Cow Box

Today I am playing with the Playskool Blockster Cow, otherwise known as my Cow Box.

You can AH-BOO (open) the box from two sides.

AH-BOO the first side, and you see a little cow sitting down below. AH-BOO the second side and you can get your pudgy hand in to wiggle the cow back and forth. He makes a CLICK CLICK sound which I like.

I then like to CLOSE the box on both sides.

Here is where the box becomes NO-NO fun. I can't AH-BOO the box again. I have to give it to Mama to PEEEZ AH-BOO for me.

Sometimes she wants me to try on my own. Sometimes this doesn't make me very happy.

Overall, I give the Cow Box 3 out of 5 binkys. It is REALLY fun to AH-BOO and CLOSE....as long as you have a Mama who can help.

Barn

Today I am playing with my Fisher Price Little People Animal Sounds Barn. Grandma Jackie gave this to me for Christmas and I love it. I knew what to do with it as soon as I opened it. Here are all the things I like to do:

• Open and close all of the doors. Over and over again.
• Put all of the ani-ma-mals in the SILO. I think that's the big tall thing. Anyway, I like to throw them in there and then open the door and let them all out.
• Put the farmer in the barn and shut the door. Sometimes I throw him (her?) inside the barn but then he (she?) falls out the other side. Uh oh.
• Grab the sheep and say BAH.
• Take the cow and walk around the house with him. Leave him in the dog cage (where all of my other special toys live).

I give this barn 4 out of 5 binkys. The only thing that doesn't make a lot of sense is the sound. It's not very good. The animals sound a bit sad. Which is okay. I like to make all of the ani-ma-mal noises myself anyway. Really, every little 1 year old should have a big-kid barn like this!

Poppin' Pals

Today I am playing with Playskool's Busy Poppin' Pals. My Auntie Lori gave me this toy for my birthday. She's a cool auntie. She knows JUST what I like to play with.

This toy is pretty simple. Mama twists, pushes, and turns little thingamabobs on the toy and then ani-ma-mals pop up! I then SLAM them down again and turn and look at Mama and say PEEZE so she will pop them back up again. I LOVE it when the panda pops up. Mama pushes a little yellow button that makes a SQUEEK SQUEEK noise...and then...UP pops panda.

I don't know how to make the ani-ma-mals pop up yet on my OWN. I keep trying to hit that yellow button but no SQUEEK and no panda. I'm fine with Mama doing it for me, but I think she doesn't want to do it anymore. She's trying to be nice, but let's just say, I think SHE thinks I should be able to do it on my own. Harmph. Silly Mama.

I give the poppin' pals 4 out of 5 binkys. The only thing that could make it better would be for the ani-ma-mals to pop up all on their own and stop being stuck inside for so long.

***Update: I can now POP up the panda! I'm SOOOO big!

Puzzle

Today I am playing with Melissa and Doug's Barnyard Animals Puzzle. This puzzle is really meant for babies older than me. That makes me a pretty big girl.

Each ani-ma-mal piece has a big knob in the middle of it. I like to grab a knob, one in each hand, and then CLAP CLAP them together. Sometimes I like to chew on the knobs as well. Mama likes to put the ani-ma-mals back in their homes. She makes a big deal of trying to cram the knob-sheep where the knob-horsey lives and saying "oh, that doesn't work." Maybe when I get to be a big 1 year old girl next month, I will like to try and put the ani-ma-mals back in their places, but for now, it just doesn't make any sense.

I give this puzzle 2 out of 5 binkys. The wood makes a nice loud CLAP sound, the knobs are nice and big for my small hands to grab, but right now, the whole "puzzle" thing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I may need to review this one again in a few months when I start to, as Mama says, match ani-ma-mals together. This sounds exciting. Wish me luck!

Wrist Rattle

Today I am playing with Infantino's Wrist Rattles. These rattles have little ani-ma-mal heads stuck on a big ribbon that goes vrrrrrrp when taken off. Mama says this is called vell-crow.

I think mamas are supposed to put these things on the wrists of babies so they can happily rattle the head by waving their hands up and down. I am not that baby. I don't want mama to put this on my wrist. I want her to vrrrrrp it off my wrist so I can chew on it.

I don't know if you know or not, but vell-crow feels REALLY good on the gums. I can chew, chomp, and drool all over the vell-crow and it stays just as fuzzy as the first time I did it.

Overall, I give these rattles 2 out of 5 binkys. For what they SHOULD do, they really are quite lame. But, given the fact that they have vell-crow on them, they are a pretty good toy to chew on. Too bad the head of the pig doesn't say OINK OINK when I chew on it; that would bump the rating up by at least 1 binky.

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.

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.