Baby Toys

When your 2-year-old outgrew her baby toys, 

your heart grieved.

You couldn't believe that she was ready for her next steps of acquisition.

You debated keeping some, not all, of them.

You tubberwared those some, 

hoping to capture her broken sentences in that oversized plastic container you stuffed underneath her bed.

When your 6-year-old outgrew his baby toys, however, your heart back-hand-springed!

You celebrated!

There was no debate.

You hefty-bagged and trashed them, running toward the toy box with the kind of gusto you might expect from someone after hearing their first starting pistol.

Why? 

Because the ready excitement you feel at the realization that your baby, after years of therapy, is growing; that his brain is absorbing; that he is ready to take on a new body of knowledge.

...and because, as painful as this is to admit,  his baby toys were living and breathing reminders of the fear, that little itch in your heart, that you had that today would never come. #goodbyeElmo#goodbyecars#goodbyonewordbooks#goodbyecowjumpin'overthemoon