A Man with a Hammer

There’s an old saying that goes, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Well, to a 6-month-old baby, everything looks like a drumstick. Ryan’s latest fascination is with noises, especially those he makes himself and particularly those that involve banging objects together. It’s nice if a toy rattles or jingles by itself, but if two such toys can be whacked together, all the better!

It began innocently enough when he discovered that slapping his hands against his bare legs made a good noise, and progressed on to banging on Mum’s legs (preferably when she was wearing jeans – denim is an excellent acoustic medium), then banging on the floor or table. But it really got exciting when instead of soft hands banging something it was two solid objects banging each other. Two blocks, two rings, a bottle and a bottle cap, a spoon and a cup, a truck and a ball – it didn’t really matter as long as they made noise when struck together!

On a deeper, developmental level, I’m sure he’s learning a lot about physics and object interaction and acoustics, but mostly I think he just enjoys whacking stuff together. Really, what’s not to love about that? So I’m thinking it’s time to invest in some toys that are a) virtually indestructible and b) limited in their decibel level no matter how hard they’re struck. Something in the Tupperware family should be good....