Chica Baby

I don’t encourage my son to watch much TV, but a couple times a week I like to put a DVD on while I cook dinner, to help keep him occupied.  So far we have two, and one of them is the Sesame Street Sing Along.  I got this out of a bargain bin at my local baby/kid superstore, and it’s a big hit.  My son is obsessed with the alphabet song, so when I put this DVD on, he always requests to see that scene first.  He rarely makes it to the end of the disc, but it usually keeps his attention for a good fifteen minutes.

In this production, the Sesame Street gang drags a piano up to the roof to have a sing along.  They sing some of the all-time favorites like “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt”, “Old MacDonald”, and “The Alphabet Song”.  It’s a very simple and unassuming video… just a group of friends having a good time.  No fancy animation, no crazy sound effects.  People, puppets, and good music.  I highly recommend it.

My son is 2 years and 2 months old, and very little keeps his attention these days as well as a wooden puzzle.  These come in many varieties, from fancy puzzles that light up or make sound to plain puzzles with simple shapes.  My son loves them equally, so we have been stocking up.

The first one we bought was this alphabet puzzle from Melissa & Doug.  It’s great because there is a picture below each piece of something beginning with that letter, so it begins to teach the association of letters to words.  Tonight, in the bathtub, my son was playing with his letters that stick to the wall.  He picked up the “P” and said “Panda!”  I couldn’t believe it.  So, this puzzle is great.

Our next purchase was this Melissa & Doug traffic light puzzle. I picked it up at HomeGoods.  If you have a HomeGoods near you, they always have great Melissa & Doug toys, especially puzzles.  When you put the pieces in for the red, green, and yellow lights, the puzzle actually lights up for a few seconds.  This absolutely thrills my son.

Today, we received two new puzzles that Gramma ordered from Fine Wooden Toys.

The first is a number puzzle by Melissa & Doug.  For each number, there is a picture of that many somethings under the piece.  So, for example, there are four mice underneath the four.

The second new puzzle is this “Fire Engine Mini Discovery Puzzle“.  I was rather surprised that my son put it together in only a couple of minutes, as it’s the first puzzle he has had where the pieces have to fit together (as opposed to each piece having its own spot where it goes independently of other pieces).  He seems to really like it though.  Even though it’s called “mini”, I didn’t expect such a small puzzle — only 5.5 x 4.5 inches.

I’ve been having such a good time putting together my son’s new playroom.  I found some really good decorations at Home Goods, all in bold blue, red, green, and yellow colors. Got a cute little rug at Home Depot which I put underneath his table and chairs, which is a cheap way of protecting the hardwood floors from things like paint, Play Doh, and glitter.  But I couldn’t figure out what to put on the rest of the floor.  A rug didn’t seem like a great idea, because it would be hard to stack blocks on or roll trucks on.  Also, I’d be worried about it getting stained — rugs are expensive!  Finally, I discovered foam floor tiles, which you attach like puzzle pieces.  I bought a set at Buy Buy Baby but ended up returning them because the colors were more pastel than the picture on the web.  However, they were really cute if your room has a more muted color scheme.  But for our room, I needed to find bright, bold tiles.  I finally settled on puzzle mat foam floor tiles from www.softtiles.com.

I got these numbered tiles and these solid tiles.

I wanted to cover 36 square feet, so I got the numbered tiles which covers 10 square feet, then I ordered 26 of the 1×1 tiles in red, blue, yellow, and green.  I love how it turned out, and so does my son.  The numbered tiles are fun because the numbers come out, so it’s more of a puzzle, but they are kind of busy which is why I went with mostly solid tiles.

Here’s how it looks, during play time obviously

Close-up of the “0″ tile:

One of my favorite books right now for bedtime reading is the “Curious George Good Night Book”.  We received this book as a gift, and for a while it wasn’t something my son could pay attention to because it has a lot of words and is longer than the typical books you read to a 1-year old.  However, as a two year old, right now it is perfect for him.  This book walks you through Curious George’s bedtime routine, from cleaning up his toys to taking a bath, to singing a lullaby, and finally George falls asleep.  The end of every page says “Are you sleepy yet?” to which my son always emphatically answers “noooooo”.  It’s a beautiful and calming book, and your child benefits from seeing Curious George go through his bedtime routine.  It reinforces that it’s time for nite nite, that this is something everyone does (even Curious George has to brush his teeth!!!), and we always say nite nite to George together at the end.

It occurred to me recently that it was time for me to get my son some new age-appropriate toys.  At two years, he’s showing a lot of interest in blocks, tool sets, animals, and — of course — cars.  He has a tool set at daycare, and I try not to duplicate toys.  I’m sure he has blocks, too, but can you have too many?  There are unlimited things you can do with blocks, so I figured that was a safe bet for home and not likely something he’ll tire of quickly.

I found these great Melissa & Doug blocks the other day, and every day on the way home from school, my son says he can’t wait to get home and play with them.  Score!

The blocks all fit together in the little wagon, which has a string for your child to pull it along.  My son loves to build a tower, then pull the wagon until it falls.  Thrilling!

*** Note: Take a digital photo of the blocks in the wagon before you take them out, so you remember how to put them back when you want to stow it away ***

I wanted to get a small table and chairs for my son’s playroom, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  With a new house, we have a lot of space to fill, and furniture/decor purchases are really starting to add up.  Fortunately, I found this LATT table and chairs at IKEA for only $25:

We made a morning out of it, drove down to IKEA, walked the entire store, picked up the LATT table, and stopped at the cafe for some Swedish meatballs.  We put the set together while my son was napping, and it took about 20 minutes.  The table is a bit wobbly, so we need to put something under one of the legs to even it out.   Overall, the set is pretty flimsy but it’s cute, it’s just the right size for my 2-year-old, and it was only $25, so what can I expect.

Trying to figure out how to cover the floor of my son’s playroom has proven challenging.  I want the floor soft enough for him to be comfortable, firm enough to be able to play with blocks and toys, cheap enough that I won’t freak out at the inevitable paint spills, and easily cleaned/washed.  It’s a tall order, I know!

In addition to a soft, comfortable surface in the main area of the room, I wanted something to put in the “activity area” underneath a small table and chairs.  The surface needs to be durable and stand up to Play Doh, paint, glitter, etc.    At Home Depot, I found this cute little “My Town” play mat:

It has a little map of a town, with a train station, ice cream shop, fire and police stations, and even a Home Depot truck driving down the road.  It’s very cute and durable, and is a fun surface for playing with cars and trucks.

It’s perfect for the color scheme I am trying to create in our playroom, too — bright, bold colors.

Still looking for a good floor cover for the main area of the room.  Maybe foam floor tiles?

We just returned from a vacation with my husband’s extended family.  My son’s cousin, who is 10, brought along some Play-Doh.  Play-Doh is something she has outgrown, but she enjoys bringing it on vacation.  Doesn’t vacation bring out the kid in all of us?  So, my son got his first taste of Play-Doh… literally… and he’s hooked.

So, of course I immediately went out and bought him a little set of Play-Doh, ten little containers, ten different colors (though there are two pinks and a red which are awfully close in color).

The caps of the containers are too hard for him to get off (not a problem, as I don’t want to find Play-Doh smeared all over my carpet), but once they are open, my son loves to dig the Play-Doh out, mix all the colors, up, and put them back in different containers with the wrong caps.  I think the details of this activity are going to take a while to work out. But… Play-Doh is fun and creative, so he’s having a good time with it.  I take the clay, mold it into a diamond shape, and say “what shape is that?” and my son looks at me like I have two heads.  I look down at this sort of wiggly blob I have created.  It’s harder than I thought to make something good out of Play-Doh!  I think I need to get some sort of Play-Doh molding gadget to help make different shapes and what-not. Something like this:

I mentioned timeless toys when he got Mr. Potato Head for his birthday.  Play-Doh is another.  Balls of soft modeling clay in bright colors.  Fun!

Like most young boys, my son is fascinated with trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine.  At bedtime, I always try to include a Thomas book.  Right now, I only have two, but he’s not tired of them yet.  I’m on the lookout for more.

First up is Thomas Makes His Wish.  I try to shy away from musical books becuase they are simply annoying — especially at bedtime — but it was a gift and he really loves it.  In the book, a shooting star shot across the sky over the Island of Sodor, where Thomas and his friends live, and Thomas can’t decide what to wish for.  He talks to each of his friends in turn and asks them about their wish, but he still can’t come up with a wish of his own.  In true Thomas fashion, at the end Thomas decides that the best wish is to wish for all of his friends’ wishes to come true.  It’s a very sweet story.

The book has a little button which plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” when pushed.  At the beginning and the end are alternate lyrics to  TTLS which you can sing when the button is pushed.  We push the button at the beginnign and end of the book and I sing the lyrics to him.  It took some effort to convince my son not to push the button repeatedly, or on each page, but he seems to get it now.  We push it twice, that’s it.  He loves to push it right away for the first song, then I can see him wrigning his hands waiiting till the end when he can push it again.

So there we go, we have a fun, soothing, musical book with a good moral, and it also teaches my son restraint.  Win, win, win.

Our other Thomas book that we read at bedtime is “Go, Train, Go!”  In this book, Thomas is tasked with bringing the train show judge from the train station to the show. He is, of course, met with a series of obstacles, but he works very hard and gets the judge to the show.  My son loves this book, particularly when we do the voice of the judge in various accents.  He likes the robot voice best.

Guess who wins the train show?

In general, I am a big fan of Step2 toys.  They are sturdy and age appropriate, and a lot of their toys are made in the USA.  In July, I posted about the Step 2 Woodland Climber, a great outdoor ladder/slide/rock-climbing-wall for young kids.  My latest find is the Step2 Sand and Water Table.

The table is divided into two sides, one filled with sand and one filled with water. It is elevated so your child stands while playing, which means they get less sand in their clothes (and hair) than when they sit in a sandbox. The umbrella keeps your child out of the direct sun. The table comes with number of accessories including cups, boats, and bridges, to add to the fun!

The table also comes with a top that is easy to secure, to keep it clean when not in use.