I’ve been researching toys lately. Scratching your head? Maybe. Sounds enthralling right? You bet. Do I have other things I could be doing? Sure. Are those other things more important? Not so sure about that one anymore. About a year ago, I bought a Fisher Price doctor’s kit to play with shortly before Caleb’s two year well kiddo check up. I figured maybe it would help make him a little more comfortable with seeing the doctor. He hasn’t played with it too much. Thankfully. Because take a look at the frightening test results.

Polyvinyl chloride, chromium, tin, Lead, Mercury, ARSENIC! This is my child’s toy! I was floored. Downright terrifying bath toys and teethers with lead content.

Changes are in order here. The more I think about it, the sicker it makes me. Go ahead and prepare yourself for an earful about toys this week.

Need to learn more about your child’s toys? There are several ways to search and explore the database of toys tested so far. You can nominate toys to be tested as well.

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This is actually an entry I meant to write way back before the holidays. I’ve been staring at the draft every time I’ve written a blog entry for two months. I had good intentions of making a child ID kit for myself and sharing it here, but guess what, it didn’t happen. I know, I’m shocked too. Because, you know, I’m no procrastinator.

Anyway, I happened upon a pretty neat site last night. A family took their three small children to an amusement park one Labor Day weekend. Feeling outnumbered by the crowds, the wrote their cell phone number on their children’s hands. The process had to be repeated several times during the day, but it was certainly a clever idea to help young children who may not know their parents’ number, or may not be able to remember it in a stressful situation. With that, the idea for Safety Tat was born. There are several adorable designs to choose from, and we all know what a big hit temporary tattoos are. Most children enjoy showing everyone. They go on just like any other temporary tattoo, using water. Their small size makes them convenient to keep handy in your purse or wallet, make sure your baby sitter has a few. Dropping your child off for a slumber or birthday party? “If you need anything, my number is right here.” There are even designs for “Call my school” and “Nut allergy alert.” [Click each picture below to find out more about each different product]

In the horrifying event that your child is abducted or lost under different circumstances, a child ID kit could save valuable time. Authorities agree, time is of the essence, every second counts. The faster you can give information on your child, the faster people can be looking for him or her. There are several different types of kits, some consisting of a picture and basic information. Others allow you to record your child’s fingerprints, a DNA sample and bite impressions.

Amber Alert offers a USB flash drive that needs no special software to use. It can be plugged in to any computer to access your child’s information (with a password), allowing police to act quickly in the event that your child is missing.

YourSafeChild.com offers several different products to keep identifying information about your child at your fingertips.

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I love these blocks, they are so neat!  I’ve spent hours creating castles the past few days and  Caleb has been building some very basic structures along side me.  I was just saying to Scott yesterday, it would be totally awesome if you could get a set that was about 3-4 times this size.  As in the size of the blocks, not the amount.  You could build a castle as tall as an adult!  It would cost a fortune, but these blocks are pretty much one of a kind, I cannot find anything else like them online.  By the way, they are on sale again.  I’m still planning to get some unit blocks for his birthday, I never really thought about how many different things you can do with blocks, but they are an excellent basic toy for creativity and imagination.  I ordered the Community Playthings resource CD (called “Foundations CD-ROM,” a video to watch on the computer) on block play, and they made some really interesting points that I had never thought about.

Me the castle maker.  Him the castle breaker.

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I happily exited the KB Toys Outlet smiling with my new purchase. As I hopped in the car, Scott peered in the bag to see what I had gotten. “Hungry Hank!” I exclaimed as I removed the box from the bag. “He was 50% off because the store is closing, isn’t that great?!” And I reached through the hole in the box with a huge arrow pointing to the try me button. Hank burped loudly, groaned and giggled. Scott looked at me and shook his head, “What is it with you and bodily function games?” he asked.

You are probably wondering, there is more than one game about..umm..bodily functions? Yup. And I found it. And gave it as a Christmas gift. Because you know…Santa hears you when your sleeping, he smells when you’re awake. Besides I love food. Can’t go wrong with games about food and bodily functions right?

Hungry Hank has a large round gameboard to get him through his day. He gets out of bed and gets off to a good start by exercising. But man does he eat a lot. The game comes with four little Hank game pieces and a die. You roll the die, move your hank the appropriate number of spaces according to your roll and do what your space tells you to…maybe that is five jumping jacks, or maybe that is pressing the button that feeds Hank, making him burp and causing his stomach to expand. Your mission: Don’t be the player who makes Hank explode.

I also just remembered, Caleb likes Hank’s nose.  I showed him this Mickey Mouse at the Disney store one time…no lie the thing was four feet tall.  He didn’t stand by himself, but he was he was close to adult size.  I asked Caleb what he thought, and what stood out to him was Mickey’s nose.  He called it a “big hunky nose.”  For obvious reasons, he thinks the same about Hank, he has a big hunky (sounds like a cross between hunky and honkey) nose.

Gassy Gus is by far my favorite. I think I’ve mentioned here before than I’m a fan of toilet humor. Hopefully I don’t run you off with my grossness. But I think this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. So the idea behind Gassy Gus is that you feed him via his TV tray in front of his recliner. His foods have a point value. Watermelon, for example, is a zero. As you can probably guess, a big ole plate of beans is worth a whopping seven points! There are several variations of…a taco/bean burrito, a hot dog with chili piled on top, nachos, etc. Gus’s head goes up and down to “eat” his food, which in turns expands his gut.

Oh yay! Another gut busting game you say! This one has a better design though. Hank is some sort of spring loaded action that you can’t see. With Gus, you tuck his shirt in when you sit the recliner up (it lays flat for storage). Gus’s stomach is a balloon. Somehow his stomach, eerrr, releases at seemingly random times. He comes with a backup belly. So you start off with five cards to feed Gus and two belly buster sodas to use against other players. If Gus looks like he’s ready to pop before your turn, you can play a belly buster soda on your unsuspecting opponent, which adds three pumps to their turn. If Gus passes wind on your play, you have to draw two more cards. Your mission: Be the first to feed Gus all of your food.

You should note, Gus does not come with a fishing pole. No he isn’t required to catch fish for dinner. He is fishing over at Balloon Lagoon (the Cranium game). After Gus finished all of his beans, french fries, chili, broccoli, and ice cream, Caleb decided he should have magnetic letters for dessert. He didn’t like Gus too much at first. I would get him out and just laugh and laugh. Caleb would look on warily and then say “you can put him up now.” But Gus has grown on him, Caleb thinks he’s hilarious now. He is still a little wary over Gus’s wind noises. But he really, really likes to pretend to feed Gus. Dumping soda after soda in. Gus is very polite…Caleb makes him say “I’d wike anotder soda pwease.” He feeds him and then just laaaaughs.

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The painting part…

Today I was a good mom. I let my two year old paint. Somehow, I feel that messy arts deserve an extra pat on the back. Like extra credit points or brownie points or something. A bad mommy secret…this is the first time he has ever painted. It took longer to set up and clean up than the time he actually spent painting, but he seemed to enjoy himself, and actually he was a very good listener. He stayed at his table and didn’t challenge me by running around the house dragging the paintbrush along the walls as if keying a car. I told him that painting was messy and we had to stay in the playroom, and he stayed! I was impressed. He let me know when he was ready to be cleaned up. His pictures are still hanging on the back porch drying. When you use 23 layers of paint, sometimes it takes a little longer to dry. Who’d a thunk it.

I think I’ll slip a product review in here. Caleb is using an Alex Toys easel. So far, two thumbs up. It is a tabletop easel, thus takes up less space, but is still a good sized easel with plenty of room. It folds flat for storage. One side is a chalkboard, and the other is a magnetic white board. This particular one (I purchased from eBay express) came with two paper clips (you can see the yellow one above), four no spill paint cups that fit in the four holes in the easel tray, four paint brushes and a set of magnetic (fridge) letters. My only complaint is a minor one. It came with cellophane over the chalkboard. I am going to have to get a screwdriver and take the chalkboard completely off to get the cellophane out from behind it. If little things like this don’t bother you, then you can probably just leave it there, it isn’t hindering the use of the chalkboard. But speaking as someone who cannot STAND to leave stickers on rubbermaid containers, or product decals on electronics (you know the 7.1MP! sticker on the camera), I will be removing the chalkboard to get rid of the pesky cellophane.

My shaggy-haired, sick little snot monster, just be glad I decided not to include the close up drippy nose picture.

The rambling part…

I have been thinking about Maggie non stop for days. I guess it is just part of my grieving process or how I’m dealing with it, but I want a puppy so bad. There are a laundry list of reasons why we can’t/aren’t going to/shouldn’t get one. We already have one dog (whose behavior isn’t exactly what it should be, largely my fault), we can’t afford a puppy, I have enough to do already, it is too soon, the list goes on. But for whatever reason, I can’t help looking and longing. I must look at these two pictures a million times a day.

I have the first one set as my desktop background. It has become a favorite picture. The photographer in me loves the lighting and the colors. The girl in me that just misses her baby, loves the pink nose, and the look in her eyes, as if she is peering into your soul. I learned today through my searching and reading that Mag’s coloration is called a “Dudley.” This refers to the lack of pigment in her nose and around the rims of her eyes. Traditionally, yellow labs have black noses, feet (the pads), lips and rims of their eyes. It is considered a flaw, yet every person I found with a Dudley lab thinks they are just beautiful. I disqualifies them from being a show dog. Not that I care in the least about that. But Maggie was all pink. Her nose, around her eyes, the inside of her ears, the underside of her belly, her lips, even the lads on her feet, all pink. I just miss her so much.

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I had originally planned to review some of the Christmas items the week after the big day, but alas…stuff happened. Yeah I know what you thought I was gonna say. Anyway, I focused a large portion of my Christmas shopping on activities. Things that actually take up time, not just room in the toy box. We had no games.

I actually bought this Candy Land game shortly after Christmas. It was an impulse buy, I admit. FYI, Target overstocked on a lot of Christmas items, which are now on clearance to make room. Caleb knows all of this shapes and colors, so I don’t know how much “learning” can come from this game, but practice never hurts. Neither did the fact that it was on clearance. Of all the games we got, I would say this would be the #1 starter game. If you have a toddler and are looking for a very basic first game that plays quickly, this is an excellent choice. You can work with your child on shapes, colors, matching and taking turns. Since it was just the two of us, we used two game board per player. It comes with four gingerbread men, each with found shapes that must be matched to the player’s game board(s). You pull the candycane lever on the side, and a shape slides out of the castle door. If you don’t need the piece, you just drop it back in the top of the castle. Like I said, it is a basic, fun game for toddlers. There is no box, the gingerbread men store in the slot right behind the castle (as you can see from the picture) and the pieces store in the castle. I have played it approximately 72 times today. And honestly (I am trying, but haven’t had the luck of the draw I suppose) I haven’t won a single game.

I may have mentioned once or twice that Caleb loves anything with wheels, so I was looking for a creative way to incorporate that into a Christmas gift. I found a K’nex transportation set. I’m not sure who likes this more! At this point, he’s a little young for the building process I guess, but I have him help me dig through the container and find the pieces we need. This particular set (actually marketed toward educators/teachers) came with picture/instruction handouts. Again, shape/color matching, but the construction/building activity and fine motor skills required will carry this toy along to an older age.

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