Conference moira::parenting_v3

    I would recommend Duplo blocks...these are the large sized Legos.
    Actually, our now 26 mon. old has played with the littler legos since
    the time he stopped putting theminto his mouth, and is noe *very*
    adeptcat building with them. But he still seems to prefer the Duplos.
    
    Actually he likes anything with wheels or wings! He also likes
    "pretend" stuff, like toy kitchen equip., toy tools, etc.  Of course,
    being child #3, he has lots of older examples to imitate! I honestlt
    don't remember what Joshua (child #1) liked at that age...due to his
    being the 1st grandchild on my folk's side, he had every toy under the
    sun, and never (as i recall) developed a strong liking to any of them,
    *except* Legos and matchbox cars. He still, at nearly 6, favors those
    over most anything else.
    
    --dave--

     I definitely agree with Dave in his assessment of Duplos and Legos. 
They last a long time, both in the sense that they are virtually
indestructible and that kids play with them for several years.  Your son will
play with them a long time, as will as many brothers and sisters as he has. 
Once you get started, they make wonderful gift ideas for friends and
relatives.  You can get small sets relatively inexpensively, or large sets. 
And there's no such thing as having too many.  They can be played with in the
bathtub, in the sandbox, anywhere.  

     Clay 

    Chase - 20 months, is very much into his musical instruments.  Small
    wooden guitar, he carries all around the house and sings to music
    (especially his Raffi video).  Also he got a marching band set for his
    1 year birthday, and that is still his favorite toy.  It is a drum and
    inside is stored a tamborine, cymbals, drum sticks, whistle, hat, and
    bells.  He loves it! If you can stand the noise!
    
    Also his ride on toys are becoming more important.

Some of Julianne's favorite toys are:

.  Fisher Price cassette recorder w/ microphone (we bought the Disney
	"favorites" tapes and duplicated MUCHO CD's from the local
	library (Raffi is MY favorite!)

.  Tupperware's shapes ball (she now knows how to open the ball to
	get the shape-blocks out) and can match all the shapes

.  Books ... lots of them!

.  Biggo crayola crayons and coloring pencils (the pencils need supervision
	since they can be sharp and dangerous ... but Juli's experimenting
	with writing and the crayons just don't cut it!).  I often place a
	long sheet of white paper on the kitchen table and just let her go
	to town (some kids like writing on aluminum foil and construction
	paper, but Juli likes BIG "but plain boring white" paper.  She
	also has the crayola bucket to store them in.  Juli also enjoys
	the post-em notes  (cut them into shapes and rearrange on the paper) 

.  Playdough (old cookie cutters, small rolling pins, plastic cutlery,
	TV dinner trays...) - and old washable placemats (or alumnimum foil) 
	helps the cleanup effort.  (We have a closed-in porch ... thank
	goodness!!!! -- Just drag out the garden hose and open the door!)

.  Lots of little matchbox cars  (she has an "old" Coke truck with
	removeable coke cartons, which she plays with a lot)

.  Her step stool  (to watch the traffic from her bedroom window)

.  A BIG blowup beach ball (she rolls on top of it and carries it around)

.  An old AT&T telephone (long cord may be a concern for some parents, but 
	doesn't seem to be a problem with Juli)

.  Dress 'Em doll (she has the Minnie Mouse ... tie shoes, button skirt,
	snap shirt, etc.)

.  A cloth farmhouse filled with tiny cloth animals (a gift which she
	has always treasured and carries around EVERYWHERE!)

.  Wooden puzzles (with BIG pieces ... the numbers one is good ... and
	the Sesame Street ones where you see "garden seeds", lift the
	piece and underneath are full-grown vegies ...)

.  Fisher Price cash register (although she gets frustrated because you
	HAVE TO match up the coins to the proper slots!  Maybe we need
	a more forgiving design for younger minds?)

.  AN OLD POCKETBOOK with a keychain of old keys, an old wallet (with
	pictures and cards OF COURSE!) ... one of her favorite "things".

.  instead of the Duplo's, Juli has the Little-Tykes BIG blocks (wafer-
	like) -- although she plays with them, they're not one of her
	favorite toys

.  she also has a BIG wooden train and track, but again, it's not one of her
	favorite toys (which surprises me, especially since the cargo
	cars can hold lots of little toys)

.  Teddy Rexpin  (she adores!), especially with the "song" tapes (rather
	than story tapes)

.  carpenter's bench (and hammer! - an absolutely wonderfully useful tool
	in more ways than one!)

I know you're thinking "SO MANY TOYS", but most of the above were either
gifts, hand-me-downs (from her cousins) ... and a few were picked up at
yard sales (average cost: 50 cents!) - you may want to make sure all
important pieces exist before you buy from a yard sale, though.

Happy shoppin'!!!!!

Dottie

PS:  Juli's 22-months old.

    Josh just turned two and his current faves are:
    
    *Matchbox, hotwheels cars, tracks, buildings--these have been his
     very favorites from the time we allowed him to have one, he has
     never tried to put them in his mouth
    *The fishing tackle box that we keep his little cars in--the cases
     they sell for these cars are so cheap, we got the tackle box on
     a whim and it is perfect!!!
    *Magic turtle-this is a toy that you push and this titanium(i think)
     battery makes sparks inside the turtle's shell
    *The "Joshua" tape--a tape with 5 songs that include his name
    *Books, sesame street magazine
    *Baseball bat and ball (sponge)
    *Monkeys of any kind!!!  Does anyone remember the plastic link monkeys
     we had as kids?  Wonder where I could find them
    *Big outside toys, tonka trucks, etc.....
    
    It's great having kids, you get to play, too....
    

    Boy, this file is GREAT!!  Not only am I getting loads of ideas of toys
    for Marc, but I'm getting a good laugh when people mention things we
    played with as kids that I haven't thought about in about 25 years.  
    
    Like trolls -- where did those come from anyway :-))
    
    And link monkeys - I had a bunch of those, too!  I think it was part of
    some game where you had to try and pick them up one by one to make a
    long chain!
    
    Do people let their kids paint at home?  Where?  I can't think of one
    place in my entire house where I'd feel safe with Marc and paints!  Do
    you have a special slop room in the basement?
    
    More ideas please!!

    re: .6  Did you know trolls are back!!!???  I see them in the stores
    and wonder what the appeal ever was?
    
    Does anyone remember the dolls inside of bottles that smelled like
    certain scents?  I would love to have one of those beautiful bottles
    now (they were plastic and opened in halves but were pretty shapes
    and colors).
    
    The worst toy I can remember is Baby Alive!!! YUCK!!!  My little
    sister had one and I will never forget it, almost worse than the
    real thing, to change one of those diapers.
    
    Are the doll heads that you do the hair and makeup on still around?
    What about the Chrissie dolls with the "growing hair"?
    
    My mother in law works in a toy store so I get the inside scoop
    on the new fads--the latest is the slime balls--ugh!  She also collects
    antique toys, and wishes she had held on to a lot more of her kids'
    toys as some are worth megabucks now.
    
    Pam

    The monkey's that .5 and .6 are referring to were called "Barrel of
    Monkeys" they came in a plastic "keg".  The idea was to take one of the
    monkeys and try to make a continuous chain by hooking the monkeys hands
    together and not dropping any that you'd already picked up, and you
    could only use one hand to do this.  The winner was the one who could 
    make a chain with the most monkeys.  My sister and brother's and I
    would spend hours playing that game.  You could probably still find it
    at Child World, Toys-R-Us or Kay Bee Toys.
    
    Good luck,
    Lori B.

    Oh, I get it... "More fun than a <barrel of monkeys>" :-)

    I loved my little troll.  He was so ugly - at age 10 when I didn't feel
    very attractive myself - he helped me feel less lonely.  I used to
    stroke his hair while I did my homework.  We didn't have any pets, so I
    guess he sort of filled that role for me.  He was always there, waiting
    on my desk.
    
    Funny how these things come back to you!
    
    Laura

    When we were kids, my brother and I used to love making tents to crawl
    into, by draping a blanket over a chair.  A two-year-old would probably
    enjoy this, if Mom or Dad helped set up the tent.
    
    L

    
    	I still have my original collection of 18 trolls. Never played with
    baby dolls but spent hours and hours creating a fantasy world with
    those little things.
    
    				Wendy

    Have you or someone in your neighborhood bought a new appliance
    recently?  Kids love to play in the boxes - the bigger the better. 
    When my daughter was about two, we got a new refrigerator.  The box was
    her favorite toy for months.  Of course, it took up a lot of space.
    
    There is almost no age limit on this.  We recently got a new water
    heater.  Molly, now almost eight, has commandeered the box and spend a
    fair amount of time in it.

    .7, I don't remember Chrissy dolls but they may have been a knockoff of
    (what I think was the original growing-hair doll) "Tressy."
    
    Leslie

At 17 months, Michael's hands-down favorite toys are his Little Tikes Cozy 
Coupe and grocery cart.  He is either riding in the car or pushing the cart 
(full of treasures of course) most of the time he is awake and in the 
house.  Next to those, his favorites are things like shape-sorters -- he 
has a couple of trucks that have shapes in the back that fit into holes.  
He loves to play with the shapes, and also to walk around the house pulling 
the trucks by the string.

Of course, I'm only talking about inside toys.  The backyard swing set and 
sliding board are his idea of heaven, and where he spends a lot of his 
waking time.

Steve

    I realize it was a typo, but I was trying to imagine a 19 year old
    chugging around the house pushing his shopping cart!  8*)
    
    -sandy
    

     
    Jason will be two in September.   He is REALLY into construction
    trucks and tools, sooo....his hands-down favorite toys include
    the Little Tykes Workshop, the Fisher-Price Power Toolbox, the
    FP bubble lawn mower, his no-name weed-wacker, and any&all
    construction vehichles (Tonka, Matchbox, etc).   As others have
    mentioned, his Duplo blocks get pretty good use too.  He has a lot
    of great toys, but still prefers to play with the real thing!
    
    Carol

      
    I forgot one thing from the basenote.   As far as feeling overwhelmed
    and not knowing what he'd like, how about taking him to someplace 
    like Early Learning Centre where they encourage the children to play
    with the toys and/or observe what types of things he plays with when
    you visit other people's homes.
    
    Carol

    Jonathan, my 19 month old,  would love to play with any of his sisters 
    toys.  Among his toys, the following are the one he enjoys the most.
    
    Magnetic Blocks - comes in different shapes and colors and he can make
    		      train, car, house etc. with it.
    
    Mother Goose Caboose - Video tech electronic game - plays Singalong 
    			   music, identifies animal sounds, shapes, color
    	 		   etc.  He enjoys changing the software (is like
    		           changing a block (nothing technical).  He can
    			   also drag it whereever he goes and it makes the
    		           sound of a real train when pushed or pulled.
    			   He plays with it all by himself for an hour.
    
    Shopping Cart with his favorite stuffs in it.
    
    Fisher Price Corn Popper.
    
    The Big Duplo blocks
    
    Any size balls
    
    Pack of cards with nice pictures in it.
    
    Talking Bigbird - This was bought about 4 years ago for my 1st daughter
    		      is still in good condition.
    
    Most of all he just loves to play in the kitchen with my cooking pans
    and spoon
    
    
    - Elizabeth
    

    re .13  we recently bought a new washer, forget the box... it came with
    this huge piece of styrofoam, to stabilize the agitator during shipment
    and was sort of circular shaped, maybe 6 inches high with a 2 or 3 inch
    hole in the middle.  It was an instant pool toy; kickboard, sit-on-me
    float etc.  He loves it!
    
    As for two year old toys, that was 2+ years ago, there was Magnadoodle,
    a designed for toddler skooter, the bigwheel bike, someone asked about
    "safe" places for painting (finger painting I presume?) the kitchen
    table, spread with newspaper, or old wall paper, and just besure it's
    water soluable paint in any case.  How about a toy telphone, large
    stacking blocks, stuffed animals; he loved musical winnie the pooh.
    
    Oh to go back to where life was simple!!