Shape Sorter
I took Katherine’s wooden shape sorter puzzle out of the closet this past weekend. We’ve played with it on and off. Tonight, I encouraged her to put the pieces back, and we played with the puzzle three times. The first time, I took the pieces out and she took a few minutes to finish trying a couple of the pieces in different places. The second time, she pulled the pieces out herself, flinging them to the side – she then did the puzzle a bit faster. The third time, she was very sure of herself, putting each piece exactly where it belonged. The hardest part was the diamond, where she had to rotate it to make it fit.
Packing Herself
We’re planning to take Katherine to Canada, and so we started to pack tonight. I pulled out the biggest suitcase we have, and put it in her room. I started to pull out items and put them next to the suitcase. I turned around and found Katherine sitting in the suitcase with all her belongings in too. She loved watching me fill the other zippered side of the case and she tugged at the zipper as I piled more stuff in it. After we finished packing for the night, we read her books. I told her that if she wanted to take her silky blanket that she should put it on her suitcase. She stood up, toddled over to the suitcase and put the blanket on the suitcase. She then lifted Lambey as if to say “should I put Lambey on the suitcase too?” I reassured her that Lambey didn’t need to be packed, because it would travel with us in the car. She lifted her zebra, as if to say “I want to bring him too” and then put it on the suitcase.
Lambey
For those of you familiar with Lambey, you’re probably well aware that we’ve been trying to find a Lambey backup for months. We’ve looked in every single toy store in the area. I called the manufacturer (Amela) but they asked for a SKU number to reorder. No web reseller carries Lambey; even after we searched every possible key word. We even considered putting a picture of Lambey on eBay to see if anyone had one we could buy (can you say desperation?). There only seemed to be only one Lambey supplier in Seattle, but the gift shop was under renovation – expected to reopen next month. We’ve had our fingers crossed that we never lose Lambey, and Lambey never leaves the house.
This past weekend we found a store that carries Amela. We couldn’t believe our luck. Steve was trying out a new mountain bike; Katherine and I walked around the shopping mall and into a gift shop. On a whim, we looked at the stuffed toy section, and I was overjoyed to find several Amela toys. It turns out that an order of Lambeys is on their way next month and we’re on the call list when they arrive. In the interim, we got another Amela toy – this time an elephant also with long legs and very soft plush. Steve thinks we should buy 3-4 Lambeys “just in case.” ๐ The store owner explained that Amela is a premium brand and so not a lot of stores carry it – as we well know!!