Battery-Powered Toys

It’s funny how quickly some of those “rules” you create (before baby is even born) can change.  Like, do you remember our baby registry?  (Yes, a year later it’s still there…the internet is both magical and scary.)  Well, one of the things Chris and I decided before Nora was born was that she was going to consume a very minimal amount of technology.  That meant no TV, and no battery-powered baby toys. We even put it on the registry

We’re trying to stay simple: if we didn’t register for it and it takes batteries, we don’t want it!

Why the hatred of batteries?  Well, two reasons: first, it just makes our life more simple (and it eliminates replacement costs!); second, I’m a bit of a Luddite and would much prefer she play with natural things rather than things that spasticly flash lights and play annoying sounds over and over.  We gave in a little bit when it came to things like the bouncy seat, and we got more battery-powered paraphernalia as gifts, but as far as toys went we were doing really well at sticking to wooden, cloth, and non-electronic plastic.

This picture is a giant mess and has laundry in the background, but it shows what we’ve been playing with.

Until last week.

Last week, I stumbled upon an activity table at a garage sale.

Only $5!  And perfect height for practicing standing!  And it’s educational (that’s how they really get parents)!

I couldn’t help myself; I bought it.  And then the next day, I found quite a few of the toys from that same garage sale at the take-it-or-leave-it.  Where they were free(!), so I certainly couldn’t pass up this one.

And in my quest for a cheap ride-on toy for Nora’s first birthday, all I could find was this airplane.  So, in the matter of a weekend, we went from a mostly battery-free home to a battery-packed one.  And Nora loves it.

Part of me is wondering why we waited so long – she’s so into these toys – but another part of me is thinking about Ponijao from Babies, who was a completely happy with rocks and a tin can.  Is the Leap Frog table the first leap to playing on the computer, then getting a gaming system, then…one thing after another until we have a technology-obsessed millennial in the making?

Maybe, but probably not.  Sure, she likes her new toys, but she still really likes reading books and just crawling through the grass at the park.

And who knows, maybe these toys will go the route of the bouncy seat, which never got replacement batteries after the ones it came with wore out – a sign from the universe that Nora no longer needed to be vibrated into complacency.