Boxes Are The Best Toys

 All the best toys come with big boxes.  This is because your kid is going to have way more fun with the box than they ever will with the toy that came in the box!

This is one of Murphy's Law's of parenting.

Luckily, I remember my fondness for boxes, so we skipped the toy step, and just gave our kid's the biggest boxes we could find.

They like these boxes so much, that they hardly play with their other toys.

We bought some new car seats for our youngest, as she has grown out of her infant carrier.  Much faster than her sister did, might I add.  

We got 2, one for Mommy's car, and one for mine.  We got the Safety First's Alpha Omega Elite car seats, which were on sale at Costco.  At Costco's sale price, we were able to buy two of them, and still beat Amazon's price.  That's a hell of a deal, so if you're a Costco member, and in need of a car seat for a kid between birth and 100 pounds, get one of these. (and check out my review of them)

Anyway, these car seats are absolutely massive.  Which means they came in equally huge boxes.

And remember, we bought two of them.

So, both of the boxes went into the kids room, as well as a big bag of crayons.

Two Boxes, big enough for 6 kids to play with. We've done it.

I was thinking to cut some peepholes into the sides of the box, but decided against it.  Last time I did that, the peepholes eventually became crawl through holes. That became the end of the box, and big boxes just don't show up all the time.  So we want these ones to last a while.

Even the babysitters draw
on here with them

So far, they have taken quite a beating.  Our kids have drawn all over them, inside and out.  Our 3 year old is starting to draw shapes, and is letting her imagination run wild. She proudly pulls us over to the box, to show us her latest interpretation of a tree. 

She was really big on trees for a week.

Believe it or not, but
 those are trees in there

I'm drawing, like my sister!

Our little one isn't one yet, but she's watching her big sister draw on the box.  She holds a crayon in her hand, and swings it wildly at the box. She is so amused when her actions leave a mark of any kind on the box.

Can you find the 2 babies?

A game they like to play is "find the baby".  One of them will go inside the box, which will prompt the other to go inside as well. Sometimes, both of them end up inside the same box!  They then pull the flaps closed, and will either hide, or peek out of the flaps, and hide again once spotted, with squeals of laughter punctuating their amazing hiding abilities.

Luckily, neither of them has developed a real fear of the dark yet.  Sure, there is a night light in their room, but that's more for the parent's benefit it seems.

The old switcheroo

Both of them will get inside a box,and will be content to close the flaps and just stay in there for quite a while.  Both of them have ended up taking naps inside their boxes!

Crazy babies...

If you're familiar with Calvin and Hobbes, then you know all the wild adventures they've had with their boxes.

I wanna join you, sis!

So far, our kids have had trains, rocket ships, and bigger machines.  Our 3 year old will put her tiny white bear in the box, and then will pull out her much larger white bear.

"It got Bigger in the box!" She exclaims with wild amusement.  I'm just waiting till she teaches her baby sister how to crawl into the box, and then she herself will pop out and say, "I got bigger!"

So remember: It's not the toy inside the box that counts, it's how big the box is that the toy came in.