Thursday, March 20, 2008

They grow up so fast!

When Ella was about a month old, Joe and I arrived at the hospital to visit her and walked into her room to see her nurse holding her with a look on her face that said “Your daughter…” I asked if everything was ok, to which she replied, “Ella is bored. You need to get her something to do.” The next morning we went to Target and bought the ever famous music playing turtle (still a favorite).

It never really crossed my mind that babies get bored. It’s easy to be critical when you walk into someone’s house and it is been taken over by toys and other kid gear. I always swore that our house wouldn’t have a ton of toys around, so we have kept Ella’s gear to a minimum and her toys are small and quiet and all kept in one basket in the living room. Well, the past few days I could not understand why Ella wouldn’t play with her toys. She’d look at them for a few seconds, then throw them down and look at me, as if to say “I’m SO over that.” I was reading an article earlier this week that said at 9 months you will notice that babies want more challenging toys. Apparently it’s no longer exciting to shake the same object back and forth just to hear the little colored beads move around. So yesterday after work a friend from church loaned us their exersaucer, and we took a family trip to Target to buy Ella some new toys (of course they are her Easter present). When we got home Joe looked at me and said “Now I understand why people with kids have so much stuff.”

I feel like, as her mother, I should have known that Ella was ready for more challenging things. I guess its just more proof that I am WAY under-qualified for this job. Either that, or proof that I’m too cheap to spend money on toys that she’s only going to play with for a few months. Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and would ask for a new bike and my parents would say “But you already have a bike.” And I would respond with “But that’s a baby bike, I need a 10 speed” (I grew up in the 80’s so that was the cool bike to have). My parents bought me the 10 speed, I fell off of it the first time I rode it and put it back in the garage where it sat until the following summer. Nonetheless, Ella now has new toys from the Easter bunny and life is good.

P.S. I hear your cries! We will have new pictures posted soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have often wondered the same thing when walking into a house w/ kids, or past a backyard that is nothing but toys. She'll be 1 before you know it!! Ella is still as cute as ever. Happy Easter Murray Family! ~Melanie