Toy Aisle Fun

I have an toy shopping addiction. I am weak. I have been pretty good lately, but with the warm temperatures and Chip working 24/7, Lily and I get bored. We have playgroup on Monday mornings and Gymboree on Thursdays, but it is hard to keep her entertained the remaining 60 hours of the week that she is awake. It's been too warm to walk to the park and then when you get there the slide is too hot to play on. I keep her busy by splashing around in the backyard, playing in the playroom, reading books, rolling balls, coloring, etc. But I even get tired of all that sometimes. I can tell she has been bored -- she takes after me. Chip used to say that he was going to have the phrase, "I am bored" engraved on my tombstone since apparently I used it so often (either that or "Can you please turn down the TV, it is giving me a headache." But now I am getting off on a tangent).
So yesterday afternoon we went to Target to kill some time since I had some towels to return. As we are mulling around the store I discovered an aisle that I had never seen before. . . . The Elmo aisle!! A whole half an aisle dedicated to Sesame Street toys just for kids Lily's age! I am not sure who got more excited, me or her. Of course I wanted to buy one of everything, but I settled on getting a phone w/ answering machine and laptop. Both complete with tons of buttons to push, since that is what entertains Lily the most.
The phone is fun because I can record messages for her. She actually really likes pushing the "Mama" button and hearing my message.

The laptop is cool because she can totally grow with it. Right now she just likes all the sounds and noises, but what she doesn't realize is that she is also learning her numbers, colors and ABC's.

I didn't plan it this way when I bought them, but I sorta created a little home office for her. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her typing away on the laptop while taking calls on the phone. It was pretty adorable. She worked hard yesterday in her little home office.

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I also bought this farm magnet set to put on the fridge. It is nearly impossible to grill a cheese sandwich or make coffee (that is about all I do in the kitchen) without tripping over her. So I thought this may help to keep her busy while I was hard at work opening the box of Cheerios.

The Farm sings songs and talks about the animals. There are five different animals, ten pieces in all, which you are suppose to match up to make a complete pig, for example. But you can also make silly animals like a horse-cow. And then it signs a song about how silly you are to make a horse-cow! I find it fun. I think Lily does too! Also at Target (such a dangerous store) we wandered into the school supply section and got boxes of Crayola Crayons for 22 cents each!! With 24 crayons to a box, that is less than a penny each!! Lily loves crayons, but can also be hard on them. So I bought six boxes and figured if/when she breaks them, I won't be soo upset! And I got her a spiral notebook with kitty cats on it. It is a dorky notebook, but she likes to color and she seems to enjoy an empty canvas just as much as a coloring book. So I thought she'd have fun with the notebook. And so far she has scribbled on a few pages!

Once she tires of these toys, we'll go back and get the Elmo guitar!! :)