Brown paper packages sealed up with tape

Early this morning, there was a big box on the front steps, the first of (several) deliveries of Christmas presents I've ordered for Will. I love online shopping, not least because it gives me the joy of opening packages (before organizing and wrapping them up to be put under the tree, of course).

The box was filled with wooden toys from my new favourite company: Melissa and Doug. I saw some of their chunky wooden puzzles in a shoe store a few weeks ago, didn't buy any, and have been thinking about them ever since. Will has one fuzzy farm animal puzzle that she is just starting to be able to figure out on her own, and I wanted to invest in a few more. I picked out a chunky safari animal puzzle and a vehicle puzzle that makes sounds (sirens for the fire truck, that sort of thing). I also really like one chunky insect puzzle that is out of stock. (Will is really into animals, bugs, cars and trucks at the moment, not to mention "owwwls.")

The puzzles arrived and they look amazing. I also got a wooden shape-sorter cube and it looks perfect. Then we were playing with the farm puzzle later this morning and I noticed that it, too, was made by Melissa and Doug. So these should be a big hit.

And they don't only make puzzles and shape cubes. Today we went to our usual kids' hair salon to get Will's hair fixed (we took her to a new local place that definitely was not geared towards toddlers. "I just need her to hold still so I can do her bangs." Um, yeah. She's 20 months old).

(And yes, Will has enough hair that it is totally worth the money to take her to a real kids' place. Really.)

Anyway, the kids' salon was selling a tonne of Melissa and Doug toys. Not the insect puzzle unfortunately, but an amazing collection of wooden stamps with washable ink. Will absolutely loves getting a stamp on her hand at the end of her music class. She talks about it all week, and waits with her hands out at the end of each class. So this should be a lot of fun - hopefully most of it on paper!

I'm also waiting for the "Touch the Art" board books that have been shipped. I hope they are as cool as they look: making Van Gogh's bed and brushing Mona Lisa's hair.

Then today I found the best. deal. ever. For months I have been looking for a hooded towel to fit a growing toddler (with lots of hair). Right now I need two towels, and it is a very awkward process to get Will and her hair dry before bed. At the home show I fell in love with the hooded towels from Dwell. But they are fifty-one dollars. Each. And as much as I loved them, I just couldn't justify the expense.

(I also hesitated on a sale that had the towels at half-off on their website, and by the time I decided to go ahead, the sale was over. That was terrible.)

Apparently I am still registered with their site from that fiasco, because today I got a "family and friends" coupon worth 25% off (CODE FF2008 if you are interested). So I decided just to order the bloody towel.

I had the pattern I wanted in my basket, and then decided to check the sales. There it was, the alphabet towel I orginally wanted, for twenty-five bucks. After the coupon, I purchased the exact, perfect dwell towel that I wanted (for my darling daughter) for just over twelve dollars.

Twelve. bucks.

For Dwell.

I can't wait to open that package.