You are becoming quite famous 😉

LiseliReplyCancel

My daughter (almost four) loves building toys. She has duplo at my parents' house, and wooden blocks, tinker toys, and "velcro" blocks at my house (I don't know the real name for the velcro blocks, but they're these little plastic shapes covered in nubby bits that sort of knit together like velcro). I would love to buy magnatiles, but they're really pricey and I know her kindergarten class has a big set so I don't feel bad about not owning them.

We have a Hape dollhouse, which gets a fair amount of play, especially when we have visitors. That's our main "big toy", due to the size of our house. G has a homemade play kitchen and a work bench at my parents house, plus an old Fisher Price garage that I found in the trash! The elevator is sometimes wonky, but G doesn't care. I love how neutral it is, compared to the "girls toys"/"boys toys" that seemed to emerge in the mid-nineties.

Dolls and puppets are very big right now. We have a small stroller and a simple cradle, and a white dolly high chair is coming courtesy of my aunt this Christmas. The puppets live in an old Barbie case.

Our other popular toys are what I call tabletop toys. These get rotated from their cupboard in our buffet to the toy shelf. Pattern tiles, magnetic "paper" dolls, lacing cards, pop beads, wooden animal figurines. The cupboard is packed (and then locked!) which keeps the toys from overwhelming the house.

This year for Christmas she's getting a wooden cash register (made by Hape, I love their stuff!) with Canadian play money and the Ikea fruit stand. The fruit stand is made of cardboard, so we'll see how long it lasts, but I'm think the cash register is going to be a hit. She's getting more into dramatic play these days.

In terms of buying toys, most of ours have come second hand. There are some excellent children's consignment stores in my city, and I tend to do well at school garage sales. G is too young to know the difference, and it's a great way for me to afford top line toys on a reduced budget.ReplyCancel

Black Teddy Bear Hamsters are popular pets owing to their beautiful, black coats and their docile natures, for which they were specifically bred. They are part of the Syrian Hamster family and share many traits with their golden cousins. Famous teddy bears
ReplyCancel

I read The Princess Bride 7 or 8 times when I was a kid. I'm afraid to read it again now and lose whatever it was that totally captured me years ago!ReplyCancel

I just got my 8 year old twins a new Harry Potter book I found on Amazon. It's the regular first book but it's a beautiful hardback book with pictures. I'm thinking it will be a good way to introduce them to a story I love so much. Check out that book if you want, it seems super coolReplyCancel