Urgent post because OMG. This Melissa & Doug puffy sticker set is the best $5 I’ve spent in a long, long while. I whipped it out while on our flight down to Florida and she was ecstatic. It kept her busy for nearly half (!!!) of the three-hour flight and then for multiple hours every day since. Yes, multiple hours every day since. In the words of Jonathan Van Ness: can you believe?! (N.B.: The set is technically for children three and older as it includes small puffy stickers, but, while supervised, it gave me no pause. She doesn’t put things in her mouth anymore, but I’d keep an eye on your child just to make sure.) I already added this one to my cart as a gift for her upcoming second birthday.
Other hits on the trip: this Minnie Play-Doh set, this Doodle Pro (she loves loves love this and though she could not at first figure out how to erase the board on her own, she’s since learned and will draw on this for long stretches of time), this coloring book (she adores Woody and all the Toy Story movies, and Mr. Magpie and I actually just decided to have micro’s gift to her be this talking Woody doll! She’s going to FLIP!), and Hop on Pop. I’d not given her any Dr. Seuss books, primarily because I did not grow up with his work, and Mr. Magpie one day asked, “Why no Seuss?!” My mother — perhaps idiosyncratically — felt that Dr. Seuss books were confusing to little children because, while inventive, they tend to include jibberish words, and children are already hard enough at work in learning English. I don’t pretend to understand the nuances of this and don’t mean to put it down as fact, but that was her reasoning and I’ve inherited it. Mini loved Hop on Pop though, and I appreciate the book’s emphasis on prepositions! (More of our favorite books here. I should probably update this now that she’s nearly two. Three of her current favorites are Madeline, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Drum Dream Girl. I’m consistently astounded by how patient she is in sitting through increasingly long books! Drum Dream Girl is a fantastic girl empowerment book with poetic, lyrical language, and I like that a few of the pages force you to turn the book sideways. All kinds of cool disruptions in that book! I have a bone to pick with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, though. I’m probably taking this way too seriously, but isn’t the message annoying? Like, if someone asks for something, they’ll probably take advantage of you? A bit bleak if you ask me.)
P.S. If you fell in love with the Philip Starck ghost chair we bought for mini for her birthday, GUESS WHAT. I found it on sale for $103 here! Hurry, hurry! Also available in clear for $126. Trust me — those are the best prices you will find online for these chairs. I searched high and low.
P.P.S. This is me, this is not me.
P.P.P.S. More discoveries for minis.