I’ve been waiting a couple weeks to write this post, because I wanted to give my readers one thing that I could not find online.  Pictures.  (Imagine that you say.)  I couldn’t find many pictures of the Baufix building sets.  Of course there are the typical product shots, but it wasn’t really enough variety for me.  I wanted to know what else I could build with the set.  Of course, the possibilities are endless.  But I’m a very visual person.  Which means the zero-word instructions work well for me.  Since the set has several colors, it is easy to tell which piece you need based on the picture instructions.

This is a good toy for Dad and son, not to say I haven’t had a blast with it myself!

Caleb wanted to build a fire truck first, I forgot to take a picture before we dismantled it the next day though!

Dad’s big helper

Then came a tow truck, which was a similar build to the fire truck.

Then a forklift

A motorcycle

And this.  The super crane.  I built this one.  Surprisingly, it was not as difficult as I expected.

I joked that I sent it in with my M.I.T. application

Hoisting up a load of Hot Wheels takes concentration

We took apart the big crane and it had a baby:

And built an airplane to go with it.  On the more simple designs, you may be able to build more than one model.  Obviously the super crane above used most of the pieces.

After putting the pieces back into the ziplocks 900 times and searching for the screw that always seemed to be at the bottom of the bag, I had an idea.

Instilling Neuroticism Within Your Child’s Core Values.  Classes offered this fall on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Instructor: Dr. Me

Pieces or airplane and mini crane are not shown in the box, but I *think* they will fit.

As you can imagine, this is a toy that will definitely grow with your child.  They can go all the way from part finder with a parent putting models together (practices colors, matching, etc) to building models themselves and creating their own inventions.  And of course, 75% or more of the pieces are made from wood according to European toy safety specifications (well above the USA’s).  If you’re wondering where you could find this for upcoming birthdays or Christmas, please take a look at Carl and Me.  They are an awesome family run online toy store with customer service that you just. don’t. find. these days.  I have exchanged several emails with Karen at Carl and Me, and I encourage you to do the same, should you have any questions.  Like I said, outstanding customer service and amazing European toys.  Right now, they are having a Father’s Day sale on Fagus trucks (which I can offically give a big thumbs up on, though I have not written about them yet).  Free shipping over $100.  Check out their whole site, you will not be disappointed!

4 Comments

Any guesses what I’m packin’ in my stylish new bag?  If you’ve seen it already know, please keep quiet for a bit and let’s see if anyone else can guess what I’ve stowed away.

I’ll update this post after a few guesses.

—–

Amber had the closest guess.  That’s right, I’m packin’ a toilet!

I ordered a toilet in a bag from Walmart.com and had it shipped site to store. What? Don’t laugh. I think it’s quite the fashionable toilet, as far as purse potties go.

So back story, we were in Walmart a few weeks ago and Caleb did the grab-the-crotch-I-gotta-go signal.  (That’s normal with boys right?  Yeah, sure, of course.  Hmmm.)  So we headed into the bathroom and it was taking forever to…get things goin’.   Apparently the toilet got impatient and the damn automatic flusher flushed on the kid. I’m sure you can imagine the sheer terror on his face. To make matters worse, he was sitting backwards on the pot, so he was looking right down into the jaws of life as it tried to suck him in. Needless to say, he’s terrified of the automatic flushers now and he vowed to cross his legs through the rest of the store and the whole way home that day.  Now I have a solution, hopefully this will last until the fear has subsided.  I’m pretty impressed though.  It just uses 4 gallon trash bags with an absorbant pad in the bottom.

8 Comments

Oh yes. Pink tools. In a pink purse. Everything has its own little place. Perfection. It actually screamed at me from the shelf. I didn’t know that a grocery cart could squeal tires coming to a stop.

What’s included, as you’ll see, there are very few pieces that aren’t pink.

And it even comes in this state of perfection. The only thing that has to be unwrapped is the eye protection. Everything else is already in place. If you’re a travelin’ girl, it also has a shoulder strap.

The only additional thing you’ll have to purchase is a padlock. But maybe the thought of using pink tools will ward off Mr. Fix-it. Because these clearly belong to Mrs. Fix-it. ;)

4 Comments

We went to the library yesterday and checked out several books. This happened to be one of them. I’m now on the search to find it for our personal collection. It is adorable! I giggled through the whole thing. It has a song included, cute illustrations and a sing-songy rhythm to the story. If you get the chance, check it out! We have it on the Shelfari Wishlist now!

Leave a Comment

If you have been visiting this blog for a while, you have probably picked up on the fact that I take A LOT of pictures. And I post A LOT of pictures.  I felt like you guys probably would have been right at home had you come to my house.  You probably would have know the layout of the house and where every light switch was from the background of my pictures.  I have had several requests for pictures of our new home.  I went in the bedroom, currently my favorite room because it is the only one we managed to get paint on before we moved in.  I’ve used this color before in an apartment and I loved being in the bedroom all the time.  It makes it easier for me to get my lazy butt out of bed with a warm yellow on the wall.  It didn’t get finished, we actually only got one coat put on over light tan paint that was already there.  It probably should have had a coat of Kilz, but it just so happened that I picked the thickest paint on the east coast.  And we have done our fair share of painting…this stuff is thick.  This color is actually a Laura Ashley signature color (cowslip 4), but since our landlord is buying the paint for us, I didn’t think she would appreciate me getting paint that was $30 a gallon!  I went for a gallon that was about $16 and had it color matched.  It came the closest to one coat coverage that I have ever seen.  That’s how thick it is.  But it does need a second coat, and then we have to go back and fix the trim because the paint edger for the trim didn’t like the thick paint.  I vowed that this would be the only picture I took in the bedroom, as there is a pile of linens to wash the size of a twin bed, boxes, a footboard for the bed leaning against the wall and we almost never make the bed.

But of course the kid had to climb up in the bed and decide he was in a “posing” mood.  “Take a picture of meee!  Cheeeese”

I missed a snapshot on his truck and when I tried to get him to do it again, this is what I got.

So I begged.  The same way he does when he really wants something.  He clasps his hands at his chest like he’s praying and says “Pwease pwease pweeeease” in this pitiful little voice and pokes his lip out.  He came up and gave me a hug and said “it’s okay Mommy, I wuv you,” and then he got on his truck.

He rides his truck everywhere.  I think he likes the sound of the truck on the floor.  He’s gotten pretty good at driving it too!

I like the shadows in this one.  Yes I know, he needs ANOTHER haircut.  I’ve been growing my hair out for Locks of Love for a LONG TIME, I’m just not used to this boy thing where they need a haircut once a month!

Calling the repairman on his imaginary phone.  Apparently there was a problem with his big wood truck.  “Hewwo, mit-ter wepairman?  Yes, I need my twuck fixed.  Tank you. Bye.”

The hard knock life of a toddler

This is an awesome toddler game, you know, when you’d just as soon poke your eyeballs out than look at Candyland…five minutes into the second game.  It is called Bunny Hop.  I wish the price was about $5 less, especially since I’ve never seen it in a local store, but it was still worth it.  The price seems to fluctuate $5-7 on Amazon if you keep an eye on it though.  We got this for Easter, since it happened to tie into the theme of the Easter bunny.  Caleb adores this game.  There are five bunnies of each color: Three will “hop,” two will not.  The object of the game is to get one bunny of each color.  Each player decides which color farmer they will be (although this does not affect game play).  You roll the dice to determine which color bunny to press, then press your farmer to see if your bunny springs up 5-7 inches in the air!  Almost every time, we have to press down all the bunnies at once before putting the game away.  This makes 12 bunnies go flying in the air at one time when a farmer is pressed.  That brings about big laughs at our house!

Mid game, Caleb decided that Charley wanted to play.  He wanted to be the yellow farmer.  See the blur by Caleb’s sleeve?  Charley made a blue bunny hop on his turn!  Good job Charley!

I mean, let’s face it…this is cute.  I love how much he loves Charley and how “real” he is.  I talk to Charley every day, and he talks back to me, gives me kisses and hugs good night too.

Old and new wooden toys.  Can you tell the difference?  Mom saved my inch worm pull toy from my toddler days.  Maybe my grandchildren will play with both of these.

No I don’t get everything I want.  Really.  Not with this face.

I think Charley won!

2 Comments

My two year old (yes I know he is days away from being three, but just let me still call him two) routinely beats me at this game. It was a “birthday present.” So far I have stowed away 1 out of the 4 presents that have come in the mail!

In Gulo Gulo, the baby gulo (wolverine) has gotten stuck in the vulture’s nest. The vulture has an egg alarm to keep intruders from stealing eggs. The big gulos have to work their way down the path to the vulture’s nest to rescue the baby, but they get so darn distracted stealing eggs along the way. Sometimes they knock over the egg alarm and have to go back a few steps. At the end of the path, there are five tiles stacked up. The gulo must uncover a tile. If the baby is pictured on the tile, the gulo must steal a purple egg to rescue the baby. If the baby is not pictured, the gulo must continue stealing the appropriate colored eggs until turning over the baby gulo tile. All of this must be done without setting off the egg alarm, or else the gulo must go back a few steps. Not only did Caleb beat me to the end of the path, he uncovered all five tiles (the baby tile was at the very bottom of the stack), stole five eggs, thus rescuing the baby gulo all in one turn!! I was left sitting about ten tiles back after knocking over the egg alarm myself before his winning turn!

And if you look carefully, the red and the yellow egg (by his hand) are BARELY keeping the egg alarm from falling. This was how the nest looked when he won. You can see the baby tile there at the end with the purple egg.

Speaking of birthday presents…poor Daddy…Mommy was evil, I must confess. I wanted to open those blocks so badly when they arrived, but Scott thought we should wait.  Until his birthday, I mean, come on, who does that?  *rolls eyes and whistles* The boxes were heavy, much to heavy for me to move (even though I managed the 250lb TV cabinet a few weeks ago! Shhhh!). As predicted Caleb ask about every five seconds if we could open the boxes. And he may have had a little teeny weensy bit of egging on from Mommy. “You’ll have to ask Daddy.” I may or may not have sat at the dinner table and whispered for him to keep begging bugging asking Daddy about the “surpwise.” In the end, he lasted about 90 minutes. I’m so bad.

We have built houses, parking garages, ice cream stands, a barn, fenced in areas for the farm animals, ramps, and a robot. It is sad when you look at children’s blocks and say “Wow, these are more level than our floor!” We live in an older house that has settled a lot. If you spill something in the kitchen, you need to get it up fast, because it migrates quickly to the corner of the refrigerator!

2 Comments

My mom got this pan for Caleb for Christmas. Are you skeptical? I was a tad at first. I thought, there’s no way I could just pour some batter in there and have it fall right out without breaking, perfectly molded. But that is exactly what happens! I’ve made two batches with flawless results, and I do not bake all that often. The pan comes with a recipe that is quite good, and has good results with the pan. And guess what? It’s on sale! $13.99 + shipping. Not too bad.

Caleb helped make the batter last night, then I prepped our work station as quietly as possible this morning. He wanted so badly to do this last night. I used buttercream icing. Not once have I ever measured ingredients when making this icing. Plop some cream cheese in a bowl, add a little milk, then add powdered sugar to your liking and consistency. I scooped out a bit into cups. Now I am not a cake decorator, this may be common knowledge to other people. But when it comes to tinting icing, food coloring (the drops from the grocery store) is wretched. Unless you’re just going for the pastel look. But if you look in the craft section in Walmart, they have cake decorating supplies. Wilton brand even! I picked up several different concentrated paste colors that were sold individually. They also had an 8 pack I think. I read to swirl it in with a toothpick, yes, you will need that little of an amount to get these bold colors. I also read that too much red, trying to achieve a good saturated red color, can cause the icing to taste bitter. So I chose the No-Taste Red over the Christmas Red and the Red Red.

Look, I’m so neurotic. The paintbrushes match their colors. In my defense, I picked up four brushes at random, and three happened to match, so I switched out the fourth with a different color brush so it would match too. Leave me alone.

This truck ended up being my favorite because he spent the most time on this one. He did seven cakes, while I did one!

He hadn’t even finished the first one before getting icing in his hair

Welp, I guess we won’t be selling these at any bake sales!

Working on a masterpiece

I claim the three dots, it was a collaborative face painting effort.

Eating his handywork

I asked him which one he would like to eat. He decided on the Jeep, although he would be sure to correct me here. No it is not a Jeep, it is a Rubicon. A particular off road version of the Jeep Wrangler.

The Jeep Rubicon had a wreck. Several actually.

In the end, the insurance adjuster deemed it a total loss. Being that it was in several different pieces and all.

2 Comments

Yesterday we spent an hour building this monstrosity of a fort in Caleb’s room and read a bunch of books in it. When bedtime came, the dresser and bed were completely unaccessible. So I tried to drag the fort into a different room. Yeah right. Then I tried to dismantle it into sections to move it. Yeah right. Finally I erupted in laughter and the rest of the family came to find out what was going on. The results were…carnage.

The kitchen section:

The bedroom section:

So today we rebuilt. I know I’ve posted about this several times, but I love this product. It gets mixed reviews online, some people love it, some people dog it. I’m one of the people who loves it. The recommended age is four years. I’m sure it is some sort of safety reason, but Caleb can easily build with this toy. He loves to help make a fort. It isn’t something he could do alone just yet, but it goes together with plenty of ease so that a 2.5-3 year old can easily join in the fun. He isn’t able to clip on the fabric panels though. Caleb got this for Christmas, and we had so much fun that we went and bought another set so we could build bigger and better! Each set comes with a storage bag to hold everything.

200 points!!

See the thing he’s stepping on? You put the purple (or green, it came with two) ball on there and then stomp the air pump. It shoots the ball and the ball sticks to the red panel. 300 points!

1 Comment

I have been searching the internet high and low for unique and natural toys for the upcoming birthday. I happened upon these and had to share. I think they just skipped to top priority on the list. I will report back on quality as soon as I order them, but I think they look very promising. They are interlocking blocks, which can be ordered alone or with a heavy hauler truck. The different shapes have dowels sticking out of the top so that the next piece fits down over it and “locks” on, even if the wall is a curved shape. Made of oak with a plant based finish.  They are made by Camphill Village, a therapeutic residential community where adults with developmental disabilities, known as villagers, and dedicated volunteer co-workers share a full life together.  Very neat!

Interlocking Blocks

2 Comments

Oooo we do! That’s us, right here!

My less than happy test subject in the new Graco Nautilus. Now a candidate for the future carseat running.

Since it is a forward facing only carseat, the straps would need to be moved up a slot, but he appears to have a good bit of growing room. This seat becomes a belt positioning booster, and then a backless booster. I am a little concerned that he might unbuckle it himself though, as the buckle pushes down instead of in (of course he has his hands in front of it in both pictures).

Please note, the chest clip should be a little higher, at armpit level.

1 Comment

Next Page »