Toddler Gift Guide.
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Looking for Christmas gifts (I’m not using the phrase “last minute” as it’s still early December…..anyone who tells you that this is last-minute is insane) for a toddler right around the age of 28 months? Look no further as B is here to rescue your gift-giving dilemma with a toddler gift guide! Here are some of his favorite items from the last year.
- PlanToys 50 Construction Set. These are blocks. B likes to stack things. I think that’s a good summary. 🙂
- Kikkerland Solar-Powered Rainbow Maker. This was actually a gift from E to me the Christmas I was pregnant with B. But as his room gets the most sunlight, it’s stuck to the window in there and he absolutely loves it. They also offer a 2-prism option which I think would completely blow his mind.
- Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn books by Gerda Muller. These books have no words, just show beautifully illustrated simple scenes from each season. We don’t have the full set yet, but B really likes the Summer and Autumn books. I need to get the Winter edition before the end of the world on the 21st (which also happens to be the first day of winter)!
- Lillabo train sets. I rotate B’s toys out each week, but this is the one thing that doesn’t get put away. We get a request to “do trainset” at least once a day and I think if I tried to put it away, his little head might explode.
- Melissa & Doug Beginning Skills Floor Puzzles. E’s mom showed up at our door with these a while back and B has been in love ever since. He can now put them all together by himself, which buys E and me a few quiet moments to ourselves before he asks us to “do train set.”
- Wonderworld Work Bench ‘N Box. This was a birthday present for B and, I think, is a pretty awesome idea. The toolbox flips over and turns into a workbench. Genius! B has mastered getting all of the various screws and nails into the top of it…we’re still working on getting them back out. 🙂
- Caspar Babypants “Here I Am!”. I found Caspar Babypants on a blog post somewhere out there on the internets about children’s music singers who didn’t make parents want to rip their ears from their heads. I originally thought this was limited to Jack Johnson’s Curious George album and maybe I could also relive my childhood with a few Raffi tunes. But it turns out there’s a whole subculture out there of children’s music singers who don’t have mechanical zombie children backing them and actually make music that isn’t all that bad to listen to. I put together a Pandora station of Renee & Jeremy, Elizabeth Mitchell (who sometimes sings duets with Lisa Loeb of “You-Say-Big-Black-Glasses-Before-Big-Glasses-Were-Cool” 90s fame), and this guy who doubles as the lead singer of The Presidents of the United States of America. B’s very favorite song EVER (okay, it’s probably second to Rainbow Connection, but it’s a very close second) is track #5 on this CD: Baby Bear. You can imagine how deep and meaningful the lyrics are.
- Radio Flyer Classic Red 10-inch Tricycle. We pack a picnic, load ourselves and this thing into E’s truck, and go to a local small airport to watch the planes take off and land sometimes on Sunday afternoons. B gets to balance-bike his way around the parking lot (he hasn’t quite figured out the pedals) which I think is a lot more fun for him than doing laps around our couch during the week.
- Hands Can. This book discusses all of the things that hands can do…hands can clap, hands can dig, hands can paint, hands can play, etc. etc. B’s favorite part (okay, it’s my favorite part too), though, is “hands can say, ‘I love you'” with a picture of two people hugging. I gave him a hug once while we were reading this page and now, every time we crack it open, he leans in for a squeeze when we get to this part. That’s hard not to love.
Hopefully the toddler in your life finds these as fun as B does!
And don’t forget – I’m still trying to raise money for Love146’s Round Home. It’s a great cause!
we love wooden blocks and trains around here, too! e was obsessed with his ever-growing train set for about 4 years. it is currently packed away, as the older ones have moved on to legos and the little one is not quite ready for them, but we will be unpacking them with great joy in a few months! i love how the trains were fun from the early toddler days of pushing one little train around mostly mama-built tracks to the complicated, multi-level crazy preschool engineer built tracks that served a complicated story full of characters and drama. =) yay trains! we have never put the wooden blocks away. they were good supports and buildings for train track cities, and basically get used all the time for everything – even the big kids still use them often. yesterday m built herself a big building to act out her little people and dollhouse people drama. i don’t remember what the building was that she needed, but it was really funny.
I think we’re going to have to get more additions to B’s train as well as there’s only so many different combinations we can do with the sets we have. 🙂 I’d like to get him more blocks, too, as he has really started to enjoy building in the last few months. Watching kids play is sometimes really entertaining….I like to see how their little brains work. 🙂