And I don't mean the screen DS13mons is driving me nuts! He's so into everything electronic I've had to hide away every loose cord, and guard the computer to keep him from ripping cords & tipping over the tower. We had to purchase a whole new set of cordless phones so he could have the old one to play with. I love that he's so curious and I want to encourage his exploration but I'm at my wits end!

Does anyone have suggestions for something I could make (or buy) that would satisfy an insatiable curiosity about the way things work? I'm thinking some sort of pretend circuit board with some audio wires or something. Something that he could take apart and put back together, like a 3D puzzle that is something (not just geometric) would be great too.

I'm not inclined to give him old computer wires to play with because he likes to wrap things around the back of his neck (I have no idea why), I did give him an old keyboard and mouse and he ground that amusing for about 2 minutes until he realized they didn't do anything. He's very into the blocks but apparently they just aren't exciting enough to hold his attention.

TX!

Its not electronic, but my kids love, PVC plumbing pipe and fittings. You can get some pipe and fittings from Home Depot and the kids love putting it together and/or taking it apart. You will need pvc cutters to cut the pipe into smaller peices, but I swear kids love it...and it is cheap
When he gets older he will like rolling marbles down the tubes and so will his dad!

Boxes within boxes are good with little doodads thrown in for him to find. Mr W still gets a kick out of this.

Mr W is done with < 35 piece puzzles and shape sorters, but was all into them for some time and would do them for hours. You can find some used ones.

We also let him get into the tupperware closet and he will match lids to containers. But he is almost done doing that.

At 17 mos he spends more time with his books, toy cars, and starfall than random exploration now. He still likes his piano.

Those are both good suggestions, I'm going to try them both and see what we get. DS already has full access to a couple tupperware/utensil drawers and drives me bonkers pulling things out then hiding them around the house (he thinks he's so cute! )

I've been trying to find him a shape-sorter I like but I'm not holding out much hope on him actually playing with it. DS has those fisher-price play doors and freaks out and runs over to remove the shapes every time I put them back in the tops of the doorways (it's quite entertaining, for me!). I have a feeling he's not going to grasp the concept of putting the shapes into the sorter for a little while longer .