Roots and Wings

how do you get rid of the plastic?  we're good about no electronics, but I just cannot part with the plastic...

We have a 90% no plastic goal.  For the most part, I watch what my kids actually play with, and I move out anything that they don't.  And I mean, play with by themselves - not with me guiding them through it.  If there is something that they really want in plastic, I do my best to find a wood, wool, etc alternative for it.  If I really, truly cannot find an alternative, they get a plastic one.  So, they have a plastic computer keyboard, because I've never seen a wooden one.  They have a plastic calculator.  They have plastic tape measures.  But they have wooden and wool food for their kitchen.  They have wood or metal cars.  They have cloth dolls.

I was very no plastic from the beginning. Bry had a really nice wood animals set but my mother's puppy ate her way through two sets of animals before Bry was 18 months. My budget could no longer afford the nicer wooden toys that ended being puppy chew toys. Between that and his delays and not understanding how to play (except with toy animals) we gave up and went plastic. I'm not much help.

when they were younger, non-plastic toys were easy. now that nicholas is getting a little older, he's more interested in building toys. he has blocks out the wazoo.

we gave in and got him some legos and k'nex.

he also wanted transformers for christmas. we got some for him because i remember christmas when i was little. i would only want one special thing and my mom wouldn't get it because it was too expensive or she didn't want me to have it for whatever reason. it really made christmas suck for me.

the way i see it, a couple special plastic toys in a sea of wooden/wool/metal toys won't hurt.

well...as Kellie can tell you, since she was over this morning, the plastic has come back in full force.  I need to purge some X-mas toys that have lost their luster and make way for b-day gifts.  One of the grandparents said something about a matchbox racing track --ugh.

Oh goodness! I didn't think you were inundated with plastic or anything. :)

thanks.  it's too much for us though...  lately he's been packing everything up which drives me crazy 'cause it's just a bunch of stuff in a box and he can't be bothered to do anything else.

LOL!  I KNOW that one, Kelly!  Walter wants to pack so much stuff up and then you've just got this jumble of stuff that he won't let you do anything with.

I got rid of a few things, took inventory and found some others that we can sell or re-gift.  Of course, he woke up while I was in the process.  Then it was tears and tears about me just putting his blocks up on a shelf in his closet.  Oh, boy!  He's still got that "suitcase" that he's packing...

LOL!  I hope that you are able to get it done when he is asleep sometime.  It's nice here because Sofi is old enough that when I did the last big purge we talked about how it was so much easier to play without so many toys to get in the way - and she got it.  And whatever Sofi does, Walter does, so it just went smoothly.