first wheels

Funny how being a parent is making me do things I swore I'd never do. Like today, when I insisted that we purchase one of those awful brightly colored plastic Little Tikes cars for toddlers to ride in. It's not an electric car, it's one that he'll power with his feet (like Fred Flintstone). And it's just as hideous as I've always thought those things are, with its red body and yellow roof and headlight stickers.

Here's the thing. I have NEVER seen my child take to any toy the way he took to this car. All day long, he played with it. He saw a picture of it on the box as we brought it in, and he started talking to it. He was underfoot as we opened the box, and he did his best to help his Daddy put it together. He sat in the body before it had wheels and a roof. He walked around the house holding the steering wheel. He carried a tire around with him. He sat in the car after the back wheels were installed, before the front ones were on. He cried when I pulled him out so we could put the front wheels on. He got in it again when it had 3 wheels, and he didn't mind that he was essentially riding in a tripod. Again he cried when we had to pull him out of the car to put on the last wheel and install the steering wheel. And yet again when he pulled the steering wheel off in his hands and we had to flip the car over to see where we'd gone wrong. He climbed back in as soon as the car was righted, and we had to install the roof with him sitting in it. He cried when David got the drill and screwed in the 2 screws that held the roof on, but we reassured him that we were not hurting his car. He 'helped' us put on all the stickers.

All day long, he climbed into the car and he climbed out of the car and into the car and out of the car. He steered the heck out of the steering wheel. He bounced up and down in the seat. He honked the horn. He can roll it backwards, but not forwards yet (in fact, we joked that we bought a model that doesn't have a forward gear). When he wasn't in the car, he was pushing the car. He opened the door and closed it at least a hundred times. Sometimes he just sat in the car and looked out the windows. He climbed out of every opening. As a matter of fact, the only times he wasn't playing with the car were the times he was eating lunch or napping. He said "car" over and over again. He smiled the biggest smiles we've ever seen. And when his grandma came over to visit, he showed off his car operating skills to her, and he was so proud of himself. He's a happy baby all the time, but this car made him exponentially happier than usual.

So I don't hate the Little Tikes cars anymore. As a matter of fact, I'd recommend the tacky things to anyone with a toddler. It kept him busy for over 6 hours in a single day.

Incidentally, he tried out his sandbox for the first time tonight when we got home from the lake. He liked it very much (though it did not make nearly the impression that the car did), and he enjoyed feeling the sand, and kept picking it up to run it between his fingers. He played with all his sand toys for a while, then climbed out of the box and headed toward the house. He got a bath, then dinner, then bed. I'll bet he's dreaming about his car right now.