The Ultimate Toy

On Saturday, we found the ultimate toy for Ivan.

The $5.99 power strip set from Ikea. Two power strips for the prices of one. He spent the entire weekend and this week playing with this power strips and his wire assortment. The strips and the wires actually had to come to the bathroom with us on Sunday during bath time; otherwise, I couldn't lure him into the bathroom.

The cords just waited for us on the floor. They're obviously not plugged in anywhere. And in the bathtub, his one and only fascination is sometimes with his bath toys, but usually with the faucet and the hand-held shower head.)

We had been joking for over a year that we sshould buy Ivan a power strip cord since he likes to plug and unplug his wires into one another. Well, now we did it. We should've done it sooner. Now he can plug and unplug his wires all day long.

I think his almost two-year long wire and "bup" (e.g. hole) fascination is hysterical, but I really need to be careful how I present it to people.

A mother letting a toddler play with wires. It sounds like a child services case.

But he has absolutely no interest in plugging the wires into actual outlets, which are all covered, and for which he learned early on that they're "hot, hot" and now "no, no, no touch, no touch." He just like to ravel and unravel the wires, plug them into the cell phone or his silver radio, and put them to the left of him, then to the right of him.

I really don't understand what is so fascinating about wires and why they're more fun to play with than actual toys, but then again, I'm not him.

I think it's because he knows they are "real" and have a purpose, unlike toys, which are just toys. And he definitely likes to figure out how things work.

Who knows maybe he becomes some really brilliant engineer or inventor?