Act your age!

I'm not sure if this is a larger trend — this is our first child, after all — but I'm wondering if anyone pays attention to the age requirements listed on kids' toys. Nearly every toy Connor "owns" is way out of his age range. This past year, for his first Christmas, (he was seven months old) our families were buying him toys meant for kids two and three years old, not infants who couldn't yet walk.

I don't really care that most of his toys are meant for older kids (does that make him some kind of [evil] genius?!), and I'm certainly not trying to say that we don't appreciate all the stuff that's been given to us that causes us to struggle to keep from drowning in a sea of brightly colored, AA battery-powered plastic. I just think it's odd that very few of his toys are within his age range, which might explain his predilection for household objects rather than his toys.

Today, Connor and I were in Wal-Mart (yes, I know...again), and we were in the kid's section to get him some more overnight diapers. By the way, I think we should just stick two crappy daytime diapers on him at night — it'd be cheaper than the night time diapers, by a long shot. Anyway, near the monstrous wall of diapers is an aisle of toys right in his age range, maybe even a shade behind him. It might have been because we were in a store and everything within reach (mayonnaise jars, DVDs, shoe boxes, etc) was fair game, but he was completely enthralled with everything on that aisle. I must have looked like an idiot running behind him putting everything he pulled down back on the shelf. What can I say? My mama didn't raise no mess-leavin' fool — just a neat fool.

I don't think I really realized how out of his grasp a lot of his toys are — although he's growing into a lot of them — until that moment. But, on the way out of the store, we walked past the rack of bicycles, and I couldn't resist putting Connor on top of this one:

Damn. Guess I'm as guilty as the rest, huh?