Both of my children hit that marvelous developmental milestone where they were finally ready to speak and—years apart—both uttered the same word as their first: The dog’s name.

Hmph.

My daughter exploded from there, it seemed, into a myriad of words and sentences almost overnight. She began talking constantly and has yet to stop. My son, on the other hand, was both of a different temperament and paired with an older sister who wouldn’t let him get a word in edgewise. His speech was much slower to develop, and so for a loooong time he was limited to just a handful of words.

He said the dog’s name. He said Mama and he said Dada and he said his own special code for his sister’s name. He said up and he said down and he said “muck” for milk and “kaka” for cracker. And he said “sillhungee.”

“Sillhungee” was toddlerese for “still hungry,” which translated as “It is time for you to read me The Very Hungry Caterpillar six or seven more times while I bounce with delight and shriek ‘SILLHUNGEE! SILLHUNGEE!’ every time the caterpillar is still hungry.”

So I guess it’s not much of a shock that we have some very fond memories of Eric Carle’s books ’round here, and I’m delighted that Ty’s Toy Box now has an entire store dedicated to the World of Eric Carle. You can still visit the official Eric Carle website for news and information, but now when you find yourself wondering where you can get those gorgeous images on a set of notecards or where to get some Eric Carle stuffed bugs and such, you’ll know where to go.

Welcome to Ty’s, Eric Carle critters! And I’m thinking you’re pretty happy to be here, because this ladybug doesn’t look too grouchy, to me….

Have you heard the big news?

TTB Marketplace LLC, a premier online brand development and performance resource for licensed character products, today announced its debut agreement with Nickelodeon, the most-watched television network by kids in the United States, to offer a full array of apparel and sportswear options featuring the complete lineup of Nickelodeon characters. TTB Marketplace will be able to offer officially licensed Nickelodeon apparel, showcasing all of Nickelodeon’s characters, from the widely popular to those supporting characters that are rarely seen in merchandise lines.

In addition to offering a wider variety of characters than the mainstream retail stores make available, TTB Marketplace e-tail partners TysToyBox.com and AllAboardToys.com will be able to offer personalization options for consumers seeking Nickelodeon apparel via their online stores. The multi-year agreement between TTB Marketplace and Nickelodeon covers apparel and sportswear licenses only, extending across all of Nickelodeon’s current brands including: Blue’s Clues; Dora the Explorer; Go!, Diego, Go; Avatar the Last Airbender; The Backyardigans; SpongeBob SquarePants; The Wonderpets!; and Ni-hao, Kai Lan.

Allow me to translate that for you, just in case you’re confused, or in case you just didn’t feel like reading all of that: Nickelodeon likes us best.

See? Now you know it all!

Okay, well, there may be just a little more to it than that; the bottom line for Ty’s customers is that you’ll soon be able to find not only all of your favorite Nick characters, but you’ll be able to buy your kid a shirt sports his favorite character and his name.

And we think that’s pretty cool.

Stay tuned—the new products will start rolling out next month, right here at Ty’s. We promise to only gloat a little.

Have you met Juno and her friends? If your kids haven’t met them yet, prepare to be delighted—it’s not just puppets and music, it’s puppets operated by the folks who did Fraggle Rock, and it’s music performed by an actual orchestra. Plus, according to the site’s website:

All of the content of Juno Baby was based on a study published in the American Behavioral Scientist which suggests that programs where “characters speak directly to the child, actively elicit participation, label objects, and provide opportunities to respond, were positively related to expressive language production and vocabulary.” To ensure that our content was as strong as possible, we hired one of the researchers from that study as a script consultant for our Juno Baby series. With each DVD, we include language tracks in English, French, and Spanish. In addition, we include interactive features and language flash cards.

If that’s not a recipe for kiddie television without guilt, I don’t know what is.

So, the good news is that everyone here at Ty’s is absolutely tickled about our new Juno Baby Store, full of CDs and DVDs as well as adorable apparel, not to mention the squishable plush Juno herself.

The great news is that you hardly need to take our word for how great this series is; the kudos keep coming!

Mommies With Style said “The characters were bright and colorful, the animation was great, and the music was fabulous!”

Swanky Moms said:

This DVD is absolutely adorable — my boys love it! They watched it about 3 times the first day we received it! It is very cute, educational and has wonderful music! You can also play it in 2 other languages (Spanish and French) plus there are some interactive games and language flash cards on the DVD!

Don’t forget to bookmark the Juno Baby Blog, too—it’s authored by creator Dr. Belinda Takahashi and sovers all sorts of parenting issues. It looks to be a great resource for those with babies and toddlers.

And whether this is your first exposure to Juno or you’re already old friends, hopefully you’ll find everything you need right here at Ty’s.

On behalf of all the folks here at Ty’s, I’d like to wish you and yours a very happy Memorial Day, today! May your day be filled with whatever matters to you most, whether it be mindful remembrance, charred hot dogs, or both.

To help celebrate, we’re running a shipping special. You have through tonight to place a $29.99+ order at Ty’s Toy Box and automatically receive free ground shipping within the continental U.S. (some restrictions apply; see details).

Ever since Ty’s Toy Box and All Aboard Toys announced their merger, I’ve been spending some time trying to familiarize myself with All Aboard. You know, so that I can contribute something more meaningful to discussions about them than, “Huh?”

No, seriously, the truth is that All Aboard carries over seventy different lines, and between then and Ty’s I feel like I’m always scrambling to stay up on latest. My new strategy when someone asks me if either store carries a certain thing is to just say yes, because chances are, they do! And I can always check, later. (Note to my superiors: Just kidding! I always check first!)

Anyway, it turns out that there’s one area at All Aboard where I feel completely comfortable, and that’s their Community area. They’ve got all kinds of goodies over there, including a blog!

Their latest entry not only contains a LEGO Indiana Jones Mine Car Chase Video (which my son made me replay several times for him, thank you very much), but an exclusive interview with the clip’s producer. How fun is that? I mean, how else would you get this sort of education:

AAT: How many of the “individual” pictures were taken?

Producer: “Each second of video consists of thirty separate pictures, adding up to over seven thousand pictures in the total running time of approximately four minutes.”

That’s good information to have, especially after you’ve watched the LEGO Indiana Jones movie for the third time and your son is insisting that his LEGO guys want to make a movie, too.

Anyway, go browse around over there when you have some time. Good stuff.

If you missed the big news earlier today, stop the presses and hold on to your hats: Ty’s Toy Box and All Aboard Toys are joining forces:

Ty’s Toy Box, LLC and All Aboard Toys, LLC today announced the merger of their two companies, creating the largest independent toy destination for licensed character merchandise available online. Ty Simpson, current CEO of Ty’s Toy Box, will be CEO of a newly-formed holding company which combines the businesses of both entities, while Dave Carlson, current CEO of All Aboard Toys, will serve as Chairman of the Board.

“Unifying the licensing relationships and online retail breadth of both AllAboardToys.com and TysToyBox.com creates one of the top-five online destinations for character-based toys and merchandise,” says Simpson. “With approximately $26 billion spent annually on character licensed product and the Internet being the fastest growing source of this revenue, combining our efforts will be advantageous to our licensing industry partners and provide our customers with an unprecedented assortment of character-related products, including exclusives they can’t find anywhere else.”

Everyone at Ty’s is very excited about the new partnership, and big doings are certainly afoot. Stay tuned for more information. (It’s not quite as suspenseful as a soap opera, but a lot more exciting than buying from a Big Box store, honest.) In the meantime, join us in saying “welcome aboard” to All Aboard Toys!

Last week I asked folks if they wanted to win some Mr. Men/Little Miss and Noddy promotional items, and the answer was a resounding, “Yes!”

Sixty-five yeses, in fact. (Although the first comment was apparently an old friend of Ty’s trying to find him. Are you hiding, Ty? Maybe she just didn’t want to admit that she’s always wanted a Mr. Men luggage tag.)

Let’s face it: Free stuff rocks. Especially cute free stuff featuring characters your kids love. And with 65 entries for 5 prize packs, that means that your odds of winning were 1 in 13 (not bad). It’s not the Publisher’s Clearing House, but at least your odds of winning were a lot better.

Anyway! The random number generator has spoken, er, generated. Our contest winners are commenters number 4, 11, 58, 29, and 38! Hooray!

Oh, did you want to know who those were? Picky, picky. Okay, that’s ~moe~, virginia, RAN, desi, and DW! If one of those people is you, please check your email—I’ve sent you a confirmation and need you to respond with a mailing address so that Ty’s can get your prize out to you. You’ll each receive the Mr. Men and Little miss luggage tags, a Noddy keychain puzzle, and a Noddy pen.

Thanks to everyone who played! Don’t forget that there’s new merchandise being added to the Noddy and Mr. Men/Little Miss stores at Ty’s, so check back often.

And who knows… maybe we’ll have another contest here. I could get used to giving out cool stuff—I sort of feel like Santa Claus. Ho, ho, ho!

Stop looking at me like that.

It was just a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that both Noddy and Mr. Men merchandise has come to Ty’s Toy Box. If you have a preschooler, chances are you’re already quite familiar with these little guys. What I didn’t mention, before, is that both of these properties are owned by Chorion, and—as it sometimes happens—Chorion has issued some promotional items in association with these lines which they’ve passed along to Ty’s.

Promotional items are great fun, because it’s somewhat up to the discretion of the licensee (that would be Ty’s, in this case) as to how they’ll be distributed. For example: Starting today (March 24th, 2008), spend $50 at Ty’s Toy Box (either in the Noddy Store or elsewhere at Ty’s) and you’ll receive a Noddy keychain free with your order.

Nice, right?

I love getting a bonus-with-purchase item, myself. I do. But what I like even more is winning something absolutely free, because I’m cheap like that. And I figured that if that’s what I like best, it was a good bet that some of you Ty’s shoppers and faithful readers would like that, too.

So here’s the deal: Five lucky readers of the blog are going to win a promotional prize pack. Each pack contains a Mr. Men luggage tag, a Little Miss luggage tag, a Noddy keychain, and a Noddy pen. Have a look:

All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this post by noon on Sunday, March 30th, 2008. Your comment should tell me which Noddy or Mr. Men/Little Miss item you think your child would like the most, and please be sure to leave a valid email address so that I can contact you if you win.

Winners will be announced on Monday, March 31st, 2008—one week from today. Leave a comment and you could be one of the lucky ones!

First of all: There’s still plenty of time to take part in Ty’s Easter Egg Hunt to win a giant stuffed Miffy doll! All you have to do is browse around Ty’s Toy Box and find the hidden Easter egg, each day, for your chance to win. (Congratulations to last week’s winners!)

Next, I want to tell you a little bit about two exciting new lines here at Ty’s which you may or may not have noticed, yet. I don’t know about you, but oftentimes I find that Ty’s is bringing in so many cool new things, I can’t possibly keep track of them all without a spreadsheet. Seeing as how most people are not going to resort to a spreadsheet to keep track of things (okay, it’s possible I’m a wee bit compulsive about this stuff), consider me your crib sheet.

If you haven’t met Noddy yet, you can learn all about this great PBS show for preschoolers over on their targeted site. They characterize Noddy this way:

Noddy is a little wooden boy who lives in his own little House-for-One in Toyland. Noddy got his name because his head is on a spring and when he gets excited his head just can’t stop nodding!

(In France, Noddy goes by the name Oui-Oui, which I know means “Yes Yes,” yet my inner 10-year-old boy finds it hilarious. Just sayin’.)

And then once your child becomes completely hooked on Noddy and his pals, come check out the Noddy Store here at Ty’s.

In addition, you may have noticed the new Mr. Men and Little Miss Store here at Ty’s, dedicated to all of those quirky little personalities starring in the book series and Cartoon Network series of the same title. (Oh, look! They even make a tote bag with my daughter on it! That was awfully nice of them.)

And you can of course learn more about the Mr. Men and Little Misses on their site, although they’re pretty self-explanatory, I think. (Hmmm… I wonder what Mr. Grumpy is like….)

Anyway, we’re excited to welcome Noddy and the Mr. Men gang to Ty’s, and hope you’ll enjoy them, too. And who knows—you might find one of those giant Easter eggs while you’re browsing!

If you’re a busy mom like me, right about now is the time of year where you start saying things like, “Wait, what? It’s March already? How did that happen??” I mean, on the one hand—Spring is coming! Which is great! But on the other hand—there are so many things that need to get done, and February (even a February with an extra day) is just a tricky little month, winking past so quickly the way it does.

Hey, you know what would soothe the sting of a mile-long to-do list? A giant Miffy doll!

Hmmm… that probably sounds familiar. Didn’t we do this before? Well, yes and no. We have given away these cuddly plush 27″ Miffy dolls before, but this is a new way to get your hands on one.

Through March 17th, 2008, Ty’s Toy Box will be giving away a giant Miffy to one lucky shopper every single day. And entering is easy; do you see that Easter egg up top, there? It’s nice and bright and easy to spot. To enter to win a Miffy, all you need to do is spot the Easter egg somewhere at Ty’s.

The only catch is that it could be anywhere. It might be hiding in the Miffy Store. Or the Ben 10 Store. Or maybe the Charlie and Lola Store! Really, the possibilities are endless. (Um, okay. Not endless. But have you been over to Ty’s lately? There are a lot of stores there.)

So—find the egg, then click on it. You’ll be asked to confirm where you found it (they’re tricky, those eggs), and after you do so, you’re eligible to win that day’s Miffy doll. Somebody has to win each and every day, so why not you? And if you don’t win one day… well, keep entering! You can enter every day during the promotional period.

And if you have any concerns over what you might want to do with a giant Miffy doll, well, Kathryn (whose daughter won one in our prior promotion) has a few illustrated suggestions for you.