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July 27, 2005

toys wonderful toys!

I went to De Bijenkorf at lunchtime today and they were having a special Miffy/Nijntje 50th anniversary. All those wonderful toys! I ended up buying some toys, for my toddler nephew, Xavie.

Nijntje Tent:
My parents gave me my first tent when I was 3 and I camped out in the livingroom all by myself! I'm so proud of me. I hope Xavie will have endless hours of fun playing in his tent, as well.

Nijntje Memory game:
Made by Ravensburger, from special thick cards, with prints of all Nintje characters. My parents started me pretty early on Ravensburger memory games (mine was not Nijntje, but the other Dick Bruna character, the farmer guy) and I think this is where I get my visual/photographic memory from.

It's a favorite game with us, so I think my parents would get fond memories of us playing this in Geneva, except this time they are playing with their grandson.

Wooden xylophone:
I love wooden music instruments for kids! This one has the bars in different colors and produces such nice sounds *I think I pissed off the shopkeeper a bit as I played the xylophone today* I love that this is wooden as well. I'm sure we'll find out soon how musically-inclined Xavie is :)

Dislike for plastic toys:
Too much cheap plastic stuff for kids in the shops these days, I can't stand them. I never go into toy stores like Bart Smit and Toys R Us because they don't sell beautiful wooden toys *this is the designer in me talking, toys must have aesthetic values as well as educational values*

I go to a lot of independent toy shops that sell traditional wooden toys; there is a wonderful big one in Antwerpen that I can spend hours in. One of my favorites is in Den Bosch. I like going in there with my mother, and she'd laugh as she remembers all these toys she'd got me when I was young. My parents bought my sister and I mostly educational + constructive toys.

The plastic toys I had were the Lego/Duplo variety, and back then, they were the real building block stuff. None of this pre-fabricated Star Wars or Harry Potter Lego sets. We just had squares, rectangles and flat pieces. I made dolls, or robots, depending on my girly-tomboy mood, from my Lego pieces. :)

Nijntje Pool:
I very nearly bought a small circular pool for Xavie, but I stopped myself. My cousins gave Xavie a pool for his birthday, and even though the top ring on the pool has a leak (so he can't lean on the sides of the pool), it works OK. My dad sent me a really cute nekkid picture of Xavie in his pool *15 years from now, Xavie would kill me if he finds out I posted his nekkid baby pictures on my blog*

My sister takes Xavie swimming almost every weekend at the country club, and she says he loves the water. And when they are in my dad's apartment during the week, they swim in the swimming pool of the apartment complex. He's such a waterbaby, I remember bathing him and he just loves to splash water.

p.s. Don't sue me; Nintje images above are copyrighted to Dick Bruna :)

Posted by Yasmina at July 27, 2005 02:05 PM

Comments

Posted by: retno at July 28, 2005 10:48 AM

Posted by: kathya at July 31, 2005 09:18 AM