Spuds'R'Us

A few months ago, Helen's Uncle K brought over a couple of boxes of toys. They're moving to a new house later this month, and they've been paring down the toy collection. I haven't had to buy anything new in a quite a while. I just pull something out of the box.

So a few weeks ago, Helen became the proud owner of a family of Potato Heads.



She LOVES these things. One of her favorite games is to point out her ear, her nose, her feet, her belly button, etc. Potato Head is an excellent way to teach the body part game. We've even added "hat" and "shoes" to the repetoire.





However, after a few weeks of playing with the Spud Family, I've figured out why he gave us the whole set. Turns out that a nose and 6 ears and a random pair of cowboy boots can sit on the playroom floor for days at a time before she'll pick them up and play with them. But if I spend an evening cleaning it all up, it's promptly all back out on the floor again the next day. It's Uncle K's sinister way of passing the clutter back to our house instead of his. Way to go, K. Very sneaky.

Just wait until he sees what we got his boys for Christmas. I think it involves, oh, about a MILLION Legos.

Last month the family came over to out house to eat Thanksgiving dinner with us. I asked K., "Won't your boys see these toys and say, 'Hey, that's mine!' " He said, "Nah, they didn't even notice the toys were gone. So they'll just say, 'Hey, we've got one just like that!' "