Published on April 4, 2005 By trina_p In Blogging

I think I should start a column called "todays Random objects Elana plays with" about all the things that aren't toys that keep Elana amused for hours.

A few minutes ago I commenced the "tidyup" before Nick gets home. This involves me picking up all the "toys" out of the hallway so Daddy doesn't trip on anything.
Most of the time it's just picking up the magnetic letters and putting them back on the fridge and picking up some blocks that had been strewn back in the box but today as I looked around the atomic blast that hit my house I noticed more then just the general chaos.

There were my stilleto heels in the hall between the bathroom and the toilet where she'd left them after carrying them around the house periodically through the day, there was Alex's resident evii dvd that he'd leant Nick to watch that Elana claimed as her own (also in the hall between the WC and bathroom) up the hallway were Nick's spare drumsticks, a piece of leather he uses as a spare pad, half a jatz biscuit, half a dozen letters and blocks, 1 pink sock, a pair of red shorts, her hair brush, the stuffed giraffe thing she got from my grandad for xmas one of Nick's shirts that she got out of the laundry basket and a discarded dummy.

Also today she threw her other dummy out of her bedroom window (and now Nick's home I better go get it)

Random objects that aren't toys

Stilleto heels
2 pink plastic cups
a lid from a boost
a lid from a yogurt container
a lid from a jar of baby food
a dvd
drum sticks
piece of leather
and laundry

and that's just today

Comments
on Apr 04, 2005
Hey you!

I'm with you, sister. Jake has SO many toys - more due to over enthusiastic Grandparents and pseudo grandparents than my sister - and he rarely gets excited by them. He still loves the soft blocks he loved as a baby, he has one micromachine which barely leaves his side, but everything else he loves is the flotsam and jetsam about the house. The remote controls (got to love his timing changing channels in the most crucial part of a show), the cushions from the couch, dried pasta (standing on penne barefoot is no fun!)and all the cans in the cupboard. I hate seeing these parents that waste their money on expensive toys when all kids want to do is use their imagination! Let them go nuts with ordinary things - you never know what they'll come up with.

I do hate the cleaning up after him however....

Take care,

Suz xxx
on Apr 04, 2005
Hey you!

I'm with you, sister. Jake has SO many toys - more due to over enthusiastic Grandparents and pseudo grandparents than my sister - and he rarely gets excited by them. He still loves the soft blocks he loved as a baby, he has one micromachine which barely leaves his side, but everything else he loves is the flotsam and jetsam about the house. The remote controls (got to love his timing changing channels in the most crucial part of a show), the cushions from the couch, dried pasta (standing on penne barefoot is no fun!)and all the cans in the cupboard. I hate seeing these parents that waste their money on expensive toys when all kids want to do is use their imagination! Let them go nuts with ordinary things - you never know what they'll come up with.

I do hate the cleaning up after him however....

Take care,

Suz xxx


My dad used to swear that you could throw away the present and just give us the box! Kids! Go figure!
on Apr 04, 2005
My favorite toys growing up:
-Refridgerator boxes (man, these things could be ANYTHING)
-Wood blocks
-Connectx
-Cardboard Blocks (we had roughly 300 of these things. We could build forts big enough for several kids to sit in, they rocked)
-LEGOs (I think these are the BEST toys in the entire world. I'm 23 years old and I still buy LEGO sets!)
-Pots & Pans (I loved that metal scraping against metal sound when I was little)
-Play-Doh

All of my favorite toys were the least complex ones, the ones that required the most imagination. I could amuse myself for hours or even days with those toys.
on Apr 04, 2005
drmiller -- she's not really big on boxes yet - we tried to turn one of the monitor boxes into a cubby for her --- she freaked out!!! But give her an envelope or a newspaper she could rip to sheds (or a tissue/roll of toilet paper) and she's in heaven.

LEGOs (I think these are the BEST toys in the entire world. I'm 23 years old and I still buy LEGO sets!)


Just like my husband - he got magnetex for christmas this year and bionicles for christmas last year. The Quatro we have is actually not for Elana it's for Nick - it's bigger than Duplo so she could have it at age one instead of waiting until she was two for Duplo and five for Lego. Believe me Nick is hanging out for Elana's fifth birthday so he can get "her" some lego.

We're going to get her some playdoh soon - she's almost old enough for the non toxic no salt one (not homemade)

SUZ!!!!!!!!!!!! - Hi! How are you?
The funniest thing is watching her walk around with my shoes - she's always liked thongs and shoes with laces but she's found my 3inch heel "Alyssa" formal shoes and she's been carrying them around for two days. The first thing she did this morning was grab my shoes and bring them down the hall.
I hear you about the cleaning up - it hardly seems worth it.
Elana seems to hate any kind of order. Anytime anything is put away or kicked into a pile in the corner (letters/blocks) she goes over and swipes them far flung as possible - I've experimented with this at both my house and my friend Rins - she doesn't like order (which is a problem when I have autistic tendencies about routine & order)