A friend sent three magnadoodles to my kids for christmas. According to wisdom only known to those in the packing room at Amazon.com instead of packing all three into one huge box, each magnadoodle was packed individually in it’s own huge box with a ream of airpack bubbles. I checked, each of these boxes could have fit FOUR magnadoodles. In the christmas rush I shoved these boxes and their surfeit of packaging to the side and forgot about them. Today my Gleek discovered them and there was glee.
Gleek carefully ripped each bubble pack from the others and strewed them all over the family room. Then she and Patches stomped on these little plastic pillows to make them pop. They weren’t very good at it and they aren’t very heavy, so often the airpack pillow would squirt out from under their feet and they’d land on their bottoms. giggles. Then they took to popping the airpacks with plastic pickup stick swords. giggles. Then they piled all the non-flat airpack pillows into one of the huge boxes and played “baby.” I would never let a child sleep in a box full of plastic bags, but they thought it was great. even more giggles. In all they played with the airpack pillows for a full 90 minutes.
You know right on those airpack things it clearly states “This is not a toy.” I suppose I could be considered an awful mother for allowing my kids to play with them. But, honestly, they are in more danger in the bathtub than they are playing with airpack pillows. I don’t let them bathe unsupervised and I don’t let them play with airpacks unsupervised either. And in both cases once the play is done the potentially dangerous item (water or plastic bags) is quickly disposed of.
Toward the end of the play NotMyBaby woke up from his nap. NMB is in that stage where he chews on everything. Plastic bags are definitely unsafe to chew, so NMB never even got his hands on one. I took scissors, popped all the remaining inflated ones and pitched them all into the recycling bin. The box got to stick around and be played with.
I love the nicknames you use for your kids. Mine just gets stuck with Munchkin, Blue Eyes, and, on occasion, Brat (but only in play, and he knows it!).
I’m sure your kids weren’t the only ones enjoying the Adventure of the Airpacks. Sounds like it was pretty funny for Mom, too. And of course you wouldn’t let a kiddo who chewed on things have the bags.. oh, wait, you didn’t!
Sometimes, we try so hard to keep our kids safe we prevent the fun. Balance, and a healthy dose of sense, is a good thing. whee!
Last year I bought new pillows from amazon, they were $9 each not bad but when I got 8 boxes all twice the size of a normal bed pillow with at least 40 airpacks per pox for yup PILLOWS I was ready to kill.
Ash
(here via by the way)
Always entertaining to see the kids get more amusement from the cardboard box or the packing materials than the gift in the package 🙂
One of the best toys I ever made for my daughter was a large computer box, with two sets of arched double doors cut in it and several windows/shutters. I then drew bricks on the outside, taped the flaps up at an angle so that it formed a roof, with an opening. Was favorite play thing, nap place, etc. for 4 year old daughter and her friends when they came over. Even an 8 year old who visited. What fun! I then went and made a double box (two taped together, with passage) for a friend’s three year old. Joy! It’s the simple toys that make it.
Really do wish I could find a Whammo Magic Window toy (plastic oval with two colored sands in the middle). They go for $70 on eBay. Bummer :-(.
When my nephews and niece were small, my sister got a new refrigerator. I decorated the box inside like the sewer from their favorite show at the time, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Those kids played in and around that giant box for years. When the older kids outgrew it, my sister took it back for her kids, and her husband went so far as to build a frame to support it inside. She kept trying to get rid of it, but no dice. In fact, even when they didn’t play with it anymore, they wouldn’t let her throw it away. She finally compromised, and gave it to another family with small boys. To my knowledge, they still have it.
All this, for a box. Coolest free play house ever, also establishing me for years as the coolest aunt, too.. but that’s just a bonus, right?
Well, pillows are Soooo fragile. 😉
That makes me laugh.
We had one of those magic window toys when I was a kid. I remember playing with it alot. I wouldn’t spend $70 on ebay though. Lots of toys are making a comeback it wouldn’t surprise me to see new magic windows in a few years.
We have an adult version of the Magic Window hanging on the wall. This one is 30″ x 30″ square and is beautifully framed in strong metal with a lazy Susan mounting on the back. We turn it on the wall every day and the picture changes. It, of course, was a thrift store find that I snatched as soon as it hit the sales floor. Probably the most unique wall-hanging I’ve ever seen.
Grown up toys for grown-up kids. It kind of fits the household theme of “None of that growing up stuff allowed.” Popping platic wrap and playing with packaging is still fun. Of course, we sometimes have to fight the cats for the boxes and paper balls.