Santa Will Bring You a Bag of Switches!

In Brad's family,* there is a running joke that Santa will bring a bag of switches to anyone who misbehaves.

* I now understand this is common Christmas lore.  In my family, we used to threaten bad behavior with a "lump of coal" in the stocking, and I had never heard of the notorious "bag of switches" before I met Brad.

Notwithstanding Claire's recent shenanigans, I'm sure she'll get excatly what she wants for Christmas.  However, it's looking more and more as though what she wants are "switches."  Let me explain.

In the world of special needs, a "switch" is a specific device used to operate electronic items.  They come in all shapes, sizes, and types.  There are hand switches, which generally look something like this:

There are also foot switches, head switches, eye switches, and even switches that can be activated with a puff of air!

Beginning around Christmas last year, we noticed Claire really liked toys that lit up, played music, or made a sound when a button was pressed.  For Christmas, my parents bought her a Lamaze Musical Flowers toy, and it quickly became her favorite plaything!

We soon started looking for other, similar toys.  We found a few, including a Leapfrog Musical Caterpillar, a train that plays the alphabet song, and a turtle that lights up and plays classical music when you hit the buttons on his back.

In addition, we received a number of excellent toys from Lekotek, a toy lending library and play therapy program for children with special needs.  Some of them were "switch toys," like a dog, a dancing chicken and a blue monster that sounded sort of like a Teletubbie.

Claire LOVES them all!

As proof, here are a few videos:

Claire playing with the blue monster switch toy.

Claire playing with her fan toy from Lekotek. 

Watch all the way through to see just how much she loves playing with it.  When I ask her to stop it, she refuses.  When I finally beg her to stop it for "just a second," she does just that!

Claire playing with her Leapfrog Musical Caterpillar. 

She will keep it going all night if I let her!

So, given Claire's love of switch toys, it's quite possible she'll receive a bag of switches for Christmas this year.  She might be the first person in history to be thrilled at the prospect!