The good old days

Hi again,

Don was playing around with code last night and managed to make my pregancy counter actually work. Now you too can count down the days with us.

I was doing some online browsing yesterday just to see what kind of new toys are out there. There are some pretty cool toys available but I can't help thinking about the "good old days" [am I that old already]. I remember the toys we had as kids. Mostly I remember having lots and lots of books that we used to make roads and towers out of. Dad used to make us wooden boats out of scraps of wood and big pieces of bark and we would happily name them and tow them along behind us through the big mud puddles near our house. He also used to bring things home from work - ball bearings made great marbles and a tractor inner tube made a nice trampoline. I used to love it when he picked up reams of blank newsprint from our local weekly and we would set up our own "daily paper", colouring for hours on end and then trying to sell them to our poor relatives.

Mom used to keep us entertained with loads of arts and crafts. We often made salt dough and used it like play dough until we forgot to keep it moist and ended up with bits of rock hard balls. We made kites out of plastic bags and bits of paper and almost always had fun just trying to get the things to fly. Our Christmas tree was decorated with things we had made out of pine cones, nuts, pipe cleaners and glitter. There were many adventures outside too. We often lived in a world of make believe with mom and dad right there along with us.

So, as I look at all the wonderful new toys available out there, I find myself hesitant to buy the latest Disney it-glows-talks-rattles-and-rumbles toy. Sure, I'll pick up a few of the more entertaining toys and old classics. However, I won't forget that sometimes even an old cardboard box can bring hours of fun. Maybe the best thing we can give the baby is our time and share our imaginations. It's certainly what I remember most fondly from my childhood.