Some mothers are assiduous about avoiding plastic. Others diligently acquire intelligence boosting toys like black-and-white everything and Baby Einstein (when that was, you know, the thing).
I’d managed, up to now, to avoid toys that would emit sounds that make me tear at my hair and scratch my eyes out. Before this week, he had a few toys that make noises. But they were noises I could deal with. Toy ukuleles? Play them all day long. I love it. Drums? Bang bang, totally.
Even these battery operated squawkers were cool with me:
Little Tikes Discover Sounds Hammer
Little Tikes Discover Sounds Toolbox
The sadly discontinued (why why why? this is such a great toy) iPlay brand “light and sound activity cube”
The stuffed bear holding an electronic keyboard that you can play…
But there must be something about turning 2?
First, from the boy himself, there was the emergence of obsessive singular song requests. We listen to “Old King Cole” over and over and over and over every time we drive. If only the car CD player had a repeat button. I am the repeat button. But here again, I’ve been careful. The only kid music we have so far is his Music Together class CDs and remarkably, these also are reasonably enjoyable. Palatable to the ear, so to speak. I even sing along. And now that he is into directing the orchestra, I’m often playing along on my “trumpet” (when not the one driving).
And then, the birthday came.
The first culprits were… us.
We bought Jonah a toy violin. The kid is obsessed with violins. Guitars, he loves, and guitars we have. But you don’t just pick up a used violin on a whim. A 20-dollar plastic one? You do. Totally. When he opened it, we knew we had a hit. He was beside himself. A red violin! With a red bow-stick!
And then he found The Button. The one button that plays seven different electronic songs on its own. Of course he needed to hear Mary Had a Little Lamb over and over. FYI, it takes seven presses on the button to get back to that one, should the question come up in your house.
He received a genius toy from his nanny.
Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder
It talks. It reads the letters and words he makes on it. It’s magnetic: it sticks to the fridge! It does have a button that sings the alphabet. And he does like to press that button. Over and over. And over. And over.
But both of these are nothing compared to the cat keyboard.
First, let me say, I love this keyboard. And I’m not just saying that because Aunt Linda gave it to us and her daughter Carrie reads this blog (Hi Carrie! Missed you at dinner last night!!! xxoo.) It’s a great size, has a lovely feel. The features and functions are awesome. It plays in several different types of sounds from bells to piano, organ, banjo, and meow. It has pre-programmed background music selections you can duet with. You can alter the tempo and the VOLUME (very important). It has a microphone. You can record on it. The colors are pleasing.
I only have one complaint. There’s this one button. You’ll know it when you hear it. This button plays a set of pre-programmed songs that are humorous (ahem) re-tool-ings of familiar classics with cat lyrics, sung by some kid who must have a parent that works at the company. There’s a La Cucaracha rewrite, a That Kitty in the Window, another that involves the family cat eating all the other pets in the house, punctuated with a burp of course.
Jonah LOVES this button. LOVES it. I cannot state this enough. LOVES IT.
This is only the first day of the toy though. Eventually he’ll write his own songs on it, I’m sure. But, Dear Parents Toy Division, if you could make an option that disables that ONE BUTTON, I’d be yours forever.
This morning, Jonah placed his keyboard and violin next to each other and got both song buttons going at the same time. Not the prettiest thing you ever heard, no.
In perusing the reviews on Amazon, I see a few other owners have considered opening the back of the cat and cutting the wires that feed the songs button.
An interesting unexpected feature: The cat keyboard, when left idle for a certain number of minutes (haven’t timed it yet) will suddenly emit a purr and a single meow. Jonah loves this purr and is now persuaded to sit quietly next to the quiet keyboard and wait for it. So it’s teaching him patience? For a few minutes this morning, anyway.
i tried, oh so hard, to stay away from crazy noise making toys. most of them were gifts. and she LOVES them.
oy.
krista’s last blog post..“On Inspiration”, or “Sense Memory”, or “Into the Fire.”