Lovely bits of tacky junk

Some dear friends will hopefully travel to meet their little girl very, very soon. In preparation for their long plane ride, we put together a care package – of junk – for her and her older brothers.

Like everyone else working to be a “good” parent, we are big fans of wooden toys and imaginative play. But we’ve discovered that the little bits of cheapo, junkity junk have their place. They are essential for car trips and adoption travel.

Why is the junk essential for these trips? For starters, many kids in international adoption situations haven’t had a lot of exposure to toys. So something that may entertain a typical toddler or preschooler for half an hour (or at least five minutes), won’t hold the same entertainment value for a newly adopted child.

To take care of all of the red-tape adoption-related stuff, we traveled around quite a bit. The odds that something is going to get lost or mislaid when you go from plane, to taxi, to hotel shuttle, to sky train is pretty good no matter how vigilant you are. While your child may mourn the loss of the $1 toy deeply, you won’t.

If the U.S. Embassy is one of your stops, know that they will confiscate all cell phones, toy cell phones, electronics and battery-operated toys, even the ones that make animal sounds, upon entry into the building. They will not, however, take the things you found at the Target Dollar Spot.

We’re going to be wrapping the things we send because wrapping adds to the level or surprise and makes the toy last 30 seconds longer. We’ll use crepe paper to wrap the light-up ring into a surprise ball with little stickers hidden to be found during the unwrapping. The crepe paper makes a mess, but it’s fun to turn into necklaces or to “wrap” kids with. (We make these surprise balls for our Christmas stockings too.)

Do you know someone who’s traveling soon? Bless them with junk!

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The other things we couldn’t have traveled without? Ikea stacking cups and little Legos.

Airport McD’s and Legos 20+ hours into the trip.