Drawing for Baby Whoozit® on Monday

Hurry and make your comments on this post and I will be drawing a winner at 10 am on Monday, August 24!

The Toy Nana likes Ebeanstalk

When my first daughter was little her two grandmothers naturally assumed roles. One was the toy Nanny and the other the clothes Granny. I like to do both.

One place that I frequently drool over is Ebeanstalk and they are having a giveaway for bloggers.

Here is some information about them:

Ebeanstalk is dedicated to a baby's development. And we select the best baby toys matched to a baby's development. To see great information on how a baby grows up, check out the info on our baby toys page.

Picking toys for a baby is not as simple as it sounds. Here are some quick baby facts:

• Toys for a newborn baby: A newborn baby is briefly looking at objects and attempting to imitate facial expressions. They can follow objects with their eyes and usually quiet down, when they are picked up.


• Toys for a three month old: They will enjoy ‘frolic play', reaching for objects and will repeat enjoyable activities. Believe it or not, they will respond to ‘no' (about half the time) and will start babbling.


• Toys for a six month old: They'll search for hidden objects (object permanence). They'll reach for themselves in the mirror, play peekaboo, crumple paper, roll from their stomach to their back and even respond to their name.


• Toys for a nine month old: They are pushing toy cars, playing pat-a-cake and looking for hidden sounds. The baby toys they are playing with are also getting more fun.

And you can get 15% off of your first purchase:

Just enter the code — TGS345 — at the shopping cart.

When I was almost 7

I had a condition that required several surgeries and inpatient tests. For one of those surgeries, I entered the hospital on December 26, the day after Christmas. That way I wouldn't miss school. So my Christmas present checked into the hospital with me: Baby Tippie Toes and her tricycle!!!

I haven't even seen a picture of Baby Tippie Toes for decades until I Googled her today and once again, I felt the same wonder that my six-year-old self felt.

Aren't memories amazing?

Ride, Terri, Ride

My parents specialized in outside toys. Outside toys meant we weren't playing inside. When you have five kids in eight years, outside is a good idea.

When I graduated from kindergarten, I got my first bicycle. It was 1967 and like all other transportation at the time, bicycles were cool. I got a purple banana seat bike. I was cool. The only problem was, my dad didn't believe in training wheels — throughout my entire childhood my dad didn't believe in safety nets, but that's another story.

So I had to learn to ride without training wheels. Oh, and my dad believed I should teach myself. All of those comfy, cozy images of a parent running along with a kid on a bike and letting go … yeah, that didn't happen.

I couldn't ride in the street, either until I learned to ride. This was interesting. I had to learn to ride in the driveway and many times the car was in the driveway. Are there any other fascinating elements we can add to this scenario? Oh, yes, the rose bushes beside the driveway … you get the picture.

But, this little 6-year-old girl was determined, and despite the bumps and bruises from cracking into the car, and the lacerations provided by thorny rose bushes, I learned to ride. I lived on that bike for most of my childhood.

There were other outside toys, too. We had a swing set and a jungle gym in our backyard. (And we actually had hard dirt under our play equipment.) Yep, the little girl with the fashionable pearl necklace is me. You will notice that I had on a blouse while the boys had on t-shirts. I was feminine. The grumpy boy in the dark blue t-shirt is my brother. The other two boys were our best friends, Cliff and Rusty.

When I was ten, my brother got a pogo stick for Christmas. I could tell you how cruel this was since my brother's disabilities made it hard for him to even walk a straight line, but I'm sure my parents had a reason.

Jimmy didn't see the reason though and he gave the pogo stick to me … after it got left in the driveway and run over by the car and the handle was broken off. But, again, determined, I learned to pogo without a handle. I could pogo a mile without stopping. Looking back it probably shook something loose in my little brain and that would explain some things.

Ah, yes … the magic of childhood. Honestly, it was a rough and tumble childhood, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I learned to improvise. I learned to take a fall and get up and go on. I learned to avoid the thorns. And I learned to savor the sunshine on my head and the wind through my hair as I rode a purple banana-seat bicycle across the West Texas desert.

Toys From My Childhood

Do you remember these great toys from the 1960's?

Etch-A-Sketch



Needless to say, my drawings did not look like this!

Then there was always the Easy Bake Oven.



Maybe it was just me, but the stuff I made in this thing was nasty! That I have burn scars on my hand from the lightbulb!

Talking about burns . . . Did you ever have a Thingmaker?



I wonder how many kids went to the emergency room, after "heating them up"!

The games were a lot more fun!

Did you ever play Operation? (I loved that game!)



And Twister!



This was back when they made real toys.