Shopping!

So I was visiting Swistle's site and she put up her Christmas list for her kids. Wow, did I love that post. I got all sorts of good ideas from it and immediately put together Charlie's Christmas list and sent it off to the grandparents. But maybe you'd like to see what I want for Charlie, age two and a half, mobility impaired, visually indifferent, rap-music obsessed.

I'm "borrowing" all my photos from Amazon--I'm not getting a kick-back from anyone. Although that would be nice.

First on my list is Charlie's big gift, which will be from me and Dad. We're getting him a Fisher Price Kid Tough DVD player. It's an expensive present, but I consider it the gift that keeps on giving. Mainly, we take a lot of long car trips and if Charlie's happy then Mommy's happy. We've already killed one portable DVD player thanks to drops, so I'm hoping this one will hold up a little longer. For one-hundred and seventeen dollars, it better. I am planning on checking my local Wa1mart, which has supposedly placed it on Clearance.
Charlie won't really get anything else from us. That's why we have grandparents. And aunts and uncles. I send them lists of requested items.

Two items I pulled right off of Swistle's list for her son Henry. I suspect that Swistle spends less time assessing toys for potential therapeutic value, but that's OK--I still like her suggestions.

That's why we've asked for the Crayola Beginnings Color Me a Song. Apparently you color on it and as you color, a song plays. Charlie is not wild about coloring. I don't blame him. It combines head control with vision control and the pay-off is pretty slight--scribbles. He's wild about music, though, and I'm hoping that this little gadget will at the very least give him some practice holding a crayon. Sadly, I suspect that the song will be something child-like and not something by Britney Spears filled with vague sexual innuendo. I'm pretty sure I know which one he'd prefer.
The next item on the list, again stolen from Swistle, is the Leap Frog Tag Junior Book Pal. As far as I can tell, you download "books" into the little frog and then the kids then use the frog to read the story. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Charlie HATES books. He's at the point now where he'll flip the pages really fast just to be done with the thing. I'm hoping a little technology will entice him to spend a little more time with a book. Could be wishful thinking, but hey, that's how I roll.

We're also asking for the Alphapet Explorer and the Fridge Phonic Magnetic Alphabet Set because Charlie's been going through a real love affair with the alphabet. Also with clocks, but I haven't seen any clock toys out there for a child as young as he is.

Additional requests include two new Signing Time videos because Mommy gets tired of watching the same ones over and over again. Charlie's love of Miss Rachel doesn't seem to be fading in the slightest.

The final item on our list is the Infantino colors and textures puzzle. Charlie's teacher is starting to introduce the concept of matching and I thought these would be easier than animals and their tails or something else that involved a lot of visual scrutiny. Charlie reserves the right to ignore any toy that makes him work too hard.

I also found these two items, which we didn't request, but that are pretty cool. There's the Fisher Price Internet Launch Pad, which allows your child to play Fisher Price games online without touching the keyboard. It also prevents them from surfing the net. This would be great for those of you that are working on using the mouse.

There's also the Lumin disk which makes bright, crazy colors in response to noise. I've thought about getting it to stimulate Charlie's speech, but I'm not sure how effective it would be--still, cool especially for kids with limited limb function.

So that's my Charlie shopping. . . now for the rest of my list!