Tag: toys

Humpty Dumpty Was My Best Friend

I was scrolling through Instagram and ran across a cute pic of a toddler and stuffed animal and it got me thinking of my favorite stuffed toy. The one that I carried with me everywhere and cuddled up with every night. But mine wasn’t a cute little plush animal. My best friend was a stuffed egg.

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Not my actual Dumpy, but I Googled ’70s Humpty Dumpty and this is Exactly what he looked like!

Humpty Dumpty and I were inseparable. I called him “Dumpy” and couldn’t get to sleep without him by my side. As I got older and he started to fall apart, my mom kept trying to take him away. One time she threw him in the trash, only to have to retrieve him and give him a complete makeover. By then he had lost his floppy arms and legs, so she covered him with fresh fabric and drew on some striped pants and a new face.

I have no idea at what age I gave up Dumpy, but I’ll never forget him. My son has two stuffed dogs he calls his “woof-woofs.” My husband actually still has his favorite stuffed animal from childhood. It’s a teddy bear named Fuzzy. I made the mistake of putting Fuzzy in the washing machine and had to give him some extensive facial reconstruction, but he’s OK now and has been adopted by our son. We just don’t mention his Elvis like sneer.

So I’m curious, what was your favorite childhood snuggle toy?

Toddlers Don’t Understand Advertising

My son is just getting into building things, so when there was an opportunity to apply for a Strictly Briks Tryabox from Tryazon, I signed up immediately. I figured, I’ve suffered through enough episodes of Ryan’s Toy Review, getting kids to review toys looks easy enough.

So guess who has a new respect for Ryan and his willingness to play with toys and not throw them? Yeah, it’s not that easy.

We were off to a good start with the closed box. Keelan was excited to see what was inside. The high level of excitement continued as we pulled the brightly colored packaged from the box. There were squeals of delight when he spotted the Trap and Gap Baseplates with the pictures of cars on the front. And that’s when everything went downhill.

Strictly Briks Trap and Gap Baseplates

He quickly tore into the box to discover there were no cars to be found. Just tons of tiny building bricks. This was way out of his recommended age range, but there was no stopping him once he saw the box. He did give it his best shot, maybe thinking if he built it, the cars would come.

Toddler building with strictly briks

The entire time I’m trying to convince him to let mommy help build it and we can get cars to go in it. He was having none of it.

I tried to steer him toward the more toddler-appropriate larger Briks and he threw them behind the couch. I then tried to get him to play with any of the other fun looking things Strictly Briks had sent us:

 

He refused to play with anything else and the whole episode ended in one giant meltdown. So I packed everything away to try another day.

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Today he started asking where his new “little blocks” were. 🙄

I’m sure we have plenty of Strictly Briks fun in our future, but for now those little blocks are back in their box until we reach a new milestone of maturity. One that includes not throwing blocks at mommy.

The Collection Obsession

charm-necklaceWhen I was little (back in the 80s), the first thing I remember being obsessed with was my charm necklace. Or more specifically, the little charms that hook into the plastic chain link necklaces. The charms were everything from tiny unicorns to roller skates. I recall being quite the 3rd grade gangsta loaded down with charms.

Next it was jelly bracelets. I had them all the way to my elbows. Then Garbage Pail kids. I was out of the game before Pokémon came along, but it’s no surprise to learn that kids are still into the “gotta collect ’em all” mentality.

The Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company is playing into that with their Surprizamals collection, which combines the surprise egg theme with the collecting aspect. There’s a surprise cuddly little animal inside each red ball. They sent me five free ones to check out and review. They retail for $4.99 and are recommened for age 3+. The age group for these is a little older than my son, but I knew he’d totally be into the surprise egg part thanks to his obsession with Ryan’s Toy Review on YouTube.

So this is how the tryout went:

Day 1, Egg 1

Saw red egg and immediatly lost it yelling “Surprise egg! Surprise egg!” Found a Fenley Fox inside. Liked it so much he slept with.

Day 2, Egg 2

Next I decided to take one to the playground to see what the other kids thought. We got a cute little Lola Lady Bug (ultra rare!), which one of the other kids promptly ran off with to bury in the sand. Before I knew it all the pieces were everywhere. Tags, egg halves, Lola… I did manage to get our lady bug back before we went home but her egg was nowhere to be found.

Day 3, Eggs 3 – 5

Got a unicorn. He’s decided he doesn’t like the tags, which really are long and cumbersome so I had to remove them.

Day 4, All the eggs

Egg halves are scattered around the house along with 3 foxes, a lady bug and unicorn. The little animals are so soft that every time I step on one I think I’ve stepped on a cat paw or tail. Keelan mostly likes to put them back in the egg and then open it again. I actually think his favorite thing is the egg.

The final verdict:

The materials say “hours of fun” but that’s kind of stretching it. But really, is anything hours of fun to a toddler? It’s more like, repeated fun with the bonus of an egg to play with and refill! I don’t think he quite gets the collecting aspect, but I can guarantee you if we see these at the checkout line he’s going to be begging for one.

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