New! Stuff!

Donovan and I have been having a pretty good week-- it's like he's giving me a break after the awful time we had last week. He's been in pretty good moods, entertaining himself more, and just being plain adorable. Tuesday morning (while awaiting baby news from K+B) Julia and I scoped out a local sale and I snagged a bunch of toys for 25%-40% off. I've been rotating D's toys around so every week I change them out and there is an aspect of novelty when he sees a toy that's been away all week, but we haven't actually bought him many new toys lately and so many of the ones he plays with are kind of... old news by now, I think. lol So I was excited to get him some new stuff.

He's been SO into opening and closing things and figuring out latches, so I've been wanting to buy him a lock box like this one for a while, but kept being unable to justify the purchase. So when I found this latches board at the store I snatched it up immediately. And, as predicted, he's loved it! He played with it on and off all day, and when Julia came by later on in the day he greeted her at the door, then went straight to his new toy like he was showing it to her.

I also found a couple wooden maracas (he'd found a set at Gymboree last week, that I think had been left over from a music class, and he seriously did not let go of them until we had to leave!); these instruments that have handles like the maracas but one has metal discs like the kind in a tambourine, and the other jingle bells; a shape sorter; a puzzle; and this puppet that's a raccoon that pops out of a trash can! (I couldn't resist both because I found it hilarious, and also this little girl was playing with it in the store and making it jump in and out of the trash can and Donovan LOVED IT as he loves peekaboo in general so, yeah, I had to get it. The tag has some info on raccoons, first pointing out that they are most definitely not cuddly and friendly, and also that they are apparently the smartest animals in North America and that one experiment proved them to be more intelligent than college students when it comes to remembering the location of food. Which, having seen some of the feats performed by raccoons while camping, doesn't surprise me in the least). Oh, and last week sometime I got him that dinosaur he's holding in the picture, which has also become a rapid favorite.

Anyway, the maracas and the latch board are out for him now, I saved the other toys to bring out next week to try to extend the fun a bit. He' also been having a blast with his Fisher Price booster chair, which I normally keep in the car for when we might need it at a restaurant or friend's house, but I brought it in the other day for Maddie to use and it's been sitting in our living room ever since... where D will go over and sit and look pleased as punch with himself for having such a grand chair to sit in. And then he'll pick it up and drag it into his room, and sit in it some more. I swear that chair has been one of the best kid purchases ever. ; )