Please tell me this is normal. 22month old obsessed.....

[mawbroon]

DS is just 22 months. Last week, he was obsessed with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book. He would bring it to me to read 15 times a day, and also, for days he ran about signing "caterpillar", "hungry" and "butterfly".

This week, he has taken a shine to my salad spinner. He was watching me make the tea and I let him work the spinner (it's one of these, so easy for him to work) which he loved. Then he started to ask for it and I let him play with it. This morning, he played with it non stop for 3 hours, yesterday and the day before he played non stop with it for 2.5 hours. Mostly I am delighted that he can amuse himself for so long, but a teeny bit of me worries that it's a bit OTT. He keeps saying "saiya, saiya" which is his version of "salad" and he puts little toys in it and tries putting shoes and blankets and things in it to watch them spinning round. I did PMSL yesterday when he realised he could sit on it and work the plunger with his bum.

Any words of wisdom? He's not going to end with a kitchen equipment fetish is he... LOL

[LoveMyGirls]

I think its fab, let him do it and have a cuppa

[mawbroon]

Good plan.

We have to go out now but back later..

[mawbroon]

Well, we've been out all afternoon. We pull up and park the car outside the house and he starts saying salad salad salad salad again. Now he's happily playing away making a wheeeee noise as it spins round....

[Budababe]

Bless! At around that age DS had a thing about those plastic things you use to make ice lollies. Used to play with them for hours!

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Ooh I have been wanting one like that.
Was thinking it was a lot of money for an inessential item of kitchenware, but now I know it doubles as a toddler-entertainer I will buy one forthwith.

[mawbroon]

It is indeed a very excellent salad spinner Kathy. I got mine in Lakeland around 5 years ago now, long before ds was even a twinkle. It cost more than any of the real toys he has!!

[beansontoast]

wow three hours!...thatis quite a long time!

[mawbroon]

Heybudababe, I've got those icelolly moulds too. Perhaps I could just give him them as well and just leave him to it!!

[mawbroon]

That's it exactly beansontoast. It is a very long time and coupled with the fact that he's thinking about it the second we arrive home is a bit odd...... or is it? That's really what I'm asking here.

[boo64]

Definitely think he's on his way to a kitchenware fettish with that salad spinner!!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

that he can be entertained so easily.

My dd is obsessed only with my boobs!

[Niecie]

Hi mawbroon - the book thing is normal I would think. They seem to like repetition although you do end up pulling your hair out in the end and silently screaming for something stronger than a cup of tea!

Wait till he starts correcting you because you got a word wrong because you think you've memorised it and you get it wrong!

Can I ask though, does he like to spin other things or is this a first?

Why do you think it is a problem?

[mawbroon]

Can'tsleep - he broke away from the salad spinner a few minutes ago for a feed. He unlatched in the middle of it all to say salad a couple of times.....

[mawbroon]

Niecie - I don't think it's a problem as such, I just don't know many other toddlers and the ones I do know don't seem to get quite so obsessed. I'm just looking for reassurance that it's normal really.

And yes, anything that spins is an attention grabber for him. He likes to spin his spoon or bowl at mealtimes, he spins slices of apple or any other spinable food. He has been fascinated with wheels and propellors ever since he became aware of them.

[Blueblob]

Both my boys have been obsessed by anything that turns. The youngest is 2.5 and will still sit there for ages with anything that's round and turns. Usually it's cars, I often find him laying on his bed wheeling them back and forth on the wooden edge. So yes I'd say at this age it's in the range of normal

[CantSleepWontSleep]

pmsl Mawbroon .

[mawbroon]

This morning, salad was the first word he uttered when he got up. If only he was as keen on eating it as he was on saying it!!!

[Budababe]

Thought of your DS this pm as I was in the supermarket and they had a whole display of salad spinners - he would have been in 7th heaven!

[mawbroon]

Oh yes, absolutely. Tell me which supermarket it is so I can avoid it!! We were in Sainsbury's this morning and his reward for good behaviour whilst in the shop is that we go and watch the Slush Puppie machine. He loves to watch the thinggy inside the machine rotating. Easy pleased eh?

[oregonianabroad]

my ds is going thru a salad spinner fixation too-- if only it would keep him entertained for as long as yours, i would be in heaven!!!
his fixations tend to last about a fortnight, btw, i wouldn't worry about it.

[mawbroon]

A fortnight!

It is proving a very durable piece of equipment. Perhaps I should let Lakeland know that it is toddler proof.

[sarahsails]

If you wizz them fast they are quite fun, I can see his point.

[beautifulgirls]

He'll latch onto something else soon and play with that non-stop for a while. I wouldn't worry about him. There are far worse things that toddlers do every day and if he is busy spinning things round he isn't drawing on the wall, setting fire to the curtains, putting toast in the video, clipping his baby brother/sisters hair, pouring perfume down the loo, spreading sudocreme all over the carpet........

[mawbroon]

LOL very good point beautiful girls.