Since before Tenzin was born, I've had an obsession with getting him The Perfect Everything. I wanted every item in his environment to be stimulating! Beautifully designed! Made of eco-sensitive hard woods! Developmentally appropriate! Even though I grew up with--and loved--everything Fisher Price, I suddenly found the Fisher Price collection garish, made of plastic petroleum products, and constructed, perhaps even painted, in China.
There would be no vibrating Ocean Wonders Aquarium Bouncers in my house, no ordinary co-sleeper. I wanted the Oeuf Baby Lounger, the Nettocollection Finnish Bassinet. I wanted, and, I'm ashamed to admit, bought the Bugaboo stroller (I sold it on Ebay when I realized it was as practical as an inflatable car).
For many months, being a baby and all, Tenzin didn't notice. He banged happily on his Svan highchair, and tolerated my search for the perfect baby sling (after returning six of them, I gave up--he hated the whole idea). He gamely wore the hip baby t-shirts emblazoned with 718 (the Brooklyn area code), the Red Cross sign, the minimalist choo-choo train. He lay quietly dozing as I became an expert on the cool baby sites: Modern Tots, KidO, Modernseed, nonchalantmom and a bunch of others that happily indulged my quest for The Perfect Everything.
Flash forward a couple of years, and at least a dozen Perfect Toys. Tenzin has had the Montessori object constancy toy, the Makie animal set, the wooden ambulance and buses, the Bilibo, and several others on the widely accepted Perfect Toy list. And I've watched, thankfully with a sense of humor, as he's lost interest in all of them in a matter of minutes, and given untold hours of his attention to the Fisher Price school bus given by a friend, the plastic ride-on bulldozer his Dad bought him, and the Matchbox metal truck given to him by a little boy outside of Outback Steakhouse.
Talk about an education.
But it goes on.
In the last year, I've turned my attention to more basic toys, like the ones included in the fabulous list of top thirteen all-time favorite toys on WonderTime. But I've also found that Tenzin's actual favorite toys are cardboard boxes, bags of sand dumped on the dirt in the backyard, your basic set of Crayolas, and this tube thing that pops open when you untie the fasteners that transform it from a simple ring into a magical tunnel.
Lately I've seen him play for hours with a twig with a piece of string tied to the end (his fishing rod), and a rubber straw-like thing that shoots water. Dime store bubble kits are a big fave (with new formula cooked up with dishwashing detergent when the store bought has run out). He's also pretty keen on brushing his teeth--he could do that all day and night, and taking showers and washing with "his" soap. But the piece de resistance is, drum roll please: The Car Wash. If Tenzin could live inside the car wash, I'm pretty sure I'd win Mom of the Year.
And so I am compiling the Top Twenty All Time Favorite Toys that Cost Nothing (or very little), and are totally counterintuitive. It's the list that would be great for a pregnant friend, or the frustrated mom of a two year-old. I know you smart mommas and poppas have seen some remarkable expressions of little people ingenuity.
Share, please.
