Toby is a toy maker!

Toby spent many many hours working on the perfect gift for Annie's first birthday.  When he finished it earlier this week, he was too excited to wait to give it to her.  So don't worry about spilling the beans to Annie. 

She absolutely loves it!  Whenever I try to carry her past it, she tries to lunge out of my arms.  I don't have any pictures on the computer of her actually playing with it, but here 'tis...

It is a giant play cube with tons of fun activities.  The top has a bead chaser and stacking blocks.  One side has a chalkboard and a drawer for chalk.  She loooves chalk, but I'm afraid it has to go bye-bye for a while until she stops drawing on every surface in the house. For now she keeps our old cell phones in her drawer. 

Another side has a very cool painting with four figures that she can move around on tracks.  There is a closer
shot of this side below.

The third side has an abacus and blocks that spin around. The fourth side (also know as Annie's favorite side) has a shape sorter.  The best part is that the shapes fall into a cabinet and Annie can open and close (and open and close, open and close, open and close) the door all day long.   The cube is also on wheels, which is great since Annie loves to push stuff around, like her high chair, her crib at school, and anything else on wheels.

Here's a close up of Toby's painting and the figures on the tracks.  I think you can tell, but just in case you can't, those are a cardinal in the sky, surgeonfish in the sea, shetland pony in the meadow and butterfly in the flowers. I had no idea that Toby could paint so well! He is so creative - I hope Annie inherits that from him.

Toby had a lot of fun making this, and even got to buy some new power tools.  Win-win! Well done, Toby!