The toy store

Think for a second about what you see in a pediatric doctor's office at home (or even any doctor's office where kids are seen). You may be imagining bright colors, kid-sized chairs, and an abundance of toys and books. Well, the clinic here, wonderful as it is, has no toys, no little kid chairs, and no books for kids. I have yet to figure out exactly why (lack of desire for these things, lack of money, lack of effort to make it happen, or do they get stolen?), but I thought I'd start slowly adding a little fun into the place for the kids. The walls on the outside are fun and colorful, but inside the kids have nothing to play with, and there are no distractions. This may not be unusual around here, but I think it could be much more fun!

I went to the toy store today to see what I could find. The only toy store in the area is actually a used toy store. I'm pretty sure this is where the really beat up toys that get donated to Goodwill and Salvation Army go. The clothing stores in the area are the same way. I bet these toys would never sell in the US, because their stickers are partly torn off, some of the lights on the electronic toys are broken, and everything has numerous dents and scratches. Nothing could even pass for barely new. From the outside it looks really impressive. There are shelves upon shelves of toys. Everything is out of the package, so things are jammed together side by side. There's a whole shelf of army guys, another one of legos, one of stacking toys, and yes, there are several shelves of naked barbies (I never saw where the clothes were, though). It's like a gigantic yard sale. I wish I had my camera!

After a moment of awe at the crazy selection, I bought some cool Fisher Price blocks for 60 cents apiece. I'm going to leave them in the exam rooms at the clinic and see how they go over with the kids and the staff. Maybe I'll keep an eye out for some more fun things, but in the meantime I'm excited to bring them in!