French breakthrough and mommy fever

First about French- it finally clicked for me yesterday that French is not another way to communicate the same thoughts but a whole different set of thoughts. This is an obvious observation to those fluent in two languages, but has taken me awhile. I've been trying to translate my thoughts into French (and will probably continue to do so) but I'm realizing that I need to think French to really speak the language. Of course the cultural elements of Congo will make Congolese French its own language anyway, so we'll just see how that goes.

So I'm not sure if mommy fever is the right term for this but I've decided that I want to buy Sam toys. I'm not really into shopping in general and it is really rare that I say to John "Let's go buy (anything)" but two nights ago I decided that there are two toys that I want for Sam. 1) some version of the weeble toys that you can't knock over- probably the inflatable plastic kind that acts as a kind of rebounding punching bag and 2) a step, walk, and ride convertible toy that Sam could use to get around. He's been pulling himself up on stuff all over the house- most recently his crib (which we have now lowered all the way) and a six pack of sparkling water. He tries on other less sturdy things too- plastic garbage cans, cords, the table cloth, etc. If I were in America I would go immediately to one of those big stores (target, walmart) and buy these toys right away. I wonder if that is a bit wrong- Sam certainly doesn't need any toys- it's not like he won't develop without them, but on the other hand I just think he'd find it so fun. So I'm going to look at local toy stores this afternoon to see if there are any equivalents and if that doesn't work and I still feel strongly about it, I'll see if I can find someone in the US to bring one over when they come.