Hank’s school had an auction benefit a little while ago, and I asked some Internet friends for donations. As a thank you to the folks who donated, I thought I’d do some giveaways here as well.
Wee Wood of the Month Club from Little Alouette
These pretty wooden toys and teethers feel good in the hand, encourage imaginative play, and aren’t finished with paint or varnish that will make your baby ill. Bonus. Some toys are unfinished, others finished only with a light coat of organic flax seed oil, so all the toys are utterly chewable.
Strongman from Dria Peterson
Dria Peterson’s handmade strongman protects your little one from nightmares, and encourages him or her to hang out with carnies.
Happy Trails Felt Doll Journal from Suzy Ultman
If you kept a journal as a kid, you know the pleasure of paging back through your gift wishlists, childhood heartbreaks, and lemonade stand earnings. This diary doesn’t have a lock, which saves parents the trouble of picking it.
Hand-Knit Pony from Woolies
This tiny hand-knit pony is just right for chubby little fists. Twice the appeal of My Little Pony, with none of the offgassing.
Play Scarves from Birch Leaf Designs
Simple play scarves to use as capes, forts, or baby doll blankets.
A Leaf Puzzle from Just Hatched
This handmade wooden puzzle has the names of the tree behind each corresponding leaf. Yeah. Your kid is gonna be smarter than you.
Letter Flashcards from Pollywog Learning Products
Tactile letter flashcards are made to help little ones trace the letters with their fingers. The letters are fashioned from sandpaper with a starting-point dot on each. Literacy! Hells yes.
Please leave a comment with your favorite childhood memory to enter, and please only enter once. I’ll announce the winner on Monday. Tune in next week for a science toys giveaway, and big thanks to all the artists and merchants for their donations.
Mighty Girl 
spending the summer at my grandfather’s house in the country – we would go swimming in the lake everyday!
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory – riding on the back of the haywagon at my grandma’s farm, swinging my legs back and forth, chewing on a piece of timothy grass, on the way out to “do” hay. [seriously, this was my life…]
[p.s. we have the hippo rattle/teether from Little Alouette (which is located in our town of Columbus OH), and our baby LOVES it. It definitely is a good alternative to him chewing on the coffee table. And yes, he did that.]
LikeLike
Every single night (and most days) my little girl ask me to tell her stories about when I was little. Which has forced me to remember stories about when I was little. My favorite was hanging my doll clothes out on the rack my dad made for me. We may have to get a little clothes rack this year.
Also, science toys!
LikeLike
oh, in september our wee little will be here, and i’d love to gift these to him/her!
my favorite childhood memory? holding my brother for the first time. i was twelve and he was born 2 months premature. i had to wait a month to hold him, and i’ll NEVER forget it!
LikeLike
Playing bike-tag in my hometown with my sister and cousins. Population 350:)
LikeLike
I have very fond memories of painting in grandma’s kitchen.
LikeLike
Sunday night picnics at the lakehouse
LikeLike
Oooh – love this! Fourth of July fireworks as seen from my grandparents’ dock. This was a tradition until I was in my 30s and I miss it.
LikeLike
My babysitter let me choose one vegetable of my very own to plant in her garden one summer. The amount of pride I felt tending to my Swiss Chard was unbeatable.
LikeLike
My favourite childhood memory is that of my father play-massaging my back after bath. He would spray a little fresh kiddie cologne and do light clapping and topping on my back, arms and legs. I can relive the feeling of cleanliness, freshness and smelling great.
LikeLike
Grandpa pushing me on the giant swing hung from a tree in the woods behind their house, going so high he’d run underneath as he pushed. Nothing in the world feels quite like that.
LikeLike
Playing made up games with my brothers in our backyard and making elaborate sand castle/water trails in our huge sand box.
LikeLike
My grandparents lived on an acre of land in the country, in an old farmhouse with an apple orchard. My siblings and cousins and I used to creep into the neighbouring farmer’s field and create pathways and forts for ourselves in the long grasses (or whatever was growing – I’ve never been particularly bucolic), well hidden from adult eyes. Just as well we were hidden, I’m not sure what the farmer must have thought about his field being crushed down to the ground.
LikeLike
My favorite ever? That’s way too hard. I’ll just pick one of my faves to share.
I have a very vivid memory of going to see fireworks with my family when I was really young. I was laying on my Dad’s lap and watching the explosions and thinking “Life is really great!” I was so young but so content.
LikeLike
I used to hide in my grandmothers drained pond from my brother and cousins so I could read.
LikeLike
One great memory is making mud pies in our side yard…being the girly girl I am now, I don’t know how I stood being covered in muck but it was a blast!!
LikeLike
My first memory: standing on the stairs in my pjs and pink robe, listening to my parents and brother make breakfast in the kitchen. The sunlight was warm, their laughter was sweet and I remember feeling very happy…
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory is summer Saturdays when I was a kid — pancakes for breakfast, then with my whole family, then home for hamburgers on the grill. Love!
LikeLike
Oh everything is so gorgeous, but in particular I LOVE the leaf puzzle, it’s beautiful.
My favourite childhood memory would be hanging out with my siblings and singing along to our favourite movies – The Sound of Music and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Thanks for the chance!
LikeLike
My best memories are of running wild with my cousins on my grandfather’s sheep farm. We had the run of the place during summer weekends: 50 acres in which to bury pirate treasures (and make maps for younger cousins to unearth them), feed lambs, climb trees, re-enact fairy tales, collect bugs, and build forts. I still love the musty, sweet smell of old barns.
LikeLike
My mom used to set aside special time every night for us to snuggle on the love-seat together. We weren’t a particularly *huggy* family, so this affection was very special and I’m pretty sure it taught me how to be affectionate today! Special place in my heart for this one!
LikeLike
My dad used to make dandelion butter with me, which involved stirring dandelions in a tin cup until it turned to butter. (It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized a distraction and slight of hand were part of the magic.)
LikeLike
(Epic swims.)
LikeLike
Oh, wow. That is beautiful stuff. My soon-to-be baby would be so lucky!
When I was a kid, we were never allowed to touch the Christmas presents until the grown-ups woke up, but we could raid our stockings as soon as we woke up. I have a very vivid memory with my brother in the room we stayed in at my grandparents’ house. We were sitting on the twin beds and ours was the only light on in the whole house (maybe because it was 3:00 am!) and we were playing with the unbelievable goodies from Santa- little trinkets like those wooden paddles with the rubber balls attached.
LikeLike
My favorite memory is hand drawing and coloring paper doll clothes for my little sister. We would spend hours pouring through the JCPenney’s catalog so that she could choose outfits for me to recreate.
LikeLike
my siblings and i used to put concerts on for my parents. a favorite song was “Addicted to Love” by robert palmer, lol
LikeLike
Waiting for the ice cream man on a hot summer day!
LikeLike
What wonderful toys!
I can’t possibly pick an all-time favorite, but the first memory that came to mind was having a breakfast of brownies and decaf coffee from a Thermos on the beach with my parents and little sister.
LikeLike
Hanging out with my grandparents at their farm. They both passed away this year, so those memories are especially poignant for me now.
LikeLike
I loved making little homes and hideways in any small patch of trees or bushes I could find. Loved pretending I lived in the woods. 🙂
LikeLike
Easy. I grew up in Southern California, and by 6th grade had made it a habit of getting “sick”, needing to go to the nurse’s office, and having my grandpa come and get me and take me home. My favorite memory was listening through the heavy wooden door of the bedroom to my grandpa calmly explain to my mom that yes, he had in fact picked me up again and that yes, I was sick. Because, as he put it “Anyone as smart as my girl would get sick of listening to the teachers explain the same thing over and over to those stupid kids”. Greatest man who ever walked the earth, and I’m a better person for having had him as my main male role model. Shit. Now I’m crying. I’ll always be my grandpa’s girl.
LikeLike
Climbing trees anywhere and everywhere was a favorite childhood activity.
LikeLike
Eating guavas off the bush in the backyard with my Dad in the house I grew up in.
LikeLike
One of my favorite childhood memories comes when I was about 6. I tried to convince my mom that I knew spanish. I was talking total jibberish, but since SHE didn’t speak spanish, I didn’t understand how she knew I wasn’t!
LikeLike
My favourite memory was thinking Michael Jackson from his thriller video lived in my furnace room. I was always scared to turn off the light which was at the bottom of the basement stairs.
LikeLike
Picking wild, overgrown raspberries with my brother at a farm my family managed. Mosquitos & scratches everywhere, but it’s such a vivid memory, I love it.
LikeLike
Alice, who is 26 weeks in womb, says she really likes the pony. Well, she kicked a lot, anyway. I took it as a positive sign.
My favorite childhood memory… I was one and a half and my mom was having my brother soon, so they gave me a cabbage patch doll. Her name is Frances Teresa, and she is sitting on my dresser at home. I had to sew her poor arms back on, and her legs too, she was very much a loved toy. I distinctly remember changing her diaper, and then going and climbing up my mom’s dresser (which I’ve just realized is the same dresser I now use!) to get another diaper for her.
LikeLike
Oh, wow, what a giveaway! My favorite childhood memory is sitting in a big dark performance hall listening to an orchestra playing with my dad and younger sister. We weren’t rich fancy society types at all but music was really important in our family and for years, my parents kept season tickets to the Sunday matinee of the symphony orchestra in our city for us to go experience a bit of the wide beautiful world that’s out there.
LikeLike
My favorite childhood memory is being gathered around my grandparents’ player piano, with all my extended family, have big sing alongs of classic old songs. An early version of karaoke!
LikeLike
Catching fireflies in the summer with my brothers. I can remember it like I’m there…..
LikeLike
I remember playing in a room with a brass bed and red curtains, and watching through the window as a train went by.
LikeLike
That leaf puzzle in bloody brilliant. Reminds me of making crayon rubbings in my journals.
LikeLike
The pure magic my dad would create for my sisters and me on the evenings my mom worked. Like blowing out an egg and filling it with Rice Krispies (in advance so we didn’t see) and then cracking it and BLOWING our little minds. And lots of crazy made up games. My sisters and I still talk about it.
I’ve had my eye on that leaf puzzle for months and may just have to finally buy it for my son if I don’t win. And those flash cards and lovely too. Fingers crossed!
LikeLike
I have tons of great childhood memories (something I hope my 10-week-old will be able to say one day). But given the current events, probably my earliest memory was of Princess Di’s wedding. It’s funny to think about now. I was in love with the whole thing, the grandness, her dress, the story. Surely, though, that’s bound to set up unrealistic expectations for one’s love life. 🙂
LikeLike
Favorite memory…Mom coming home and asking my sister and I why all the laundry baskets were broken. We both feigned ignorance and she let it go. It wasn’t until many years later when we were both adults that we admitted to pushing each other down the stairs in the baskets! Also, running around the house with our parents’ underwear on our heads as “masks.”
LikeLike
My favorite memories are all when my sister would come visit from college.
LikeLike
saturday mornings. i woke to the sound of simon and garfunkel playing loudly on the record player when my mom came in to open the blinds and let the sunshine in.
then there were chores, like throwing laundry on the fan blades, then turning it on. i guess you could call that “dusting”.
LikeLike
My parents were redoing the walls so after the old paper had been stripped, they let us color all over the walls. We kept a bucket of crayons at the top of the stairs and we would draw big lines as we walked downstairs. I also lay on my top bunk, coloring the ceiling. I vow to do that for my kids some day.
LikeLike
playing with our childhood dog. i loved that dog. she was the BEST. 🙂
LikeLike
Ah – to pick one one! Right now I’m thinking about my mom waking me and my sister up in the middle of the night when we had gone to visit PEI and taking us outside, bundled in our coats and Dad’s mittens over our PJs to watch thousands of Canada geese fly across the full moon. I can still hear the honks and see my sister’s wide eyes.
LikeLike