Little M has a lot of toys. People have given her toys and my mom has found quite a few at garage sales. Some of these toys are just crazy. They respond to the baby so that when she kicks them they’ll make noise or flash lights. This is great for giving her incentive to move around and get her motor skills growing. But they may also drive me crazy one day.
For one thing, many of the “baby activated” toys are actually sound and motion activated. I have 3 cats in the house. I brought over a toy that had previously been at my mom’s the other night and put it in the nursery where I was sleeping with the baby. Bad idea. Cats are nocturnal. They curl up in bed with me around 10 or 11 but wake up in the middle of the night to prowl around. This sets off motion activated toys. So I was awakened from my peaceful slumber to the sounds of “Old MacDonald.” I closed my eyes hoping this will stop, but it wasn’t a nightmare, it was real life. When I got out of bed I stumbled over to the offending toy and tried to turn it off. Of course the toys can’t have switches that say “on” or “off,” they have symbols and each maker has a different symbol for “parent activated,” “baby activated” and off. So of course instead of turning the toy off I turned it to parent activated mode, which just means it DOESN’T STOP!!!!
I’ve had other incidents with these “smart” toys. Little M has a “baby activated” swing. It’s actually pretty cool how it detects that she’s fallen asleep and slows down the rocking till the swing has stopped. What’s not so cool is when she screams loud enough to set it off from the diaper table across the room and suddenly it starts swinging and playing “How Much is That Doggie in the Window.” (ok, looking back, thst is kinda cool, but not while it’s happening!)
And finally there’s a toy at my mom’s that looks like some sort of rattle but it’s playing music and won’t stop. I can’t find an off switch. I can’t even find out how to take out the batteries. Right now it’s downstairs in the basement closet waiting for the batteries to go dead so we don’t have to hear that song any more. The batteries have to run out sometime…..don’t they?
Don’t try and force the relationship between the baby and the father. I have been where you are. Don’t ever talk bad about him to the child. Believe me she will form her own opinion of him and his fatherhood or lack there of. You just be the best mother you can be and pray for God to fill the father void in your child’s life. My ex husband did me dirty. and it took him over four years to finally apologize and admitt what an asshole he is how he realizes how much he hurt his two children. And by this time, I’m remarried with a new son. And now we have another on the way. Keep your head up. This too shall pass.
Comment by mocha — August 27, 2006 @ 12:39 am