Lil’ Duck loves Weebles!! We have the treehouse and now for his birthday, he got the Weebles Weebalot Castle. Not only does it have lots of pieces to take in and out, it also has a long winding slide that lands the Weebles squarely in the moat, much to Lil’ Duck’s delight. He quickly discovered the button that makes the moat spin around, sending the Weebles for the ride of their lives. Of course, he tries to put all sorts of other things on there and jams the whole thing up, but that is easily fixed.

I’m just glad that a) it entertains him for long periods of time without me and b) the music doesn’t drive me crazy - it is varied and sounds like fat little dancing Weebles ;), tho it is still rather loud for my taste.

Ever wonder why we bother buying toys?? Here are 16 items that make great toys for busy toddlers (so much for that expensive birthday gift, I’m getting him a cardboard box!!).

1. An old-fashioned rolling pin
2. The (clean) mop
3. A stepstool
4. Laundry baskets - making a fort, a stepstool, toy holder, baby boat, etc.
5. Cardboard boxes
6. Calculators - Lil Duck has one where you push the button and the flap opens and props the calculator up, he can play with it for hours!
7. Small pieces of luggage
8. Pots and pans - not just for pretend cooking, also for filling with toys, Cheerios, etc.
9. DVD cases (take the DVD’s out though, Lil’ Duck has snapped a few in half, rendering those $50 PS2 games useless).
10. Shoes - the bigger, the better!
11. Cell phones
12. Big purses
13. Dog toys (YUCK!!)
14. Magazines/catalogs - Lil Duck will sit and page thru carefully, noting interesting items as he goes along. He especially likes Game Informer and Baby Talk - I think it is the characters and the babies.
15. Wallets - I lost a few credit cards thanks to him…..
16. Remotes (we have the battery compartments held on by gaffer tape so he can’t open them).

Well, Lil’ Duck has been loving the Backyardigans of late - the TV show, photos of them, coloring books, music, etc. At Wal-Mart we just found this wonderful Backyardigans coloring mat and a book about them as well - it is making for endless entertainment around here. He sits on it with his crayons and chatters away to them, has to name them and their castle and everything around them of course. Usually I get dragged down there too, to help color and generally participate in the joy of the mat. Cheap entertainment!

Lil’ Duck is currently obsessed with his Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set by Leapfrog. Thankfully if you set it on the low volume setting, it isn’t terribly annoying - he already picks out several letters by name and loves putting them on the magnetic base and dancing around to the letter song. They’re a little wider than regular letter magnets too, so they aren’t lost as easily under my fridge and stove, etc. As a nice side perk, they have yet to scratch my faux stainless steel appliances ;).

I thought I’d start a new feature here, since everyone is always asking for toy recommendations. Honestly, you don’t have a million toys taking over your houses already?? I’m always looking for new ideas too though, anything to keep him from destroying my stuff, right?

Lil’ Duck loves his Little People Garage lately - not only can the cars go up and down the “wramps”, but the Weebles, balls, and all the zoo animals can also participate (usually by being thrown down the elevator shaft, hmmmm). He cracks me up because he is always imitating the garage noises it makes - I like it because it isn’t too loud and annoying, plus there isn’t any tunes that get stuck in your head like many other toys.

It is an AWFUL pain to put this thing together, so if you get it, hide it and put it together away from the little one, the last thing you need is them “helping” to position the ramps, turn the screwdriver, eating your instructions, etc etc. - you can tell that I had help from the little one, right?

Anyway, we love it now that it is together, it makes for hours of entertainment and reminds me of a similar garage I had as a child - actually, I don’t even mind playing with it myself.

Where you press different parts of it and it names them and sings songs?? Mine is possessed!! It talks in the middle of the night, it is sitting in the middle of the floor right now, nothing else touching it, singing songs and giggling and saying “blue ear”, “hug me”, etc. It doesn’t matter how many times I press the foot to turn it off either, short of taking the batteries out, I just want it to shut up!! Lil Duck loves it tho, so I can’t take the batteries out. Now it’s saying “I love you” over and over. Maybe it has an invisible bear friend???

I always said I wasn’t going to be one of THOSE mothers - you know, the ones with toys all over the house, no semblance of adult life left - the ones you scorn when you go over there to babysit….. well….. I am. Every room and closet in my house has the little duck’s items in it. No matter how much I clean, more items continue to be strewn around my house.

Today, I took a shower with a million little rubber ducks, then toweled off while reading the little one a book that was left on the bathroom floor. I think it just adds interest to my house - hey, without that book, we’d be stuck reading shampoo bottles, right?? It’s easier to embrace the craziness that comes with these toys than to stress about returning them to their rightful place (and now, who is to say that isn’t on my bathroom floor?)

How to contain such items?? Well, I do cycle them out - there are two giant boxes full of toys packed away in his closet, which we go thru about once a month. This leads to great baby delight, as he thinks he found “new” toys. I also have containers for the toys everywhere (I love Target’s containers, meant for hauling ice to picnics - bright colors, sturdy enough to hold a baby, and nice wooden handles). That way if I need to clean up in a hurry (and who doesn’t), I can throw everything in the containers and shove them on the bottom shelf of my overloaded bookcases.

You know though, if my house was clean and there were no little feet running around strewing toys everywhere, it would be a clean but boring place to be, and I wouldn’t trade my mountain of toys for anything.