People create fun, stuff doesn't

My one-year-old son's favorite toys, in order of preference, are a plastic food storage container, a water pitcher, a colander, and a set of standard wooden blocks. He has toys that light up, toys that play music, and toys generous people spent hundreds of dollars buying -- and he wants nothing to do with any toy that prescribes how he should play with it. In fact, the toys my son doesn't play with take up a large amount of space in our home and he would rather have that room to run in...