I thought it was worthwhile to do a post about books that keep Veronika entertained in the car, as she hits fourteen months old. I’ve found that while she won’t spend much time with books at home, she’ll flip through these solo in her car seat, often for quite some time! Here are a few varieties that really do the trick.

First up: cloth books. She has one I love that features a different number on each page, and items to manipulate in different ways (four slices of pizza, six fish, etc.). Another favorite tells the (much abbreviated) tale of Peter Rabbit, with bunnies to slide and flaps to lift, all in soft cloth. These are great for the car because they double as sensory material in addition to the visuals.

Next up: bathtub books are surprisingly great in the car since the texture is novel and the pages beg to be turned.

We love to giggle over The Pigeon Needs a Bath, even if she doesn’t “get” the story yet.

Finally, musical books. Although I’m not a fan of them in the house, books that make a lot of noise can be just the ticket for car entertainment. We love V-Tech’s Musical Rhymes Book that sings the words on each page, plus features buttons with instruments or colors.

What does your toddler love in the car? Please share in the comments! Note: All photos were taken outside of the car for safety’s sake, of course.

Today I simply took some time to concentrate with Veronika on one particular type of toy: stacking cups. She has several versions of these, whether round rings and cups or square boxes, all of which can stack together or – the opposite – nest inside each other.

I set out the different sets around her and cleared other toys from the area so she could concentrate on these.

She is very drawn to nesting items, in particular, and loves finding ways to put the smaller cups in the bigger ones, or finding other containers that the cups can fit inside of.

Then we concentrated on the opposite: stacking a few blocks up.

No worries if your little one mixes and matches sets; Veronika loved balancing the nesting cups on top of the stacked boxes!  Then she mixed in the other direction, nesting the smallest box inside the cups.

These toys are great for brain development and motor skills and require no fancy set up. I love knowing that the toys will grow with her, some day able to make towers of her own without mommy’s help!

If you’ve noticed that your toddler’s favorite part of opening presents is the wrapping paper itself, you’re not alone. Babies and toddlers love the feeling of paper, the crinkly sounds it makes, and of course just ripping things open. So keep up the fun with this quick game.

Use leftover wrapping paper to randomly wrap a few old toys. It’s not what’s inside that matters here, but the fun of getting to it!

I selected a few of Veronika’s toys and wrapped them loosely, using just a little tape on each. You can even leave a bit of the toy showing, since this helps your little one understand that there is a toy inside.

At first Veronika was most interested in the roll of tape, which didn’t surprise me.

Then I encouraged her to pull back sheets of the paper. She loved tearing at it, once she got the idea.

Old toys seem new again, when they’re revealed like this! You could even turn this into a regular game if it ever seems like your toddler needs a refresher on fun around the house.

For extra fun, we wadded up the wrapping paper once the gifts were open, and tossed these balls into a “basket”.

The fun here is almost limitless!