Mickey Ride-On Plane

Hi!  My name is Will.  I am an 18 month old boy who loves toys just like Kayla!  One of my favorite toys right now is my Mickey Ride-On Airplane.  I got this toy for Christmas back when I was 13 months old, and it has been one of my favorites ever since.  When I first got it I was just learning how to walk so I liked to push the toy around the house as I worked on making my legs stronger.  Now I love to sit on the toy and ride around.  I also like how the propeller lights up and rotates when I push buttons on the control panel.  The plane even plays music, and I love toys that make lots of noise!  Under the seat of the plane there are four shape sorting blocks so I can work on matching up my shapes.  As a bonus, this toy is also very popular with some of my friends who are already three and four.  When we host playgroup this toy is everyone’s favorite.  I think all kids need one!

Calling All Tots!

In the past several weeks you have gotten a glimpse of some of my favorite toys.  Most of them were made in a factory somewhere (a couple even at Santa's Workshop!), but one was made by my very own Mimi.  What has been your all-time favorite toy?

If you're between the ages of 0 and 4, I'd love to hear from you!  Tell your grownup to leave the name of your favorite toy, your name, and an email address in the "comments" section below.  My mommy will contact your grownup about you becoming a guest writer.  It's really easy - all they will have to do is log in with a Google account and write what you tell them about your toy.

I can't wait to discover some fantastic new toys that you have at your homes!

Repurposed Wipes Container

Like any tot, I love to make diaper changing a fun experience for my parents.  Once I hit about eight months old I figured out that I didn't really need to stay on my back for Mommy or Daddy to change my diaper; I could roll over onto my belly and pull diapers, wipes, diaper rash ointment, etc. out of the adjacent basket and either chew on them or throw them to the floor.  My parents never seemed to really appreciate this new-found skill, and I soon started witnessing them having to wipe the sweat from their brows after changing me since they insisted that I lay on my back.  They started giving me stuffed animals and diapers and books and basically anything imaginable just so I would stay on my back.  BORING!

Wanna know the funnest thing to do while someone is changing your diaper?  Pull the wipes out of the container one by one!  It really drives your parents crazy!

Well, my Mimi had heard about this new hobby of mine and decided to search the Internet one day for a solution.  She saw that some mommies put colorful pieces of fabric inside of old wipes containers so that tots can pull them out without getting into trouble!  Mimi headed to a fabric store in search of bright fabrics in a variety of textures (satin, fleece, velvet, cotton, tulle, etc.) and stuffed a wipes container full of them.  During diaper changes these days, Mommy places my special wipes container on my chest so that I can pull out these awesome fabric swatches while she cleans me up.  It's so much fun, and I can never get all of the swatches out before she's done!

According to Mommy, the best part is that she can just open the top of the container and stuff the swatches back in so that it's ready for next time.  Easy clean-up and no wasted wipes!  If I'm really good, I can even take this "toy" to the floor to play with while Mommy does things in my room.  It's very portable, which makes it great when she wants me to stay in one place and be entertained for awhile.  I really think you should ask your Mommy or Daddy to make one of these containers for you!

Do you have any toys made of recycled materials or that have been repurposed for you to play with them?  Tell me about them in the 'comments' section below!

Dolls

Right now I have two dolls.

I've had these two babies for several months now, but I must say that I am liking them more and more.  Give me a stuffed animal or doll and I'll cuddle with it for a few moments, but up until recently you couldn't actually expect me to carry it around everywhere; I'm not one of those toddlers who you see sleeping with five favorite stuffed animals or dolls or even insisting on taking a favorite one in the car or to the store.

Now that I'm fourteen months old, though, times have changed.  No, you still won't see me dragging around a favorite baby or animals everywhere you go.  You will, however, see me playing with them often.  Especially my two dolls.

Here's a description of each:
1) Madame Alexander "My First Baby": She is very soft and pretty.  I love how her hat comes to a point. This helps me pick her up more easily, especially when she's sitting in her stroller.  I know that good mommies shouldn't pick up their babies by their hats, but I'm only 14 months old - what do you expect?  Her body is soft and cuddly.  Since she has a plastic head and hands, she's great for playing but not for sleeping.

2) Fisher Price Baby's First Doll: Like my Madame Alexander doll, Tricia (my doll's name) is very soft.  In fact, she is soft all over, so she's the special doll that I get to hold in the car or sleep with when I'm away from home.  She's even got rattles in her head, so if I shake her (again, I'm 14 months old, so don't judge me as a bad mommy for shaking my babies) she rattles!  She's also got a couple of pieces of curly blond hair (ribbon) sticking out from under her hat.  When I was a few months younger I loved chewing on these hairs.  They aren't so curly anymore, but that's okay.

There you have it - everything you wanted to know about my two dolls!  Like I said, I love them both but for different purposes.  Will my insight help you purchase the perfect doll for the little one in your life?

Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stroller Styled Walker

The name of this toy is a mouthful, but we just call it my "baby stroller."  Right now, this toy ranks up there with the best!  Why?  It not only lets me practice being a mommy, but it also helps me practice walking.  I received this toy as a Christmas present when I was around nine months old.  At the time I was still rolling to get from one place to another; I hadn't begun crawling.  That was okay because I still had fun sitting in front of the stroller and spinning the toy that is on the front or hitting the button to play the music.

About a month later I was crawling and began pushing my stroller around by walking on my knees!

After I started "pulling up," this was the perfect toy!  It was a great height and super stable.  I never had to worry about it falling over like some other toys that I tried to stand with.  It wasn't long before I began pushing the stroller by walking on my FEET!  This stroller is one of the first toys that I crawl to in the mornings and last ones I play with at night before bedtime.  In the past few weeks I've even figured out how to take my baby doll out of the stroller seat and put her back in!

I think this toy is great for pre-walkers, as you can have fun just sitting and playing with its features, and walkers, as it makes a great 'first doll stroller.'

DK Peekaboo Books

For Halloween my grandparents got me a peekaboo book with babies dressed up in Halloween costumes.  It's called Dress Up Peekaboo.  It is the best book ever!  Instead of having peekaboo flaps on pages that are easy to tear, the flaps are made of the same material as the rest of the board book!  I love tearing paper, so Mommy and Daddy liked that they could trust me to "read" this book independently without damaging it.  What else makes this book great?  It's also a 'touch and feel' book, so there's something for me to feel on every page!  Those two things make a book fabulous, but there's one more thing that sets it over the top: it has cute babies in it!  When playing peekaboo with this book, I'm actually playing with other babies!  Mommy and Daddy say that this is a good skill for me, but I just think it is fun opening the flaps and seeing babies there looking right back at me!

Well, I loved this book so much that my relatives found that there was an entire series of Peekaboo books by Dorling Kindersley, which you can find here.  I've got quite a collection of them now, which is great!  There are lots of holiday-oriented books, which have made great gifts for me, and also everyday books.  Several have babies in them (yay!), but other ones have toys or animals to play peekaboo with.  They all have the cardboard flaps and things to touch and feel.  The pages are not very busy - one main graphic and a little rhyming text on each page - which makes them great for babies and toddlers like me!