Toy Thursday

Sometimes the classics are the best. I think we all had a version of this toy, most of us probably had fisher price plastic version. Before the all famous Plastic Ring sorters by Fisher Price there were wooden ones that our parents would have played with. Thanks to companies like Melissa & Doug they still exist.

Thank you memere and pepere for this one.

This is probably one Christophe favorite Christmas Presents; he can put it together but he can take it apart and sure enough he tries to put it back together one day he will get it; after all he is only 10 months old.

Toy Thursday

I love chunky puzzles they are fun and bright and make for great educational toys. They help with motor skills and if you describe all the pictures language skills. It hard to find puzzles that a suitable for little ones that still put everything in their mouth (you need to make sure they have no small pieces). Melissa and Doug has this great series of chunky touch and feel puzzles; each puzzle piece has a textured surface and is quite large enough for little hands.

Thank you memere and pepere for the great puzzle.

Toy Thursday

Christophe is now 9 months old and we though he would need a few 9 month old toys to help stimulate his development.

My parents recently got him NooBoo Pound a Sound from Manhattan Toy. He seems to find it interesting and each time he triggers the sound on the toy; he is like were did that come from. (He does not seem to understand how to make the noise deliberately but he will get there.) I just love the crazy colour and prints on the fabric.We decide to get him the Peek-a-boo barn from Melissa & Doug. So far he seems to like to chew on it more then anything else. When I close and open the flaps it seems to intrigue him; again he will get there eventually.
Images from: Manhattan Toy website and Melissa & Doug website.

Toyspotting Thursday

These days Christophe's favorite toy is a rattle from Melissa & Doug. If I offer him 3 or 4 toys he always choses this one out of the pack and sometimes gets upset if I take it away to pick him up or something. My guess is that he is attracted to the big bright eyes of this frog. The recommended age from this one is 6 months plus but our guy has been playing with it since he has been 3 months; however only recently has he really shown interest in it.

The search for safer toys

Many of you know that we have made the decision to remove almost all plastics from our sons life. This includes toys. I have spent many hours on the internet researching wood toys and below is a list of the manufacturers I have found so far.

Melissa & Doug
Plan Toys
Haba
North Star Toys
Selecta Spieizeug
Grimm's
Heros
Jalu Wood Creations
Ringley
Holztiger

If anyone out there knows of others manufacturers please share.

SAFETY

I was sick for a bit so that would explain my absence. Baby and me are both fine, so no worries. I decided to divide these entries by subjects as there is a lot to say.

TOY SAFETY:
The Canadian Goverment released this notice regarding toy safety that I tought would be good to share with everyone.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/advisories-avis/info-ind/toy_lead-jouets_plomb_e.html

Also for those of you that want to keep up to date with recalls in Canada there is a great newsletter from the Canadian government that you can subscribe to.  

On our part, a few of the things we are doing for baby to keep him safe from all the dangers of toxic chemicals out in the world are:

• Use only stainless steel, glass, silicon or wood for meals.  I.E. Glass bottles, silicon trays to freeze milk or homemade food, metal sippy cups,  wood cutlery (once he is there)... If you are wondering why we don't want to use plastic check out this information on Bisphenol A.  You can also check out this great article on what plastics are safe.
• Keeping up to date with recalls both in Canada and in the US.  The US often recalls things a few days before us.
• Choosing his toys wisely, this is probably the over cautious first time parent nerves kicking in but we are doing our best to select toys from manufacturers with none to minimum amounts of recalls.  We will always have few exceptions to this rule as I know we have at lest one Fisher Price toy and we all know they had there shares or recalls. Some of the toy manufacturers that we like are:

Manhattan Toy

Vulli

Kushies

Haba

Natural Pod

Melissa & Doug