It's like Christmas around here

Creed has never had that many toys, but it seemed like a lot of what we had were hulking pieces of plastic and since many of them were hand-me-downs, they weren't working too well either.  Truthfully, I didn't think too much about it until our vacation to California.  Larry's mom had several bins of toys from when Larry was little. It was so neat to see Creed and Larry playing with the toys that Larry used to love.  When we got home I saw things with new eyes and realized that we owned practically no toys that would be worth holding onto for grandkids.  In fact, we didn't own a lot worth holding onto for Creed to play with.

After we talked about it a bit, we decided to use some of my PayPal money from Sycamore Street Press to buy Creed some heirloom quality toys (that we don't have to worry about poisoning our child and most were environmentally friendly too, and as an added bonus most of them are so pretty that it makes constantly picking them up or shuffling around them a little less troublesome).

A wooden front-end loader on clearance at Land of Nod

And a digger

This awesome modern dollhouse also on clearance from Land of Nod.  Creed is drawn to dollhouses at friends' homes, and I was happy to find one so gender neutral.  It was the biggest splurge but it is already worth it for the time Creed and his friends have spent with it.
This Charlie and Lola mini playset because we needed people to live in the house and the Plan Toys people are a little scary looking, plus Creed and I both heart Charlie and Lola (ok, I especially heart Charlie and Lola)
And last but not least, this parking garage made by Melissa and Doug.  I knew this would be a big hit because a store in our neighborhood has one in a little play-corner for kids and Creed always has to be torn away from it.  He loves to run cars down the ramp and move the elevator up and down.

Creed has been very busy since these toys arrived. I'd have a hard time saying which one he likes best.

Before the people arrived, Creed's cars lived it up in the house, watching the flatscreen TV, napping in the beds, raiding the fridge.

He wasn't as excited about sorting through his toys and deciding which ones to pass on, but I think he's decided the new toys are worth it (and I'd like to think our talks about how we're passing his toys on to other kids that don't have as many toys had an affect too, but who knows).

And now life is a little more beautiful around here.