Children’s Books

Today I was reminded why I should not go into bookstores by myself.    Especially not when our son is celebrating his second birthday this weekend.    This morning while the toddler and I were driving to daycare we saw several trucks.   We realized that we do not know the difference between an excavator and a backhoe.    I mentioned that I needed to buy him a book about trucks for his birthday so that we’d know the difference between all of the many kinds of trucks.    So at lunchtime I headed to the children’s book section at Borders.   I’ve always had this obsession with actually owning books vs. taking them out from the library.     I guess I’ve seen too many dystopic movies and fear someday books will become obsolete–too bad it’s my favorite genre.

Anyhow, $90.35 later, here is what I left with:

• My Big Truck Book by Roger Priddy
• On the Night You were Born by Nancy Tillman
• Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
• Trains, Cranes and Troublesome Trucks by W. Rev Awdry
• Cars and Trucks and Things that Go by Richard Scarry
• The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper and George Hauman
• And a stuffed version of the pigeon from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

I know my mom has been buying up books from the Disney collection and my mother-in-law is a kindergarten teacher who gets children’s books from Scholastic and sends us boxes regularly, plus our friend in Hawaii with the masters in children’s literature has a bad book-buying habit.    I’m thinking he may need a set of built-in bookshelves lining his wall by the time he is 3!

The last time our children’s lit nanny friend came to town to visit, on July 4th, we decided to take a trip to Barnes & Noble.    I have no clue how much she spent, but here’s what we left with:

• Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
• HUG by Jex Alborough
• Wave by Suzy Lee
• Toot & Puddle: Top of the World by Holly Hobbie
• Travels With Toot & Puddle: Three Books About Friendship by Holly Hobbie
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

And mommy picked up Corduroy by Don Freeman and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.    I have to say, I’m not digging the Maurice Sendak books.   Maybe when the toddler is older I’ll appreciate them more.   

This week we love Skippy John Jones, however Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and the Toot & Puddle books have also been big hits!

Until next time,

Lorelei

Thomas the Train Free Movie Ticket and Kidtoons

Yes, more Thomas the Train…I am on the mailing list so may as well share the wealth.

Here’s a coupon for one free admission to see the new Thomas the Train Movie, “The Great Discovery.”   It’s buy one admission, get one free.   

http://www4.toysrus.com/Our/tru/prom/2008ThomasMovieTix

The coupon itself can be downloaded as a pdf here:

http://www4.toysrus.com/our/tru/prom/2008ThomasMovieTix/tix.pdf

It’s valid weekends only through July 27th.

Plus, it looks like there are certain theaters that are showing this at Saturday and Sunday matinees as a special family event through a program called Kidtoons.  Too bad the theaters in the Cleveland area are all on the east side of town.  Oh well.

Until next time,

Lorelei

Great Websites for Toddlers

We’ve discovered that our toddler son doesn’t always necessarily need an entire show or DVD to watch, sometimes he happy cuddling with us and watching short videos or playing games on the computer.

A couple of great websites we’ve found are:

http://pbskids.org/sesame/ – online educational games

http://video.sesameworkshop.org/ – this video player is great!  Plays all of the old Sesame Street skits.

http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/videos.asp

Until next time,

Lorelei

20% Off Thomas the Train Toys Online

I found this site that has some great deals on Thomas the Train toys, many are 20% off.  It’s a big summer sale they have going on.   It includes some toys that aren’t trains as well, including firetrucks, helicopter, bulldozer, etc.

http://thomasandfriends.hitshopusa.com/

Until next time,

Lorelei

Toys ‘R’ Us Thomas the Train Coupon Issue

Earlier this week I posted here about some Thomas the Train Coupons that were online.    One was for a free train, the other was for 20% off any train set over $29.99.

Now, I understand that the first coupon, for the free train, was a mistake.  It was only supposed to be for 4 particular trains and a new coupon was issued, which had a very limited redemption timeframe that ended yesterday.

I did however take the coupon for 20% off a train set to Toys ‘R’ Us on Wednesday this week, and was told I could not use it at my local Toys ‘R’ Us because it was issued by corporate, and they could only accept coupons issued by their particular Toys ‘R’ Us.

When I emailed Toys R Us to complain about this, because the coupn makes no mention that it can only be used in participating stores, I received this response:

I do apologize that these coupons are not from Toys “R” Us. They are fraudulent and not valid. I am sorry for any disappointment this caused you.

If you have other questions, please call 1-800-869-7787.

Sincerely,

Toys “R” Us Guest Relations Team 

And I have to say, that unfortunately, this person doesn’t know what they are talking about.    The coupons are hosted on Toys ‘R’ Us web servers.    I would have accepted if the guest relation person told me that Toys ‘R’ Us posted the coupons in error and that the coupons are not valid, but to tell me that the coupons did not come from Toys ‘R’ Us at all is blatantly incorrect and annoying.

Anyhow, don’t bother wasting the time and gas to go to Toys ‘R’ Us with these coupons, because they will no longer allow you to redeem them.

Until next time,

Lorelei

Thomas the Train Coupons

Great coupons for Thomas the Train. We used one to get a free traincar over the weekend.

Free Thomas the Train value up to $12.99 can be found at:

www5.toysrus.com/Our/tru/prom/2008ThomasRC2/922426.cfm

And 20% off a Thomas the Train railway set for $29.99 or more at:

http://www5.toysrus.com/Our/tru/prom/2008ThomasRC2/922427.cfm

Both are valid through July 12, 2008. Once you click the link, make sure you print the coupon, or else the website may not let you access it again.

Until next time,

Lorelei

Day Out With Thomas and Wedding Shower

Our day out with Thomas at Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad was a lot of fun. Our son had a great time on the 25 minute train ride, and I was surprised at how many kids that seemed to be around his age there were, somewhere around 2 years old, and they all seemed to be very happy riding on the train. We took lots of pictures with Thomas, and took a short video of Thomas leaving the station as well using our digital camera, which our son now insists on watching over and over again on the computer.

The wedding shower I helped out with today at Edgewater went pretty well. We had tons of food, but I will recommend that, while the pavilion at Edgewater was nice for a company picnic in July, it was a bit cold for a wedding shower in mid-May. Something to keep in mind next time I guess.

Time to look for shoes to wear in the wedding.

Until tomorrow,

Lorelei

Thomas the Train Comes to Cleveland

This weekend will be a big weekend for my toddler son. The weekend that I’ve been waiting for two months to come. Notice I say that “I’ve been waiting for”, because my son has no clue what it means that he will meet and ride on Thomas the Train. A couple of weeks ago I bought tickets for the Day Out with Thomas on Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. My son absolutely loves Thomas, he sounds so adorable when saying ,”Thomas the choo-choo twain”.

This is one of those moments I’m becoming addicted to, when his eyes light up and his whole body turns into a big ball of excitement and joy. Whether it’s the hand-me-down train set he couldn’t wait to play with or the plastic baseball bat and ball I bought from the dollar store or riding his tricycle down the street, I just love to see him so happy. And so I am hoping that my husband and I will get to share a little bit of that joy and excitement with our son on Saturday when we head down to Cuyahoga Valley to ride on Thomas “the choo-choo twain.”

Until tomorrow.

Lorelei