My Daughter’s Favorite Toys are Not Toys At All

My daughter has a whole box full of toys. Admittedly, I filtered through most of them and put several superfulous toys in a bag in the closet, but she still has plenty of fun ones to play with. Yet, the stackers, blocks, pull toys, nest toys, toys with wheels, and toys that look like telephones and computers all lie dormant in their place. Instead, here is a list of my daughter’s favorite toys:

1. Post-it notes: Who knows how she first came in contact with this ingenious office invention of the twentieth century, but ever since, she can’t pass them without wanting to peel them apart, stick them on furniture and sort them into piles. Read more »

Toxic Toys Suck!

I’m not a completely neurotic mother. I let my daughter climb, unassisted, the cement steps to the wood bridge over our acequia which she walks back and forth on before descending the same cement steps. Sometimes, I let her walk around while nibbling on a bagel or apple. I even let her outside without a hat on, but rarely. I’m crazy, I know. Yet, what really scares me, are her toys. Yes, the seemingly innocent play items that fill her day with joy. It seems like everyday, another one is being recalled for choking hazards or lead content. Not to mention, the one’s that are not being recalled, those that the Government Consumer Product Safety Commission only “suggests” might be unsafe, such as BPA, PVC, phthalates, and other big words. Read more »

25 Things

The list of 25 things has become quite a fad since it’s introduction on Facebook. I leapt on the chance to write a list about myself as it fanned by narcissism, but I soon realized there is another list, perhaps more therapeutic than narcissistic, that I would like to write. I decided there is no better forum than right here at AlsoKnownAsMom.com.

25 Ways My Life has Changed Since Having a Child

1. I no longer drink, smoke or do drugs.
2. If my husband and I want to go out together alone, we must schedule it with a third-party, AKA a babysitter.
3. Otherwise, we are all home by 8 p.m.
4. I would rather be home by 5 p.m. to make dinner and give my daughter a bath before bed.
5. Actually, I’d rather just stay home instead. Read more »

Music Appreciation

My 16 month-old daughter is a great musician, not because she likes to strum my guitar or bang on my drum, not even because she likes to bang pot lids in a loud rhythm against the kitchen floor. She is more a musician of the synthesizer sort. Read more »

Think Outside the Toy Box

It’s Christmas day or maybe your child’s birthday or some other random holiday that grandparent’s use as an excuse to get your child a present. Regardless of how many times you asked them not to buy those toxic plastic toys made in China that play irritating “music” and quirky animal noises until you want to Van Gogh your ears, they still do and you have resigned yourself to it. Or perhaps, instead, you take out the batteries or maybe you take photos with your child holding them then hide the toy until grandma’s next visit or maybe you’ve got the chutzpah to write “Return to Sender” on the package, whatever. I digress. The toy is excitedly unwrapped by your child and when opened — it is a box! So, now your offspring, who has no concept of patience, claws and cries while you have to take the time to get the scissors to cut the tape to open the box to pull off the plastic covering to then, worst of all, untwist each of those annoying twist ties used to secure the toy to the box that you don’t need in the first place. Why, oh why, do we give children the toy in the box? Read more »