Category: Toys

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Toys

Stocking Stuffers for H

It’s officially past Thanksgiving, and I won’t hold back from talking about Christmas stuff 🎄

Because H will only be one by Christmas, I had to accept that she won’t get the significance of a Christmas gift. Therefore, we don’t actually need to do any major Christmas shopping. She can’t distinguish between a gift set aside for December 25th, and the new book we got her last week. So I scaled back my plans.

Instead of large gifts with good intentions, but no real value at this age, I went with stocking stuffers. I imagined that H would have fun pulling things from a stocking, so she’ll have a good experience. Here are the things I chose.

Hand puppets
H loves her stuffed animals so much, and she laughs uncontrollably when anyone does voices and plays with various stuffier. I’m going one step further with these amazingly soft hand puppets. H is really into bunnies and pandas right now, so this pack will be perfect for her. Plus the light colors are so pleasant to look at, and don’t scream for attention as much as some of the other options.

Straw Bottle
H does well with open cups during mealtime, but I wanted to introduce straw drinking. This holiday themed cup was perfect! I’m a sucker for holiday cups, and it’s never too soon to start the young ones.

Crayons
I’m so excited to introduce H to crayons! These egg-shaped beginner crayons look perfect, and I’ll get a small art journal for her to doodle in. She’s shown interest in drawing on our iPads, so I think it’s time to see if she likes the physical format.

Wooden Puzzles
I’m unsure if H will be ready for these puzzles, but I plan on introducing them to her one at a time. They came in a cute storage bag, but I’ll find a different container to store them in once they’re unwrapped. Loose puzzle pieces and bags don’t mix well.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, I’ll receive a commission.

Categories
Toys

Surprise, it’s an activity center on the doorstep

Last month, my father in law told me he wanted to buy H an activity center because he saw that she was started to shun some of her normal toys. I was hesitant. Mental images filled my head, full of bright, loud, obnoxious plastic centers. The minimalist in me shuddered. God no, I didn’t want any of that. Instead of the nightmare that I envisioned, what arrived was elegant, sleek, and blended right in with the curated collection that I had built for H.

The Hape play cube in all its cubey goodness

Enter the Hape Country Critters Play Cube. What I love about this play set is that while it’s full of activities, it’s not visually busy. It’s exciting to look at. It’s pretty. And because of the varying elements, it’s great for differing skill levels.

H’s favorite side, the ball run. The play set came with a hammer to tap the balls, but after the first time H ran after the cats with the hammer, we put the hammer in the closet for now. H loves smacking the balls with her hand, and watching race to the bottom. It was immediate love.

The shape sorter. H just got the hang of the shape sorter this past week. She spent all morning one day putting the blue square block in, taking it out, and repeating. She didn’t even want to stop for breakfast. She doesn’t quite get the other colors yet, but she has tried putting the others in the square hole, so it’s a matter of time before her experimenting ends up in her figuring it out. One downside is that sometimes the blocks get caught up on each other when pushing them in, but simply moving them aside fixes that.

The bead maze. H doesn’t play with this much. Every now and then she’ll push a bead up and watch it fall to the other side. I think I have more fun with it than she does.

The color match animals. H plays with this occasionally, but I expect her to use it more once she gets color concepts.

The spinning bees. H loves watching the bees spin around and around. She loves spinning the honeycomb and watching the bees fall into place.

Overall, I love that this play center houses multiple methods of play in one place. It stores compactly together, and doesn’t add clutter. H loves the multiple activities, and will be able to use it for a long time.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, I’ll receive a commission.

Categories
Shelfie Toys

November Shelfie

I’ve been working on my shelf rotating skills lately, but it’s difficult when nothing in your house is organized. H’s room is a disaster since we never properly arranged it after changing it from a former office into a baby’s room. Her room gets cleaned next, but in the meantime, here are the toys we keep out frequently!

Top row: soft building blocks, lamp, stacking rings and mushie stacking cups, Infantino textured balls
Bottom row: 8 inch floor drum, Melissa & Doug wooden blocks, mystery basket with various small toys, Green Toys car carrier and ferry

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one of them and make a purchase, I’ll receive a commission.