News from the Homefront

Jackson has mastered another sound. If you ask him what a lion says, you'll hear the gentlest "rawr" that ever was rawred.

We've also discovered two new fabulous games. You know "quarters" where you just slide quarters back and forth across the table at a diner? Jackson and I play that with a plastic giraffe. He thinks it's hilarious when the giraffe slides across the table and drops into the tray of his booster seat. And then we found the inner cardboard circle from a retired roll of duct tape and this toy has received the Jackson Seal of Approval. Hours of entertainment. Better than pulling forks out of the dishwasher!

Took him to work today to show off his cuteness in the waning days of "working mom" era, and he was shy and/or grumpy at first, but then had a nice refreshing poop (what?), and felt much better. Once he was back to his usual cheerful self, he heartily enjoyed the opportunity to remove every single thing from one of my desk drawers, learn how bubble wrap works from my bemused coworkers, and do high fives with everybody.

He's also now a master of his backyard slide! For a while he couldn't quite grok the blue stair side--he'd just turn around at the bottom of the orange slide side and try to clamber back up--but he's figured out the up-down loop now and he loves it!

I'll try to take/post more pictures soon!

Thrift-Store Treasures

Puzzles! For $1.99 each, I got trucks, wild animals, pets and what I believe is a magnetic "fishing" game. The magnet on the purple guy was missing so I took him to the fish hospital and I'm hoping a thumbtack and some superglue do the trick. And then I just need to figure out how to make a magnet "fishing pole." Kiddo can't really do puzzles yet, but for now he thoroughly enjoys picking out the dog and the "juh-waff."

This 10 Button Book by William Accorsi is so fun! There are 10 buttons attached to the book by ribbons, and there are holes for the appropriate number of buttons on each page. Such a great way to make numbers and counting tactile and fun for the kiddos!

Last but not least, and speaking of treasures from the used bookstore, I found this copy of Treasure Island with illustrations by Milo Winter. Both the book and the illustrations are in the public domain, so it's just a cheap contemporary reprint, but I'm a sucker for vintage illustrations in general, and in specific Milo Winter's version of Aesop's Fables gets recommended fairly often on the Hive Mind forums, so I snapped this up. We're quite a few years away from Treasure Island being suitable reading material for the kiddo, but what the hell, I have a huge garage with plenty of room for storing my treasure hoard of books.

See...treasure!