A Temporary Playroom

For the past several months--oh, who am I kidding--for the past year I have been working on transforming our finished basement into a playroom, only I never could seem to finish it. Then, as I came this close to the big reveal, the basement flooded. Then it flooded again and again. So, while I wait for the basement to be repaired (current estimate: November), I've decamped the playroom to main floor, where my study/craft/guest room used to be. And you know what? I think we all prefer it!


Although it's a quarter the size of the basement playroom, the furniture fit--and it gets lovely afternoon light.


Since it's a temporary arrangement, though, I didn't want to spend any money or even put new nails in the walls. These playful prints fit perfectly where a series of old photographs used to hang.


The shelves are from Ikea and are the best toy storage ever--so easy for little hands to reach and for practising cleaning up.


There's a place for everything, and everything in it's place (most of the time).


The new arrangement has even given some old toys a new lease on life.


At first I really wanted to put a rug in here, but, again, not wanting to spend money, I found that a colourful quilt works just as well.


And the bare floors are much more sensible for those explorations with paint and Playdough, don't you think?


Even Archer is getting in on the playroom action.


Since this photo was taken that adorable elephant has had a tragic accident with a glitter pen. Does anyone know how to remove glitter glue from plush? Clearly somethings need to be off-limits even in the playroom.

Wings

How much do I love this boy?

Of course, he will probably hate me for this when he's older.

Kevin: "Did you have to buy the skirt, too?"

Yes, yes, I did. Otherwise he's just some kid with wings. But with the skirt he's a fairy! Make that a fairy prince.

Colin: "Mama, I want to fly!"

Anytime, my sweet boy.

Trains, planes, and automobiles

Our trip to Little Rock has been filled with all of Colin's most favourite things: planes, trains, and automobiles, thanks to his wonderful Mae Mae who know just what her grandson likes.

Last week, she took us to visit my junior high school guidance counsellor, who just happens to have the world's most amazing electric train set in his backyard--in his entire back yard. The "garden-scale" train comes complete with a high-level bridge, a fishpond and waterfall, and a train station inside the garden shed. I have never seen Colin so impressed with anything in his entire life. He looks a little blasé in these photos, but that's just his intense concentration. Trust me, a few minutes earlier he was full dimples and smiling from ear to ear.


A few days later, she took us to the Little Rock Aerospace Museum on it's last day of operation. It's closing in 2011 due to insufficient funds. It's not hard to see why. It's small and a little shabby. But Colin didn't care. It had airplanes, and he is obsessed with airplanes these days. The museum has a small space shuttle capsule, half a dozen World War I-era propellor planes, a few antique cars, and dozens of display cases full of model planes. Unfortunately, Colin really, really wanted to get inside those glass display cases and play with the planes, and he found the upside-down astronaut hanging outside the space station to be very upsetting, but, boy, did he love those "big air-panes."





However, the real excitement of the week has been my brother's collection of matchbox cars, which my mom fished out of the attic. Those old cars--all from the seventies and early eighties (and no doubt made in China and covered in lead paint)--have been more popular than any Christmas present. He plays with them for about six hours every day, racing them along the couch and lining them up end to end, and insists on having one or two in each hand any time we leave the house. In fact, a typical "conversation" with Colin goes a little something like this: "Cars, choo-choo train, airplane, cars, helicopter, cars, cars, big cars, big-BIG cars!" So clearly cars have been the BIG hit of the week.

My only concern is how he'll manage to leave them behind. I think they should stay at Mae Mae's house for him to play with whenever he visits, and the only cars he has at home in Edmonton are wooden toddler cars. Fortunately, Mae Mae thought of everything and for Christmas gave him a small starter set (complete with play mat) of matchbox cars--big, BIG boy cars!

The Lawnmower Man

There's a popular book in the parenting section of most bookstores called I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids. I haven't read it (because what working mom has much time to read a book about motherhood?), but I really like the title. It's a good reminder to me of all of the great ideas Kevin and I had about parenthood--but have (of necessity) let slide since actually becoming parents.

One of the ideals Kevin and I have managed to maintain with more or less success was our rule to limit the number of noisy, plastic blinking toys that we allow into our house. The theory being such toys that do everything for kids actually inhibit the development of their imaginations. The underlying theory being that they are ugly and annoying.

But even I know when a rule was made to be broken. And this past week, when we were in Arkansas--and at Colin's grandparents' house--was the perfect opportunity to break a few rules. After all, that's what grandparents are for. So at my mom's insistence, we made a trip to *that* big box toy store to buy Colin his very own noisy, plastic, blinking lawnmower, because this--above all things-- was the one toy she knew he needed to have.




And Mae Mae was so right. I have rarely seen Colin play with so much enthusiasm. He must have pushed that lawnmower around their yard for two hours straight. And afterwards, he was so exhausted--and content--that he went straight to bed and slept through the entire night. I'm still not sure that we need to have a plastic lawnmower at our own house, but it's an idea I'll keep in mind.

Now, if they had child-size push mower, that might be another story...

Rollerderby

As I mentioned before Colin really digs his wooden stacking cups, although maybe not in the way they were intended. Here's my clever--and incredibly coordinated--14 month old, gettin' his spin on:

A few of our "favorite things": stacking and sorting

Colin's two favorite things right now are stacking and sorting--and running--and then stacking and sorting some more. We found these great wooden toys--the stacking cups are from Nova Toys, and the sorting box from Melissa & Doug, I think--and they are by far his two favorite toys and have been for about the past four months.

It's so nice to find toys that are well-made, affordable, and can interest Colin in different ways as he grows and develops. When we first got the sorting box, he was probably eight months old and was only interested in the door and hinge. Then he liked taking all the shapes out and putting them back in (after they'd spent some time being chewed by the dog). Now, he can actually put them in through the individual holes, although he rarely matches the right shapes to the right holes. Leave it to my son to put the square peg through the round hole--and it work for him!


The same is true for the stacking cups. At first, he just liked to bang them around. Then he tried stacking them--although never in the correct order, which drove his OCD Mama batty. Oh, then the dog ate half of them. Now, his interest is in rolling them across the hardwoods. This is a huge developmental milestone, though, because in order to make them roll, he has to stand them on end, then ever-so-gently push them with his index finger. It requires a lot of co-ordination and patience--not things toddlers are known for. Sometimes his feel for it is off, and then he gets very frustrated and throws them and screams, but most of the time he gets it right, and it is so incredible to watch him master his impulses.

Clearly, the recipe for a great toy is one that has no single purpose, no "right" way or "wrong" way to play with it. It doesn't blink or beep or have an "on" button. A great toy is well-made, of simple, yet beautiful materials, and just requires a little imagination to animate it to do all sorts of things--even put square pegs into round holes. I just wish the dog didn't like them so much, too.