Books

Okay, it’s not technically “gear”, but man have we been enjoying our books lately. My favorites are the Llama Llama series. Domingo and I discovered them when hunting for discounted books after Easter. We saw Llama Llama Mad at Mama on the shelf and just cracked up at poor little llama’s facial expression on the cover. Even though it wasn’t on sale I picked it up and started thumbing through it. Domingo kept trying to talk to me and I kept shushing him. I wanted to know how it ended! That night I bought Llama Llama Red Pajama, Llama Llama Misses Mama, Llama Llama Time to Share and, of course, Mad at Mama. I adore them. I could read them all day any day, they are so much fun.

We also purchased Llama Llama Holiday Drama and Llama Llama Home with Mama. The rhythm doesn’t flow as smoothly, and the ending to “Home With Mama” feels a little cobbled together. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy them, I absolutely do, but I don’t like them as much as the first four.

Nicki’s favorite book is Chu’s Day. She cracks up and the sound of the sneezing, so it’s not a good bed time book. It’s a very short book, so we generally read it several times in a row.

Toys

There’s been a cognitive explosion as of late. Nicki loves her knob puzzles, can assemble mega bloks creations, and cuddles her stuffed animals. For her birthday, my sister got her Jumbles. They’re an awesome building toy, different from anything else I’ve ever seen. The box says for “six months and up”. That seems young to me (although they also make for a good teethers) even at twelve months she seems a little on the young side.

We splurged with the activity tables three months ago. I justified the splurge thinking that she would use them for a while, long after she was standing and walking. I wasn’t sure the same would be true of a walking toy, so when Amazon had a 50% of sale on select Fisher Price toys, I jumped on the basic activity walker. When the walker first arrived I tried to get her to stand with it. No dice. She wanted to play with the knobs. The second time I put her next to the walker she tried to pull herself up on it, on the reverse side even, and it immediately began rolling. She had to run to keep from falling. She went about two feet before colliding with the desk, somehow managing to stay upright, and had a huge “DID YOU SEE WHAT I JUST DID?!” grin from ear to ear. From then on she was a little speed daemon. Within days she had new found confidence in walking and surprisingly we’ve had just a few spills. She can now pull herself up on it without it moving, run, walk, stop and change directions.

Organization

We purchased this storage organizer and two fabric drawers. In the dark brown drawer we put the toys she had clearly outgrown, and in the light tan one we put the toys she wasn’t as interested in. It’s not that novel an organization scheme (or technically baby gear), but it makes the list because of how Nicki interacts with it. Daycare encourages the kids to put the toys away, and she’s taking the lesson home. She’s constantly taking toys out and putting them back. She had her secret binky stash in one of the drawers. As I type this the knob puzzle pieces are all in the top shelf.

Posted in Family Life | Tags: Baby Gear, Baby Toys