I managed to come through the Great Plague of 2011 unscathed (which reminds me, I still need to clean the vomit off my black suede boots. Yay). But I have a new fun disorder instead. Temporomandibular joint disorder, more commonly known as TMJ.
Let me explain.
Here’s your brain.
Here’s your brain on TMJ.
According to my dentist, I’ve been clenching my teeth too much (and to be sure, during the family-“fun”-filled holidays, there was plenty of clenching going on) which is causing the joints in my jaw to protest. It’s a dull ache at all times, punctuated by acute pain when I talk, sneeze, chew, or move. The dentist gave me ibuprofen and some muscle relaxers (I took 1/4 of one and slept until 10 the next morning – not such a good plan for regular use) and told me to come back in a month to be fitted for a football-style mouth guard. I somehow skipped the fun of orthodontia as an adolescent, so apparently I get to make up for it now. Woohoo! She also said not to eat anything crunchy, chewy, or hard. I’m not entirely sure what’s left, so I haven’t exactly been following that advice.
TMJ is extremely common and no big deal. But dudes. It hurts. It wakes me up in the middle of the night and often makes me nauseated. And it seems to be getting worse.
All this complaining made me realize just how grateful I am that the Plague skipped me – there’s no way I could open my mouth enough to puke effectively.
So of course, the toy population around here has increased by three bazillion percent because of Christmas, Jonah’s birthday, and Sophie’s birthday all occurring in a 5-week-period. WHEW! We’ve had to make some room for all this crap great stuff, and have done some reorganizing but we still have a few storage issues to resolve. But, said issues aside, I must say I am super-pleased with most of the toys we purchased this year! YAY! I can’t tell you how discouraged I’ve felt (espeically after Joshua’s birthday last year) when I’ve bought toys that have turned out to be CRAP. So I thought I’d share with you what the kids and parents in this house like the best from this year’s haul.
Sophie’s faves:
Dora Fiesta Favorites Kitchen Playset:
This was the “big-ticket item” that Sophie really wanted, and I’m glad we got it. (Of course I got a sweet deal on it, because regular price is a bit steep for me.) The quality is good, Dora says lots of different phrases, the toy food & dishes are a nice quality, and you can change the window scene if you’re feeling creative. It’s just a great pretend toy with the advantage of having the voice & image of Dora, whom Sophie adores. Jonah absolutely LOVES playing with this also, so BONUS!
Learning Resources Pretend & Play School Set:
This set is SO much fun! I had my mom get this for Sophie because I just really wanted her to have it and I knew she would love it. What I didn’t count on was that Joshua would love it too and that they would love playing it together. Double BONUS! Those two have had so much fun with it. It comes with a school bell, map, dry-erase calendar and board, pointer for the teacher, stickers, worksheets, pencils, hall passes, all kinds of great supplies. The kids have been pretending up a STORM with this thing, and of course I’ve gotten into the act too. It also folds up so nicely for storage or to transport it somewhere – and is very sturdy! It is just a great set. I highly recommend it!
Joshua:
Transformers Kre-O sets by Hasbro:
this pic is from my husband's Facebook profile. Because he's a Transformers NERD!
Confession: I picked these toys out to buy for Joshua because I also knew how much my hubby loved Transformers as a kid. And they have had SO MUCH FUN building them together. Bobby has just been so impressed with the quality of the Kre-O. I hunted down the big Optimus Prime set when it was on a good sale, and took advantage of sales and coupons both in-store and online on some of the other sets. We like these so much that Joshua bought another one with his own Christmas money, and we bought another one for his birthday which is coming up in February (shh, don’t tell!) These bricks work with lego, which is great if you already have those, but they are great in their own right. Bobby and Joshua had a lot of fun and bonding time building and playing with these over the holiday! We will definitely be buying these for awhile I am sure.
Mario Kart K’nex:
Let me first just say that I was super, super worried about spending any $$ on this because up until now, ever Mario toy I’ve bought has been CRAP. But, I crossed my fingers that the respected K’nex brand would not produce crap, and it was a good gamble, because this is AWESOME! The downside is that it is also giant and in my living room, but we will put it away eventually. 🙂 We’re just having too much fun with it right now. The tracks are not hard to put together so it’s no problem to get them back out to play. The cars are FAST and they really stay on the track (of course you CAN build it so that they fly off or crash if you want to). The cars do eat up batteries somewhat but we’ve been playing with them non-stop so that’s not surprising to me. Overall, I am very impressed. The cars work GREAT, are easy to build, the track is nice quality, it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s customizable, and it was a good investment. Once again, I took advantage of a sale and already got Joshua another set of these for his birthday (again with the SHH!)
Jonah:
Playskool Poppin Park Elefun Busy Ball Bopper:
Technically I got this for review, full disclosure, but I have included it as Jonah’s favorite Christmas toy because it’s super-cool and definitely the top of all his toys! It’s my favorite as a parent as well! It’s got fun music, it works GREAT, Jonah figured out how to work it instantly and he adores it. He dances to the music as he plays, it’s pretty much adorable. The big kids like playing it with him as well. I love everything about this toy. I would buy one ten times over. If you know a baby who has a birthday coming up, buy them this!! All Jonah’s boring parents got him were socks and onesies, so thanks Playskool, for this one!
Well, there’s our favorite Christmas toy round-up! All of them were paid for with our own hard-earned money or were given by family except for the Elefun toy. What toys are most glad that your kiddos received for Christmas?
I’ve never been one to make New Year’s Resolutions. This is mostly because I have zero faith in my ability to keep them! So, I’m not making any this year either. But there are some things I want to, how shall I say, adjust for 2012.
You see, I didn’t enjoy 2011 all that much on the whole. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great, either. Just writing that makes me feel horrible ungrateful and sinful, because I have SO MUCH to be thankful for and so many blessings in my life. Seriously. My un-enjoyment of 2011 had nothing to do with what I didn’t have. It had to do with what I had on my plate, and with how I handled it.
Having a new baby (third child), and having a child who had turned up developmentally delayed was way too much for me. 2011 was pretty much all about workworkworkworkwork for me. Take care of the constant needs of an infant while working on and being hypervigilant about getting Sophie over her delays. Also I spent the first several month of Jonah’s life battling the postpartum injury to my left hand which slowed me down and left me in constant pain. Add to this financial stress that accompanied the therapies and evaluations for Sophie (co-pays are a b!tch when you have weekly appointments. Especially when you have more than one weekly appointment. And don’tgetmestarted on our insurance only covering 20 visits of therapy per year for a child who needs 50 visits per year…) and the fact that we spent our life savings on our van…by the time summer came around and I had all three kids underfoot all day, still running around to appointments all the time, I was living my life in a constant state of anxiety and panic.
And I was doing my best. I handled it. I don’t think, all that well. And yet. We made it through. Jonah is a thriving one-year-old, Sophie is about all caught up and is kicking butt in school, in therapy, and on all her testing, and Joshua is doing awesome in 2nd grade, and swimming lessons, and it seems so far has retained only *slight* emotional scarring from having an angry mommy all summer.
So 2011. You kicked my butt. I was not even close to being a worthy opponent for you. I am not sad to see you go!
2012:It’s nice to meet you. I am already looking forward to how much better I am going to handle you than I did your predecessor! Mostly because my known circumstances are just plain going to be easier this year, but hopefully because I’ve grown and learned some things in the past year as well. I am not dumb enough to assume you won’t throw me any curveballs, but I’m optimistic enough to think I can knock them out of the park this time.
Happy New Year everyone! What are your hopes for 2012?
