Stood the Test of Time!

   The sorting of items from the upstairs stash continues with a box of Darling Daughter's stuff.  Keep in mind that this box contains things stowed since probably 1995.  At that time, she was "officially too old" for many of her "early childhood days".  (Yes, she really did tell me that.)  Items were boxed for "safekeeping" and placed in the window seat in one of the dormers.  There are three such seats that open for storage.  I had three kids so you can get the idea what treasures are stashed therein.  One for each kid.  Darling Daughter's boxes contain the usual girly things as she was very prissy....or completely tomboy depending on her mood.  Her interests had a vast range...still do.  But, as I was going through the boxes, I suddenly heard music.  Not music box music but rather a short trilling.  Hmmm...I pondered what was happening.  Thinking the music must be coming from some windup type toy, it was not too disconcerting.

  Surprisingly, the tinkling was not coming from a windup toy.  I found the culprit...err...trinkets.  Yep...plural.  There were four fairy wands!   Each of the wands had two tiny fairies that could be stuck on the end of the wand.  This end had a tiny light that made the plastic fairies glow when a button was pressed.  That pressing also released a tinkling of music...fairy-flying music... I suppose.  Aww, I remember those things!  They were gifts back when money was scarce.  I had bought them for less than a dollar each!  Let's see you get them for that now!  (Or any sweet toy for that matter!)

  It did not surprise me that the fairy wands were "treasures".  What surprised me was that the batteries were left inside the toys and after around 27 years, were good!  Usually, batteries go bad and then cause problems for the toy, itself.  Not these!  Three batteries came with each toy when purchased and were never changed even though the little girl played many hours.  Wow!  Those are some good batteries!  I checked..."Vinnic"...never heard of them but, if the company is still making the batteries this well, I sure will be on the search for some!  Testing the batteries showed that they were almost fully charged even though the fairy wands had been shuffled around in a storage box for so very long!  They truly "stood the test of time"!  Just imagine!  I will show my little granddaughter the fairy wands when she visits.  The four wands (sans the batteries for the time being) and the eight fairies might be entertaining for a little while anyway.  Not sure if these "retro" toys can compete with the newfangled, techy things of today but...maybe!  (Those are much better batteries in most toys of today, though!  These older toys had that going for them, anyway!)

Rediscovery Time!

  I just finished the new playroom in the nick of time!  The grandlittles (along with mom and dad) are on their way to the Bayou.  As far as I know, I have things ready for "little people" (as Son calls them) to be here.  Without spending a dime, I managed to pull together enough toys from the family stash of "heirlooms" for the room to be filled with joyous times.  I am hoping the grandlittles find it as fun as can be and know that MawMaw would do it all again for them if the need arises.

  I have not told my son and daughter-in-law about the room's transformation.  I wanted it to be a surprise for them as well.  Maybe this was a bad idea as they made a request to use the room for the baby's sleeping quarters.  Oops!  Sorry!  I removed the bed to make more play space!  But all will work itself out accordingly as it always does.  

  The playroom is filled with not only toys from days past but also has a reading area filled with books from when my kids were tykes.  One book in particular should bring back a few memories.  A small book called "Sun Up" was my oldest son's (dad of the grandlittles) favorite when he was a mere tyke himself.  This is the book that he always wanted me to read to him at bedtime.  This is, also, the book that has a story behind it.  One day when he was about three years old, Mark (son) was in his room reading aloud.  I was amazed!  My son was the smartest kid on earth!  He was reading fluently at age three!  I went in and listened. He was so proud to read the book to me for a change.  All was great until I realized that he was actually holding the book upside down!  He was NOT reading at all!  He had memorized the book word for word and was merely reciting it to me.  For a moment, my bubble was burst then it dawned on me that for him to have such a good memory was amazing in itself!  It did not matter that the book was upside down....it did not matter that he was reciting instead of reading....he had developed a love for books and knowledge and that was all that did matter!  He was the smartest kid on earth...at least in his mom's eyes.  

  Now the little book sits next to his very first bunny rabbit as it waits for his children to find the joy from their dad's childhood.  This should be a very interesting visit as I watch a dad and his children discover things...the kids will discover the love for the past and their dad will rediscover his past.  Time to sit back and watch....and enjoy.

Christmas Joys of Days Past...

Christmas Joys! On Christmas Eve, the little ones can hardly sleep!  Their thoughts are only what will they will find beneath the Christmas Tree come early morn!  Oh, what wonders dear old Santa brings during the night!  He always comes through with the most beautiful and delightfully entertaining toys for all of the little ones.  He and those remarkably agile reindeer fly through the night from rooftop to rooftop all the while not waking a single soul!  That is one amazing old elf!  His ability to know just what each child wants is truly an art!  Perhaps all of those letters he receives gives him an inkling but if you ever get a chance to read any of those, you might just wonder how he is not a tad confused.  I do believe it must have been a heap easier back in the day when Little Jane asked for a dolly and Little Bobby only wanted a toy train.  (Now with things needing to be "politically correct", those requests would not be heard at all!)  Today with all of the electronic gadgets on the market, poor old Santa might better stick to gift certificates to the local store!

The decorations in the Little Bayou House this year are a different than most previous years.  I am going more rustic and in the dining room I have pulled into use all of the antique toys that I have collected over the years.  (Yes, some of these "antique" toys are ones that I played with as a child as much as I hate to admit it!  That might just mean that I am an antique as well!)  These toys are interspersed with the decorations and actually look quite nice except for the fact that some look a mite creepy or even downright dangerous!  Take dolls, for instance!  Some of them have the most "ghostly" look about them!  Their eyes are set back in deep sockets which are darkened with painted shadows!  Their hair, though matted now, was most of the time real, human hair..that, in itself, is sort of creepy!  These dolls were considered lovely back in the day...I still think they are,,,just in a sort of scary way!  Personally, I prefer ragdolls over the plastic things of today even with their painted faces OR...button eyes!

I have a Jack-in-the-Box that is supposed to be a clown.  Ok...so I believe this might be where clowns got the bad rap of sometimes being scary!  This little guy reminds me more of an imp than a clown!  He has the most mischievous look on his face!  Although his clothing is stained with age and his box is getting dilapidated, his facial expression says it all!  Old Jack might just get up and mess up a room while a child is sleeping!  Think of all the trouble an impish Jack-in-the-Box might cause for some poor unsuspecting toddler!  "Mommy, I promise that I did not break all of my crayons!"  Yep...Old Jack's handiwork!

Then there were the sewing machines meant for five year old girls!  I had one...my sister had one!  Since I was the younger, mine was actually BATTERY-OPERATED!   Hers had to be turned by hand but five years later when I received mine, progress had been made in the toy workshop!  The elves smartened up and created batteries and that set things ahead by strides!  Nowadays, these same sewing machines would never make it on the toy store shelves because they used real sewing machine needles!  The horrors!  As much as folks would complain now and even sue the company for making such a thing, I never remember getting hurt by using my machine!  Susan and I would sew all sorts of doll clothes (politically incorrect again!) using our machines and old flour sacks.  To us, they were beautiful!

Gone are the days of ragdolls, Jack-in-the-Boxes, trucks, trains, sewing machines, little red wagons, bats and balls.  The Christmas Joys of today are not that simple.  Life is not that simple.  I must admit, though, when our kids were small, this is the type toys that old Santa brought to them......and they were happy.  And I must admit that I hope to do the same for my future grandchildren.  Perhaps things can be simple again for a little while.

Organic Puppy Toys!

Over the past few months, a lot of my time has been spent trying to train, Sunny, the puppy that is in my care.  She was a rescue pup and will have her forever home with my son-in-law and daughter once they move into a place with a yard.  In the meantime, she is quite happy to have the Bayou as her temporary home.  She is a lively pup (as most young pups are!) and with all that energy comes the problem of keeping her entertained.  When she is bored, she chews....everything!  She has already chewed up four beds, five blankets, three towels,  along with shoes, collars, feed bowls and all of her toys.  Nothing is safe more than about two hours!  Those teeth will rip apart anything that she can get at and then she devours most of what she has demolished.  It is sort of like she hides the evidence!  She will look at me with those big brown eyes and seemingly say.. "I do not know what you are talking about..what bowl?  I did not see a feed bowl!  Speaking of food...where is mine?"  She is very food oriented!

One of the many toys demolished by Sunny, the pup!

This all presented a challenge.  What could I do to provide her with non-destructible toys at a minimal cost?  I pondered the situation and was just about to head to the store to see what was on the market.  A friend recommended that I visit the local thrift store to buy old stuffed animals.  The eyes, nose and any other "choke" hazards could be removed before letting Sunny attack the critter.  This would be fine except for the "mess factor".  I would have to clean up all of that stuffing before she ate it!  Not something that I relish as wet, chewed on polyfiber is pretty nasty!  Dog slobber is not my hand lotion of choice!

Sunny's new favorite toy..a dead squash plant!

Then..another squash died!  Sad for the garden..happy for Sunny!  She loves flinging the dead squash plants about the yard.  The thing is attacked, dragged, flung and eaten!  The perfect toy!  I mean, this has got to be ideal!  She is elated as she gets to rip something to shreds without being reprimanded.  I am elated because there is no cleanup afterwards and if she eats it..so what?  She is merely getting a salad in advance of her regular meal!  Come to think of it..cost-wise, it is perfect as well!  The seeds were thirty cents at the local dollar store!  There were about thirty seeds in the pack, so I am looking at about a penny spent as a toy!  Plus..I had squash to eat for the past few weeks!  I do believe that I am on to something here!  Why did I not think of this before!!!!  Organic doggy toys that you grow yourself!!!  Hmmm..should I start marketing these ideas???

Kids will be kids...

Ahh, yes! Kids will be kids...even when they are adults. All three of my children are legally adults but that does not make them any less kids. They enjoy some of the most simplest of things and when you get them together, those simple things can become quite hilarious. Take for example a weird little Santa Claus toy that has some sort of ball inside. When you hit the ball, it lights up in a series of flashing colors. This was entertaining enough for just about five minutes with Son and Darling Daughter. Soon the inner kid took over and roly-poly, light-up Santa became an entirely different entity. From the living room, I could hear their laughter as they smacked the toy to the floor. There he would lie just blinking his head off! After doing this for a dozen or so times, Santa was squished to all sorts of shapes causing the light-up ball inside to bulge like some huge tumor that was growing out of the hat of Santa. That elicited another round of giggles from the two of them. I thought of times past..back when they were small children. Then, too, giggles would erupt over some inane object.

I went in to investigate and made the remark about them still being kids. This comment was immediately met with a retort from Son..."We are responsible adults!" To which Daughter replied..."Want to play some more "Fling It?" with "Fling It" being the new name to the game "Toss the Santa at each other!" I watched for a few minutes but soon came to realize that poor Santa was not flashing his usual bright lights. I questioned this as Son was twirling Santa about by a string. Darling Daughter snickered and sheepishly held up her left hand. There clutched between her fingers was the flashing ball. Somehow, they had managed to remove the tiny ball from the Santa! The game had continued just minus the flashing colors. "Fling It" was a happy game at least for me and I was not even in the room where the game was being played! Just hearing those giggles and the constant chatter flood the house was Christmas in the making! Kids never really grow up. They may age and develop into adults but deep down inside they are still just kids that like to play. Moms never get tired of knowing that it is not the toys under the tree that delight the children, it is the love shared between siblings that brings the smiles.