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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Just a box!

WARNING THIS POST MAY BE BORING!!!

Just before son and 'DIL to be'left after Christmas, little grandson came to stay......for quite a lot of days!

They tend to take over our house and our lives. We were warned not to put glass ornaments on the lower branches of the tree......you already saw that I put all the things a baby might like there instead....to remove all spikey and poisonous plants from his reach!!! tho' he tends not to harm plants...being a thoughtful little botanist!

She said that his favourites at the moment are...cupboards and their contents...door and handles.

This set me thinking about all the fun we used to have in the old days when my kids were little....with just a cardboard box. We all know that most kids prefer the box to the toy within. We made a car with all sorts of knobs and dials, a fort with castellated turrets....painted it with thick grey paint mixed with sand, and boy was it gritty.

The house elf's Christmas present had arrived in a large very strong box, and that got me thinking.....if he likes cupboards full of plastic, door and handles then that is what he will get. He wouldn't have the strength to open our cupboard doors YET! anyway.

So when Christmas day was over....son, 'DIL to be' and I got our thinking caps on. I told them what I wanted and sonny boy drew it out on the box so that 'DIL to be' could cut it out....he being the architect and foreman!!

This is the back with little patio doors leading out into the carpet, and a fab circular window....just right for stuffies to peep out or to post things in....and to make it quite bright inside, tho' I am not sure that a baby will go into a cave!



One side has 4 windows, 2 single and 2 double....all with lime green little baby sized handles.

Son tapes up the inside...



...before we add the chimneys.




The house is in need of some exterior decoration but that's for later.

Grandbaby arrived and so did even more computers, this is just 4 out of the 5 Mac laptops to say nothing of the big screens. They do bring their work with them...no idle hands in my house!



Grandson is now 14 months old, has perfect balance and is quite capable of walking...but he tends to stick to walking round the furniture...always with an object in each hand....preferably his shoes....after all shoes are made for walking.

For speed he prefers crawling or his new mode...developed especially to hold an object in each hand...of standing up on his knees and shuffling forward.

I decided not to force his house on him but to let him discover it in his own good time.
The Christmas tree did fascinate him and every time he approached it his mum would say 'touch' and his index finger would reach out and touch an ornament ever so gently and make it bounce.

The house he ignored! just like his wrapped presents he had no concept of what it was.
I wondered if this was going to work.

Next day we decided to open the main door and tempt him..especially by his stuffies tapping on the little doors from inside and the poking their heads out of different door. Very soon he was pulling the little handles and giggling.

I showed him how I could post little objects down thro' the chimneys on the roof and with in a day he suddenly got it!



It's just baby height, cool!




By the 29th he had really got enthusiastic and discovered some of the many pieces inside...but his absolute favourite is to post a little plastic bottle down the chimney, drop to his knees, into the box to retrieve it and do it all over again.

I think this is one of his earliest sessions of entertaining himself.









Whenever he sees a chimney on a house from now on he will think it is there to post things thro'....bit like Santa really!

He is really good at ducking his head to get back out....until one time when he went right in and sat down and then couldn't get his head low enough to get out...design fault in the low doorway...blame the architect!!

You will now understand why Life and Thread Dyeing have been temporarily terminated!!

I don't know how you guys with little children manage!!

Happy New Year everyone.

21 comments:

  1. He's grown so big! - I don't know which picture I enjoyed more, the one of the baby up to his shoulders in the house, or the one of his uncle, in the same position!
    Happy New Year from Brisbane, where it has been 2010 for one hour - we've just come home from the wonderful New Year's Eve Concert and fireworks.

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  2. Too cute!

    Boxes are simply wonderful toys for kids. Sometimes the Stooges would play with the box the toy came in longer than they would play with the toy.

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  3. How cute. They do take ove the house. Nothing better then a box to play with or in. Have a great 2010.

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  4. Hi Maureen I love having your company on my bloggy journey. Yup those two photos are too funny, they really show the scale of the box!
    6 hrs to go to the new year, how can this decade have gone by so quickly!

    Hi Crazy mum, good boxes are hard to come by tho! this one is a cracker.

    Hi Sharon, don't they just!!
    Happy New Year to you too.

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  5. When my boys were little, when my mom picked out gifts for them, she put as much energy into making sure the box a toy came in was good, too. She knew how little ones liked playing with the boxes as much as the toys.

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  6. Lovely box! My two year old makes a castle daily with the flattened moving boxes we are storing up for February when we will move.

    It's funny though because when I saw your post at first I thought maybe your little leprechaun fellow had talked you into building him a country estate...

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  7. Oh Pamela, this is priceless!! He must be so intrigued by the house, especially the chimney. My kids had a little Fischer Price house and you could drop things down the chimney. This fascinated the kids for quite some time. I so enjoyed reading your post.

    Happy New Year to you and your family. Best wishes for Good Health and Happiness in 2010. (HUGS)

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  8. Oh I loved little nooks, boxes, cupboards and castles made of blankets. My girl, Lori, once crawled inside a box, pulled down the 'lid' and said, "Mail me to Granny Vi's now." She was about 2 (she talked in sentences from about 15 months!) I took a photo of her sitting n the box, waiting impatiently to be mailed. After all, or show dogs came and went in 'boxes.' So why not
    What a charming narrative of Grandma's GRAND idea, complete with photos!
    I firmly believe that grands who have Grandma's with a healthy inner child; well, they make the Best
    And absolutely dying thread and everything else should be on the back burner with the 'charmer' in the house! hugs, Bev

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  9. What a darling wee lad! I am just sitting here staring into the monitor saying, "Awwwwwwww," one photo after the other. Great box toy! You are such a clever grand ma-ma.

    (Ooh, those baby socks...the energy, the curiosity, the wonder.)

    You've outdone yourself with the box, and who's to say that Fergeal won't take up residence once grandbaby is done. A country estate is a terrible thing to waste...*grins*

    Wishing you a year of endless wonder and possibilities in 2010!

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  10. Okay, okay, okay...the box is cool and everything...not to mention ingenious and you are probably the bestest grandmother on the whole entire planet Earth, however, I am still ogling over the 5 MAC LAPTOPS!!! OMGosh! I'm green with envy! WOW!

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  11. Hi Beelizabeth, I like that!

    Hi Krystle, a country estate..ha ha. he really would be dwarfed by that!! !!don't put ideas into his head!

    Hi Carol, Oh the joys of babyhood how soon we forget.

    Hi Bev so glad you enjoyed the story,I just couldn't keep it to myself.

    Hi Chic, that's too funny, I didn't realise there was a 5th laptop till the next day or I would have had it in the photo..it was such a funny sight...the most we had before was 3.

    I IsDihara, he has made great leaps forward. last night at bedtime he decided that it was time to WALK seriously and he couldn't stop giggling at himself. he was so excited he couldn't sleep and ended up still walking about til 9pm.

    He is learning to talk from the Tv would you believe. Watching Baby Einstein..first sounds. there are 2 lambs that go Ba, ba, bahhhhhhaa and he copies them and it cracks him up every time..into a fot of giggles. Well last night he copied their next line and said baby as clear as anything, his first 2 syllable word.

    I know this is old hat but wait till you get a grandchild!

    Now she wants us to save the box!! where!! no where near Fergeal that's for sure.

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  12. Now, that's what I call a fun Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful new year!

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  13. I remember when you told me your grandson was just born, was that really 14 months ago?

    You're to funny ...."thoughtful little botanist", "shoes are made for walking" and "design fault in the low doorway...blame the architect", not to mention the cardboard box house idea itself, another truly fun post to read!

    Happy New Year, Tatskool!

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  14. That box is the BEST! A "Granny's Greatest", to be sure!

    Happy New Year and Happy Tatting Ahead!
    Fox : ) ♥

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  15. Hi Diane, fun Christmas yes. What was yours like??

    Hi Bonnie, I can't believe how fast they grow, even in a few days he has done so many new things. he started walking in earnest last night and was too excited to sleep.

    Aw thanks Fox, glad he thinks so too.
    How are your grandkids? You must be getting excited about mini boss's arrival.

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  16. The box was a very clever thing and I have always said: don't waste your money on toys for the little ones, just give them a box or even tupper ware! They are very happy with these. Yours was put together very nicely indeed! I didn't find it boring at all...

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  17. Wow, Barbara, what a nice comment, great to see you on my blog.

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  18. This is just too awesome! I used to love these big boxebut I thought in the modern 'every child has a psp/ds' age playing in a box was a thing of the past!

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  19. Such a sweetheart he is. I love the little house. YOu all did a good job. He will look back on these pictures and be pleased and tickled. I know you are having fun with him. We did with ours!

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  20. Really now...WHO is having more fun??? It think it's questionable that it's one or the other!!! Adorable!

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  21. It was SUCH a big hit. We/he kept finding more and more things to do with it even if it was just walking round and round it...perfect baby height.It has HAD to be stored in my roof space!

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