Toys!

Before H arrived I vowed I wouldn’t spoil him with material things. Babies don’t need lots of *things*. But he loves toys! He’s so incredibly clever and curious that he just needs more and more things to do. So now our living room (and bathroom, bedroom, kitchen…) has become a playroom and everything has been changed around to make it H-friendly. And the thing is, although beautifully crafted wooden toys are lovely to look at and are nice to feel for older children, they just hurt a baby whose favourite actions are putting objects in his mouth and baffing. (Baffing is the term used for H’s unique smacking/waving/conducting action which invariably results in someone being whacked or the object in his hand being flung.) Hard toys hurt more when being baffed. Hard toys hurt when they’re in your gummy mouth and you fall on your face.

So why are so many toys hard? It took me ages of searching to find some building blocks made of sponge and they’re just wonderful! When you build a tower and knock it over, nobody gets hurt! And you can fall on your face with one in your mouth and it’s fine! Why were there only six in the pack? And why isn’t everything made of sponge, or cloth, or soft plastic?

And, I must be the only person actually condoning the use of plastic toys, but they’re easy to clean and don’t need as careful looking after. The wood can wait till he understands.

Having said all that about toys though, H’s favourite items to play with are an empty bottle of lotion, a sopranino recorder and some lengths of pipe insulation we bought to put on sharp-edged shelves.