I have not historically been the most timely person. It keeps happening that I will set something aside for just a little bit with the best of intentions. That task will invariably become buried (both literally and figuratively) beneath all of life’s daily debris and become quite forgotten about.
It so happened then that the wooden dinosaur mobile Young C got as a baptismal gift from my grandmother when he was eight months old never got hung up. The fine fishing wire that holds the dinosaurs was badly tangled, so the box was set aside to be grappled with just as soon as we got the chance. And if Young C himself hadn’t found the box while nosing around in our closet the other day there’s no telling when we would have gotten around to it. Prompted by the boy’s excitement at having found a boxful of dinosaurs, however, my husband sat down and spent the better part of an hour extricating all the parts from one another.
We strung it up over his bed and it is still perfectly weighted and really quite beautiful. Hand-carved and hand-painted wooden dinosaur figurines dance freely in the breeze. Despite our tardiness, this is one mobile that will be cherished for years to come. (Even if it is a bit frustrating to remember not to touch.)
This particular mobile is not featured on the Balitono website, though the dinosaurs carvings themselves are. And while you can order a catalog, and Target carries their art kits, it’s not clear whether you can buy their mobiles in stores. Nonetheless, rediscovering this helped me remember why I am wary of all the molded plastic being peddled as children’s decor. There is such value in giving a child something to look at — something that lasts.