The kid's been playing with coasters since she was able to pull herself up on the coffee table. But in the last couple of weeks, she's been using them obsessively. Must have been that combination of learning the word [which comes out somewhere between "toaster" or "custer"] and my turning a few of my reflexive coaster-slid-under-sippy-cup incidents into little teaching moments.
Where I got my coaster fixation isn't clear, though; or it wasn't. Until this morning, when I found myself shouting at the kid to stand her cup upright because "that's a Persian rug. From Persia!" At least she don't put out her Kools on my floor.
Find a vintage G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu Grip on ebay [ebay]
Coasters: Cork-she bites off bits; stone-she bangs them on things; cork-backed w/picture on top-she deftly drops them between the boards on our porch floor.
Hubby is the coaster fetishist; I grew up in a more casual environment... Since we put up with baked beans on the rug and goldfish in every possible crevice of her car seat, I figure I can live with a few water stains on our not-very-valuable furniture.