Living with less...toys

As my son's mother I of course want the best for him this includes appropriate toys. The first question that arises is who deems the toys to be appropriate? At the moment its me and I am making the determination by reading articles online about age appropriate toys. I also have personal preferences for having as few battery operated items in the home as I feel its wasteful and who needs all the noise that battery operated toys bring!
I blogged last year about this same topic on my other blog. Christmas Musings I still feel the same way a year later and have not made any decisions or come to any conclusions regarding our Christmas celebrations.

With these thing in mind I have continued to narrow down the toys we have out for Saylor to play with by going through the wooden toy box and removing toys that were no longer age appropriate or he wasn't playing with. I also took all of the the toys out of the toy box and put what I was going to leave out for him on a book shelf I moved from another part of the house.

Saylor has books and toys he can access any time and in the 2 pink totes a wonderful set of wooden blocks. Pete and I have noticed that Saylor is being more selective in what he chooses to play with now and there are fewer to strewn around. After iChristmas is over and life returns to its normal rythms I will once again go through his toys and put a few away  for a little while. So that he can have  something "new" to play with later on.

I have also found some wonderful blog posts that reflect my feelings about living with less.
Loving earth mama -why having less toys may bring more happiness and The mother co - Too many toys

I had a wonderful experience yesterday that truly renewed my belief in the spirit of the season. On a whim Pete, myself, Saylor and Ana (aka Grandma) decided to go out for lunch in a local community called Chemainus . We always eat at the Willow street cafe where the food is made on the spot and always delicious! The cafe wasn't very busy so we quickly got our food and enjoyed every bite. We had come to the end of our meal and we were packing up to go when a fellow approached our table and gave Saylor a wonderful toy handmade by this fellow Grandfather. I wish we had gotten his name! What a wonderful surprise and I am so grateful for the reminder about the spirit of the season.

I may be choosing to live with less and be trying to eliminate some of the clutter in our lives but I have a feeling this toy will be hanging around our home for a very long time.

This was difficult to get a picture of. It is a little figure with moving limbs hanging from a bit of elastic. When the "ladder" is moved the figure spins around like a gymnast. Thanks again to this fellow who brightened up our day and shared some Christmas spirit.