Nieces and nephews are great for so many reasons.
For one thing they are just so darn cute. 
For another they aren't afraid to act goofy. Their imagination never ceases to surprise me. Today Bryanna told me to be a walrus and she would be a giraffe. This was the result: 
A few hours later Carter announced that he was "Tiger Carter".
There are trivial but fun reasons too, like how you feel less guilty about eating chicken nuggets more often.
Or how cool their toys are. Today I went into the living room and happened to see this toy sitting on one of the shelves (it's amazing how the house is filled with toys when your parents have five grandkids):
Admittedly my brother Jeff has never quite grown out of his love for remote-controlled awesomeness so I'm not entirely sure if this is his toy or his sons' but it's definitely a cool toy. I flipped it upside down and underneath you can even switch the wheel alignment to the left or the right. I don't even know if I understand exactly what that would do but it sounds way more advanced than toys I had when I was little. I've especially noticed this recently, as I've been going through old pictures to make a wedding slideshow.
For example:
This is my 3rd birthday. Not only is that an obviously fake phone, it's not even cordless.
This is Bryanna when she was 7 months old. Note the high-tech, REAL cell phone she's playing with. This was her daddy's but the kids have several real cell phones that we don't use anymore and they love to play with them. I think if we gave them a phone with a cord they'd say, "What IS that?"
Here is Kevin opening his presents on his I think 11th birthday (I was 6). In the picture he's opening a new GameBoy. This wasn't one of the flat, colored ones either. It's clunky and gray. I found it in a closet the other day and it was even bigger than I remembered but Kevin and I were both so excited about it. We spent years playing with it. We thought it was amazing technology. 
I loved my toys growing up but some toys now are definitely impressive. I was with Bree in Costco the other day and saw this:
There was also a dinosaur, a cat and a pony. The pony can hold up to something like 200 pounds on its back and has sensors all over its body so it can "respond" to children with life-like movements. It eats carrots and has sensors so it can be "afraid" of the dark by whimpering.
Google "Top toys of 2008" and you get things like this:
According to JCPenny, "Mat-free gaming allows you to break outside the 4-step box with jumps, sweeps and crossovers. Motion-sensing technology lets you see your "virtual" dance feet on the TV screen as you dance."
Or these:
Brookstone says they, "..use a real infrared imager, onboard camera and LCD monocle that lets you see in complete darkness. It has two modes. Close-Proximity Stealth lets you move right up next to your “target” without being detected. Maximum Surveillance lets you see up to 50 feet in complete darkness without being seen."
Frankly that sounds a bit creepy to me but you get the point. Nieces and nephews are definitely fun to hang out with.
With the holidays coming up it's been fun to see all of the toys out there. Leave me a message if you know of any other amazing technological toys!
For another they aren't afraid to act goofy. Their imagination never ceases to surprise me. Today Bryanna told me to be a walrus and she would be a giraffe. This was the result: 
A few hours later Carter announced that he was "Tiger Carter".There are trivial but fun reasons too, like how you feel less guilty about eating chicken nuggets more often.
Or how cool their toys are. Today I went into the living room and happened to see this toy sitting on one of the shelves (it's amazing how the house is filled with toys when your parents have five grandkids):
Admittedly my brother Jeff has never quite grown out of his love for remote-controlled awesomeness so I'm not entirely sure if this is his toy or his sons' but it's definitely a cool toy. I flipped it upside down and underneath you can even switch the wheel alignment to the left or the right. I don't even know if I understand exactly what that would do but it sounds way more advanced than toys I had when I was little. I've especially noticed this recently, as I've been going through old pictures to make a wedding slideshow.For example:
This is my 3rd birthday. Not only is that an obviously fake phone, it's not even cordless.
This is Bryanna when she was 7 months old. Note the high-tech, REAL cell phone she's playing with. This was her daddy's but the kids have several real cell phones that we don't use anymore and they love to play with them. I think if we gave them a phone with a cord they'd say, "What IS that?"
Here is Kevin opening his presents on his I think 11th birthday (I was 6). In the picture he's opening a new GameBoy. This wasn't one of the flat, colored ones either. It's clunky and gray. I found it in a closet the other day and it was even bigger than I remembered but Kevin and I were both so excited about it. We spent years playing with it. We thought it was amazing technology. 
I loved my toys growing up but some toys now are definitely impressive. I was with Bree in Costco the other day and saw this:There was also a dinosaur, a cat and a pony. The pony can hold up to something like 200 pounds on its back and has sensors all over its body so it can "respond" to children with life-like movements. It eats carrots and has sensors so it can be "afraid" of the dark by whimpering.
Google "Top toys of 2008" and you get things like this:
According to JCPenny, "Mat-free gaming allows you to break outside the 4-step box with jumps, sweeps and crossovers. Motion-sensing technology lets you see your "virtual" dance feet on the TV screen as you dance."Or these:
Brookstone says they, "..use a real infrared imager, onboard camera and LCD monocle that lets you see in complete darkness. It has two modes. Close-Proximity Stealth lets you move right up next to your “target” without being detected. Maximum Surveillance lets you see up to 50 feet in complete darkness without being seen."Frankly that sounds a bit creepy to me but you get the point. Nieces and nephews are definitely fun to hang out with.
With the holidays coming up it's been fun to see all of the toys out there. Leave me a message if you know of any other amazing technological toys!
2 comments:
you're funny! maybe you should be the official queen of all toys... i had to laugh at some of your memories of toys from 'our' day... we totally had one of those awful chunky gray phones... and forget the 'play' phones that weren't cordless... remember the terrible ginormous REAL phones that had antenna's that were like two-feet long that our parents use to own...?! lol, so funny... anyway Z & I are total Brookstone nerds, we love that place... tho we usually spend most of our time in their demo massage chairs...=-) anyway as far as gifts for little ones are concerned... i was a terrible nanny this year and let the baby pick out his own gift...we walked up and down the aisles of Target until he found something to grab at and play with, and that's how we took care of that, haha=-)
ok, i always have to edit my comments, its an annoying habit i can't stop doing... so by chunky grey phones i really meant 'gameboy'=-)
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