100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 33: Silicone Cupcakes

As a wedding shower gift, Andrew and I got some silicone cupcake liners. I also got a silicone cupcake pan, and it works much better. And, so, the liners went mostly unused.

Then, we became parents. In desperation to entertain my baby, I used almost everything in the kitchen to try to capture his attention. Silicone cupcake holders were always a winner. I'd put them on things, like his feet, and let him figure out how to get them off. I'd put them on my head and nose to make him giggle. I'd put one partially in my mouth and shoot it in his direction. They did wonders. When I watched Owen for those few months last fall, he, too, enjoyed the cupcake holders. I have no idea why, but they're great baby fun.

Here are some throwback pictures of Oliver & me from November 2010:

They've gone mostly unused for the better part of six months. Occasionally, Oliver uses them as water scoopers when I let him have a bowl of water to play with. Anyway, I decided to bust them out again today to see what kind of fun we could have. The winner? Cupcake towers!

I stacked the cupcake liners in a pyramid, and Oliver enjoyed destroying it. He'd try to rebuild it, but it seems like he can't stack things in a pyramid form with his current developmental level. He just stacks them directly on top of each other. Here are a couple shots of his stacking efforts:

Here are shots of Oliver enjoying some cupcake tower fun:

For us, this activity was free because we had the cupcake liners on hand. I think other parents can use other random objects to have fun stacking. Clean, empty yogurt containers might work. Heck, even regular, paper cupcake liners might work. The ease and simplicity of the activity demands that I give it a good grade, so I give silicone cupcakes an A-. It kept Oliver occupied, and we got to play together for a good ten minutes.