The Price of Christmas

I have some qualms to pick with the world on the prices of some very basic toys.   My two year old loves trains and for his last birthday I bought USED on Amazon the Thomas and Percy trains with a mailcar which totalled about $17 and a Orbrium figure eight train track with a 2 trains included, which cost about $22.  New wooden Thomas trains cost about $15 each for the smaller trains and $20-$25 for the longer trains.  If we were to buy him a whole set of trains this could get very pricey, easily $200 or more.  Instead our son pretends the generic trains from Orbrium are other engines like Spencer, Diesel and Gordon.  The basic circle track on Toyrus.com goes for $29.99 alone, and that does not include the bridge and tunnel I got with my cheaper knock off version.  I also got him the large box of Duplos (with the 150 pieces), which cost $59.99 on sale.  The normal price is $74.99!!
Really?!  75 bucks for a box of blocks and of those 150 pieces most of them are the small square blocks which we all know doesn't support a good building structure.  And this didn't even come with a bucket to store them or the building plate.  Let's not kid ourselves parents, I want good toys for my kids so I can enjoy playing with them too!  (playing with my kids of course)

I may be totally crazy but I do think that the prices of very basic good solid toys nowadays is way too high.  In my Christmas research these are some of the expensive toys that I plan to not buy my son.  This is not because I don't love him, its because I will probably find a perfectly good used one on Craigslist or in the trash tomorrow.

Radio Flyer My First Sport Scooter 

• $39.99
• (really?  It's a baby scooter and we will only use this a few times when the weather is good before he outgrows it!)
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7 Train (Flushing Local) Wooden Train

Price: $12.95

(I was at Grand Central and I get that this is a specialty item for NY tourists or NY enthusiasts, but I think that a train should not be more than $5.  I would buy him this if I could get 3 for $12.95. Instead I will buy a generic train at Target for $2.99 and stick a purple 7 on it)

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Independence is a Wonderful Thing

"Let me do it myself!"
Its great to hear those words.  
Our 2 year old baby is moving on up in the world: pulling up his pants, trying to use the potty, (with plenty of reminders) washing his hands almost exclusively by himself, turning off the TV, getting into bed. Getting into his booster seat and feeding himself.  

 With an 8 month old who can't do anything himself except get into trouble every second (by attempting to eat wires, outlets, falling down on hard things, eating everything off the floor--it's a game we play every day to keep this kid alive, while he tries to do everything he can to harm himself!) 

Having one child with some independence is a beautiful thing

 

Same Parents, Totally Different Personalities

Now that my youngest is 8.5 months old and my oldest is almost 29 months old I'm getting a much better sense of just how different my two sons are:

 Here are some comparisons:

 Size: They can pretty much wear the same sizing in clothes now with some exceptions. My 2 year old is long and lanky and my 8 month old is big for his age, length and width and full of baby fat rolls!

 Eyes: 8 month old got the true baby blues and my 2 year old is a brown eyed boy. Both my hubby and I have a mixture, I'm hazel (brown with greenish tint) and his are lighter (green, with a bluish tint)

 Beach play:  My 2 year old still dislikes getting dirty and beaches and making sand castles are not really his cup of tea.  He's ok when there is a tool involved, aka using the shovel to put sand in a bucket, but the minute sand gets all over his fingers I hear "Mama, mama, my hands are dirty!"   [Um, yeah we are at the beach]
Meanwhile his brother is not one to sit calmly on the blanket.  He is off in less than a millisecond grabbing and pulling the sand into his hands and directly into his mouth!  Question to all parents of children like my youngest son:  Should I just let him consume the beach and hope he will eventually realize how disgusting sand is as a food source?  Or will he just continue to eat it until he chokes causing himself worse harm?  I ended up compromising with my 8 month old destructive force of nature and let him crawl on the wet sand by the water an immerse himself in a nice muddy mess, while my older son stood on the waters edge holding my hand and trying not to get too dirty.

4 month old & 24 month old at play

Working Full Time is Not Natural or Easy

Yup with 2 babies and a full-time position I'm definitely with them on this one
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-brenoff/work-life-balance-on-the-nail-its-not-natural-work-full-time_b_2679674.html