Sunday 1 July 2012

Toys

Joseph has a lot of toys. We keep saying that we shouldn't get him any more toys as we haven't really got enough room for the toys he already has, but we keep breaking our own rule. Andy recently bought a brio train set from a charity shop. It was cheap and in very good condition so it was a bargain and we knew he'd like it as he'd played with one in a garden centre and had quite enjoyed himself. Other children had been playing at the same time including a little girl somewhat older than him who glared at him in the manner of a scientist examining a new specimen. "What is this?" you could see her thinking "And what does it do? Hmmm, best be safe and just stand back and stare for a bit."
Joseph mostly plays with the track. I lay it out and he decides he doesn't like it like that and tries to move it around. We rarely spend very long playing with the little trains and their magnetic freight carriages. Luckily the Chugginton trains we bought are the same gauge and fit on the track, but they're too big to fit under the bridge.
A while ago Andy bought Joseph a camping chair with a tiger face on it. He was giving the garage a good clear out this weekend. Another carload of junk off to the tip (where does it all come from?) and more tidying and there's still yet more to do, but he saw the chair and brought it inside for Joseph to play with. Joseph loved the chair. He very quickly grasped the idea of it and was sitting in it, getting up, sitting in it again, getting up and moving the chair and then sitting in it again. I put the chair away and he cried and when I got it out again later he was happy. The situation soon got out of hand of course. Joseph moved the chair and put it by the table and was able to use one of the dining chairs as balance so he could climb up onto his little chair and stand up. The little chair soon became a platform to reach higher surfaces and I had to step in once again and tears were shed.
At a garden centre this week I saw a pop up tent. Now, I don't have a high opinion of pop up tents. They're usually single skin so this makes sleeping out on anything but a very mild night utterly hypothermia ridden agony. They are usually badly made, if it rains then the zip leaks straight inside and whilst they're good at popping up they don't pop down very well. They never seem to fold down small enough to be portable in any meaningful way and people always forget to peg them down so they move about.
This tent had a tiger on it. Joseph had a tiger chair so I was tempted but I held off.

Today we were given a new toy. A friend of ours was having a bit of a clean out of their shed and found a toddler car and thought Joseph might like it. I agreed with them that he probably would and we took proud possession of the vehicle. We were told that the horn only worked some of the time, which was fine by me as a horn that only works some of the time is going to be a lot less annoying than a horn that works loudly all of the time.
Joseph did like the car, but hasn't yet worked out how to do anything other than go backwards a few feet. He did get to grips with the horn quite quickly and in-between the "Vroom vroom!" noises and him working away hard on the steering wheel could be heard the gentle "pwarp pwarp" of a horn more in common with a duck than anything else.
We bought the tent, by the way. Joseph sat outside in his car, clearly as happy as a lark whilst we checked the tent over inside. It popped up all right and had one pole in the roof to keep it stable. We'd only messed with it once and the bit of elastic that held the two pieces of pole together parted company, but it didn't matter. Putting the wretched thing away was another matter as is the usual way. I wrestled with it but I couldn't make head nor tail of the instructions so Andy had a go, all to the sounds of a very happy duck in the back garden. We'll get the tent out for him another time, one new toy at a time is best.
Joseph spent a long time in that car. Andy played with him in the garden and I went upstairs and finished off a little bit of bedroom paintwork, easily done with Joseph safely out of the way. With the window wide open I worked to the sounds of a giggling toddler, a Daddy having fun and the occasional confused quack.

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