And then I walked uphill to school. In the snow. With no shoes. Or feet.

Hi. This isn't Abigail, it's Jennie. We're not intentionally trying to confuse you by switching days all willy-nilly, but if that's what happens . . . um, sorry.

Fairly recently, I was complaining about how kids today have way cooler toys than I did when I was little. I never had an iPod or a Wii (hee) and the Internets didn't even exist yet. My grandma had a computer that I was sometimes allowed to play Solitaire on, and if I was REALLY lucky, Oregon Trail, but that was about as technologically advanced as it got.

I was a fairly introverted child, quiet with sudden bursts of energy (noisy energy), as likely to be tucked away somewhere with a book as getting yelled at by my a friend's mother at a birthday party for hiding under my chair during cake and ice cream time (true story). What I'm saying is, I haven't changed much. Which is why, if I still owned the following toys, I would probably never leave my apartment. Dear Internets, here are my 5 Top Toys from Childhood:

1. Little People

I went to daycare when I was but a tiny child, and the Little People were the most coveted toys in the entire building. At home, I had scores of Little People with Little People Furniture in a Little People House and Little People Cars and a Little People Bus that they took to the Little People Schoolhouse. The Little People at daycare were a bit more bedraggled than my own Little People, having been handled by countless grubby hands, but we fought over those things like they were made of candy. Willy Wonka candy, even.

2. Fisher Price skates

I was never the most coordinated child. I fell off all sorts of things, like the monkey bars, my swingset, a teeter totter (I was trying to fly). But I was determined to learn how to roller skate. I had this pair of Fisher Price skates that you could expand as your feet grew, and I tried to wear these things long after my feet had outgrown the biggest size. I never did learn how to roller skate very well, but at least the scuff marks all over my skates proved that I tried.

3. Big Wheel

My Big Wheel was my most prized possession. I rode that thing up and down the block until my legs felt like they were going to fall off. If I got too tired, sometimes I'd turn it upside-down, spin the front wheel really fast and pretend it was the sewing wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on. Yeah, I don't know either.

Also, OMG:



4. Talking Whiz Kid

Do do do do, do do do do do do do INSERT CARD, is the sound of my childhood. If I knew how to record stuff, I'd sing it for you, but I don't, so here is the toy I'm talking about at least:



5. Theodore doll

Here's the thing. When I was a kid, I loved the Chipmunks more than life itself (wow), which is one reason I will never, ever see the abomination of a Chipmunks movie that was recently released. I can still recite the words to most of the songs from The Chipmunk Adventure, I had a tiny Alvin doll, but EVEN BETTER, I had a talking Theodore doll. We were BFF. For real. I think I've mentioned this before, but when I was six, I had to go to the dentist and get some teeth pulled, so I brought Theodore along with me for luck. I figured that since Theodore was a bigger chicken than I was, if he could sit there in that big, scary dentist chair, then so could I. Unfortunately, I still go to the same dentist and he hasn't forgotten this. Sometimes I think he still thinks of me as that tiny, pigtailed girl and he wonders why I'm no longer clutching my Theodore doll.