Making all the night wakings worthwhile...

[rivka]

From the title, you thought this would be a sappy post about Alex hugging me and calling me Mommy, right?

Nope.

The reward for making it through nearly a full year of parenthood is this:



Man, it's a good thing that we're doing her birthday presents tomorrow, because how could I wait an extra two days to play with this?

See those buttons by the handles? When you push them, voices and sound effects right out of a 50's sci-fi movie inform you that you are cleared for landing or welcome you to Jupiter or warn you about astroids. Or you can push the ignition button, and hear "3-2-1 blastoff!" accompanied by sounds, vibration, and a lit-up afterburner.



I am trying to remind myself that this is a toy Alex will have to grow into, and that she might not be too crazy about it tomorrow. That's okay. Michael and I are crazy about it already.

We also got her a shapes puzzle and a four-book set by Sandra Boynton. (shandralyn, please tell Sam that the set includes Alex's first copy of But Not The Hippopotamus.) Of the things that we're giving her, I think she'll like the puzzle best right now and the Radio Flyer Retro Rocket best longterm. (I just like to say "Radio Flyer Retro Rocket." Radio Flyer Retro Rocket!)



Sadly, the pictures we took of me standing next to my citation abstract at my San Francisco conference were some of the least flattering pictures of me ever. But here's what the abstract itself looked like on display. I kept the blue ribbon.



Last, but not least, I give you shark fin and jellyfish sushi:



When we were in San Francisco we went to Isobune, which apparently was the first sushi restaurant in the United States to have the sushi travel around the bar on little boats. You grab whatever looks good. I grabbed this because it just looked so outrageous, and because I wanted to try something I (a) had never had before, and (b) was unlikely to find in Maryland. The absolute deliciousness was an added bonus.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It has volume control AND an off switch!

There was a particularly annoying feature in which, every time the front axle turned all the way around, it pushed a button that made one of the sound effects go off. But we fixed it with a coin and a piece of duct tape. Now it only makes sounds if you purposefully push a sound effect button.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Sarah's first walker had a whole panel of noise-making gizmo switches, which were still possible to play with apart from the sounds. We never put batteries into it, and she never suspected a thing. You might not have occasion to be glad if you leave the batteries our, but you could regret it if you don't. Just a thought.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Alex has a shape sorter that she doesn't know is supposed to make noise. I want to avoid having ten million battery-powered toys, all of which make ugly unmusical music. But I think that the Retro Rocket's sounds are pretty cool.

In general, though, I don't mind noise from toys as much as some other people I know do. On my "possible birthday presents" list was a tambourine and a xylophone, for example, although I didn't wind up finding any that I thought were appropriate for this age.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I want to avoid having ten million battery-powered toys, all of which make ugly unmusical music.

Just this afternoon, E was given a musical ball thingy as a late birthday present, and my SIL said
"I hope this doesn't become one of those toys you hate because of the noise." Hey, it's cool - it has an OFF BUTTON. That's all I need. :)

[ailbhe]

Duct tape: the only piece of baby equipment more essential than a wet wipe.