19 Months and a Bucket Full of Toys

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin by saying that I had no idea what to pack for MLO's adventure in the wilds of Montana. I brought every bit of clothing that fit and would seem to fit three months from our move out there and of course all of his toiletries and medical supplies. When it came to toys and books, I was lost. The problem was that he just has too many. Hubby and I have purchased maybe two toys for the kid, but aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends have utterly showered MLO. We had limited space, so I had to chose the toys and books wisely.


First, I concentrated on the books. MLO had just started to develop his obsession with heavy machinery, so I scoured used book stores, Ross and Marshall's for inexpensive books that would feed his love of trucks and the outdoors. He spent the months subsequent to his birthday pouring over his new birthday books, so he had somewhat lost interest in the books we had. I kept the newly purchased, "Montana" books hidden to maintain the novelty and ended up bringing about five each of new and old books. While he's been here he's received four more new books.

With regard to the toys, I made efforts to bring things that had versatility and appealed to his more recent phases. For instance, he just started to take a fancy to pulling things behind him as he walked, so I packed my old toy rotary phone with the eyes that move. I grabbed all the legos we had inherited from my folks, which included some with wheels which are his faves. I brought his 'Learn to-Dress Jake' and his much beloved stuffed horsey. For the car I packed a few small toys that zipped, clinked and contained other toys, my favorite being his Wolfy. He loves zipping the pocket and playing with all the characters. It's a life saver for the car. Overall we had about an 18 gallon bin full of toys.

Now that we've had a couple of months here, I more clearly see what his favorites are. He plays with all of his toys, but his newly acquired Tonka dump truck is his favorite outdoor toy. In the house he loves to play with his soft-ball and with a wind up dump truck we scored for $3 at WalMart. The Wheely Cow has saved us... see the review on the Stuff N' Clutter page. The books were also critical. He spends minutes straight (hey, for a toddler that's a long time!) going through the pages of all of his books.

Of course, nothing beats a stick, some pine-cones, rocks and the great-outdoors, but when it's time to go inside it's nice to have a few things other than the furniture to play with.