AdventureDad

What makes a toy your child’s favorite?  Color?  Shape?  Noise?  For our son it seems to be all about how delicate the items are.  You would think a 19 month old has no clue about that but my son will surprise you. He can without problem spot a fake phone, a remote control without importance, or the most expensive camera in the house.  Thank God he’s very gentle with things or I would have to sell my liver on Ebay.  A few examples:

Phones- He loves to walk around the house with a phone to his ear and babble. Just like his daddy.  We got him a cheap toy phone that looks exactly like our mobile phones.  Perfect we thought, he will love this one.  Not a chance.  He wants mommy’s or daddy’s real Sony-Ericsson phones or the real cordless home phone.  Isn’t it lovely to find some meat stew residue mixed with sticky fruit on your mobile when  trying to make a phone call?

Ipod - We each got a a 40 GB Ipod and these are irresistible.  As soon as I come through the door he wants to play with it.  The back lit display and the scroll wheel with those white  ear buds always bring out a huge smile.  Lately he even wants to listen to the Ipod.  He turns it on, puts the ear buds in his ears, starts moving his head to the music, and then looks at me with a smile.  It’s so adorable!  But perhaps 18 months is a tad bit early for your own Ipod…..  

Keys - For the past months Daniel has had a love affair with keys.  They are more in demand than huge boobs for a 3 month (or any male come to think of it).  He wants to open each and every door we pass   and gets upset if we go into our place without letting him put the key in the lock.  Easy solution, just give him some old piece of crap keys and he’ll be happy.  No way.  He wants either the car keys or house keys.  And he can tell a difference.  Don’t even try to fool him. Precisely the keys you don’t want him to have.   Especially since I got the very important Etrade SecurID on my key chain.  If I lose that I got no access to my accounts.  He’s able to unlock/lock the car with the car key and could probably spend two hours doing nothing but that.  The house keys are in his hands for hours while he tries to open every door in Sweden.  When we go for a walk or hit the playground he has the keys in his hands and only rarely puts them in the carriage.  What’s impressive is that he always brings the keys back home.  He has so far never left them behind.  Lets hope it stays that way.  The hourly rate of a locksmith approaches the GNP of a small country.

Cameras - Photography is a hobby of ours and Daniel seems to have noticed that.  He wants to be as close to the camera as possible.  Preferably have the camera in his mouth.  Digital cameras are not that delicate any more but surely not sturdy enough to be toys.  He can occasionally push the buttons on our small Canon SD500 but that’s where we draw the limit.    He’s not even allowed to touch to the Canon EOS 20D  no matter what. 

Stereo - I realize this must be almost irresistible but why can’t  he just play with the one in his room?  He loves to lift the lid of the Bose system.  Up and down, up and down.  The system is thankfully hard for him to reach but the sub-woofer is not.  I have caught him quite a few times trying to fill it with questionable objects.  I’m fairly confident the sound quality will not improve if it’s filled with keys, crayons, bread, cheerios, or smoked ham.

Remote controls - They are always laying on the table and I refuse to hide them.  We got an old remote from a cable box which we don’t care about.  Daniel has no interest whatsoever in that one.  Fairly inexpensive DVD and TV remotes are a little more interesting, especially since he knows how to turn them on and off plus change the channels.  The not inexpensive Bose remote is however of great interest but is one of the few items off-limit. 

Desktop and laptop - The laptop has been a favorite since he was  a few months old.  He loves to push those keyboard buttons and flip the lid up and down.  After the "A" and "Q" keys went missing one day we severely decreased his privileges.  He has lately shown less of an interest in the laptop probably because he loves to watch his Baby Einstein on it when we are traveling.  Perhaps he realizes that will not happen if he eats our keyboard? A while back we got a cordless mouse and keyboard for the desktop so naturally Daniel got the old keyboard.    Perfect for him to smack that one around.  Not really.  After a few days it was out of the picture and the cordless mouse was a new favorite.  He simply loves to sit at the computer, look at a slide-show, and play with the mouse.  If I just could teach him to do my taxes, pay the bills, and answer emails everything would be perfect.

Categories: Daniel
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