What's Your Favorite Toddler Lit Toy/Activity?

I just realized what a weird question that is as I was typing it. But I do want to know! I touched on what My Little Reader, Isaac, has been up to in a recent post. And I wanted to share a little more about what he is liking these days, as promised.

Isaac has changed a bunch even just from last week. He grabs books and drags them over to us to read. All day he does this! I love it! And I will drop whatever it is I'm doing if he comes to me with a book (and so will his Daddy). And he's probably catching onto this. I think this is a great association for him to form: Mom and Dad will stop whatever they're busy doing to read with me!

There are a few books that we have started doing silly actions with as we read them. He loves this! With Kitty Up he likes to touch the fire on the last page, and I'll pull his hand away and yell, "Ouch! Hot!" He giggles and then does it again... and again... and again. He also likes it when I take his hand and make him pet the dog on the last page. I make a cute little doggy noise as he does this, and he thinks it's great! Also, Ten Little Ladybugs is a current favorite. He likes to stick his finger through the little holes in each page, and have me grab onto them from underneath. This also gets big laughs. None of these silly things seem to distract him from the story though. He still sits and listens to the text (much longer than he had been doing last week) and still turns all the pages with me.

I have introduced a few new books into his listening repertoire this week, and he's warming up to them. He gets attached to his favorites and I'm working to find a good balance between repeating his favorites, and introducing new stuff.

I almost put his fridge phonics magnets away, 'cause it seemed like he wasn't playing with them much, and that very day they suddenly became his favorite toy again. Maybe this kid is learning to read my thoughts... and/or my blog posts. :) It makes me smile to find these magnets scattered all over the kitchen floor again though.

This foam alphabet/number puzzle has become a new favorite. Isaac got it for his birthday a few months ago, but I didn't bust it out till just the other week. I wasn't sure how interested he would really be in it, but he loves it. He loves pulling the pieces out of the box, he loves stamping all over the pieces when I assemble them together, and he loves to pull the letter pieces out and carry them around.

I have to admit, I haven't done a lot of "teaching" with these toys. I'm usually busy washing dishes or folding laundry while he plays. I have lots of guilt about that, and I would like to change that (play with him more that is). And I need to come up with some more cool ideas to add to the learning fun. Looking for suggestions for toddler literacy toys and/or activities. Help out a first time mom out here! What did your kids play with, enjoy, and learn from?