Not long after my daughter Samara’s birth, her toys seemed to lay siege to our small house. It wasn’t the clutter that drove me crazy, but the incessant noise that some of these things made. Push a button, make the pig “oink,” push another and hear a “moo.” What happened to using your imagination? In my day (and now I sound like my parents), we gave voice to our baby dolls and “vroom” to our matchbox cars. Toys didn’t scream at us all day long, and they didn’t need endless double As. (more…)