We Covet | Better Living Through Consumerism

Clacking Eco-Toy We Covet

Few sounds in this world are as annoying to me personally as that of the Fisher-Price Corn Popper™.  (No offense to F-P, whose toys and baby gear are one of the most crucial design elements of my home.) I'm just more of a clackety-clack than a pop-goes-the-weasel type of gal. 

That's why I like this alligator pull toy.  It's an eco-toy with a  wooden design, environmentally-conscious manufacturing and non-toxic materials that are easy on the environment.  And it's rhythmic sound is easy on my sensitive ears.

It's also cute as hell.

Dancing Alligator $19.95 @ Discovery Store

We Covet Getting Towed

This wooden toy truck by D and Me almost makes me rethink my position of devout urban tow truck hater.  The handcrafted wooden vehicle is made from natural hardwoods and covered in a child-safe oiled finish.  Eco-savvy and sturdy, its cuteness has captured me in spite of my tow loathing. Toy wooden boot clamp not included.

Wooden tow truck with car $45 at The Pajama Squid

Ridiculously Cute Toys We Covet

My daughter is obsessed with blind-box japanese mini toys (I blame my husband), so when I saw these adorable mini figures by Friends With You for sale alongside the typical freakish monsters-in-a-box figures, I knew we'd have to get her one.

My daughter has the little polka-dotted dude pictured in the background here, and he makes a lovely soft chime sound when shaken. This fills me with glee. And you can never have enough glee in your life, am I right?

Friends With You mini figures, $9.00 @ fredflare

We Covet Madge

This is Madge. She is a sock monkey. I love her.

That is all.

Madge the Sock Monkey, $40.00 @ planetmonkey (Etsy!)

We Covet Giant Microbes

We're all coated in them -- no matter how much antibacterial gel we slather ourselves in -- so why not embrace our microbe friends?

These cuddly plush versions of their microscopic real-life counterparts are almost cute enough to make you forget that their single-minded goal in life is to infect, sicken and/or kill you.

Choose from any number of infectious friends: the flu, E. coli, the plague, herpes, mad cow disease and many more!

Giant Microbes, $7.99 each @ ThinkGeek

We Covet Stuffed Fruit

Maybe it's because I'm - what? - eleventeen months pregnant, but just looking at this picture of organic cotton teething grapes makes me hungry. And thirsty. For a nice, juicy Bordeaux. With a side of grapes, and maybe some good cheese. And a man-servant to feed them to me.

Where was I?

Right. Organic cotton teething grapes, for your baby (although I suppose no-one would care if you were to give them an exploratory chomp yourself). Pretty, soft and totally eco-friendly. Sweet.

Under The Nile Organic Cotton Grapes, $5 and change, @ Amazon

Kid's Stuff We Might Covet If They'd Call It Something Different

This adorable stuffy monster thingy - designed so that kids, or anyone who loves monster toys, can stuff their hands and arms inside for warmth - is super adorable, but I kinda can't get over the fact that they're calling it a Muff Doll. Which is probably just a glitch that is totally unique to me - I freely admit that I have the mind of a potty-mouthed teenager - but still. Muff? We're not in the 19th century anymore, so when somebody says, oh, I wanna get my hands in that muff, my first thought is not that they're hoping to snuggle up with a handwoven arm warmer.

Which is not to say that it isn't lovely to warm one's hands and arms in something snuggly - and as a mom, I'm certainly in favor of kid accessories that fulfill the needs of both survival and play - but again, couldn't they please just call it something different? Like, say, coochy snuggler?

Muff Doll, $20.00 @ The MoMA Store

Weird Stuff We Covet: DIY Drinking Strawz

I gave up drinking straws when I was, oh, about eight years old (that is, if you don't count the relapse during the Long Island Iced Tea years of my early twenties.) Once I gave up apple juice, there was really no further use for the straws. But I gotta say: the idea of a kind of TinkerToy liquid-transportation device could lure me back to the apple juice pretty quickly (and, yes, Long Island Iced Teas, but I don't need so much of a push with that one.)

The problem here, I suppose, is that if you have small children you're going to have some difficulty convincing them that this toy? Is Mommy's. I mean, choking hazard, for sure, but also, they don't need convincing to drink apple juice, so this cool thing would really just be wasted on them. So maybe just save these for those drinking binges after the kiddies have gone to sleep.

DIY Drinking Strawz, $7.99 - 14.99 @ ThinkGeek

Awesome Kid's Stuff We Covet

When I was a kid, I collected music boxes. I know: NOT COOL. But even if I had, somehow, stumbled upon some kind of cool version of music-box collecting, none of those boxes could possibly have been as cool as this awesome high-design music orb from the Museum of Modern Art shop.

So I'm just going to have to make up for my childhood cool-void by buying this sweet thang while I'm in New York this weekend. For my kid. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just buy it for me and give her some hand-me-down unicorn music boxes. Because, you know, I think that I might have a few of those laying around.

Music Orb, $60 @ MOMA

Kid Stuff We Covet: Devout Dolls

I'll be honest: the Devout Doll that my two-year old received as a gift is not in her bedroom, nor her playroom. It's in my room, on my bookshelf, beside - duh - some books and some assembly-line mini faux-oil paintings of bugs that I found on sale at Urban Outfitters (which, can I say, Urban Outfitters? LOVE). Why? Because I love that doll. I named her Bicephala.

She's, like, so much more me than she is my daughter. For now. I'll return her to her rightful place in the playroom the minute  the child shows any signs of interest in Barbie. Until then, though? She's my lovey.

Is that wrong?

Devout Dolls, around $40 @ Devoutdolls.com

Toy We Covet: Shawnimals

Our entire family is pretty much ga-ga over Pocket Ninjas and all of their offspring. I mean, how can you not love the Pocket Stache? You so totally need that and you know it.

Pocket Ninja, $15 @ Shawnimals Shop