Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House: Double Review of Lego Duplo's My First Playhouse & Toddler Boat Building Sets

Both of the boys absolutely LOVE Duplo blocks. I tried for a long time to keep all the different sets separate, since that is how I played with them as a kid; however, I got overruled by my loving husband, who would build them once and then dump them all together!

The horror of this devil-may-care attitude! Anyway, as long as the kiddos are happy, then it’s not a big deal, and they do seem to enjoy building their own things anyway. Froot Loop occasionally will pull out pieces for his various vehicles and ask for help putting them together, so I guess in the end, we all win! 

So, one of Cocoa Puff’s favorite birthday presents were his two Duplo kits. 

I picked out the Duplo First Playhouse for him because it has lots of doors and windows to open and close, open and close, open and close. And believe me, he does. 

It also has bigger windows that are more like “rooms,” which makes it easier for little hands to put together and take apart. There’s four windows and doors and a slide. He really couldn’t care less about the slide, but Froot Loop has integrated it into many of his “neighborhoods.” 

There’s a fun oval shaped brick that’s reversible, with a daytime sun on one side and a nighttime moon and stars on the other. There’s also 4 brightly colored blocks with pictures of daily events on them. 

I also thought he would enjoy the Toddler Boat. The boat actually floats! It could be played with in the bathtub or the pool, but we’d have to take it apart and make sure it totally dries and that’s a pain so, no. 

There’s a cute little rabbit and bear animal included in the kit. There’s also some blocks so you can build a palm tree. There’s also another small boat, a window cube, and a few other miscellaneous blocks with fun and bright patterns on them. 

What we ended up doing for Cocoa Puff was sort of combining the two sets for him. We like to use the base from the house set and put the four door/window cubes from the house set on the base. We add the roof. Then, we put the window cube from the boat set on top and finish it off with the top roof piece and the sun/moon block. 

He loves to open and close the doors. He loves to push other bricks through the windows and laugh as they drop to the floor. This is great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. 

Over time, Cocoa Puff has stolen all of the windows and doors from Froot Loop’s sets and now he builds giant window and door towers. Silly boy. I have a little special basket for him to put all his window and door bricks and I think he really appreciates it. 

I love building with my boys. They both have totally different styles, and why not? They’re totally different people! 

Are your kids all very different from each other?