Wood Blocks

Before my sweet baby boy was born I decided to crawl up onto soap box, then jump on a high horse. . . and protest my disapproval for plastic, and worse. . . electronic toys. I vowed to only use organic fabrics and lead-free paint when purchasing Wolfie's play accessories.  I shuddered at anything with a battery. That lasted about a week.  The first wonderful enhancement to Wolfie's development was a "bar" that played music, rattled, and bounced whenever Wolfie kicked it. We strapped it across his changing table.  Then his "piano" which anyone in our lives knows was a God send to us. He utterly loved it.  So out the window went my haughty ideals on such toys and I swallowed my pride while admitting that these plastic, brightly colored, annoyingly repetitive baby toys were just as impactful, if not more. 

But something wonderful happened. . . . GiGi (Grandma Lois) bought Wolfie a wooden block toy set (very elementary colored wooden blocks that can stack and slide into place to form a train).  It's been in bits an pieces for awhile where Wolfie might pick one up and throw it, but just as of yesterday, he hit a beautiful milestone. He picked up two blocks, and hit them together. . . CRACK....CRACK. . . CRACK. . . CRACK. . . . A noise only wood-on-wood could make.  It's like. . . plastic just sounds like the sprinkler hitting the side of your car, but wood. . . is the sound of rain on your roof. It's such an earthy sound the has a pang of nostalgia. I'm sure anyone born before 1980 knows that distinct sound of wood blocks falling to the ground (that and raking your hand through lego's if you're lucky enough to have had a stinky brother).

So, I'll keep my plastic toys still, but I've fallen in love again with the simplicity and beauty of wood blocks.

UPDATE: The vacuum still scares the baby, lol.