Kicking space baby

Linus is starting to be amused by watching things moving above him and he seems to almost want to reach out to things. I thought it would be good to get him a playset with the mat and toys hanging down that he could bat at while he figures out his hands.



I fell in love with the (unfortunately) most expensive one of these without electronics because of its space theme. It has hanging rocketships, planets and flying saucers which crinkle or have mirrors or vibrate. While Linus doesn't bat at the things he, purposefully or not, kicks at the support and then delights in the movement of the objects above him. Careful placement of the baby on the mat increase the chance that his kicks find the target and generate the appropriate response.

In the video you can see that he becomes a little annoyed when the stuff stops moving, which agitates him so he kicks and then he connects with the upright and everything jiggles again and he is happy. The feedback loop of his agitation causes the very kicking which jiggles the toys which soothes him which stops the kicking and movement which agitates him and round and round.

My intention was for him to use his hands not his feet, but if he likes it than I like it. It sometimes provides minutes of entertainment, which for a baby is forever, but for a parent is still just minutes. It is great fun to watch and encourage.

I have thought about tying a string to his foot to move whatever other toys he likes so that I don't have to, a particular non mechanical mobile above his playard is what I have in mind. I am sure that is a bad idea and the baby would get tangled in the string, horror would befall him, etc. etc. But I seem to recall people doing this in the old days. What do the more experienced parents think about the idea?