Baby's First Birthday...

I highly recommend the Amazing Animals Sing & Go Choo Choo from Fisher Price ( http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?e=detail&pcat=ama... ). My boy is now 19 months old, and he has loved that train from the word go.

If you dont have one already get a baby leapfrog my son is almost 3 and still plays with it we read it every morning. It comes with different kinds of educational books. I recommend Leapfrog things for his age a drum that does ABC's and 123's hand eye cord. Let me know

we just bought my son the sit and spin zebra from fisher price and it is absolute fave. He is a little short for it but we stay right by him while he is on it and he likes to pull up on it and spin the little doohiky on the top like crazy. Hope that gives you an idea.

Yes, I know what you mean, they DO grow up too fast. My son is four now and I can remember him at 1 like it was yesterday. Cherish each moment.

Okay, I have this most amazing idea. I got my son one when he was just a year old and both he and my daughter STILL play with it. It's a growing toy so even toddlers will enjoy it (i.e. it's worth the money spent).

It's called Music Blocks Composer and it's made by Neurosmith. It is a music type toy with different colored blocks that are coded with certain parts of a song. They fit in the "docks" on the toy and when pressed down, they play a portion of a song. With 5 blocks and each block having a different song on each side, you get a ton of different musical sounds and themes and it's designed so the block sounds all coordinate together. Plus, you get shape recognition, motor skills through block manipulation, and colors... it's just the most fabulous toy EVER!!! HIGHLY RECOMMMEND.

We picked ours up at a consignment shop but I think if you google it, you can find one on amazon or another toy store. It's well worth the money!!! The sound quality is fabulous. You can also get cartridges that play other types of music. We have a classical one and also a nursery songs one.

:)

A tricycle or other ride on. That V-Smile for baby/tots. A tent to hide in. A piano or other music instruments.

Hey L.,
CONGRATS on making it through the first year!!! We just moved here from VA and are about to celebrate our only son's 1st birthday this Sunday!! We got him a wooden train from keentoys.com. It just arrived in the mail and it is AWESOME!!! Each car in the train has his name, DOB or his city of birth in it. It is something I am hoping he can play with for awhile and even keep as an adult.

HTH and happy birthday!
T. and Braden (3/30/07)

Hi L., for my son's first birthday I got him an activity cart from KidKraft. It helped him walk, has a lot of activities and still keeps him busy (and he is almost 2 now). There is also a water activity table (on One Step Ahead)that both my kids love - they can stand at outside and play for long periods of time that your little one will grow into by summer.

http://www.kidkraft.com/catalog/62013-0010.asp

Hope that helps!
C

The present my son loved the most on his first birthday was a giant beach ball.

Hi!!!

Congratulation, you made it! That's how I felt when both my girls turned 1!

I'm big into birthday parties but it never fails that they always love the things that were simpler and the kept forever (they are now 10 and 6). Their favorite character anything is always a hit. Also it depends too in what he likes to do and his personality.

One thing he'll love will be something about himself. That actually will be a phase that will last for a while.

I have made books for my kids with their own pictures and family/friends with stories. My younger who's now 6, still takes her book to school (show and tell) and to church sometime. She loves looking at herself as a baby and hearing the stories.

You can also do a "Everyone who loves...." book. Have a picture and a paragraph from everyone that makes the cut! He'll treasure it and feel close to the people he loves. There are tons of ways to do it.

Everything that enhance his personality or talents will be a great gift! have fun!

There is this great website www.birthdaypartyideas.com they have every theme you could think of. I hope this helps.

Love
K.

I typed up this response then realized I didn't read the question correctly. For whatever reason, I thought you were asking for party ideas. Here they are, anyway.

My dd's 1st party was great, and simple. We met our friends at a local park. I brought a Mexican blanket to use as a tablecloth, and put all the snacks in my nice pottery. I had a cooler with organic juice boxes & canned drinks for the moms; chips & hummus, popcorn, crudite, and carrot cake mini-cupcakes I made from a recipe in "What to Expect the First Year"; went to the dollar store & got mini-bottles of bubbles, noise makers, party hats, little plastic clapper toys, books for the party favors, and a few other things. The kids played & had a blast between the party stuff & all that was at the playground. The moms were really happy with it, too. I've got some great pics of the kids covered in dirt & smiling ear to ear.

I'd also recommend a "Messy Party" where the kids all bring an extra change of clothes & play outside, maybe on a tarp, maybe not, & you give them a bunch of stuff & let them go at it: flour, gelatin, finger paints, mud, water. Then just sit back & watch them have a blast. At the end, hose them down, put clean clothes on & feed them & I'm sure it'll be followed by a good nap.

Hi L., I have two boys and a girl. All 3 really got a kick out of playing with balls. That might be a simple thing you could get him. Maybe an assortment of sizes and textures in a special box or basket. They also loved anything that rolled like cars, trains and trucks. If he's walking or about to walk a push toy would be fun too. Good luck!

Your son will love a book all about him! I am an independent consultant with Heritage Makers- an online digital scrapbook publisher. We have just the book for you. You can design a book yourself or you can use our pre-designed baby book. Your son will love looking at his pictures and you'll love remembering how small he used to be!

I'ts easy to make a book with Heritage Makers- just upload your pictures, add text and publish. We have a special right now on the 5"x5" book (baby book size) until March 31. Call K. at ###-###-#### for more info. Check out my website www.PublishFamilyStories.com, I'll help you get started!

For our son's first birthday, we bought him a large sandbox in the shape of a crab and filled it with multi-colored balls to make a "ball pit". He LOVED it! We kept it in our living room for about 4 months. Once he seemed to get bored with it (and when we got really tired of picking up the balls in our living room) we took the balls out, moved it outside and filled it with sand for him. Once our other child turns one, we'll get another little structure to hold the balls to make a ball pit for him since our oldest loved it so much. You can even get a little baby blow-up pool to put the balls in. The problem with the little plastic baby pools is that they tend to slide around when they are climbing in and out and can tump (is that a word?) over. The sandbox worked nice for us b/c it was heavy enough to not slide around and had a lid to keep him out of it when we were not in the mood to clean up balls. Hope this helps!

Balls! Surprisingly there are so many types of balls and they are great for dexterity, etc... Go to a toy store, especially one that is a smaller, privately owned toy store - small, tiny, medium, large, grabing, - all kinds. All my boys loved these!

Alli

We bought one of those outdoor tables that is 1/2 for sand & 1/2 for water. Hours of fun! We bought it for my son's first bday. He was a late walker..so he would pull up to it and stand forever playing w/ that stuff. I am one of those overprotective moms...so I put one of those big bags of cornmeal on the sand side. My boys are now almost 6 & just turned 4 and they still play w/ this toy! Of course now it's monster trucks! Mine folds up between uses or to be stored and you can turn it over for an art table. You use the holes for the removed legs for pens/pencils, etc.
Also...you can never get enough books! Good luck! PS..I think now they even make a lot of outdoor toys like mine w/ little covers over them to keep your little one out of direct sun. If you get one, just always check under it for bees nests...you never know!

Hi L.,

Discovery Toys is the place for you! The products are developmentally age-appropriate and educational. Please check out my webpage at www.cindystoybox.com to see the selections available by age group. There is a 50% off sale and I also have a member perk under Discovery Toys, Inc. to save 10% off. Hope this helps!

Blessings,
C. Schoeller

We got our baby a DVD player for the car for his 1st Birthday. He got to face the front and watch a DVD! He is now 20 months and loves to go Bye Bye so he can watch his movies! My parents got him a combo slide/swing that we keep inside. It has a rock wall instead of stairs so he can easily climb it. It is for ages 1-4 and he loves it! He is also a climber so it fit him perfectly. A ride on/push car is also a good present for a 1 year old.

For my son's first birthday this year, we got him this interactive car! It has stages, so it grows with him. It has buttons to push and when he does, Pooh, tigger and Piglet move and sing and he can't take his eyes off them! It has a loop that goes around the waist so he can't fall off the car, it has a base so it can be immobile and just rock back and forth, it also has a handle so you can push him on the car! Gavin loves it and he plays with it daily! It cost me somewhere around 40 bucks at Sam's, but I am sure you can find it anywhere.

My grandson just had his 1st birthday. I purchased the Fisher Price "Learning Home" it is an interactive toy. doors and window open and talk lights switch that turns on and off.
you can go online and look at a demo. a co-worker also bought one for her one year old twins. I think it can only be purchased from Toy'R'Us.

Good Luck

Hey L.,
My son just had his first birthday and we had a water birthday party. We bought a blow up pool and a slipping slide for the kids to play with but I will be able to use them with my son on hot days. He loves the slipping slide we bought. We got it at Wal-Mart and it has sprinklers and a little pool at the end.

B.
www.MoreForMyBaby.com

Books... a puppet... large piece puzzles.... see and say ...

No matter how cool the presents he will receive, more than likely he will love the BOX that they come in!

At one, he's not going to care what he gets - he doesn't really know that there are toys and games out there for children, unless, of course he can read. Give him some kind of birthday cake, stripe him down to his diaper and a bib, and give him some cake to celebrate his birthday. He'll have a blast squishing the cake and eating it from his fingers. That also makes a great photo shoot. One little piece of cake will not harm him nutritionally. Lots of love and cuddles are far more important than "things".

The 1st birthday is an easy one. What about a Hot wheel. Not the pocket sized car, but a big boy bike. A motorized one is even better if you can afford it.

I am a single mom in my 30's and my son turned one in August. I didn't have a lot of money and wanted to keep it simple. I had a pool party at my mom's and invited the family over. I had a big cake for the grown ups that was a pool with people floating in it and then a smaller similar cake for Tyler. I bought sand buckets for the party bag and put stuff like crayons, coloring books, pin wheels and lei's in it as party gifts. Tyler was so cranky from missing his nap and could have cared less about his toys - he didn't even open them. He ran around with a spoon :) He was really into toy cars and balls - he still loves balls! Also, board books were good but of course clothes were always a good gift - b/c I have too many toys. Hope that helps!

a big red ball is all ways well recived.

start a college fund...ask for cash;with each year that passes and he gets monetary gifts you can put in that account or clothes...

I suggest you get him some plain and simple toys ,like building blocks. Let him use his imagination.Try to get some toys that will teach him things like shapes and colors. Books that you can read to him are great too. When you read to him it introduces new words into his vocabulary and it helps him hear how to read...not just in a monotone but with feelings.
Have fun playing with your child.
~ Tess

I got my son learning toys that were age appropriate and had to help him open them. Some of the gifts he just left unwrapped because he lost interest....but I think my son had the most fun with the cake....I had a special small cake made just for him and he got it everywhere but he had a blast! Hope this helped

L., I'm a mother of 3 boys. I went all out on my oldest son's 1st b-day. Wanna know what he remembers from 9 yrs. ago? NOTHING!! My advice is to keep is simple. Simply keep the focus on HIM. At that age my boys liked the typical...cars/trucks, blocks (the supersized legos), books that make noises (buttons to push), anything like that. I hope this helped a little........good luck!!!

Jack in the box, little tikes swing that would last a few years, buggy by step 2 (my daughter loved it), ...

And just an fyi, heb has pretty good birthday cake. And if you order your baby's first birthday cake from them, they will give a small round cake for the little on to dig in/ play with :)

Well what characters does your child like. That should be the first. I had my lil cousin do the pea in the pod oh my god it was so adorable.

First of all , keep it simple. Do not give him too much at once. You can slowly introduce various toys. For example, there is a great stacking toy that has stars of various colors and when the last star, with a little happy face is put on top it plays music. This would be very good for you and the baby to play with together until he understands how to do this on his own. It is available at Toys r Us , or Wal-Mart. There is also a great set of clear blocks with different items inside that do not come out. These are good for stacking and knocking down, or just carrying around. There is a cloth barn and animals from -I think- La Leche Leage toys. There are very simple puzzles with one to three pieces from Melissa and Doug. The Beyond Play catalog has great developmental toys if you want more ideas. Cloth, or board books are also great. J. K.

We got our 1 year old the Parents brand bath tub set and she LOVES it! It has a tugboat, fish and a fishing line (too old for now), a comb, a nail brush, a captain, and stacking cups w/ holes that she loves. It was around $16.00 at Target. Also, we got her something sentimental, a charm for a charm bracelet we'll get one each year and a jewelry box.

I have many friends who have gotten the Pottery Barn Kids Anywhere Chair for their child's first birthday too. HTH!

Do you like to get out and walk around your neighborhood? A great thing that I bought my son around that age was a car with a long handle on the back that you push. it has a seatbelt and a trunk in the font for storage. The handle is removable and can fit easy into a trunk for a stroll around the mall ot anytime that you do not want to haul his stroller around.
Best of luck!

I just purchased the cutest toy for my 1 year old niece. It looks like a lady bug, and it has a smaller bug riding on its back. The smaller bug has legs with different shapes attached to the ends. The toy plays songs, and is great for education on letters,numbers, shapes and colors. I found it at Target. It's made by vtech, and it's called "Crazy Legs Learning Bugs."

one of our sons was really hard to buy for when his 1st birthday came around we took him to a toy store and walked around with him and then under our supervision let him go he walked over to the balls. very colorful one almost as big as him and pulled at it. that is what we got. not expencive but he loved it for the longest time. simple is always better. mom of 6. D.

Hi L.,

I have a 3 year old and am too a 35+ mom. For his first birthday, we got our son a ball pit-the kind that you blow up and has plastic balls in it. It has created a couple of years of fun and has grown with him. At first, he just held the balls and then he played with them and now is throwing them all over. There is a lot going on during that first birthday and if you are having a party, I would maybe wait a few weeks to give the present, so your little guy can absorb all of the other gifts as well. They never know the difference.

My daughter loved a felt nightcap with a pom-pom on the end, dress-up items such as hats and purses, a bright and very large (to her) ball, and board books. They don't require much (and are fairly unstable) so they will probably be more interested in the packaging. Maybe a plstic shovel and bucket.

Saw that somebody mentioned cake - HEB makes small 4" diameter cakes that are prefect serving cakes, or you can just give him 1 cupcake - still plenty for him. Get your camera ready and let them have at it - they don't really know what's going on but once they figure it out, look out - great photos will come your way! If you/he are sugar sentivie for whatever reason, just get a cup/cake without icing - you can request it at the bakery counter or make your own and they wont knnwo the difference but will still like and eat it.

Have fun!

That is a really hard age to shop for...My nephew just turned one... There is one thing he got that he really enjoys playing with... It's a kareoke(can't spell) elmo... it plays songs and has the microphone to sing along... he doesn't really use the mic but he loves to listen to the songs... : )

I would like to start off by saying you know your child best and so I am sure that whatever you decide will be good for him. Since you asked though I will tell you my experience with my boys and maybe it will help you. I have always tried to make it a special day with a cake and focusing our family's attention on them. One is a forgettable age for them, though. I realized that anything that I might do was more for me and less for them. That is not to say that I made it all about me but only that I know that there is little chance that they were going to remember much of what we did, excepting what they see in pictures. As far as gifts go my children preferred to play with the boxes more than the toys inside the box. That didn't stop me from buying the first two something but I wised up with the third boy and just gave him the box. He was super happy and really that's what it is all about making them happy. I hope this is helpful even if you don't choose to use my same methods.

My son isnt born yet but I have already picked out his first birthday present!! Its the KidKraft Harley Davidson Roaring softtail rocker. They sell it at amazon.com , here is the link http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000RX17CK/ref=wl_itt_dp...

My husband and I are Harley freaks so its perfect for us.

Buy him a roller coaster or an inside slide. These are toys that he can enjoy inside all year round.

At one year old they will be more interested in the box. There are many great toys out there and I'm sure that you probably have most of them by now. LOL. The ride on/push toys are great at this age. Just make sure it is developmentally appropriate for your child since there are such wide ranges of abilities at this age. We got our daughter a race car that turned into a scooter and a hope chest. The scooter for her and the hope chest for me. We have a tradition that I get to buy her something that she will appreciate when she is older. My parents got her a pink rocking horse.
Most importantly, have fun.

The first thing to remember is - (from a mother of 6) - HE WILL NOT REMEMBER THIS! lol. So, knowing that, remember this is really for you. The best first birthday any one of mine ever had was her own cupcake in her highchair with just a couple gifts to prevent confusion. At this age, she will love the paper and the box more than anything else. Save the all out expenditures for when they hit just a couple years older.

My guys loved balls and cars.
We bought a Hippo- ball pit, they still play with it (there're 7 and 3).

I had the same problem but moreso becuase my one year old has an older brother so we did not need much. Here are some ideas...

if he is getting ready for a big boy bed then you could buy him a bed room set.

Toys for outside, summer is comming so maybe a little kiddie pool or prinkler toy.

If he is not walking a toy he can walk behind now and later ride on.

I like educational toys, leap pad has a little touch leap pad that reads to the kids, they can enteract with it and the pages will not tear. They can use somehting like this for years to come.

Hope this helps.

My daughter just turned one on the 6th and my mom bought her a chair from pottery barn she loves it. I've noticed at that age they want to climb and get on things ,so the chair they can do that with. Good luck

We just recently celebrated our daughters 1st birthday in December. We bought her the Imaginarium tabletop Bead maze, Toys r Us has it for like $49.99. IT has 4 sides with a removable top that stores toys, it has a xylaphone side, magnetic/dry erase board, which we put the magnets up. and a notch maze on one side. She also loves the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn house. SHe crawls through the doors and plays with opening the windows. There is also a farm with animals that make noises and spin around on a turntable, at Target and Walmart that is a loved toy as well. Good luck!