toyette? and some other stuff

Webster's defines a layette as "a complete outfit of clothing and equipment for a newborn infant." The use of the word "equipment" is funny, yes? Even though M wasn't a newborn when he came home, as a 1st time mama I thought the idea of a layette was great...serving as a guideline to meet the baby's needs in terms of soft stuff.

So I was thinking if we have a layette why not a toyette? Yes, a toyette! A general guideline of baby's needs in terms of hard stuff. For example, from your experience you may say that every child needs 3 teething rings...or 1 set of stacking cups...or a motorized Barbie Dream Car (Don't even!!!).

So...if you would like to share your must-have toys for kids newborn - 3 years, we can create a toyette for others to use as a guide. Just tell us the toy (either general or specific) and the age range the toy suits best.

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My little smarty-pants is killing me with all his smarty-pantsness. You may remember the alphabet puzzle and how he can place the letters where they go. Well, I thought that maybe he was doing it simply by the shape or the letter-related picture on the board. So the other day we were playing with his cash register, and I asked to buy a letter (Wheel of Fortune, here I come!). I queried, "May I buy the letter Z", and M found the Z in the pile of wooden letters on the floor. We did this all the way through the alphabet...although he did give me some buy-one-get-one-free deals. He not only could pick up the correct letter, but he sometimes did it almost without even looking...as if he just remembered where the letters were on the floor...even if only half of the letter was showing because it was under another one. Before you call him Rain Man, please note that at times he did have to search through and look for the right letter...but still I was amazed.

Then today we were in the office briefly while I talked to Scott on the phone. M seemed pretty busy looking out the windows. Later we were leaving and I said, "I wonder where my bag is." M took off, went straight to the office, and got my bag off the desk chair. I had forgotten it was there and didn't even know he noticed it when we were in the office.

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Shouldn't sleep issues be classified as Special Needs?????? Kidding...well, OK, maybe not totally kidding.

RE: the photos - why do i take so many photos of M's feet? because his feet generally do not notice me taking pics and, therefore, don't get mad like his head does. and i'm sure a photo of scott's feet was pretty much the last thing you wanted to see on a blog, but i thought the reflection was cool.