This is one of Joe’s Montesorri toys, designed to teach him Object Permanence: the Concept that things still exist even when you can’t see them. Mostly he uses it to teach himself another very important Concept of picking up hard things and Smashing them against other hard things. A few days ago we lost the little red ball that goes with it. And so we now live in a house with no Object Permanence, where when someone goes to the bathroom, they leave the physical world. Ultimately all we have learned from this toy is the concept of Money Impermanence: the fact that when you buy a toy for your kid and they don’t get it or don’t want it, or you lose it, or it breaks, that money is hiding somewhere with that red ball. GONE, FOREVER.