Didn't update you guys on my Christmas shopping adventure. First, Napi pretty much told me what to get, and that's good, because all I could think of were books, clothing and toys. Normally all of those would be great, but over the course of the last 4 months or so I'd already purchased a ton of clothing for him (in addition to the regular flow of clothing coming in from his mom and her parents), and apparently he's got a ton of toys already waiting under the tree. So Napi gave me a list of learning games and toys and off I went. First realization - the days of buying kids toys at the mall are pretty much done. I hit at least three malls in STL and I think I found maybe 3 stores total that really catered to little kids toys. One of those stores was a KB Toys, which is apparently going out of business (a Google search confirmed the company has filed for bankruptcy and is currently throwing going-out-of-business sales at ALL of its stores). So I roll into KB and walk out of there with 1 item. Couldn't believe it. Sure, there were a ton of toy cars, monsters, machines, gizmos, etc., but he didn't need any of that stuff. What I couldn't find were the Leap Frog cartridges and talking/learning toys (like his Blue's Clues dog that sings the alphabet) recommended by Napi. We just happened to talk on the phone while my frustrations in the mall were mounting, and she kindly pointed out that the mall wasn't the place to be looking for this stuff. Target and Walmart were the places to be, and so off I went to visit both. Couple of thoughts:
1. Walmart and Target in the weeks before Christmas is just madness. The weather absolutely sucked the night I finally grabbed everything and both stores were packed!
2. Walmart rules based purely on number of stuff available, but Target isn't far behind and as I discovered, the prices are pretty comparable. One particular item was out of stock at Walmart, but in stock at Target. Frankly, I've never been a fan of Walmart (I worked at a Walmart one summer while in college; the most racist work environment I've ever been in, but that's another story) and given the relatively slim difference in availability and prices, I think I'll stick with Target in the future. That said, Walmart sells ammo...something I still can't find at Target. Can't rule them out entirely based on that...
3. Leap Frog is a monster! You could take care of the kid's birthday and Christmas gifts with Leap Frog stuff alone. I picked up some stuff Napi specifically recommended, but also threw in one additional item that hopefully he doesn't already have. The beauty with the Leap Frog stuff is that he's learning while playing, and in Ami's case, most of the stuff he received involves books, and the kid LOVES books. A good alternative, though, is Vtech (or something close to that). They seemed to have a lot of stuff that pretty much mirrored the big Leap Frog offerings, to include the laptop/cartridge deal). Might look into their stuff a little more for the next big gift day.
4. Talking/learning figures were MIA. Ami' has this Blue's Clues dog that dances while singing the alphabet. Napi recommended more toys like that, but I couldn't find any! All the ones I encountered that night made silly noises or phrases, but nothing close to his BC. I did spot a few Dora dolls and one or two items from that fella Manny (I think that's his name - the handyman kid), but they didn't offer much and I passed on them (and I'm not afraid to say that buying the little youth Dora dolls isn't on my list of favorite things to do). These toy manufacturers better get with the program. With educational costs skyrocketing, toys like the Blue's Clues dog just might land this kid a scholarship to Harvard!
5. Find someone else to wrap it. It took me the better part of 2 hours to wrap all that stuff and the end result didn't look pretty. Considering I've got two shoulders requiring immediate therapy and a lower back that's been out of whack since college, I might have been better off rolling to a mall the next day and finding one of those tables where they wrap gifts for a donation. I would have dropped $50 for that service after my wrapping ordeal that night.
6. Not everything has to be a learning toy. Kids are still kids and there's nothing like a toy that just flat out makes noise and looks cool. Got that covered with the Mr. Green!
7. Waiting till the last minute...sucks! Lesson learned.
