Your Favorite Toys & Books for a 1 Year-old

carter makes basic simple clothing with cotton, some have ruffles and stuff, but most are simple, basic, and cute. as for the books, at that age MOST books that aren't basic hard page books, are at risk to be destroyed, ESPECIALLY if there are pop up pages! my daughter is 2, "reads" her dr. suess books great without ripping pages, plays with her coloring books without ripping pages (may tear the covers, but not pages) BUT anything pop up she completely destroys....it's just an age. i keep those books away from her, and sometimes read them to her, but once i'm done, they get put out of her reach! just a suggestion. gl.

Two things that my kid loved where Manhattan baby's circus tent with animals inside and a Melissa and Doug pull toy

Another vote for Sandra Boynton. When she's a bit older, check out John Farrell's books, www.johnfarrell.com

Try Dear Zoo and board books by Sandra Boynton both favorites that held up for us from about that age. Also if you are looking for basic t-shirts and onesies try my online shop at www.totstops.com for unique nyc destination t-shirts including a super cute Brooklyn Bridge t-shirt. check the member perks section for a coupon code.

Hi Gloria! One book that stands out in my mind is "Good Night Moon"... it is a cute book and there is a little mouse on each page. Your daughter (I assume because of the non-ruffled clothes inquiry) ;-) will love searching for the little mouse as you read through. Another book is "Guess How Much I Love You" - about a little bunny and his parent comparing how much they love each other... Enjoy your little sweetie - they grow very fast! :-) - K.

Sandra Boynton is my favorite for simple board books. She also does a lot of rhyming books, so they continue to be fun even for a 3YO (that age group loves rhymes). Toys should be simple, open-ended, and bright: balls, blocks, books, simple instruments. Favorites are Weebles and Fisher Price Little People (more chewable than Weebles, IMO). Both of those are good grow-with-me toys, as you can add cheaper or fancier items with each birthday/Christmas/etc. As the child gets older, these toys also encourage imaginitive play and interaction with other types of toys (my 3YO daughter uses her Weebles tree house as a "playground" for her 5" Disney princesses).

For simple clothes, try Babies R Us. They usually have 1 rack of solid color, unembellished tees and shorts for summer, not sure about winter, in sizes up to 48 months. I have also seen very simple classic designs from Lands End and LL Bean (don't forget to check the Sale/Outlet link).

Dear Gloria,

My son's absolute favorite book was called "Where's the Kitten?" It's a lift-the-flap book, where you "find" the kitten on each page. I think there's also a "Where's the Puppy" and "Where's the Baby" in the series. My guy was also a big Eric Carle fan, especially "The Very Lonely Firefly," where the fireflies light up on each page and "The Very Quiet Cricket" where the crickets chirp on the last page. "Pat the Bunny" is also wonderful.

I also second the recommendation of making your daughter her own book. When my son was 17 months, I "wrote and illustrated" a book for him called "The Book of Noah." Each page just had a single activity he liked, e.g., "Noah can drive his car. Vrooom!" When I gave it to him for Hanukkah, his little eyes just about took over his face, he was so thrilled and amazed that a real book had been written about him.

They're so sweet and easy to impress at that age, as long as you get her something sturdy and nontoxic (and read it to her a few thousand times) you can't go wrong.

Enjoy!

Sandra Boynton and Eric Carle are favorite authors around here!

For my daughter's first birthday she received the Baby Einstein ABC books. They come in a square box and they are little board books with about 3 pictures for each letter. They are fabulous. She loves to play with them and will sit and look at the pictures and will ask us to read them. She has not tired of this as a toy(taking them out and putting them in the box)and as a book. They are fabulous!!!!!

My daughter also loves to hear and look at the little Dr. Seuss board books. The big ones have too much writing but the little ones ie. Foot book, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb etc

Both of my kids loved the Fisher Price Little People lift the flap books.

We found that our four (now 25,23, 15 and 9) always preferred "books" that we made. We would take the small photo albums (snapshot sized), and put in photos of mommy, daddy, family pets, etc. including magazine cutouts as their vocabulary increased. Very durable, very portable, and can be changed as they grow.

Hello!
The sturdiest flap book that we have in our collection is "Tails" by Matthew Van Fleet. We also love "Peek-a-who" by Nina Laden, "Animal Kisses" by Barney Saltberg, "The Cheerios Play Book" by Lee Wade, all of Sandra Boynton's board books...and so many more! Happy reading!

What a great question! I am just as excited to hear all the responses as I am to contribute!

Duncan LOVES books. I keep a basket of books in the livingroom with his favorite toys and he reaches for those more often than the toys. He really enjoys the Sandra Boyton Books for the reasons given by the previous responders. The rhymes are fun, the pictures simple and colorful, etc. His ultimate favorite is The Going to Bed Book. He will request a reading of this book over and over. Other favorites are Brown Bear, Brown Bear By Bill Martin. The illustrations are by Eric Carle so they have great colors and textures. Speaking of Eric Carle, we read THe Very Hungry Caterpillar at least once a day. Because the foods are done each on their own pages that gradually get larger as the foods become more numerous, it almost acts as a lift the flap book and Duncan loves helping to turn the pages. We have been a bit overrun lately by tent caterpillars and the other day I put one on his toes to crawl around, to his utter delight, while I recited the Eric Carle story and he squealed and laughed! Our cousins gave him "My Little Animal Book" (which is anything but little) for Christmas. He just loves it and will spend lots of time turning the pages and looking at the large photographs of animals grouped by habitat in this oversized board book format. It is published by "Priddy Books: Big Ideas for Little People" who also publish other similar books like "My First Word Book," etc. This is a great one to share with your one year old as you can name the different animals with her and have her point things out to you. We take this one on the road with us and it keeps him entertained in his car seat for a long while.

Toys...He loves open-ended toys like blocks and his latest favorite...balls! He has just learned to throw them to people and gets so excited when you throw one back. He is also really into music. He has a little baby piano/xylophone combo thing we got him for his birthday and he will play along with songs on the radio or on TV (he will only attend to TV when there is music which I think is pretty awesome!). THis toy came with 2 drumsticks that we took off the strings that attached them to the toy and he drums on EVERYTHING. I have given up a muffin tin, a pot, a plastic container that held icecream, and a large bamboo spoon to his musical experimentation. Sometimes these household items are the best toys. Simple, open-ended and kids enjoy being able to play with real items. He uses them for everything but pretending to cook. My husband also put pennies in a plastic soda bottle, closed it tightly and wrapped the cap in tape for safety. He loves the sound it makes when he shakes it and the crackle sound when he squeezes it. He has a bin of stuffed animals in the livingroom as well and he likes to dump it out and I put all the couch pillows in the middle of the floor and he has lots of fun crawling over, under and around all those fluffy things.

The clothes I can't help you with. I have a boy and none of his clothes come with frillies or bows. Here is a link for BabyStyle coupons http://www.retailmenot.com/view/babystyle.com so you can get those styles you are drawn to or try shopping in the boys dept. Sounds strange but I find their clothes are much less fussy than the girls things and you can find cute things that are more unisex. Just skip the theme t-shirts and opt for solid colors or simple patterns. Just an idea.....

Good luck! And I can't wait to hear what the other mamas have to say!

S.

Hi Gloria
Hope you are having a great day. Out of touch with what toys might be out there for babies and toddlers, but I love LLBean and Lands End for clothes. They also last and wear like iron, yet soft and cuddly.
Enjoy that little one, time goes by fast and before you know it they are off to college.
SAHM of 4, including twin girls, who we homeschooled, & are headed off to college in the fall. Married almost 40 years, and soon to have an empty nest for the first time in our married lives. Our oldest was born almost 11 months into our marriage, and he was a college freshman when I had the twins 3 weeks before his 19th birthday. We'll be grandparents in August for the first time.
God bless you
K.

My kids adored all the Sandra Boyton books. They are sturdy board books with simple, colourful pictures and wonderful, funny rhymes. My girls are now 8 and 11 and these books have survived all my attempts to purge the baby books from their bookcase, since they refuse to give them up.

We love the Helen Oxenbury books, Tickle Tickle, Clap Hands, All FAll Down and Say Goodnight.

As far as books, my one year old just likes to eat them. She does have a few books that she plays with, I found books ar Barnes and Noble with things in them that she likes, like Elmo and dogs. She really doesn't sit to be read to yet. As far as clothes, I absolutlylove Carter's. I noticed you are from Pennington, I hightly recommend going to the Carter's outlet in Jackson by Great Adventure. I was there yesterday and bought my daughter's entire summer wardrobe and only spent a little over $100. My older daughter is 5 and my little one is even wearing some of her old Carters stuff. the outfits I bought yesterday were mostly one piece rompers/sundress. They were only $5 each!!!!! Good Luck!!

Goodnight Gorilla and Big Red Barn are two of our favorites. We got the board versions from Barnes & Noble.

Both my children have loved the Usborne Books Farmyard Tales from about 10 months on. You can find them with the touchy-feely and lift the flaps in the same book. My daughter especially fell in love with them. The series also has a little tiny baby duck "hidden" on every page so my 4 year old still likes to hunt him out. These books are great and grow with the child. They go from the touchy-feely to first readers. These books are super sturdy so even if you're child is rough on them they stand up pretty well...all of our books are hard cover with nice thick board pages.
Hope this helps

Hi Gloria,
My daughter loved Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see? by Eric Carle. You could also try some bath books. They're pretty sturdy and easy to wash. We have Spot the dog books, baby einstein and Blues Clues.

eric carle, todd parr, leo lionni, roger priddy, all great. as for clothes, i love old navy, gap, hanna andersson, gymboree (can be frilly and pricey, look for sales, but they look like brand new forever)and i really like h&m for girls clothes, not always the best quality, but they are reasonable (cheap!) and they have some really really cute stuff imo, not too foofy, great for play clothes, and adorable accessories.

Books are a must in our house. We have fostered a love of reading and this has helped my children excel in reading levels and school.

Its been a while since my children were that age, but we kept all their favorites. I remember the Berinstein Bears A book & B book etc. My son had that memorized we read it so much and he could read it to me when he was 3 just by looking at the pictures!

Some more of my sons favorites were Who Am I? by Sesame Street, Dinosaur ROAR! by Paul & Henrietta Stickland, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Very Hungry Caterpiller by Eric Carle.

My daughters favorite books were Biscuit books, Moo, Moo, Peekaboo! by Jany Dyer, Fluffy Bunnie by Creative Child Press, Chyrsanthemum by Kevin Henkes.

and many, many, many others. To many to list them all!

While some of those I gave you are a not the kind you want to let a 1yr old hold, its always nice to sit and read together. It was our special time before bed and they got to choose the book. We had lots on hand and still do. Going to a used book store, garage sales or thrift stores, you can purchase lots of variety on a low budget.

Enjoy your time together and foster the love of reading, its a gift to last a lifetime.

S. M
www.EmpoweringWomenForSuccess.com

try books by sandra boynton. they are wonderful!