July 15th, 2010

TILT: Wooden Toys

Things I Love Thursdays is back! This week – wooden toys. Now, the only unfortunate thing is that I am going to tell you all about them and how much I love these, but you can’t really buy them that easily. But, it is easy to buy other wooden toys.

We My husband found these awesome toys along Highway 34 (I think) going from Rocky Mountain National Park to Loveland in Colorado. We were driving along and there was a sign that said Toy Sale and a guy with a table. The hubs was compelled to stop and I am so glad we did. Hubs is a toy collector himself so at first I wasn’t sure if we were stopping for him or for Spencer. Turns out, it was for both. The collector toys were out of our price range; the detail was amazing and it was neat just to look at them. There were also tons of simple toys for children like the mixer and this little car.

While the picture makes it has to tell scale, this little car is about 3 inches long. We handed it to Spencer to see if he liked it and it went straight into his mouth. The toy guy just laughed and said he could have it. The toys are all handmade and treated with a kid-friendly finish.

The last one we got is this car carrier, which is awesome because it doubles as a puzzle. The green, blue and pink cars only fit in the carrier bed one way. I love it. Spencer is too young to figure out the puzzle part, but he loves tipping it over.

Moral of the story : if you find yourself tooling down the highway and see a strange man selling toys, stop! It might be worth it.

June 22nd, 2010

Mini Milestone: Ring Stacker

Spencer learned how to put the rings back on the post! He never seemed too interested and the all of a sudden he started sticking his fingers through the rings and looking at the post. Next he was banging the rings on the top of the post. I didn’t see him put the very first one on, but I heard the clunk followed by his squeal of delight. He worked at it for a few hours and now is stacking them on with the greatest of ease. Now he has been eyeing the shape sorter, so I think I know what is next.

April 27th, 2010

Toys

I’ve decided that Spencer needs more toys. This is not based on his need for more developmentally advanced or age appropriate toys. Or more educational toys. Or more wooden toys. Or fewer plastic toys. I think I am just bored of his toys. He is probably fine. We get the same toys in and out of the bins every day. Just the other day, hubs created an entirely new toy by removing the handle from the spatula that Spencer likes to gnaw on. And Spencer did treat it like an entirely new toy. I guess I should stick to finding new uses for the toys we have; wearing the colander as a hat makes the baby giggle like crazy and in a pinch Round Lion (that is his proper name) can serve as a ball.And Corn, well, Corn is a family favorite that will never fall out of favor. Even if it is just an ear of stuffed corn.