the box it came in. Apart from boxes, our daughter loved cruising the furniture, the dog, using our hands to help her balance...in short, she loved cruising everything and anything. The best things in life ARE free!

Stop giving him toys, would be my suggestion. My doesn't care about all that stuff. At that stage, when starting to walk, all they're interested in is exploring what's around them.

I have the musical table, and it's a great point to stop for a bit. But mostly, he wanted to explore the room. Touch things, reach things he couldn't before. So I'd just take all of the dangerous things out of his reach, and let him go around the house.
My son loved little things, like remotes and calculators. Things he could reach, and we let him explore. All that money wasted on toys that he never touched.

PS: walkers are perfectly fine as long as your house is childproofed. They've gotten a bad reputation because a few people in the past tuned out and their kids walked into fireplaces or tumbled down stairs. They're terrific, as long as you have that stuff safe.

Fisher Price Learning Home...I think that's what it was called. I see a ton of them at mom 2 mom sales if you have them. it's a larger toy, about 3 ft. wide, and 2 feet tall or so. it has an opening door to crawl through, mailbox, drain spout with balls, light switch, etc. and plays 26 catchy tunes. all kids who came over loved it too!

My son was walking at 10 1/2 months. What he enjoyed the most was push/pull toys. Sounds like your son will be walking quite soon. And yes, he will just want to go go go. Exploring all the new stuff he can reach and get to on his own, and the different perspective he will have on his world (several inches higher than he's explored it before!) A ride on toy (no pedals.. just sit on and push it around with his feet) or push toy. Or one that does both (usually there'll be a seat and a high-backed back on it that can also use to push it with).

We have a walker because we have all wooden floors. My 7 month old just follows me around when he is in it. We too have stairs, but we only use it on the main level and keep the basement door shut at all times due to it being cold down there. Otherwise we really don't play with any toys other than our ball. My son will push it across the floor go it and push it again for hours.

We have the leapfrog music table, and both of my girls love(d) it! (Though, either set it on carpet or a rubber play mat or against something else - there aren't grippers on the feet, and it'll slide across a hard floor if your little one leans on it too hard.) There is a fantastic brand of durable molded plastic cars, "Chubbies" (made by Viking Toys). They are slightly flexible, and therefore nearly indestructable, and just the right size for little hands. Plus, they're BPA- and pthalate-free, and dishwasher-safe, so you can feel okay about him putting them in his mouth. And they're just right for a cruiser to stand at the coffee table and play with. For the cruising stage, we also had push cars, and a large Tonka dump truck, which our now 41/2 year old and 1 1/2 year olds now use to push around outside. (But then, we didn't have stairs...) Our independent walkers got the old-fashioned puppy on a string, with wheels on the bottom so that he could be pulled around the house.