Plastic Fun

Today I am playing with my yellow plastic spinning thing. I have no idea what this is *really* called. My great uncle Jim gave it to me. Mama said he loaned it to me, but really? What is this "loaning" business all about?

This is one of my recent favorite toys. Not only is it perfect to hold on to, and to spin the little animals and sun, and to chew on the bright yellow plastic, it is also perfect to throw.

Overall, I gave this plastic spinning thing 5 out of 5 binkys. It is perfect.

Quack Quack Book

Today I am playing with one of my favorite books, the Begin Smart Quack! Quack! book. These books are for brainy babies, which, clearly, I am.

This book has really BIG pictures of ani-ma-mals. Mama points to the ani-ma-mal pictures and then sounds out the noises. Bee! What does a bee say? Bzzzzzzzzzz. Cow! What does a cow say? Moooooooo. Mama gets pretty excited doing the sounds.

Me? I like the BIG pages. Some of them have green foam between them making them EXTRA nummy to chew on.

Overall, I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. The pictures are bright and bold and there are new ani-ma-mals to learn, like the fish that says GLUB.

The only thing I don't like is the bird. My room upstairs has all sorts of birds. When Mama is putting my pajamas on and wants me to lay still instead of trying to jump off the changing table, she points to a green and pink bird on the wall and says, Lyla! What does a BIRD say? Bird! What does a BIRD say?

TWEEET TWEEET! TWEET! TWEET!

She then tickles me all over. This bird in this book is a big ugly plain bird. And he says CAW. CAW. CAW.

I think they could do better than that.

Cage

Today I am playing with a wire door. I don't know if you know, but Mama and Dada have two puppies that like to lick my cheeks, wag their tails into my hair, and try to eat my food.

I don't like all that very much, but I like where my puppies sleep. They have two little wire homes with doors! I like to crawl really fast into their room and open and close and open and close and open and close their doors. I even went into the cages once (shhhh...Mama doesn't know yet). [Mama's editorial note: Ack!] The puppies don't seem to mind that I play with their doors, but Mama minds when I try and suck on them. She scoots me over and says "eek blah blah blah."

I give these doors 3 out of 5 binkys. They make fun squeaky sounds when they open and they are really easy to move back and forth. Too bad I can't chew on them. Ah, well...back to the binky.

Door

Mama usually lets me know when it's bed time by taking me upstairs to my room, putting my pajamas on, feeding me, and then letting me crawl all around. Usually I play with many things in my room, but a very, very short time ago, I played with my first door. A door stops baby from going into the bathroom. A door keeps doggie in his wire home. A door swings open and swings shut. A door is not for little babies.

I am not such a little baby any more. I learned how to swing a door and open and shut. All. On. My. Own. I still like to play with other things (like boxes), but a good door will tire me any night.

Overall, I give Door 4 out of 5 binkys. Now if only the door handle was just a WEE bit closer to the ground so I could grab it...

Smiley Face

Today I am playing with one of my all-time favorite toys: The Sassy Smiley Face Rattle. Also known as, the Squeaky Nose Mirror.

This toy is a baby's dream. On one side is a HUGE smiley face. The eyes are googly and move all around when you shake it. The ears are actually the handles and have rubber on them so they are easy to hold and feels great on the gums. The BEST part of the smiley face is the huge, red, squeaky nose. When I'm playing with the toy, Mama will come over and SQUEAK-A, SQUEAK-A, SQUEAK-A the nose. I can't quite get the nose to squeak on my own, but every once in a while when I try to get the nose in my mouth, I sometimes squeak it.

On the other side is a mirror! And inside the mirror is a really pretty baby. Sometimes when I look at the baby in the mirror, I slowly move my head forward so I finally end up kissing the baby. Such a nice baby.

Overall, I give this toy 5 out of 5 binkys. Seriously. What could be improved? It's easy to hold, lovely to gum, has funny sounds, and a REALLY cute baby that I see in the mirror!

Now if I could just get Mama's nose to squeak...

Flash Cards

Today I am playing with the Baby Flip-A-Face Flash Cards. These flash cards have ani-ma-mals on them. Mama has been showing me these cards since I was just a few weeks old. She would usually show me just the black and white pictures, which I liked very much since I couldn't see in color, but now she shows them all to me.

Mama makes the ani-ma-mal noises when she shows them to me.

Goat - maaaaaaah

Bird - tweet, tweet tweet

Pig - hnk, hnk, hnk

Baby - goo goo gah gah. Yes, I guess babies are also included.

I like how BIG the cards are. I also like their faces. I can stare at their faces for a very long time. Tonight Mama let ME play with the cards on my own. She still made the ani-ma-mal noises from far away. I felt like a big girl. I also tried to eat the cards, but they were pretty tough.

I give these flash cards 5 out of 5 binkys...as long as you have a Mama that can make all of the ani-ma-mal noises like my Mama can.

Rubber Brush

Today I am playing with...well, I'm not sure. Mama gave me a very funny toy tonight at dinner. I had a little bit of a fever today which made me pretty tired and fussy, so Mama gave me this...thing...to play with to try and keep me happy. I'm not sure what it really was, but I definitely didn't like it. I tried to bite the funny orange hair on one end, and well, let's just say I won't be trying that again. It wasn't very easy to hang on to either. The other end wasn't much better, but at least it was more like my binky. It didn't play any music, light-up, make funny noises, or taste very good. I finally tossed it to the ground for the puppies.

I give this (Mama's editorial note: "rubber cooking brush") 1 out of 5 binkys. I usually love to play with anything that isn't in any way designed for a baby, but this was really, much too ree-dic-uluss.

Radio

Today I am playing with Baby Einstein's Take-Along-Tunes, also known as My Radio. Auntie Lori gave me My Radio. It plays a lot of songs. I like My Radio better than a lot of my other toys for many reasons.

1. It lights up when the songs play. The colors go boing boing boing all over in a circle along with the music.

2. There is a colorful catter-piller as the handle of the radio. I don't really know what a catter-piller is, but I do know that his ears are very fun to put in my mouth.

3. There is a big button to push to play the music. I still don't know how to push buttons very well by myself, but when I roll over on My Radio, it plays music!

4. The songs play longer than a lot of my other toys, except for Octo-puss. I'll tell you about Octo-puss some other day. My Radio plays songs longer than 5 seconds. This is nice as Mama doesn't have to come over all the time to turn it back on.

5. The songs that play are actually fun. There is no singing (like, let's mail some LETTERRRRRRS!) and I can listen to the songs over and over. Mama also likes the songs because sometimes she will hum along or make up new words. Like, "Baby, baby, baby, why won't you go to sleep? You are fussy and cranky, and need to sleep sleep sleep."

Overall I give My Radio 4 out of 5 binkys. It's easy to take with me, the songs are very baby-nice, and it's great to chew on. It would be nice to have a couple of different options to turn the songs on or to have all the songs play over and over again on their own. Baby Einstein, feel free to come over and play with me. I'll show you how to make your toys better!

Stacking Cups

Today I am playing with the Fisher Price Stack & Roll Cups. There are many, many different sizes and colors of cups. I don't know all the names of the colors yet, but they are so pretty. Mama helps me stack the cups into a VERY tall stack (almost as tall as me when I'm sitting down) and then I lunge at them and topple them over. Sometimes Mama puts a yellow rattle ball on the top of the cups. It makes a great RATTLE RATTLE noise when it falls over! We don't play with that much now though, as I think Mama lost it. [Mama editor's note: I didn't lose it, but I did roll it down the parking lot by accident today. Those tiny plastic things are hard to keep track of!]

Mama likes to take 2 cups and put them together to make a BALL! I like to roll them all over and crawl after them. I also like to stick my fingers through the bottoms of the cups and pick them up like I'm wearing a very big ring. Mama wears a ring and that is very pretty. I always try to take it off but I can't.

I'm 8 1/2 months old and I am learning how to clap things together. These make a very pleasing CLAP CLAP sound when I slam them together. I think I will keep doing that with more and more things.

Overall, I give the stacking cups 4 out of 5 binkys. They are pretty, loud, and can be stacked, rolled, or made into baby rings. I do need a big Mama helper to help me stack them up and roll them around sometimes. I think when I get bigger these will be even more fun; until then, I'm glad Mama plays with me.