Toys!

I can be really bad when I’m let loose in a toy store. You know how you walk past those plush toys with little tiny stickers on them that say ‘push here’? Yep. I’m one of those people. The ones who feel compelled to push. Pretty sure I’ve always been annoying like that, but I used to just ‘push’ and keep walking. Since losing my hearing and ‘regaining’ it, I tend to hang around to hear the sound. With a stupid grin on my face.

It hasn’t been too bad up until now. I mean, I haven’t had reason to visit a toy store all that often. Thing is, our house is now starting to fill up with toys … noisy ones … and the temptation is just too strong. They are all Right Here. And I can’t stop pushing those little buttons. 

Let’s face it, baby toys are fun! I can wind up that musical lullaby and listen to 'Brahm’s Lullaby' whenever I like. I can press all those squeaky bath toys. Better yet, listen to the squirting sounds they make when submerged in water. I’ve got rattles on hand. Toys that play nursery rhymes. One toy that tells me the names of different colours in both English and Spanish. And plays Mozart. My favourite new ‘toy sound’ comes from a little fish that’s hanging over the high chair. Oh if you’d only heard me giggle when I first discovered that sound. Push it and it makes a sort of … you know what, I don’t know how to describe it – best I go and push it again. OK. It’s kind of a cute little dolphin sound. (It’s possible the little fish is actually a dolphin but, hey, I’m bragging about my hearing skills here, not my visual ones.)

Anyone else think I’m going to get more enjoyment out of all these musical toys than our son is? I’m picturing a little boy with Jason’s sense of humour … and probably his tolerance. He is going to learn to roll his eyes at his mum’s love of simple sounds before he even learns his first word, I’ll bet. At this rate, his first word might actually be ‘STOP’. Or maybe he’ll start speaking in sentences and give me an ‘are you kidding me’?

I guess, as I rapidly approach my first year cochlear implant anniversary, this shows that I don’t take sounds for granted. Not yet. Hopefully not ever. Oh, and it also shows that I’m a child at heart … er, ‘not normal’, whatever you’d like to call me. ;-)

I’m off to go and stock up on batteries because, at this rate, all these musical toys aren’t even going to work by the time our son is born. Now where’s the best place to buy batteries?

I’m thinking a toy store …