choices of activity

I didn't get back until quite late today and the boy had apparently been acting up a bit since being picked up. I found my cheap harmonica the other day whilst rootling about in the loft for something else and put it aside to add to the boy's collection of vaguely musical distractants. When he started making his favourite gurning noise (which he usually follows-up with walking over to the door, rattling the doorgate and saying "please" in the hope that he'll be released and allowed to wander through to the kitchen (preferably dragging someone by the hand or sleeve) in order to point at the cupboard his snacks are kept in and make the sign for 'biscuit' (tapping the elbow) whilst plaintively saying "please?" repeatedly) I picked him up and demonstrated the device to him, whereupon he stopped bleating, started grinning and attempted to copy me, though (as with his plastic clarinetty thing) he tended to try and hum into it rather than blowing hard enough to make a noise, though he was at least humming the same sort of notes I'd been playing.