There's been something that's come up in my world that has really put a burr in my underpants. Needless to say, I've been unsettled in my mind and I've had a hard time putting it aside and moving past it. I'm not someone who spends time being upset in any meaningful way and so this has been something of a shock to my system. Of course, I can't talk about it, not to anyone, and I REALLY can't post about it on the INTERNET so it has been my burden to carry. I've been praying for peace and for my mind to be at rest, but it has been hard.
But I'll move on now to something I can write about. I want to hear what you have to say about Baby Toys. I was playing with Henry the other day and it occurred to me that he would be out-growing his baby toys soon ('soon' being a relative term) and that I would have to figure out what to do with them.
Most of them I don't care a whit about, but I was surprised to discover that I have a pretty strong attachment to some of them. My memories of the children playing with one toy or another are so strong that I cannot imagine parting with that toy. To get rid of it seems to be getting rid of a tangible part of my memories of The Babies that I don't know how I'm going to do it. I know that most moms have boxes (and boxes?) of impedimenta of their children's babyhood. I am just not sure that I want to keep lots of old things in boxes. I doubt very much that any of my kids are going to grow up and want any of it so I'll be keeping it mostly out of sentiment.
In the past I have taken pictures of things like my old stuffed animals so I could keep the memory and still let go of the item, but I'm not sure that technique is going to work for this situation. I'm wondering what you do? What do you keep? What do you give away? What do you throw away?
In the meantime, I made sure to take a picture of Henry playing with one of my favorite baby toys of all time.
I think it's called a Whoozit. I bought it for Thomas when he was a baby because he HATED being in the carseat with a red hot fury. I found that the only way I could keep him happy was with toys--lots of toys--or he would scream, scream, scream for however long it would take to drive some place. I would pile baby toys in the passenger seat next to me and whenever he would fuss I would toss another toy into the back to keep him happy. This toy was great. It has lots of loops for little fingers to grab onto so it was easy to hold and would keep him happy for quite a while. All of the kids have enjoyed it. I look at it and it brings back those early months of parenting like nothing else. For better or worse, I suppose!
3 comments:
My baby just turned seven and we kept one basket of our favorite baby playthings. Now, when someone with a baby visits our home, we have some things to play with, and we get to remember what fun we had with them when the kids were babies. A few of the toys are things we've had since my 19-year-old was a baby. It's fun to go down memory lane, and one basket of toys is most manageable.
I posted a similar question(s) on my blog yesterday. It's comforting to know I'm not alone in what to do with toys =) My questions did extend beyond baby toys to toys in general. What do I keep? What do I get rid of? How much is enough? How much is too much? Anyway, I like Barbara's idea of keeping 1 basket of your most favorite baby toys (like the Whoozit), and then you can perhaps donate the rest to a charity ... Good luck sorting!
Nice post!! Soft, safe and educational toys are best chocie for little one!!
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