When I was pregnant, I kept falling in love with really beautiful, simple, classic and often Waldorf-style toys. My mother kept telling me that even though I liked these toys, the baby would prefer colourful, garish and loud toys, whether I liked it or not! I would pick up some stunning pastel blocks, and mum would laugh and point to a pile of brightly coloured plastic rings.
Being stubborn, I persisted and bought lots of simple toys. They look gorgeous in her nursery (we call it that even though she sleeps in our room), and she likes to chew on some of them, but overall she does prefer the hideous colourful Lamaze-style toys. Que sera, sera. I just make sure that I choose good quality colourful toys, without BPA and generally from Europe. These toys are generally a little more expensive, but I feel more confident that they are free of scary things like lead paint, and the quality is brilliant so I know they will last for a long time. And we both love Sophie the Giraffe - what is it about this simple toy that all babies love so much?!
Some of the pretty toys that her Mummy likes:
The sort of toys that Tabitha prefers - this one makes a jaunty barn-dance style musical outburst when you touch the hand pads. This elicits peals of hysterical laughter from Tabby:
My mother bought Tabby a lovely wooden colourful fish that moves around when you hold it. It is a perfect mix of classic wooden, and colourful baby-friendly. Tabitha likes it - but she prefers a hot pink plastic cup from Ikea that mum also had lying around. Ahhh babies!
Speaking of toys - isn't my sister's toy poodle Posy beautiful? She is a little exuberant, being only two years old, but is very sweet. She weighs less than 2.5kg. I had a little black toy poodle, Alice, for nearly 18 years. She passed in April, two years ago. In fact, she passed the day that Posy was born, which is a massive coincidence. Alice was the most beautiful soul I've known. I might talk more about her one day. Anyway, here is Posy:
While I had the camera out at mum and dad's, I snapped a photo of my mother's Limoges tea set. I adore the pretty colours, like a pile of jewels. I wish these lived in my house!
Look! Tabitha can sit up now! She will sit up and hold a toy and generally freak out with excitement until she gets so excited that she wriggles too much and falls over:
She is also nearly crawling. For a few days she's been up on her hands and knees, rocking, and now she can take one or two 'steps' of crawling forward. Won't be long now - uh oh!
One of Tabitha's other new favourite things to do is to wave around a colourful, noisy maraca, and then giggle when Possum (our youngest cat) bats his paw at it. It keeps both of them happy for quite a while!
My current favourite places to buy toys are:
- Jasper Junior - really the best toy store in Melbourne, in my opinion. Located in a few places including Royal Arcade and Chadstone, stocks the most beautiful stuffed toys, wooden toys, wind-up and tin toys, little cars, art sets, hand puppets, costumes, dollhouses, and so much more.
- Parenthood - there are two locations, both near my house, so I often pop into Parenthood if I need a gift. It has a great range of books and toys for ages 3 - 10 in particular. Also really lovely Christening / birthday / new baby cards.
- Windmill - primarily educational toys, this store supplies a lot of kindergartens and schools. Lots of large wooden items like play kitchens, balance bikes, puzzles, art supplies and lots more.
- Honeybee - this is such a beautiful little shop. I always feel very peaceful and happy when I walk in. They have incredible wooden sets of Noah's arks, castles, dollhouses etc., lots of Waldorf and Steiner toys, art supplies, great European baby toys and teethers, music etc.
- Readings - although a book store, I definitely consider books to be toys, and Readings is really one of the best book stores around.
Posts
