The Reset Button

There's been a lot of sickness as of late around our house. I've had an ear infection, the Pickle spent all of Sunday throwing up, the Land Baron is worn out from lots of late, long hours at the hospital and Pepper is plagued by some unaccounted for malaise. Everyone seems to be heading towards health again, except the Pepper. She has spent the last several days just sort of moan-y, a little feverish, cranky and weepy at the drop of a hat. Today was a particularly bad day for her. The final straw was apparently when I chose the wrong color socks to put on her little chilly toes. She wept from the depths of her heart as if I truly had broken it by suggesting the contrasting color of cotton.

So we needed to reset. Cut to: small children piled into the car, wind whipping around us, pulling out of the driveway under cover of darkness (at 5p.m. - but it seemed much later). Fifteen minutes later, pulling through the parking lot of our friend Wendy, nary a tear or a moan. It was, instead, replaced by the sound of contented children munching on the deliciously decadent french fries and Mr. Pibb for dinner. Add to that a few extra minutes on the road driving through neighborhoods looking at holiday lights and suddenly the world seemed a little more bearable for a two year old overwhelmed with the prospect of getting through even one more minute with her sanity in tact.

We returned and were able to manage bath and the bedtime routine without a single meltdown. Sometimes Christmas miracles really do happen in real life.

Shhh.....

Finally came up with a great Christmas gift for the Pickle and the Pepper.

Princess Katie, their favorite kids Pop Princess has a new album coming out in late December and a CD release party in NYC the weekend after Pickle's 6th birthday. Can anyone say road trip!

If you have young kids, check out Princess Katie and Racer Steve at www.princessracer.com. Great folks - fun, good message, well-written music that doesn't make my ears bleed when the girls ask me to play the CD for the 6th time in a row. Lots of people make a comparison between Princess Katie and Natalie Merchant, but since I'm guessing she's probably getting tired of hearing that, I won't say that. I'll just say she sounds a lot like the front woman for 10,000 Maniacs.

I finally found one gift safer than anything on the shelves of Target.

Now if I could just find an old Bass O'Matic on ebay.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Apparently, my children will be getting string, a couple of sticks and maybe a shiny rock or two for Christmas as it appears that every toy on the commercial market today is actually some sort of deathtrap exported out of China. It reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live Skit where Dan Akroyd is the unscrupulous toy maker selling such treasures as "Bag of Glass" or "Board with Nails Sticking Out of It." I'm sure you could find it at Youtube if you want to watch it. It's a classic.

Pickle had her heart set on Aquadots...so that's out. Polly Pockets? Nope. Dora/Elmo/Fisher Price/Mattel - not on your life.

In general, we don't buy a lot of toys. If you ask the Land Baron, we have too many as is. I know lots of parents who buy something for their children every time they go out shopping - or that a trip to Toys R Us is a form of entertainment. I won't even step foot in that place. I loathe everything about it. Occasionally there is a small toy as a special treat, but mostly, just Christmas and birthdays. It's my little stand against consumerism. I am inconsistent and don't always follow this rule but at least having the rule gives me a goal to strive towards. I suppose if I had a 3,500 square foot house I might not notice all the stuff, but since space is a premium in our little corner of the neighborhood, everything in the house better be put to good use. Otherwise it's just taking up premium real estate.

The dilemma for me is that while I hate all that plastic, mass-marketed stuff, my oldest daughter doesn't. Luckily, a used toy is often just as good as a new one. Several of her toys were acquired through Freecycle and Craigslist. A few others I picked up at consignment shops. I feel a little bit better knowing that we're recycling some of this plastic and will eventually also pass them along to another child to love as well. And Pickle & Pepper do have the largest dress-up box of any of their friends. Plus, send them outside into the yard and they make up wonderful games and interesting stories.

While I would love to buy handmade, wooden, paper and cloth toys exclusively, it is a costly process. I try to balance it all out a bit by buying from a wonderful locally owned toy shop in the area. They carry almost none of the typical mass-marketed toys and buy toys that use natural products. But again, it can be expensive. The simple answer is to just have less but better toys. In a culture like ours, however, sometimes the sheer number of ponies you have brings the greater joy.

But this year the debacle that is the toy industry may just put me over the edge. The girls may in fact unwrap boxes filled with shells and pebbles and sticks - they might not like it, but at least I know that the worse they can do is poke their eyes out.

Seems like a better gamble than buying a toy from a mass retailer.