A toy connoisseur

With over 7 years of parenting under our belt and 4 princesses to call our own, to say we have a healthy amount of toys is an understatement, at best. It was out of control before we had even begun. Princess #1 was the first grandchild on BOTH sides, and you know what that means. The gravy train really didn't come to an end until we rolled out princess #3, and added one cousin to our extended family over time. Add in the recession and the toy indulgence has slowly come grinding to a halt. Somewhat.

We still have an obscene number of toys. Particularly in the 0-12m range. We have rattles, blocks, balls, random things that blink lights and play tinny music coming out of our ears. In fact, we probably have 2 large rubbermaid containers out in the garage full of such things. And we are not lacking anything inside our home as well.

So why is it, with an abundance of lovely attention getters at my princess #4's disposal, that she seems intent on occupying her time with decidedly NON-baby toys? Or NON-toys in general? Shoes. Those are a favorite. Or random scraps of paper she finds on the ground. She's also quite fond of anything that happens to be plugged into a wall. She used to prefer to play on top of the brick hearth (only an inch off the ground, no worries!), until we covered it with old throw pillows to discourage her. In lieu of playing with soft, appropriate baby things, she'd rather climb all over the dog, or better yet, help herself to his leftover food. Blech.

With Christmas around the corner, I'm beginning to think I shouldn't even bother buying anything for her. Not only do I have my own garage to go shopping in, but I could probably just wrap up a shoe or throw a plastic spoon in her stocking and call it a day. And she'd probably be perfectly fine with just that.