1 Mother 2 Another

Maddie’s had a couple weeks now to break – I mean, break in – her new toys, and she’s ready to offer up her stand-out favorites. As a reminder, Maddie’s 18 months old right now.

First off, it should come as no surprise that Check-Up Time Elmo is high on her list. She loves that it sings a bit and wears clothes, which is frankly a novelty where Elmo is concerned. The fact that there exist multiple Elmos in her universe seems to bother her not at all; she’ll play with her “plain” stuffed one and Check-Up Time simultaneously. Check-Up Time is a good segue toy for her at bedtime, since she can carry it with her while getting her jammies on. The fact that it asks her to interact is helping her learn body parts and activities. My biggest concern is that she’ll go to her next doctor’s visit, discover that check-ups are not a “happy time” as Elmo says, and feel betrayed by him. We’ll find out in June.

A small toy that’s been a huge hit has been her Brio duck a simple pull toy that she really loves. She became enamoured of pull-toys around 15 months and I ordered this one for her, setting it aside for a Rainy Day which never came. I had trouble finding a pull-toy that a) wasn’t obnoxiously noisy, with squeaks or barks or ringing phones, and b) was sturdy enough that it wouldn’t tip over all the time when being pulled. This duck is excellent, a solid wood and simple design whose only “quack” is a wooden clicking sound. His wings flap and head goes up and down, and she loves it. I highly recommend it as a pull-toy that won’t drive you nuts.

A surprising favorite has turned out to be a magnetic alphabet set with flashcards. We’ve got the same set in our church nursery and she seemed interested, so we put it on her list, thinking she’d grow into it. She asks to play with it constantly and loves digging through the metal container for the letters, crowing triumphantly when she finds the one she’s looking for. “Essss!” she says, holding an “s” up in front of her. Then she wants to see the matching flashcard so she can fit the letter in. For whatever reason, my kid’s really into her alphabet right now. Who am I to say no?? And her favorite word to spell? E-L-M-O.

Book-wise, she has a few new favorites. First off, she’s got some new inserts for her Little Touch Leap Pad. She’s gotten very independent with it and it buys me some quiet time. As far as “regular” books go, she’s fallen in love with Corduroy which she had only read in board book form up until Christmas. She also asks a lot for the newest Little Wombat book; she has all the rest and loves them all. And we got her the Big Picture Story Bible on the recommendation of my friend Graham and are really glad we did. It’s an excellent book that she’ll read for decades; for now she loves leaving it on a table and turning the pages and simply looking.

Finally, of course, the piece-de-resistance of Christmas is Maddie’s Little Helper Kitchen. She can’t stay away from her kitchen for very long and is terribly busy in it. She received plenty of food and cooking utensils, including an excellent produce cutting set that has fruits and veggies velcroed together, allowing Maddie to “cut” it herself. With a satisfying sound, the cut fruit makes Maddie feel just like Mommy. The kitchen doesn’t come with any play food, but it’s sturdy and a great height for her right now; I’ve a feeling we’ll need to get a bigger one for her around age 3 or so. We thought about starting with the bigger one, but there’s one in our church nursery and it seems to intimidate her. This one also has a “working” phone, which is a plus since girlie is always needing to talk to someone. We’ve taught her that her toy food can’t go all over the house – it has to stay in her kitchen or at her “work table”. So the mess isn’t the problem I thought it would be.

So there you have it – the best of Christmas, straight from the expert herself. If you’ve had any big hits in your household I’d love to hear about them; I’m always interested in passing on sure-fire winners so we all can take some guesswork out of baby gear! Also, feel free to post if you’ve got any duds you discourage others from purchasing.