Play Time!!

Two days ago I did the unthinkable. What is so incomprehensible is not only that I did it but what took me so long? I played with Gabby with age appropriate toys! Oh my goodness! The experience was quite amazing on several levels.

For one, I realized that I spend the vast majority of the time shlepping my kids to activities or errands. And the time we play at home is either as a family or as a trio (which is what I endearingly call Mom, Drew and Gabby time together). It is quite infrequent that Gabby and I play the two of us gals.

So much of our world is full of bats, balls, and sports paraphernalia. So Gabby naturally gravitates to all those toys, as do I in some ways. And when our free play doesn’t have to do with sports equipment it usually has something to do with the toy kitchen or all the other toys Drew has.

And maybe it has something to do with the fact that one year old toys happen to be some of the most annoying toys under the sun. Every single one sings a song, talks to you or has an annoying reciprocal sound when you push a button. Oddly enough, though, Gabby just loved it!

I remember being on maternity leave with both children and trying so hard to get them to engage with similar types of toys. “Playing” was really just me pushing the buttons and them watching me do so. Now Gabby is at the point where she drives the play time. She grabs the toys, she presses the buttons and she sings along. These annoyingly loud toys became enjoyable watching her delight.

So although there seems to be a never-ending amount of errands to run, play dates to have and classes to get to, I’m going to make it my personal goal to have one year old girly play time at least once a week. Onlookers beware, toys are going to be noisy and loud and us girls are going to enjoy every minute.