In Adlai’s 13 months of life he has accrued an impressive amount of possessions. They are scattered all over our house. He’s only lived through two Christmases and one birthday, but the kid has really racked them up.
Adlai does a good job of playing with pretty much all of his toys, but his absolute favourite toy is the humble balloon. He hugs them, throws them in the air, kicks them, plays catch with them, shakes them and rubs them on his head… he doesn’t even mind when they pop. He just holds the remnants in his hand, looks a bit disappointed and says ‘bo’ (meaning balloon, I guess). Thankfully we have a steady supply of spares for such occasions.
He is also rather keen on a book. One by one he pulls books off his shelf, opens to a page at random, gives it a rub (he thinks all books are touch and feel), then puts it to one side before getting another book off his shelf and repeating the whole process. He likes to listen to us read to him as well. His favourite is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, and every time we get to the bit where he changes into the butterfly (sorry if I ruined the ending), he lets out a little laugh of surprise and enjoyment.
On a different note, here’s a ridiculous state of affairs I read on the DadTalk website that 19% of children between the ages of 11 – 16 say they have never received a book as a present. What the heck? It also says that 1 in 3 do not own a book. Seriously. What the heck? It feels to me that Adlai is always getting books thrown at him (sometimes literally, but that’s another blog).
The other day he came back from the doctor’s with one. I’m pretty sure he was given it and that he didn’t take it from the waiting room. Playgroups give them away and the library too… You can read more about it here.
He has a bunch of other toys – some of them flash and make noise, some don’t. Most have an off switch, but some don’t (why would toy manufacturers do that to us?).
Yep, the kid has a bunch of stuff, but I’m seriously considering throwing it all out save a bag of a balloons and a box of books.
