But here's the thing. Having toys is great, and Riley does play with them when they're out there. But, I think I like it better when she doesn't have toys. When there aren't any toys, she explores, and seeks out things to play with. She crawls around, she pulls to stand, she goes from room to room. She finds things that become toys for her. It also forces me to facilitate activities with her. We go for walks, or go to the park or beach. We read books, we sing songs. We play games and I teach her things. And that just seems so much better than plopping her down on the floor to play with a bunch of plastic toys.
So today, I came up with a plan, largely inspired by Sarah, over at Becoming Sarah. First, I bagged up a whole bag of toys that either are (1) too baby-ish (2) kind of lame or (3) we have duplicates of. They are getting donated to people who need toys way more than our little Riley bug. Then, I sorted through the remaining toys, and divided them into 4 piles. There's about 5-6 toys in each pile that are each sufficiently different. I put them in bins, and we'll have one bin of toys out at a time. So Riley only has 5-6 toys out at a time, and we'll rotate the bins to keep them fresh and exciting. Less clutter for everyone, less over-stimulation and toy madness for Riley.
And with fewer toys, I get to spend more time coming up with fun activities for this little face. And I'm liking it a whole lot I tell ya.