When the living room becomes too familiar, and the same toys just won’t do, we take Sophie outside. Maybe it’s the melody of birds, insects, traffic, leaves and playing children that she likes. Maybe it’s the fresh air, sometimes hot and humid, sometimes goosebump cool. Maybe it’s the way the sunlight sometimes makes her scrunch up her face, eyes shut tight, and other times stare, mesmerized as it makes its way through the thousands of leaves in our old, old front-yard trees. Maybe she’ll grow up to be a park ranger or an arborist or someone who likes to sit on her front porch a lot. Regardless, Sophie is most content (aside from nursing) outside, preferably with a view of leaves. No matter how many bright lights and electronic-sounding songs and plastic buttons and pulls LeapStart and Baby Einstein and all the rest can make, these toys just don’t compare. And I’m more than OK with that.
“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.” —Henry David Thoreau