What Did You Get for Your Baby's First Birthday?

Hi A.,
The best gifts our son got for his first birthday was a set of puppets, and old fashioned top (the kind you have to pump), and the Vteck Rock & Sing musical car.

He still plays with all of them, and he's now 3.

The worst gift: a car toy with a steering wheel, horn, ignition, radio, etc. It was waaaay too loud, and every time he tried to play with it, he'd just cry. We ended up leaving it in the box and returning it to the store.

Also, as an OT, we were taught toys are age-rated by the toy companies to hit just 'after' their developmental stage, so that a child will know how to play with it right away, but not "learn" any new developmental skills. -- For example: a child begins developing fine motor skills between 6 and 9 months of age, but you won't find any "good" fine motor toys rated for kids *under* 9 months, because they don't want the parents to get put-off because their child can't play with the toy "well" right away, and has to go through a learning process (see? marketing tactic -- you'll purchase more from a toy company if you think your child "likes" their toys right off the bat). For a 1 year old, you may want to look for toys rated for 18 month or 2 year olds: he won't play with them "well" right away, but he'll get more developmental learning out of it.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't get him toys rated for his age, or even under. A child can learn from almost any toy.

Fun birthday!
T

A.,

We have two children, my daughter just turned 4 and my son is 27 months. For their first birthdays I wanted to get them something special; afterall they aren't going to remember it and so many other people got them toys. We got them both over sized piggy banks. They're made by Mud Pie. My daughter's says "Little Princess" and my son's says "Little Prince." Hers has a tiara and his has a crown. It was something that they would have forever and could maybe pass on to their children someday. It also helps to teach them about saving; they know that money goes in their piggy bank.

We got our son the Little Tikes Slide. It folds down if you need to store it. My boys are now 3 and 4 and they still play with it. I highly recommend the larger of the two slides as the small one is just too small. By the time he could do it himself, he will already be too big for it. I think the large slide is around $65.

Another idea would be to get a bouncy house from Little Tikes. Both of your kids will love it and will keep loving it for a very long time. If you go this route, be sure to cover it when not in use. The AZ sun will really do a number on it if you do not take care of it. We found this out the hard way and are now on our second one, but the kids both LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday to your little man!

On my son's first birthday we bought him a Little Tikes Coupe car. It was the police car. He is almost five and we sold it two months ago. It was something that had longetivity and we played with almost daily. His grandparents bought him a small little tikes playhouse and his other grandparents bought him a water table. All of these items were under $100. We had them all up until this past year.

We bought our daughter her first doll and stroller.

i babysit my grandosn and he will be one at the end of this month. since we are horse people we got him a horse swing made out of a tire. he loves going to the park and hates leaving the swing so we thought this would ba a good gift. it is smomething that he will enjoy for a long time. i had one of those swings for my youngest who is now 18 and he used it well into high school. of course that it was just for fun then but sometimes i found him outside laying over it jsut thinking. when his older brother s baby was born he took the swing down and took it to him. so now we are gettign one for our house for both of the grandchildren.

We bought our youngest son a sand and water table for his first birthday. It is great because both of the boys (3 and 1) can play with it.