There appear to be two types of manual for toys: 1. So woefully inadequate that the mangled carcass of an electronic thingy ends up being thrown in the corner because tube A DOES NOT fit on to tube B and connect to part C, or 2. So ridiculously comprehensive that you put the toy together and wonder why there are 17 steps left in the assembly instructions booklet.
You may have gathered from this that the low-tech toys of the first six months are out and the 6+ month all singing, all-dancing, musical, whizz-bang, thingummygig toys are in. After consulting with my wonderful ‘virtual’ twin mum support group (cheers POTOMS!) R and G are now the proud owners of a walker that plays dance music (one of the songs sounds like a 2 Unlimited track from the early 90s – I think it was called ‘Are you ready for this’??) and a very hi-tech push-along thing with piano keys and lots of buttons on the front with an incredibly patronising (thankfully English not American) female voice that says ‘Heeeloooo Baby’ in a sickly sweet voice. They also have a cookie jar shape sorter that plays a tune when you stick your hand in the top and says the names of the shapes when you put them in the right slots. R and G look slightly unimpressed by it all at the moment but dh and I are having hours of fun with the new gadgets.
You can always tell the people that have had babies because they ALWAYS supply batteries to go with a new toy. As a novice, I had to pop out and buy a variety of oddly shaped batteries when the new toys arrived at the end of last week. I’ll learn.
We’ve done some re-arranging in the dining room as the super-huge playpen/ room divider I ‘won’ on a well-known auction site arrived yesterday and is now in situ. I just need to buy some tumble mats or a thick playmat to put in it as I still have the vapours about the girls rolling about and hurting themselves on the wooden floor.
As a result of this, plus all the toys that were already there and all the changing paraphernalia, the dining room looks like a reasonably well-stocked crèche. Add to that the fact that computer lives in the same room and I work from home a couple of days a week, I’m starting to feel a bit crowded out. I’m thinking of asking work if I can have a laptop so I can escape dh and the girls and make the most of the Wi-Fi broadband and escape to the living room or bedroom to work. That, or they can have the run of the house and I’ll work in the playpen…
