toys

Where do vintage toys go exactly?  Are they buried deep within landfills?  How is it I can find vintage furniture, cars, flooring and fabric but barely any toys anywhere except apparently in Switzerland?  I'm going to have to investigate the exchange rate for "chf."  

Maybe I'm just being nostalgic but many of J's toys are built for the destiny of those vintage toys.  My toys were so much sturdier.  I wish my mother had saved more items . . . my treehouse for one.  I have wonderful memories of playing with that.  Secondly would be my shopping cart which I would love to have for J.  The third item is Ollie though he was sort of saved and died years later from the elements in his storage area.  My Ollie had wheels unlike the earlier version.  Last but not least is my Kermit the frog.  I have been given replacements but none of them are quite the same and the hands do not velcro like my old kermit.  

I guess I should consider this as I determine the fate of J's toys.  However, like I said before his toys are to some extent not build well.  Maybe I need to pull aside the few that are and save them?  Or perhaps my parents thought the same thing of my toys compared to theirs and I must stop the cycle!  There is a fine line between saving and hoarding and I only have so much space.  I can't keep everything nor do I want to be tied to that stuff.  

What preschool toy do you have fond memories of, and are you lucky enough to still have it?

some are silver and some are gold

I could move to Dallas.  I'm ready.  I find it interesting that I say that normally after two things . . . visits there and holidays away from there.  The rest of the time (especially early winter and all of autumn) I'm more than happy (yes more than) to stay put here in Ohio.  It's a frustrating see-saw, especially since the only way we'd move to Dallas is if D applied for and got a promotion.  So it's really a moot point that I need not consider as it's not really on the radar right now.  So why bring it up?  In part because we just returned from a trip there and it's fresh in my mind.  My sister-in-law's neighborhood has 9 houses for sale (4 on her street) and most could potentially be in our price range.  

There are definitely negatives to a move to Texas - a move that is by no means on the radar or happening any time soon but for which I feel the need to obsess and blog about.  It's hot down there and it's red - as in too freakin' conservative.  The schools aren't great though there are some that are apparently superb (Southlake comes to mind for one).  However not to ruffle any feathers of my six readers, but I don't want J taught stories in science - I want him taught science.  Back to weather though, it never snows in Dallas and I like the snow, at least for the first four weeks or so around the holidays.  I also really love autumn with it's crisp air and melancholy colors.  Last but not least, while I enjoy visiting Texas I don't have a lot of friends there.  I have one friend, 2 sister-in-laws, one cousin my age and 3 significantly younger.  

With that said there are negatives to Ohio too and the whole "I have no friends" issue with Texas isn't that much different here.  I have a bunch of "friends" on Facebook but even the activity on there mirrors real life.  As in there is no activity on there with or from my "friends" and in real-life I rarely see or talk to more than a couple of said friends.  So I guess the friend issue is a draw.  It does allow me to segue from my nonsense writing about a move south to, well to friendship I guess.

I have to say I'm not terribly outgoing.  I always tell D that being outgoing is a trait not a learned action but secretly I suspect that's false and just a cop out.  It's just a scary proposition to make an attempt to be more outgoing.  I'd rather get over a fear of spiders or tight spaces through systematic desensitisation than work to be more outgoing.  I wouldn't say I'm shy; I'm just slow to open up to people so I come off as cold (to say the least).  I would say the fact that I tend to find myself in friendships in which I do all the work is probably fueling the fire.  I don't know.  Maybe I can look at the friendships that are not one-way and learn something from them for going forward?  

Funny.  Funny to me at least.  Just last year I was considering joining a mom's group and didn't.  I wanted to join for J so he could play with other kids.  I was stressing because of the social interaction I'd be forced into with the mom's.  I wasn't interested in more/new friends.  My friendship situation hasn't changed since then but obviously my perspective has.  I really think it boils down to me being ready to have a life again so now friendships are important and what was enough last year isn't now.

I'm not sure how I'll be working through this.  I know I need to force myself to be more outgoing to some extent.  So when I take J to swim class or art class I need to be more social and outgoing with the other moms.  I also need to reach out to the moms I already know with kids J's age and setup some playdates.  Maybe by this holiday season I'll no longer be longing for the supposedly greener grass across the Mason Dixon line.

Today was J's 1-year assessment with Help Me Grow.  He's a "super star" in every category except one - speech.  His receptive speech is awesome but not the expressive.  He fluctuates between 3mo and 6mo "behind."  Why the quotes?  Because I recognize every kid is different and behind is relative.  I'm not super stressed about it but at the same time if our house sells there's a really good chance we'll leave the county and it's resources.  So we're having J get an evaluation with a speech therapist.  Figure it can't hurt.

They also fill out a social development type questionnaire.  J "passed" that too.  However, I'm having issues with that.  He/we had such a great time on vacation.  We saw people; we went places and did new things each day.  Now we're back at home and he's bored.  Okay, I'm bored (not really but sort of - I have plenty to do but lack momentum and motivation and that's a whole other story).  

I bought him new toys which is so not like me.  He has plenty of toys as it is and plenty more in storage and he doesn't "need" particular toys as he has no idea they even exist.  I've also found swimming lessons for him, and I should be getting a list of other age appropriate activities for him from his Help Me Grow specialist.  I've also been stressing over the playdate emails I sent over two months ago to friends.  I know so many families with kids J's age and I think playdates are in order.  Of course, all that work I need to do but have been avoiding due to lack of motivation keeps me from emailing about specifics.  That's not the only thing but it's the largest surface stumbling block.

Below the surface there are plenty more.  I recognize that and need to work it out.  What that entails I'm not sure but for starters I need to just send those emails for playdates and register J for classes so we both get out of the house more and have fun.

St. John vaca . . . check out the link

Follow the St. John adventures HERE at my travel blog.  There's no pulitzer prize winning writing but you'll get to read about the trip.  

birthday

Our boy is ONE!  Okay, so that's really old news.  I've shared it via Facebook oh, about a month ago when it was actually his birthday.  And unless there are a bunch of lurkers here, all my readers are on Facebook too.  That kinda takes the wind out of my blogging at times.  Yet another reason to abandon social networking (just one of many reasons).   I didn't really go into detail about the week long birthday extravaganza over there either.  I did however post photos and to me one of those is worth a bunch of words, maybe not 1000 but in come cases close.  To some extent I feel like, what's left to say but on the flipside I'm sure there is a lot if I scrape below the surface.  Let's see . . . 

We started J's birthday with a trip to the zoo.  It was warm and sunny and we headed straight to his favorite exhibit - the reef.  It was early in the morning and the zoo was pretty much empty.  He got to crawl around the exhibit and explore all the fish.  They had wires covered in broccoli and the fish would swim by and nibble.  As much as he loved the reef fish, he was not real happy with the manatees next door or the sea turtles.  

After a few more exhibits we had lunch then left for dessert.  Graeter's is just down the road and J got to have his first ice cream.  First he had that distinctive look of horror I've seen other babies have.  Why would Mama give him something so hideously cold, but then again it WAS yummy so maybe another bite - ooooh, just as cold.  He got used it; don't we all . . . and he loved it.  We had planned to go back to the zoo after his nap but they closed too early so we opted to hit the park instead.  J had a great time in the swing.

The next day his aunts and cousins arrived from Texas and each day was filled with playing . . . back to the park, then to the mall and of course all over the house.  

We went back to the local park first on Thursday night and J got to try the little kids jungle gym.  He loved the tunnel and tolerated the slide.  Getting dirty in the mulch was pretty fun too and I'm pretty sure it ranked higher than the slide too.  Friday was the trip to the mall.  The mall has a zoo themed play area with a tree in the center and animals all around it.  The animals look like they are hard plastic but they're foam.  They're weird but cool.  I kept expecting them to be hard but ever one was solid enough for kids to climb it but soft enough that you could fall on it and not get hurt.  I still can't wrap my brain around it.  J took quite awhile to warm up to the idea of all the animals and kids and adults. Eventually he did though and he headed straight for one of the tunnels.  

Saturday was the big party.  We had a few friends over but mainly we kept it to family.  J was awesome and seemed to have a good time.  He played upstairs with his cousins and friend while most of the adults were mingling downstairs.  Then it was gift time.  Amazingly the gifts kept his attention and he sat patiently looking at everything.  He liked the bright colored wrapping paper but also his new books.  The videos he wasn't too sure about and the other gifts were in boxes which he loves so he was excited if for no other reason than he had a new collection of boxes to push around.  

We got his cake from Clarencedale bakery in Campbell, Ohio.  They made my baby shower cupcakes as well as the cake for my dad's birthday.  J's cake was not as delicious as my dad's but it was still good.  It was enormous.  It was 2 full cakes high - I thought when I was asking for 2 flavors that each would be a 1/2 height and hence the cake would be of normal height . . . nope.  I got two cakes on top of each other.  The top was banana and the bottom was chocolate - they were separated by a layer of chocolate ganache.  Yum.  J's cake was banana and can you believe I did not get a photo of it?  It was quite cute and matched the bigger cake.  

J didn't dive into his cake.  He took some icing and that was it so I had to cut a piece out for him to see what it was.  I thought for sure he'd dig in then but no.  He did eat the slice I'd cut and put to the side but then he lost interest.  We gave him his dinner next and he found that much more appealing.  After dinner & cake he worked off his sugar high until it was gone, leaving him rather cranky and confused.  He wanted held but not held - he wasn't sure what he wanted and that frustrated him more.  I think we'll keep his sugar intake as low as possible.  Maybe he can have cake again at his 2nd birthday.

Sunday we all went to brunch and by all I mean our family in from PA and TX.  Then everyone scattered hitting the road for a long ride home, a day of flying or for us just a quick jaunt up the road.  I find Sundays rather melancholy to start with but after a long weekend of family fun and a party there is the potential for a really bad letdown.  That afternoon we filled our time organizing all of J's new stuff though so I stayed mentally occupied.  Of course what I really mean by "organizing" is that we shoe-horned it all into his room and our guest room upstairs.