Strange Machines

The very talented MamaMadeThem is a single mom who admirably left her job to spend more time with her son and makes these amazing toys for a living.

Here’s a wonderful opportunity to buy her beautiful safe open-ended toys for your child.

Everything except the Little Kitchen, Sun House, Oak Bus, Hammer and Nails, Tools and Toolbox is 20% off! The coupon code is JANUARY.

Go visit her store already: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MamaMadeThem

Playing with truck toys is something that many kids enjoy in all different types of environments. Whether it is on carpet, tile, ceramic floor, cement, grass, sand or dirt, a favorite toy truck can be put to the test with its function only limited by a child’s imagination. For this reason, it is important to obtain a product that is durable, made from quality materials and is something that appeals to a kid.

Different children like different truck toys, but there are certain trucks that tend to be more popular than others, such as:

• Dump trucks
• Garbage trucks
• Cement trucks
• Crane trucks
• Tractor trailers

The reason why the above mentioned often receive the most attention is because they have unique parts that move. After all, even though a solid truck without moveable parts can be a lot of fun to play with, a vehicle that features an extendable crane, a turning cement mixer, detachable pieces or a place to store special objects is far more entertaining and more likely to provide unlimited fun.

Keep an open mind when you are searching for truck toys and remember that there are many diverse options available, and not all are only for the purpose of playing. There are also plenty of fascinating models in the form of diecasts or sold in building kits, which may be perfect for a truck enthusiast and collector.

Diecast trucks can be a lot of fun to collect. For many years, people of all different ages have taken an interest in collecting these models for various personal reasons. For some, the appeal is one born from nostalgia; they remember having and playing with these toys when they were younger. Others like having replicas of vehicles they wish they owned or admired, and some like to collect for the purpose of auctioning them off.

Regardless of your reasons, if it interests you to obtain diecast trucks, you will quickly discover that there are plenty of different models to choose from. You will also find that they range in sizes, as well as color and design. Thus, there are plenty of trucks for you to choose from, including transport trucks, dump trucks, and much more.

Something else for you to think about when you are considering diecast trucks is whether or not moving parts matters to you. If you want a model where parts move, such as doors that can open and close, a steering wheel that spins, hoods that open, you’ll find that the larger the toy, the more intricate the detail.
Thus, it’s a good idea to carefully think about the type of diecast trucks you want to add to your collection because they are not all the same.

Upcycled this old tee my son grew out of into a cute playmat!

My little boy writes me a note like this every day. I feel so blessed!

I used to be a very different person before I had my children. I loved horror movies, junk food, place without children, and sleeping.

Okay, I still love to sleep but I realise that my personal time is more important to my mental well-being than sleep.

I have cut out junk food from my diet and have turned organic.

And most tellingly, I actually feel nausea when I watch horror movies. This, from a woman who found humour and irony in horror.

I try very hard to explain the last because it perplexes me the most. I have the strongest stomach and yet motherhood ha turned me into a softy who prefers comedy, romance, and adventure.

The latest flick I caught, Piranha 3D was testament to that. I feel nothing but nausea, even at this humorous gory movie.

And with that I believe I have laid to rest the horror me, the girl who loved horror because it mocked death, laughed at death, made fun of it – at the end of every horror movie you tell yourself, hey I am still here. I am alive.

But not so with dramas and comedies or even adventures. They either hit close to home or reflect something simply unattainable that just depresses the hell out of me in the end.

Horror used to just entertain as a movie or be simply an outlet for venting my frustrations in writing. Now to me it is just gross and keeps me up at night.

So now I join you, Mom, in my distaste for campy horror movies, the ones I used to enjoy (yes, Dead Alive, I am talking about you). My sister in law will never hear me joke about horror movies being comedies anymore. And my dear brother will have to watch them on his own now.

For I have changed. Maybe through those hormones that have turned my body into a milk-making machine and rewired my brain to find those 2 munchkins I gave birth to unbelievably cute.

Motherhood has purged me of my dark side. That is the only explanation. I actually wear pink now. Shh…

So farewell to my beloved zombies and vampires (I’ll still watch Breaking Dawn and Buffy though) and things that bump in the night but are not real yet no longer entertain me. We had a good 30 years.

And hello comedies!

I finally found an ecofriendly safe paint for the kids! By chance I met the owner of Mulberry Paints at Isetan where she was selling her products and we had a good chat. Her paints are plant-based and tested extensively for safety.

We broke out the kits today. The kids loved it!

Kitten is now busy with cooking and marketing. She carries her basket and picks up items and pops them inside. She also loves to play with the pots and pans I bought Wolf before and I’ve seen her standing with a pan pretending to cook.

So what’s a Momma gonna do? Make her a playset of course.

I cut the pieces out but did not sew them together. Just put the pan on the black felt and cook!

Made an egg sunny side up for them to cook. More on the way!

Wolf had been rather enamoured by Tiny Kitty, the super cute tiny Tiddlywinks kitten who came into our lives just a week or two ago.

She is sweet and pink and just 6″ tall, with the sweetest face and a lovely smile. She is girliness epitomized in a cute stuffed kitty. (Wolf always chases the girl at the playground dressed in pink!)

Wolf speaks to her in the sweetest voice. He puts her pink blankie over her. He puts her pillow under her little head. His best friend Baby Liopleurodon is her best friend. Last night, I even overheard him tell Mama Kitty, “Your daughter is so pretty!”

Anyway, his best gift to Tiny Kitty was to reunite her with her Daddy, William, who had been with us for a while now.

As the story goes, William lost his baby mama Mama Kitty and Tiny as travelled together from the United States. Somehow the mother and daughter found their way home. Could there be a lost brother too? The plot thickens.

Here is a recent pic of the happy family:

It is sometimes difficult to pin down an exact thought until you see it. Reading Eli Gerzon’s story, I realized how I am educating my children is really worldschooling. We live, we learn. Not at home. But in the world.

We are hardly ever at home. I find myself teaching the children more when we are out, often in the car and while sitting down to eat something, or on the run. A typical day goes like this:

We get up together, wash up, put the clothes in the laundry basket, diapers in the bin, get dressed, have a light breakfast, and then go out for lunch. In the car, the kids read their books, or we practice counting by each spotting a blue car and tagging it.

At lunch, Wolf builds a Lego fort to protect his Lego humans against an onslaught of Safari Ltd dinosaurs or imagines some other scenario. He orders his own food. Cuts his own broccoli. He draws pictures of his family over dessert or plays Animal Kaiser (teaches him math!) with his Grandpa or Godpa. He asks for the bill politely. Sometimes he even signs for it.

While shopping, sometimes I tell him he can pick out a safe toy under $10. He has to read the price tags and tell me whether it is more than or less than $10. If he is not sure, he asks me. He can only buy well-made safe toys. No PVC. He knows this and accepts when I tell him it won’t last, it is unsafe, or it is made of PVC. When I pay for it, he tells the cashier we don’t need a bag, and thanks him or her for ringing up his toy.

Kitten naps. Sometimes.

At the supermarket, he rides in the cart and picks his own fruits and especially his own broccoli. He was taught how to choose the freshest and picks them himself. He chooses super foods because they make his body run well (and grow big and strong like a liopleurodon). He asks the lady at the weighing counter if how she is and if she has had lunch. She smiles at him and weighs his broccoli. He tells her, thank you and have a good day! She says, you too! At the payment counter, he helps to load the groceries, and thanks the cashier.

I’ve been giving him $2 to buy his Grandpa a curry puff and he goes by himself, with me about 5 metres away watching and ordering my own drink. The lady selling curry puffs is still amused at this 4 year old asking her, “May I have a curry puff for my Gong Gong please?” It has been a few months. We rest in the car and I share my drink with him. Kitten hears all and sees all. Sometimes she dozes now.

At home, we pack away the groceries, wash up, and I rest on the couch while the children play. Some days he paints, other days he plays with magnets (on the table, away from Kitten), or an activity book, or stickers, or if Kitten sleeps, we look through a huge book on the Universe or dinosaurs.

I break out the Ikea tunnel and tent, throw in some pillows and stuffed toys, and Wolf and Kitten go wild with some imaginary game. I rest, or sew something, or read my news.

Daddy comes home and we do dinner then have family time. Bath time. Then bed time when we play games with stuffed animals. Sometimes hide and seek, sometimes hide and seek with the stuffed animals, other times we reenact Three Little Pigs, except this time it is Three Little Cats and 2 Liopleurodons. Bedtime and lights out, and another day is done. It is always lovely to cuddle them at night.