The way you would use it

Somewhere in these months, an object may stop being only something to chew, poke and bang, and start being used the way it has been seen used — a receiver held to an ear, a brush pulled through hair. There is nothing to teach here and no hand-over-hand: you use the thing yourself where they can see it, then hand it over and let whatever happens happen. Chewing it is still a perfectly good answer.

🛡️ A real household object is going into a mouth, so the choosing is the safety part of this one. Nothing that fits through a toilet-roll tube; nothing with a battery door, a screw, a loose bristle or a part that comes off; no glass and no ceramic; no real phone, cable or charger; nothing with a cord, strap or handle long enough to loop round a neck; and nothing out of a bathroom cabinet or a cleaning cupboard, however often they have watched you use it. If the thing you pick is fabric — a facecloth, a flannel — it is dry when you hand it over and it leaves with you at the end: soft wet cloth against a face is its own hazard, and nothing of that kind stays behind in a cot or a pram. Stay within arm's reach, and take it back if they set off across the floor or pull up to stand with it in their mouth.