Owsin has several boxes of toys in our lounge, but they don't get used much.

The items that get far and away the most use are:

1.   A wooden spoon carved for me by Alex Holden

2.  A box of cheap plastic beads from a charity shop

3.  A couple of bowls from various sources (Tibetan singing bowl, glass bowl I won in a raffle, and a wooden bowl used for dice)

This combination allows beads to be spooned from one container to another, and is the raw ingredient (along with the lounge table) for playing Birdie House.

The plastic beads are birdseed, and are eaten by the bird family in large quantities, though they can also be worms, beetles, etc.

Yesterday, she discovered a dried up seahorse that I'd found in a box somewhere and left on the windowsill for her to find.

Off the back of that, we looked at pictures of seahorses online and a couple of videos.

So, we became a seahorse family for the rest of the day (and the beads became seaweed, which was duly served up and eaten)

I was told we had to get the finger puppet animals from the toy box, as they were going to be baby seahorses.  I got nominated as daddy seahorse (mummy seahorse got to give daddy seahorse the eggs to put into the pouch) and had to tuck them into the waistband of my trousers.  When her turn came around, she improvised a pouch from some left over Xmas wrapping paper. 

Later on she said she wanted mummy seahorse to have the pouch.  After a discussion about mummy seahorses not having pouches, a switch to kangaroos was agreed, and Grandad drew the short straw of being a kangaroo while I escaped to wash the dishes!