Monday, September 12, 2005

To the Ear of the Beholder

One of the toys that Claire got for her birthday stands out from the rest. It is a pink guitar, and there are a few reasons it stands out.

1. There is no volume control.
2. There is no on-off switch.
3. It will play the same pattern of chords over and over non-stop, until the batteries run out.
4. It comes with a microphone.

Basically the thing DEMANDS your attention. Its loud, to say the least. So somehow it was left in the car last night. This morning Claire had her two-year checkup, and when we went to get in the car, Claire saw the guitar and really wanted to play with it. I decided that she could have it, the doctor's office is all of seven minutes away, surely I could put up with The Guitar for seven minutes. But I swear, before I turned out of the driveway I was ready to throw the thing out the window, except we were still too close to our house and I would probably be able to hear it playing from the ditch through our bedroom window. Then I looked in the review mirror and saw that Claire was dancing, arms swinging, feet kicking and all. She was really enjoying this 'music'. So I managed to let her have it the whole trip. Now it doesn't have batteries, but its still completely functional. Claire loves to play it, and she sings as she plays, which is music to my ears.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

doesn't mike have a similar toy? i do believe his was thrown away/hidden in a closet pretty quickly.

Sheila said...

Mike does have a similar toy. But a skull that does not sing or light up without the batteries is not nearly as fun as Claire's guitar is without batteries. She loves it, maybe more now that before. For example, usually when we go to run errands, she'll bring along a toy. Yesterday it was the guitar. The whole time we were in the car, she played it and said "Mama sing!" and so we would. Its very fun to see her imagination taking shape.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me, Jim and I gave both those darlings those memorable toys! Ain't we got good taste? Wonder what Sheila will get for HER birthday...

Sheila said...

I don't see how anyone could have known the guitar would have been so un-parent friendly when it was in the box. I think there are a bunch of toy developers somewhere laughing at their little joke! And I think you have great taste, you got Claire EXACTLY what Claire wanted, and after all, it was her birthday.