Toys

Ellie turned one a couple of weeks ago. Wow! Her birthday celebration is in three parts, the last of which is this weekend, and I still haven't bought her a present. Last week I tried shopping at Target but didn't find anything appealing. Today we went to Toys R Us, for the first time ever (for either of us). That place seriously sucks. First I thought I'd get her The Radio Flyer Classic Walker Wagon, but the only walker toys they had were brightly colored, light-weight, plastic monstrosities. Then I thought I'd get her a baby computer keyboard but they didn't have anything like that, either. So I decided to just look around for some quality wooden toys but they didn't have anything wooden except for a couple of puzzles, which she already owns. Sigh. I left with a few classic board books and a Thomas The Tank Engine train that's a little too old for her. Very frustrating.

When my sisters and I were little, we had this great Creative Playthings indoor slide/playhouse thing. It wasn't too big - it fit in a corner of the dining room - and it was wooden so it was both quality construction and attractive. (It turns out that it was also deadly because of a slight gap where some enterprising toddler once jammed his head between the top rung of the ladder and the slide platform, but that's easily remedied.) I have looked and looked but I can't find anything like that anywhere anymore.

I hate brightly colorful plastic.