We won a dollhouse!

The Simple Living Media network had 25 giveaways at the start of the month. I entered just about every one, and we won a furnished solid wood dollhouse made by Melissa & Doug. It retails for $150! M&D's products are all over Madison-- in the kids' corners of the local coffee shops to the homes of the kids that are in our playgroup. Their toys are intended for open-ended play, and from what I can tell by the toys I've seen around, they are well-made. We have a little wooden puzzle by them that LE has enjoyed gnawing on and clapping the pieces together like symbols. What's great is that Michaels craft store sell some of their collection, which means that you can get them for 40% off with the popular Michaels coupons.

Moving right along...

Like I said, we won the dollhouse! It arrived yesterday, and Mindy, LE, and I put it together today. LE pulled the stairs out of it about three times, but other than that, she's shown close to zero interest in it. It's just as well since it's intended for kids 3+, and she'll be interested in it some day. In fact, I'm almost certain she'll love it some day.

While I was assembling it with Mindy, I was thinking... Oh! I could paint the walls inside! Oh, this bed needs me to make it some pillows and a comforter! What about a little yard outside? Put up a little hanging artwork and... and then I realized. My house needs paint on its walls. I have a few paintings that I have left unfinished. What about our yard? So, maybe it's a good thing she's not quite ready for it because it's probably going to take me a couple of years to get to her dollhouse's "needs."

I want her to like it just today, though. I stood her up and had her hold onto the third story for dear life stability.

She just knocked off the stairs again.

Then she sat down, looked back at me, and thought... wait a minute! I see something much more interesting than an all wood, pepto pink and fuchsia furnished house without dolls...

Alright, so maybe she's not quite ready for the dollhouse yet. I know a few little 2-3 year old kiddos that would love to come play with it, though. For now, LE is content babbling to her sock for 10 minutes at a time (like she was doing when I wrote this post) or waving around a page that she tore out of a book.



{Sorry about the poor lighting. I didn't want her to see me but that didn't work out.}