Sensory Kitchen Play

So...R gets bored.  I know to some that might sound silly to say about a 6 month old.  But he REALLY does.  He has met about 90% of his 9 month milestones, he has been crawling, sitting up and pulling up on furniture/mommy's leg/the dogs for weeks now.  He is ALWAYS on the go and is always looking for something new to explore.  Our entire living room floor is covered in baby toys...but he has already played with all of those a hundred times and they just don't interest him anymore.  So today, I decided to try something new.  I got out about 10 plastic bowls of different sizes, some lids and a bunch of measuring cups and spoons and put them on the kitchen floor.  Then I put some dry maccaroni in some ziplock bags and some in an old plastic peanut butter container.  Then I took a couple tiny tupperware containers and filled them with colored water.  I took 4 other small food storage containers and filled them about half full of rice, added some food coloring and shook them up.  And guess what....he has been enthusiastically playing for almost a half hour without a peep or even a glance at mommy.  Another day I plan to get down there with him and talk about colors and shake things with him and drum on the bowls and open and close things for him.  But today, after a VERY long, sleepless night, this Mama is just happy he is entertaining himself for a bit.   Here are a few pics.  If you have ideas for other activities to keep my busy baby entertained let me know! 

Checking it all out

Our bowls of colored rice

 Couldn't decide what to play with!

I need to remember sometimes the most commonplace things are fascinating to a baby.