Okay, so Val over at Stinky John Jones mentioned in a recent comment that I should do a Christmas List post. I’m always up for discussing this type of thing, because twice a year, it becomes my CIA mission (for those who know us personally, there’s a pun there) to find the most unique items in existence.  Seriously, it is like an addiction.  An expensive addiction.  I will spent countless hours scouring the internet for obscure toys.  I hit all up my major natural and European toy retailers like Oompa, Maukilo, and Moolka.  Let’s face it, everything is prettier in Europe, toys included.  Beautiful long lasting wooden pieces.  Higher toy safety standards to boot.  Take a look around the Haba and Selecta websites.  Why can’t Walmart carry stuff like that?  I might hate them a little less.  And be even more broke than I already am.  But other countries, the US included do manage to make neat things, they are just a bit harder to find.  I like to do a yahoo or google search for natural toys or wooden toys and see what pops up.  I’ve probably been through every toy store in its entirety for the first eight pages of search results.

Now just in case I hadn’t spent enough time finding the toys and games, I then try to research them and see what other parents had to say about them.  I can’t tell you how many games I’ve thought “looked neat” only to find them on amazon.com with terrible reviews.  People saying the pieces broke easily or didn’t work correctly, etc.  (If you haven’t noticed by now, Hi I’m Rachel and I’m addicted to the internet.  It is my best friend. Just ask my husband. He runs to the computer chair if I get up to go pee just so he can check his email!)  So without further ado…

*Tip: I keep up with all this crap using wishlist.com so my bookmarks don’t become overrun.  Okay well they are anyway, but wishlist.com is awesome!*

Neat things I’ve found, but have not gotten/tested:

Baufix: I think these are a neat take on a construction toy.  Sort of like K’nex, only not.  They are wooden (scores extra points in my book!).  Caleb is big on the tool thing.  He likes to feel like he’s using tools just like dad.  He will get his screwdriver out to work on something that needs fixing.  If you are trying to super glue something, he wants to be all up in the middle of what you’re doing, whether you want him there or not.

Cargo train terminal (by Maxim I think): My mom saved all my Brio stuff from my childhood.  I can still remember my ‘train table’ back before they were such a popular thing.  Mine was just a sheet of plywood with rounded corners on top of a table.  We added an eBay lot of trains and tracks to the things from my childhood, and Caleb has been playing with train stuff for over two years now.  I found this train cargo terminal add on that has little magnetic “packages” to be lifted on and off.

Castle blocks: These are incredibly gorgeous.  That’s just all there is to it. Handcrafted in Indonesia, they are made of mahogany, only available at finewoodentoys.com

Lacing Caterpillar Box: Lacing seems to be on the list of toddler skills to be mastered.  But most of the ‘toys’ look so boring.  I found this adorable caterpillar box that seems like it brings a lot of whimsy and fun to the activity though.

Diggity Dog:  It’s no secret, I love kid games.  I made a mission out of finding ones other than Hungry Hippos and Elefun, after asking some other moms about games and hearing that one woman’s daughter beat the crap out of Ele”fun” when she was a little girl.  She got frustrated with it, and the mom just stood out in the hallway secretly snickering to herself!  I was surprised to find what a wide assortment of games you really can play with three year olds once you look past the Walmart shelves

Hugg-a-planet: Bigger is always better, right?  Click the link to see an adult holding this huge Earth.  Caleb loves his map, I think this is a great way to bridge the 2-d flatness of the map to the concept that it is actually a sphere.  find it cheaper here!

Traffic Dominos: I’m always on the lookout for anything car themed.  Because quite frankly, I didn’t know that such a thing existed as “car genes” nor that they could be passed down from generation to generation.

Melody Express Train: Each color track makes a different note when the train rides over it.  Build a song, and start the train moving to hear it.  Comes with a songbook.

Martian Matter: Some people say playdough.  Martian mud sounds cooler though.  This is something you actually can find at Walmart!

Wooden ramps racetrack: Cuter, safer and nicer than their noisy counterparts.

Plan City Deluxe Road System: For those transportation enthusiasts, notice the train crossing piece.  Compatible with most of the wooden train tracks, just make sure you have your railroad crossing signs up for those Hot Wheels!

Sprig Discover Rig: I’ve previously written on this guy.  Sound and lights, but no batteries.  This one is kid powered with interchangeable explorers from different countries, each with their own story to tell.  Read more here.

Hearth Song Memo: I have tried and tried to find this elsewhere, as I don’t particularly care for the overpriced shipping, but it is not to be found anywhere else.  All wood.  Check.  Flexibility.  Check check.  You can start out with just a few pairs if you’re playing with a younger child.  You can substitute other small objects or stickers under the little caps to mix things up.

Spinning tops: Courtesy of Etsy.  Careful, if you haven’t been to Etsy, you will become addicted.  It is a homespun eBay for handmade items.  No big retailers here.  Just skilled crafters and fine craftsmen.  Looks like a great stocking stuffer!

Marble runs: Click the pictures for individual product links There must be 100 different takes on this activity now.  The block and marble set we have, similar to this one, has been a big hit.  I’m partial to the types that allow more flexibility rather than the ones that have little room for variation in set up.  I’ve even seen a few that are ball tracks which I would assume from the pictures are big enough to eliminate the choking hazard if you have younger ones wanting to play also.

I even found a car/city themed one!

Tried and true:

Moon sand: What?  Wait, where are you going?  It doesn’t grind into the carpet like playdough!  Yeah I thought that might get your attention.  We do keep this on our screened porch though, and I ditched the “no mess” playmat it came with and just got a shallow rubbermaid container.  It is really neat too.  Lots of extra molds you can get, one set being a monster truck…molds for crush cars and a monster truck…yeah Caleb loves it!

Froggy Boogie: Don’t poke your eyeballs out playing Candyland.  This is an adorable “green” game.  100% made of wood, and the company, Blue Orange, plants two trees for every one used in their products.  The baby frogs are trying to sneak around the lily pads in the pond without being seen by the  mommy and daddy frogs.  Each frog has one eye with a frog on the bottom, and one without.  It becomes a game of memory trying to recall which eye to pick up, and practices colors, by finding the frog coordinating to your two color dice roll.  The pieces are just adorable too!

Bunny Hop: Another big hit here.  Even Charley plays (which just allows Caleb two turns in a row!).  Roll the dice to see which color to press down and then press your farmer to see if your bunny hops.  First one with all four color bunnies wins.  Of course, when we’re done playing a few rounds, we have to press down all the bunnies at once and squeal with delight when 12 out of 20 of them fly up in the air all at once.  Then repeat seven times.

Books:

If you haven’t tried out Lookybook, head over there and look around.  You can actually preview and read (if you squint) full children’s books before buying them.  It is a reasonably new site, so they are gradually building their book database.  But I found several of these books through Lookybook. Click the books for individual links

The longest book you’ll ever ‘read’ with no words!  We checked a Polo book out from the library and it was an unconventional hit.  Much like your 80 page long cartoon newspaper.  Don’t let that number scare you, it ‘reads’ quickly.  It is just a unique take on a book.  You can look through some of it at Amazon for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Did I mention a car theme anywhere?

Thanks to Val for introducing SkippyJon Jones.  I absolutely have typed in Stinky John Jones looking for the books and become so annoyed when I couldn’t find them.  Caleb loves Skippy and has taken to calling people Mr. McPooh and bunny boots.  We get some strange looks.

Also available, SkippyJon Jones in Mummy Trouble, which we already have.

Woody Click Sets: We have the fire station and police station sets.  You can also get a construction theme, a farm theme or a hospital theme.  These don’t seem to have been a huge hit (retail wise), as they are a bit hard to find now.  We love them though.  They are similar to Playmobil sets, except they are made of wood.  The vehicles and buildings come into several pieces so you can arrange it any way you want.  A few more pictures here.

Coming up next: More books I’ve found, with a Christmas tradition idea/theme.

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We actually did this two days ago, I just haven’t had time to blog about it yet.

Sometimes I think, as mothers, we should take a lesson from the girl scouts. Give out badges if you will. In the early brownie days, you pledge to donate your sleep to the needy, aka your darling child, and you earn and proudly display your diaper changing badge on your sash that doubles as a burp cloth. You master knot untying - doing your little girls hair, dollars and sense - it doesn’t make any sense how much this kid costs!, and cookie sales - if you let Mommy talk on the phone, I’ll give you a cookie.

But there’s always more room for improvement on your burp cloth, the 3-in-1 model that displays your badges, catches baby spitup and becomes a snot rag down the road. See, there are what I like to call extra credit projects. The ones for which you really earn your badge. Like say for example, building an igloo! Sounds reasonably simple and fun right? Especially in the middle of your living room floor. I mean, it can only be so messy right? Now this is just my personal opinion here, but I think I ought to get credit for the Great Outdoors, Art in 3D (yes they have those, both of them, I looked it up), and Messiest Project EVER (Maybe the website has an older version of the list, but I couldn’t find this one on there).

Can you get bonus points on an extra credit project? If so…I made a visual aid.

Back info: Despite me explaining several times that people who live in igloos are called eskimos, Caleb is hell bent and determined that penguins live there. I sent the husband to Michaels Craft Store in search of some animal Toobs. He picked up the Arctic one, for obvious reasons, and a penguin one, as apparently a penguin is not included in the Arctic Toob. Okay, now if you’ll look carefully at this next picture with me. See the little sugar cube on top of the glob of icing in the middle of the igloo base? Caleb put that there (imagine that) and he said, “This can be the time out chair for the penguin when he doesn’t listen!” …moving along…

He got icing on his gnat catchers. And didn’t notice. (Yes they really do catch gnats, at least mine do. He has third generation eyelashes. Bet you didn’t know they could be passed down eh?)

Glory be, it is almost done.

Please let me interrupt your train of thought to share with you the story of that little decrepit car (pictured below). You can’t tell from the picture, but he is Herbie. In the most rudimentary way of speaking. Caleb fell in love with Herbie, Fully Loaded when he caught the last half hour after his nap several weeks ago. So what would any good Mommy do? Head to eBay looking for a Herbie toy. My God, that is outrageous. I love my kid, but there is no way in the name of Zeus’s butthole I’m paying seventy three dollars for 5 matchbox cars. People are crazy, crazy I tell ya. I scoured the internet with no luck. Seems anything Herbie related, old or new, is a bit of a collector’s item. So with the constant begging, pleading, whining, and nagging gentle persuasion of my son, I secretly dug through old model car paints and located the necessary colors to make a Herbie. Caleb already had this tiny VW bug, and he was almost the right color (I painted the decorations on a 1/87th scale car okay? So sue me, I didn’t paint it white first). I surprised him with it one afternoon. It is not something I would brag about (or show you closely / in person) because the paint job leaves a lot to be desired. At least it did before he nearly rubbed all of it off playing with it so much. In case you’re wondering, this car gets tucked in on his bedside table also, nuzzled right up against Twilight Turtle. At least my good deed was well received, I do believe it made his week.

As I said, ahem, penguins live in igloos, and he will not be convinced otherwise. And they dance on top of them too.

And jump up and down, until the roof caves in. Then they all pile in through the new igloo skylight, because Lord knows, they wouldn’t want to use the door.

One last thing before you go. Allow me to share with you a completely and totally unrelated little brain fart I just had. The kid wasn’t the only one doing some learning yesterday.

The other day I learned: If you roll silly putty into a ball and leave it on a flat surface, it will not hold its shape, it will turn into somewhat of a small puddle, but still with the same putty consistency. Weird.

Yesterday afternoon I learned: If said silly putty is left on your bed overnight by your darling child, it will chemically bond with the force of industrial strength super glue to the fabric of which your comforter is made (think gum in hair X10). Attempts to remove it will have mixed results depending on fabric type. On a quilt made of varying textures, say for example, faux suede? Your efforts will not be rewarded.

The bright / glass is half full / I’m a ray of sunshine side: Luckily the silly putty was sparkley silver in color, and it just looks like dried snot on the comforter. Mmmmm.

And since you’re a mom, your comforter has probably already been spitup on, peed on, puked on, snotted on, and sneezed on, in no particular order, so you do your best to get it off, then shrug your shoulders and smile to yourself about how lucky you are to have a healthy, bright and beautiful child. And I know I tend to use sarcasm every now and then (see I can’t even type one sentence without it) but I do mean that, I am blessed.

So tell me, what fascinating tidbits of knowledge has your child/children imparted on you?

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This big bowl of ice (see instructions here) has been sitting in my freezer for about two weeks now. I completely forgot about it! I decided to pull it out this morning and get our excavating tools together. We mainly used salt and warm water with a few different brushes. And when I say salt, I mean like more salt that the Atlantic ocean. So if there was any ‘cost’ associated with this project, it would just be about 3/4 a container of salt! But two hours people. TWO HOURS my toddler played essentially by himself! Well worth a container of salt. We worked for about an hour digging out all of the treasures ‘buried’ in the ice, then he was content to dump water back and forth and stir it, etc for another good hour! I cleaned up all the junk that we had emptied out onto the deck during our cleaning process last weekend, put stuff in the storage building and the garbage. Finally, he had drenched himself in enough salt water that I felt he needed a bath!

I set this down and he came running over and plopped down to examine it

The salt could have been used a lot more sparingly had I had a shaker.  This was an empty spice container with LARGE holes in the top, so as you can see, it is really pouring out.

Almost to a treasure

We’ve acquired several now, I told you, that water has more salt than an ocean!

Water play never goes out of style

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We checked off one thing on our summer to-do list already today. Item number ten was painting in the bathtub with homemade finger paints. I used the Wilton gel colors that can be found in the cake section at Walmart and barely dipped the tips of a fork in it. I used it very sparingly and cautiously in other words. Just don’t hold me accountable for your bathtub walls! I did use more cornstarch than it called for, but I also used a very watery soap. Make sure you use something that you know won’t cause a rash or skin irritation. I just mixed until I got a consistency that I thought was appropriate. It dripped a lot, and kind of washed itself as he went, since he splashed so much. But I didn’t even have to wipe down anything, I just rinsed the tub with the detachable shower head. He had so much fun with it, I may go get some containers from Walmart to make our own paints to keep in the bathroom. I’ll let you know if I make some sort of floating artist palette, the ice tray on the edge was a little precarious.

(Sorry if the colors in these pictures look off to anyone.  They look okay on my monitor which is calibrated fairly accurately, but they were edited heavily to reduce the lovely yellow-green glow of compact fluorescents.)

Starting to get a little wild and crazy

Hmmm, face paint

What should I do next?

HAHAHA, you don’t even want to know!! What’s that? You do want to know? Oh, well in that case…I’m painting my butt!

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    = Done = Click to read about it = Pictures included
  1. Build a sandcastle
  2. Have a picnic
  3. Lay in the grass and find shapes in the clouds
  4. Paint those clouds see link
  5. Plant some flowers
  6. Hang swings from a tree branch high above, and swing as high as we can
  7. Take our first camping trip (which will probably be in the early fall, because Mommy doesn’t do hot well)
  8. Build a campfire, cook hot dogs and smores
  9. Make a Nature Box see link
  10. Paint the bathtub see link
  11. Make an ice treasure see link
  12. Use a Chore Bucket see link
  13. Paint with puffy paint see link
  14. Make a treasure map and go on a hunt see link
  15. Make a dress up corner with lots of gaudy, fun clothes
  16. Two words: homemade popsicles
  17. Three more: homemade ice cream (in a bag in just five minutes!) see link
  18. Make a big batch of colored rice, all different colors. see link Make rice art.
  19. Fly a kite
  20. Feed the Charleys (giraffes) see link
  21. Catch lightning bugs and figure out how to make them light up in a jar
  22. Build/make a wooden boat, tie a string and sail it on a lake
  23. Ride a paddleboat
  24. Wave sparklers around for the 4th of July
  25. Make bubble solution and giant bubbles
  26. Put out a bird bath
  27. Bake Cupcake Cones see link
  28. Play hide and seek with flashlights at night
  29. Celebrate National Ice Cream Day (July 20th) with friends
  30. :More To Come:

I’ll admit, this list is more for my own benefit than anything…my computer is in desperate need of restarting. When internet browsers came up the the ‘tabs’ idea to contain so many open windows into one item when minimized on your taskbar, they had me in mind. Only I tend to abuse the privilege and open so many tabs in one window that I actually have to hit the arrow to scroll over, because they cannot all be shown on a 24 inch monitor! I didn’t want to bookmark all of the pages, as my bookmarks are already a semi organized mess. One single link from a blog already on my blogshelf turned into a two hour adventure hopping around blogland last night while everyone else was sleeping. I will be adding a button to my sidebar within the next couple days to have a visual (reminder) link to this post. I found so many excellent ideas last night. I’m off to restart my computer before it curses at me. I’ll continue adding to this list as I come up with more ideas.

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Because I’m a weirdo, and I have some strange obsession with cute monsters, I’ve made all of you monsters. You’re thinking, what is she talking about? Is she nuts? Shall I encourage you to come out of lurkdom? Leave me a comment to see your randomly selected monster by your name. I found a wordpress plugin that comes with a folder full of monster parts and randomly picks from those parts to assemble a monster unique to your email address when you leave a comment.  Your specific monster will appear when you leave a comment.  I wish I could let you build your own monster, but for whatever reason, I seem to be the only person that would want such a plugin.  Hmph.

I noticed a while back that FAO Schwarz created a “make-my-own-monster” product where they send a workbook for your child to answer questions about and draw his/her monster. Upon return, they then tailor make your child’s monster according to the instructions/picture. The price tag however is ungodly…coming in at $249! If you google handmade monsters, you’ll come up with several results ranging from adorable premade monsters to websites selling monsters similar to the FAO Schwarz concept, in that it is custom made to your child’s specifications. The smaller companies, often run by a crafty mom at home just like you, tend to make the process a little more personal that FAO.

Etsy shop: CurlyQCuties

MissingMonsters.com allows you to file a missing monster report, and they will find (custom make) your monster. You can even receive the story of how your monster was found and a picture of the location. Kids get to choose an animal that the monster resembles instead of drawing a picture, which makes it a little easier for the younger generation that may not be drawing just yet. You monster arrives in a “handle with care: monster inside” box.

 

Manhattan Toy Co. also has some very cute little stuffed monsters. Etsy is another place to look into handmade monsters if you are looking for a unique gift. I plan to [eventually] put my lack of sewing skills to work to make Caleb one when he’s a little older. I’ll make my own question sheet.

Manhattan Toy’s plush monsters

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This one might take some time to build up a collection, but if your husband drinks chocolate milk (or maybe orange juice in your case) like mine does, it shouldn’t take you too long. Besides “free” has a nice ring to it. These bricks are $40 for just 16 of them:

I recently took up recycling, and Scott loves Nesquik. I’ve been feeling guilty because I had to throw away the cartons, as our recycle center does not currently accept them. I stashed some of them away hoping for a reason to use them, but I quickly ran out of storage room, and threw some away. I only ended up with eight leftovers, which makes four blocks. I’ve informed Scott of his task which he gladly accepts.

Just cut the tops off and push one inside the other. I’m planning to either wrap ours in white paper like a present and let him decorate them, or use gray paper to cover them so that they look like stones. I’m too cheap to buy contact paper. It is one of those items that I never seem to find. Is there some secret place that stores stash it? Colored or clear, I can’t ever seem to locate it. Michael’s has a ridiculously small amount packaged for a ridiculously large price over the in their scrapbook section. So get your family and friends in on saving cartons for you. Make sure to wash them out quickly or at least leave the top off, otherwise the cartons will swell.

Added bonus, not only do these make great large scale building blocks, but also nice bowling pins or monster truck obstacles.

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I have been wanting a feltboard for a long time now. I finally took the plunge. All $6 of it. I had no idea it would be so dirt cheap, or I would have done it a while back! Caleb got a tabletop easel for Christmas that has been pretty versatile so far. A chalkboard, a white board, an easel for painting or drawing, the white board is also magnetic, and now a felt board. I bought a 36″ X 36″ piece of white felt packaged in plastic for $2.99 and 20 different sheets/colors of felt pieces for $0.20 a piece.

I will be able to make ample feltboard creations out of this, and I’m thinking of going back to get more to make play food out of (another project, another day perhaps). I clipped all of these pieces in about an hour last night while watching TV.  Of course I had to start out with a car theme for Caleb, and I also did a build-a-frosty themed set, since we have built a few Frostys recently.  I cut all of these with no pattern, but there are patterns available online if you don’t feel comfortable snipping away.  You can use a similar easel set up (or clip to the fridge, lay on the floor, etc) or give your piece of felt a stiff backing or board. I had originally intended to make an actual board, but now that I realize the easel works so perfectly, I think I’ll just keep mine in foldable form for now. You could use a piece of cardboard or a thin piece of wood to wrap the felt around. You could hang it on the wall. Pop the cork out of an old bulletin board and wrap it with felt for a framed board. Wrap an old white board. A small travel version would make an excellent toy for the car. Make sure to use cardboard for this one, so as not to create a projectile (in other words, don’t use wood, or a hard/heavy material for the backing. Add a ribbon for a handle. If making a folded version, you could add a closure. I’ve also seen an idea to make a little travel board from sandpaper and yarn. The yarn sticks to the sandpaper, kids can create pictures using different colors and lengths of string.

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I’ve had a growing list of “toys” that I’ve wanted to make for a while now. I set out to Michael’s craft store today to acquire supplies. I think the total on this project was about $17. A little more than I would have liked, but the decoupage glue was about $5 I think. Could it have been found cheaper? Quite possibly, but it was the last item on a long list after spending over an hour in a craft store with a toddler. One who was approaching his maximum meltdown limits, whining and whimpering incessantly about which cars he might or might not be allowed to bring home (how he phrases I would like you to buy this). I wouldn’t have cared if it was $15 an ounce. That’s a lie, I’m actually very stingy. Anyway, I got scrapbook paper to use for the pictures. You can use anything you want. Trace and cut out 6 pictures to go on your blocks. If you want to be able to stack your puzzle vertically, and view the picture correctly from both sides, pay close attention to your positioning. I recommend doing one whole side and then flipping the entire puzzle over at one time, and completing the opposite side. Repeat this process three times. Here is the mostly finished product. I did four sides after dinner this evening. It took a little longer than expected, but it will be neat.

Tips: If you are doing this for a young child, try to pick six pictures that have different tones or colors so that it is easier to distinguish what belongs to each picture. There is still plenty of puzzling to be done after all of the sides for one particular puzzle are facing up. If you are doing this puzzle for a toddler, you may want to put a narrow solid border around each picture depending out how complicated the picture if. You could let your child try the puzzle, and if he/she seems to be having a hard time, add a border. Added bonus, this can help to hide little mistakes along the edges! You may want to spray or coat with a finishing spray or varnish.

And if you are the crafty type, this will be like therapy for you. Mommy’s busy, go bug Daddy!

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