A little shopping

I had a wonderful day yesterday!  Not too much to do in the office so I took a long lunchy afternoon with my dear friend Brittany and then we went for a little window shopping.  I ended up having very unexpected luck with my shopping.  We stopped by Bank Street Books where I found Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox which I have been dying to get.  It is quite possibly the cutest book ever written and the illustrations are pure gold!

Then I found a big surprise!  A whole display of "Families of the World" learning dvd's.  These are 30 minute, fun, educational films designed for children to teach them how different family cultures and therefore life for kids is around the world.  Usually if places carry them at all, they just have dominant cultures like China, Russia and India but Bank Street Books had all of them which included THAILAND!  So of course, I snatched it up while I could.  It's a wonderful little film that I think will come in handy at a certain age level.  I could imagine it being a great thing to take to school for that 1st-3rd grade level.  

A funny thing happened though that I thought only you guys would truly appreciate.  One of the last shops we went into was this cute, little, eclectic place that has a bit of everything including a small children's nook in the back.  Slowly, Britt and I made our way around the store and finally ended up there.  I immediately noticed a basket of some of the CUTEST soft dolls I've ever seen.  What made them even more irresistible was that they were racially diverse and actually looked authentic!!  The Asian doll looked like a cuddly little Asian baby and not like some upsetting, altered, white baby.  So I was just about to make a mad dash for the cash register, and buy up all the dolls they had for me and my fellow waiting moms (we're all in this together)!  When Brittany says, "Hey babe, these dollies are ummm... anatomically correct."  Sure enough.  Every single one of them was either a very real boy or a very real girl.  Apparently the makers of these dolls can re-create more than just racial features correctly.  So I ended up not buying the gorgeous Asian baby-doll.  It isn't that I have a problem with anatomically correct toys.  I mean I understand they serve a purpose (but honestly it was kind of creepy).  More than that though, I wasn't sure what kind of message it would send if the only doll in our nursery who had a wee-wee was Asian...  I'm pretty sure that's the kind of thing our kid would definitely end up telling his therapist later on down the road!   ;-)

 - Rosemary