Anthony likes instruments that make noise. It can be an actual piano or a toy of some sort. Years ago, he had a Winnie the Pooh piano toy that played one of the various melodies from the cartoons when its keys were pushed. He did that over and over, to the point that my wife and I were glad when the batteries ran out. We had forgotten about that until fairly recently, when he started playing simple melodies on the electronic keyboard in our living room. He pushes each key individually, and actually created his own melody that he would play, with very little variation, at least once or twice a day. A few days ago, he started playing his little composition again. Knowing what was coming, I finished the tones vocally before he did on the keyboard. Illustrating that he does have some brain activity--and I don't mean to be facetious, but we unfortunately don't see much of it--he actually looked at me mid-melody after I did this, stopped playing, and turned the keyboard off. Maybe he didn't like me finishing his song! Evidence supporting that idea came subsequently when he actually changed the tune; we haven't heard the previous melody since, although the ending is still the same.

His interest in the keyboard reminded us of the Winnie the Pooh toy, which we no longer have. We are regularly looking for something that will interest him when he is in his own room as well, so we dug out a Blue's Clues toy that our youngest child outgrew a few years back. The player pushes a picture on a grid of items in Blue's house, and "Steve" gives the player clues. Anthony isn't interested in (or perhaps doesn't understand) the intent of the game, so we regularly hear, in rapid succession, "It's in the living room", "It doesn't talk", "You can put things in it", etc. Sometimes, he pushes the various pictures so quickly that we hear only snippets of each phrase. He eventually pushes the picture that was the object of the search, and "Steve" will say, "You did great! Let's play again," and the sounds begin anew. We wish we could adjust the volume.