Party of 5: Boombox Blast from the Past

When Kyle and Owen were babies they were not very interested in toys. Meera is the opposite. She loves toys. When Kyle and Owen first came home they had absolutely no clue whatsoever what a toy was (they had never had any exposure to toys). We spent a lot of time, in the beginning, trying gently coax them into playing and trying to teach them how to play. It was a big learning curve. It took many months before they really began truly playing with toys. Meera, on the other hand, has loved her little baby toys from the very very start. This is something that Braydon and I have noticed, thought about, and talked a lot about over the past year. It is hard to not do the compares and contrasts. And the Baby Toy Subject is a big one. To this day Kyle and Owen are not really big on toys. Don't get me wrong, they have plenty of toys, they do play with them, and they have certain toys that they do genuinely love (mainly, their airplanes), but they just aren't 'Toy Boys.' And, noticeably, they have never clung to toys, wanted to carry toys around with them, or coveted other kids' toys, etc. like we've seen other kids their age do. They have (in comparison to other, more 'typical,' American kids), very little interest in toys (they'd much prefer to climb trees or ride their bikes or play with sticks in the yard). We can, literally, count on one hand the number of toys that K & O have been attached to in their five years. The very first toy that they actually extensively played with and seemed to actually "get" was a little plastic 'boombox' baby toy. Kyle, especially, loved the thing. I can still remember standing in the check-out line at Toys R Us when I bought that boombox. They were a little over 11 months old and I was desperate to try to find something that they might like. I bought a whole cartful of stuff hoping that something would stick. Well, the boombox stuck. It was a big hit and it entertained them for hours. They'd push the yellow button on top, the little music would start to play, and they'd start dancing their little tushes off. It was so cute and so hysterical. They'd boogie boogie boogie shaking their little barely-one-year-old booties and it was impossible to not smile (or laugh) when you'd see it. Then the music would stop (it only plays for about 30 seconds) and they'd start clapping like crazy. [[[Gosh, we loved those little babies!]]] It was very, very cute for anyone and everyone who saw it. But for Braydon and I, it was more than "cute." It was a big deal. Because it was their first time really enjoying a toy. When they were 12 months old we travelled with them to Jamaica for our first family vacation. We brought with us just a handful of toys for the two of them-- including that boombox. We have fond memories of the two of them boogying down in Jamaica with that boombox. Their love for it lasted a long, long time and eventually it got put away in the basement with all the other baby stuff "just in case" we ever had another baby. Well, here we are. I dug out that boombox a few weeks ago for Little Miss. Kyle immediately fell in love with it all over again. And even though we all know that it is really for Meera now, Kyle and Owen are playing with it just as much as she is. And that is a lot, considering that their little sister loves this boombox almost as much as they did. (Pictures below are of Kyle and Meera.)