My Toddler’s Top Five Favorite Toys

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The amount of toys available for kids these days can be overwhelming.  Does it light up? Check. Is it loud? Check. Does it supposedly teach them 101 skills that you could never possibly teach a kid in a day? CHECK! But what about a toddler’s favorite toys that aren’t toys at all?

I have researched every single toy in our house.  I spent more time looking at toy reviews than I spent looking at places to live.  I chose ones that would fit in our tiny house.  I chose ones that were multi-taskers and taught my toddler a wide array of skills.  I chose ones that had different variations as he grew so it would last us for a number of years.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve spent on toys for my son. I can’t even begin to tell you how much other people have spent on our son.  We have everything that Toys R Us told us our child would love or that some website ranked as the number one toy for kids his age. Our living room has been taken over by the biggest, loudest, and most vibrant toys money can buy.

I know what you’re thinking. Here comes another Best Toys list pitting Fisher Price and VTech against each other. Nope. Put the wallet away and get those clicky fingers off of Amazon. You may already own all of these toys.

Here’s my toddler’s top five favorite toys that actually aren’t toys at all.

Phones and Remotes

I decided this should be one category because he shouldn’t be playing with either but when he is it’s the best day of his life.  He will never smile at Beat-Bo the way he smiles at my Comcast remote. Never.  The remote doesn’t light up. It doesn’t sing. I would never remove the batteries because the remote brings value to the home that cannot be replaced or turned off.

My Samsung Galaxy phone is probably his favorite toy. I have to turn it on Airplane Mode because I refuse to have my young son post as me on a social media site already. Rion has a few apps on my phone and it’s very much my fault for even using the phone to show him how much fun it is.  He sees it and he wants to scroll. His play phones do none of this making them completely useless in our house.

Sigh.

Boxes

You know those things that the big toys come in? Those are way more exciting than the toy you’re putting together for your kid. Why can’t we just buy the colorful boxes? They provide hours of entertainment. They’re probably easier to store.  Your kid can climb on the box and can climb in the box. He can probably play with the box with a fox.  He can open and close the flaps.  He can drag it across the floor as if it’s on wheels.  That toy that came with it? Psh. It has nothing on the box it came in.

Photo Albums

We have two empty photo albums because I’m either too lazy or too busy to actually put photos in it.  You can choose, but choose wisely.  These completely empty white 4×6″ photo albums go with my son all over the house.  He will take these empty books from room to room, showing us the empty pages, and pretending to read the nothing that it contains.  One day, Supermom will fill these pages with things to look at, like animals, letters, words, and pictures.

I sure hope Supermom shows up. My son would enjoy not playing with all of her handiwork.

Tupperware

Tupperware is probably the only thing that may resemble some kind of toy.  I’d consider them his building blocks as he is able to stack them and swap out the lids.  He usually just throws them around.  He loves the smacking of the closed Tupperware on my hardwood floor.  He also likes leaving them all over the house just in case a Tupperware party breaks out and I need to show off all the Tupperware we own.

Toilet Paper

I should probably just include everything in the bathroom in this one, but he loves the toilet paper way more than the toilet brush and the scale.  Adults hate both of those things anyway.  The toilet paper. Ah.  So, you know how when you’re a mom and you can’t even use the bathroom without your kids bothering you? This is how he discovered toilet paper. We have to keep him away from all bathrooms or else he will spin the roll around and around until half of it is on the floor.

Also fun, ripping the toilet paper as you unroll it. I had no idea until I caught Rion doing this and laughing.  Silence is scary, but so is laughter if you’re not around to see why he’s laughing.

There’s my son’s Top Five favorite toys as of right now.  As with a toddler being a toddler, this will change daily.  Maybe even hourly.

What are your toddler’s favorite toys that aren’t toys at all?