Haute Mama: WOODn't It be nice?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

WOODn't It be nice?

I've been checking out a lot of blogger mommy gift guides this year, and I'm mostly seeing a whole lot of kid gifts of the wooden, earth friendly, secretly-compliments-mommy's-decor variety. Don't get me wrong, I'm a total sucker for a pricey, organic knit rattle set, but I'm always left wondering if these chicks secretly have any giant plastic Batcaves or Buzz Lightyear Cosmic Blasters laying around. I will admit, the Batcave is currently all wrapped up and under the tree at Casa HMD, along with this ridiculous thing, because I've finally let Max graduate from Playhouse Disney to Nick Jr, which means occasional viewing of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes and waaaaay to many toy commercials, to which, without fail, both Max & Hud will say, "I need one of those." Hook, line and sinker.

That said, I can honestly say that we've been spending most of our time these days with toys of the former variety. The boys are all about blocks and art and puzzles and it makes me realize they do have more fun with toys that don't do most of the thinking for them. So, if you've got some last minute kiddie gifts to buy (it's cool, I won't judge), here is my favorite selection of I'm-a-socially-and-aesthtically-aware-mom-who-doesn't-let-my-kids-watch-Spongebob-or-Batman kind of toys:

Skuut Wooden Balance Bike
Max hates his wobbly training wheels. Problem solved.
$71 - amazon.com

Automoblox Mini S9/T9/C9 3-Pack
the boys LOVE these- you have to keep an eye on the small parts, but you can swap all of the pieces to build custom cars
$27 - amazon.com