I have hundreds (literally) of Disney’s Cars in my house. They’re sharp. They’re loud. They break. And my older son loves them.
When I read Cookie Magazine and browse design blogs, I drool over uncluttered toy rooms full of handcrafted wooden toys that aren’t branded with obnoxious cartoon characters.
That’s why, when I met Amy Turn Sharp from Little Alouette and BlogHer ’09, I was thrilled to hear that she and her husband own a handmade wooden toy shop. The week I got home, I hopped onto their Etsy shop and purchased one for my younger son.
“What’s that?” my mom asked, when she saw him gnawing on his smooth wooden square.
I was happy to tell her that it was a teething toy. A wooden teething toy! It’s nice-looking! Ahh! (I’m insanely enthusiastic about this thing.)
In the Loop divx So far my son only has one tooth, but he cut that tooth on a wooden teething toy and I think that’s pretty cool. I love that the toys are finished with certified organic flax seed oil. No funky chemicals.
You have to check out some of the cute shapes they carry. Right now, I’m in love with the half-moon and star combo. The butterfly teether is also adorable. Several of the shop’s items have free shopping right now.
My son has puked on his teether a few times, and it washes up just fine in a little bit of dish soap and hot water.
A Woman’s Rage divx I may not have an uncluttered room full of heirloom toys, but I do have one adorable, smooth wooden teether. And I’m pretty psyched about it.
(For Christmas, I have my eye on the pirate ship playset. Look how cute it is!)
Free Stuff Alert
Brick Lane movie download Win a wooden toy from Little Aloutte! To enter you MUST:
- Comment below with something that caught your eye from the Little Aloutte shop.
For extra, optional entries you can:
- Follow Little Aloutte on Twitter. Comment to let us know you did!
- Tweet and/or blog about this giveaway. Leave a separate message with the link to your Tweet or the permalink.
- Tell us what toy annoys you the most at your house or someone else’s house?
Contest is open to US and CANADA. You must leave a valid email address to enter. Contest ends October 7, 2009 at 12 p.m. Eastern. A total of four entries are possible. Your entries must follow the rules as stated above or your post will be deleted.
About the author: Maria is surrounded by boys. She gets all aflutter when she finds good deals, new episodes of Gossip Girl, and big bold bottles of red wine. Read more from this author.
Follow Us on Twitter
I like the Organic RATTLE The Handle Wooden Maple Waldorf Style Wood Baby Rattle Teether. Their toys & teethers are lovely and so reasonably priced! Hmm, Christmas presents!
I blogged here: http://emilyisland.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-know-its-going-to-be-good-day-when.html
My friends have this fire station thing for their son… it’s plastic, huge, and makes all kinds of sounds and lights up. And apparently it randomly switches itself on at odd times, so they are occasionally freaked out by tiny, tinny firemen shouting “FIRE!”. Personally, I would ‘lose’ those batteries so fast…
I like the tractor teething toy for my little boy.
I like the The CALLA B butterfly
Following Little Aloutte on Twitter
I hate all the noise making toys my friends kids have. They make them play at once and it makes me want to scream.
I love them all – I think the oval would be easy for my almost five-month-old to hold but the rhino and tree are so cute.
Following LittleAlouette on Twitter!
I love the hippo…so cute!
My least favorite toy is also a great idea since it’s recycled – a plastic water bottle filled with coins.
The Barnyard Farm Animal Play Set is adorable.
Toy drums annoy me more than anything else!
I really like the safari set! So cute!
Chintzy plastic toys that have no educational or creative value annoy me the most!
I love the teething tree. Such a cute shape.
Most annoying toy? Easily this loud singing bear with a hard plastic stomach that sings, “I am a bear, a hungry bear, a happy bear, a sleepy bear. I am a bear, a friendly bear, oh won’t you PLAY WITH MEEE?”
Just transcribing makes me die a little inside.
I like the Wee Tractor Wood Teething Toy.
I can not stand the big plastic fisher price toys that make way to much noise.
I really like the The Maple Wood Pyramid Stacking baby and toddler Toy. I like the idea of staking plus the pieces could be played with in many other ways too.
I really like the Five Lovely Pieces Safari Block Set.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
An old raggedy stuffed toy would bother me the most. Thank goodness we don’t have one at our house.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I liked the safari block set.
hmm the toy that has annoyed me the most, that’s hard. I would say the voice recorder that morphs the voice. why you say? Between the ages of 9 and 13 my older son would try to record noises that when morphed sounded like farts and then would play them over and over again at varying volumes for hours on end.
I loved the Dinosaur Teething Free Play Maple Wood Pretend Baby Toddler toy
The Calla B Butterfly is cute!
battlekitty at gmail dot com
My kids have a really noisy plastic guitar that drives me so crazy I hide it from them most of the time :D
battlekitty at gmail dot com
I follow her (and you) on Twitter. I’m thecatenelson
I love the ninja set. Such a unique wooden toy!
I like the Rattle Baby teether/rattle made from their local maple wood.
Toys with electronic noises are annoying. Better that a child use his or her imagination to provide sounds while playing.
I LOVE the lil lark teether. Such a sweet and simple design.
I am following Little Alouette on twitter
@gristlequeen
I love the skeleton teether!
I follow on twitter, @erincharp
The most annoying toy in our house is this plastic helicopter. It plays a really loud song, and if you so much as step near it, it goes off… usually when the kids are sleeping!
I love Amy’s blog and her shop. We tend to have wooden toys and handmade stuff, so these toys would be right at home. I especially like the Dinosaur Teething Free Play Maple Wood Pretend Baby Toddler Toy Block Set.
I’m following them on Twitter under @katydidandkid
The most annoying toy in our house is this stupid Yo Gabba Gabba guitar that my brother gave my son for his birthday. It’s good for distracting my son when I need to take a shower, but after that it gets stashed away. It’s so loud and irritating!
Oooo… I think my favorite is the pirate ship set, but since you already posted about that one, I’ll mention the barn set (VERY sad that the little red barn doesn’t come with it!) and the safari set.
The most annoying toy we have (so far) is the bug on Baby H’s infant chair. You pull it and it plays a short rendition of “If you’re Happy and you know it, clap your hands!”
Over, and over, and over.
Does it play ANYTHING else? NO. No, it does not.
I like the rattle.
The Barnyard Farm is so cute!!
So many choices! I love The Holey teether but the hippo rattle is adorable too!
I am annoyed by a few toys at our house and at others’ houses – generally the loud, electronic ones that sing constantly! They’re annoying enough on their quietest setting, but they always invariably get switched to the loud setting!
The RATTLE BABY locally sourced maple wood Teething Toy RATTLE tm ONE COOL WOOD TEETHER looks really nice and I think all my kids would enjoy it
I really liked reading the blog; it was a haiku compared a novel of the other blogs I read. (I’ll never give up my novels, but this was crisp and refreshing). And I loved the rattle!
The Rattle Grip Stick `caught my eye!
I follow Little Aloutte on Twitter.
Tweeted ~ http://twitter.com/susanlanai/status/4518861913
I think an annoying toy is anything that constantly talks with no one there!
I like the holey.
I would like one of each thing they sell please. I do love the stacking pyramid: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31833196
I’m following on twitter.
Toys that make lots of noise annoy me. Thankfully we don’t have too many, although that is all my mother-in-law seems to buy.
I love the The Maple Wood Pyramid Stacking baby and toddler Toy- A wonderful timeless stacker- organic gifting
i follow littlealouette on twitter
coccinellegreen
tweeted at
http://twitter.com/CoccinelleGreen/status/4530421342
All the big plastic toys annoy me so much because each time I tell me do a child really needs such a big amount of plastic to be happy???
I tweeted it here: http://twitter.com/thecatenelson/status/4550970517
love the Scaredy Kat!
thanks!
i’m following on twitter, I’m amym_brown
thanks!
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/amym_brown/status/4551066881
I actually like the noisy toys (I think I must be the only one!) but I don’t love the plastic.
These are beautiful toys you make, best of luck to you.
The little Moon and Star Combo teether caught my eye! What a sweet pair for my twin girls!
I love the set of keys.
The Maple Wood Oval Rattle Baby Teething Toy is so nice and simple.
I hate this rattle with a bell that Charlotte is constantly throwing out of her crib so that I stumble on it when I get up to change her at night, and then the bell rings and wakes my husband up, too…
I like the Maple Wood Egg Shaker Musical Wooden Teether Toy.
I love the Harper the Hippo Maple Wood Infant Baby Teether rattle (found here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31859633)
A friend’s son has this toy that anytime you push a button it makes noise for about 5 minutes…. there’s no buttons to push to stop it… it just keeps going.
I love Parker the Pig. :)
i like the boomerang rattle
i follow @littlealouette (@erinlitt)
tweeted http://twitter.com/erinlitt/status/4635542258
i despise all battery-eating toys. i am tooooo cheap to buy AA batteries in bulk at Costco!
Like the The Ohio Maple Safari Set.
i LOVE the butterfly teether!! my daughter, who is 7 months old, would lvoe it!
what annoys me at MY house is clutter!! with 5 kids and husband, we CANNOT habe clutter! it can get out of hand very quickly!
now following on twitter! my name is mrsschepp!
twittered about this! http://twitter.com/mrsschepp
I like the T.REX wood Teether
i follow littlealouette (@thelightsgodown)
i tweeted http://twitter.com/thelightsgodown/status/4651346594
I don’t have any really annoying toys yet. but I do wish my son could clean his toys up!
I like the maple pyramid and pear teethers.
michloves80s at gmail dot com
I dislike the dog that requires batteries and does not stop with his fake little bark!
Chunky Teether Toy Maple Wood Parker the Pig Baby Toy Teething Figure caught my eye.
I Follow Little Aloutte on Twitter
username is iamcherdon
tweet
http://twitter.com/iamcherdon/status/4700541644
I had a shape sorter toy for my granddaughter and it played the same stupid song over and over and the on/off switch was on the bottom but it didn’t work and after a few weeks of listening to it, I got rid of it. Almost drove me insane LOL.
i like the safari block set