Finding pictures on my camera not taken by me:
seeing the "special things" through the eyes of a child.
Also:
words of affirmation
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I Love Legos
I don't know how we managed to do it, but about a year ago we lost Harold's head. I kept waiting and hoping that it would show up. Now I am sure--it is not in our house, and I have no idea where it is. What do you do with a headless helicopter? I was so sad for Harold, and sad for my boys who could no longer play with Harold. [For those who don't know, Harold the Helicopter is one of the Thomas and Friends characters. Lego makes some of these Thomas characters in their Duplo series.]
This past fall and Christmas the boys received some new Lego sets with the little pieces. It didn't take them long to lose a few (!!). I went through the sets, put them together, and figured out which pieces were missing. There were about 8-10 missing. I went to lego.com, but wasn't able to find two of the pieces (three, if you count Harold's head). So, I called up Lego and told the customer service rep which pieces I was having trouble finding and ordered all of the missing pieces. Then I sheepishly asked if there was any way I could order Harold's head separately. She sadly informed me that this set was discontinued. Bummer! I thought maybe I could find something on ebay. But then, a surprise. She told me that they would be sending all of the pieces to us free of charge! I was so excited!
A week or so later, we got our package in the mail. The boys and I ripped the package open, ready to finish building our sets, and what do you think was included in the package? . . . You guessed it! Harold's head. I love Lego!
Left: Harold Before (well, after his loss--before his head replacement)
Right: Harold After. Oh, to be whole again! What a delight!
Todd studiously puts together the Indiana Jones camping set.
Speaking of the camping set, I always thought these bugs were supposed to be scary spiders. Ryan pointed out to me that they had the bottom of an ant. I counted the legs and discovered there were only 6. What's up with that? Scary fire ants?
This is Ryan playing Legos. . . or not.
This past fall and Christmas the boys received some new Lego sets with the little pieces. It didn't take them long to lose a few (!!). I went through the sets, put them together, and figured out which pieces were missing. There were about 8-10 missing. I went to lego.com, but wasn't able to find two of the pieces (three, if you count Harold's head). So, I called up Lego and told the customer service rep which pieces I was having trouble finding and ordered all of the missing pieces. Then I sheepishly asked if there was any way I could order Harold's head separately. She sadly informed me that this set was discontinued. Bummer! I thought maybe I could find something on ebay. But then, a surprise. She told me that they would be sending all of the pieces to us free of charge! I was so excited!
A week or so later, we got our package in the mail. The boys and I ripped the package open, ready to finish building our sets, and what do you think was included in the package? . . . You guessed it! Harold's head. I love Lego!
Left: Harold Before (well, after his loss--before his head replacement)
Right: Harold After. Oh, to be whole again! What a delight!
Todd studiously puts together the Indiana Jones camping set.
Speaking of the camping set, I always thought these bugs were supposed to be scary spiders. Ryan pointed out to me that they had the bottom of an ant. I counted the legs and discovered there were only 6. What's up with that? Scary fire ants?
This is Ryan playing Legos. . . or not.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Spooky Mic
My boys have not been playing with the toys in their room as often these days. The weather has been nice in the afternoons, and most days you will find them playing outside when Todd comes home from school. I'm happy about that, but feel sad for their neglected toys sometimes.
This Sunday, one of these neglected toys was retrieved and provided a good hour of laughs. The boys found it funny because Mom was having so much fun with the toy, a Magic Mic. We received this toy microphone for Christmas last year. One thing I like about this microphone is that it doesn't require batteries and does not really amplify one's voice. Rather, it creates an echo directed back at the user--meaning that the user has the most fun and only becomes annoying to those around him/her when he/she won't stop talking or singing just for the sake of hearing his/her own voice.
Case in point--once I got the Magic Mic in my hands while I was preparing lunch for the boys, I had to sing/say everything directed at the boys through the mic. [singingly] "Please get a plate, cup, and fork." [la, la, la] "What would you like on your sandwich?" [la, la, la] . . . that sort of thing.
The real fun started when the boys asked me to make a spooky sound. We discovered, much to our great amusement, that the Magic Mic is perfect for making silly, spooky ghost noises, "oooooooOOOOOOoooooo". The boys would pretend to be scared of the ghost (laughing the whole while) and would hide for a minute. When the ghost got a little quieter they would peek around the corner, which would just get the ghost going again.
The ghost had great fun testing the sound of her howl, seeing how high she could "ooooOOOooo" before the echo caused the tone to become unpleasantly distorted.
What a great Halloween-y activity.
I was just thinking that I probably would have really enjoyed using the Magic Mic about three/four years ago when I was struggling with impatient toddlers. Todd had a hard time waiting for me to prepare his meals, but because I was juggling taking care of a baby and a toddler, it was difficult to get much food prep done until they were both strapped safely into their chairs, unattached to Mom. When the screaming would start (from the kids) I was often tempted to scream in return. Instead, I would expend my frustration-energy through (loud) opera singing, "Dooooon't you seeeeee that I am fiiiiiixing your luuuuuuunch?? It will be reeeeeeaaaady veeeeryyyyy soooooooon." Imagine how much better that would have felt, and how much more amusing it might have been to my children if I had been using the Magic Mic!
This Sunday, one of these neglected toys was retrieved and provided a good hour of laughs. The boys found it funny because Mom was having so much fun with the toy, a Magic Mic. We received this toy microphone for Christmas last year. One thing I like about this microphone is that it doesn't require batteries and does not really amplify one's voice. Rather, it creates an echo directed back at the user--meaning that the user has the most fun and only becomes annoying to those around him/her when he/she won't stop talking or singing just for the sake of hearing his/her own voice.
Case in point--once I got the Magic Mic in my hands while I was preparing lunch for the boys, I had to sing/say everything directed at the boys through the mic. [singingly] "Please get a plate, cup, and fork." [la, la, la] "What would you like on your sandwich?" [la, la, la] . . . that sort of thing.
The real fun started when the boys asked me to make a spooky sound. We discovered, much to our great amusement, that the Magic Mic is perfect for making silly, spooky ghost noises, "oooooooOOOOOOoooooo". The boys would pretend to be scared of the ghost (laughing the whole while) and would hide for a minute. When the ghost got a little quieter they would peek around the corner, which would just get the ghost going again.
The ghost had great fun testing the sound of her howl, seeing how high she could "ooooOOOooo" before the echo caused the tone to become unpleasantly distorted.
What a great Halloween-y activity.
I was just thinking that I probably would have really enjoyed using the Magic Mic about three/four years ago when I was struggling with impatient toddlers. Todd had a hard time waiting for me to prepare his meals, but because I was juggling taking care of a baby and a toddler, it was difficult to get much food prep done until they were both strapped safely into their chairs, unattached to Mom. When the screaming would start (from the kids) I was often tempted to scream in return. Instead, I would expend my frustration-energy through (loud) opera singing, "Dooooon't you seeeeee that I am fiiiiiixing your luuuuuuunch?? It will be reeeeeeaaaady veeeeryyyyy soooooooon." Imagine how much better that would have felt, and how much more amusing it might have been to my children if I had been using the Magic Mic!
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