I’m several weeks behind in posting picture – we’ve been having lots of nice weather days hence many opportunities to take pictures. The following pictures were taken in March.

Have you ever gone to get a gift for a toddler and then realized you’ve forgotten what toddlers like? I have . . . Hmmmm, what does an 18-month-old like to play with? I don’t remember!  Because of this, I’ve determined to keep as list of the things my children enjoy at certain ages so I can use the list as a help when I’m trying to get gifts for children long after when I’m in the midst of certain age ranges. (Josh told me to share my random incomplete list, so here goes.)

These ideas are based on things/activities we’ve noticed that our kiddos enjoy.

Books! Books! Books! I cannot stress this enough. Books are a wonderful gift to any child. . .a gift that also gives to the parents and other siblings too. Becca loves books. She’s been given all sorts of gifts, including technology, but books are always the thing she goes back to. I’m finding Isaiah likes books too. He’ll sit and flip through our board books for quite a while. So when in doubt – buy books for the children in your lives.

The pictures I’m sharing are events related to books we’ve read. Becca loved making a gingerbread man after we read The Gingerbread Man (above to the left). One of the authors we enjoy is Jan Brett – great stories and beautiful art. Our library is stocked with Jan Brett books.  One of Becca’s favorite Brett books is Hedgie’s Surprise. It’s about a chicken named Henny trying to keep her eggs from the Tomten who eats them every morning. We got the books from the library and then Becca’s Grandma Jensen gave her the book. Last month we had our dinners for eight church meal at the Gamblins. Bob and Martha have chickens in their backyard. Becca absolutely loved chasing “Henny” all around the yard. And she was thrilled to be able to hold Henny.

Detour here: We’ve loved getting to know people from our church during our time with dinners for eight.  It’s been such a neat way to fellowship with people from church on a monthly basis. We’re really going to miss our church in Arlington.

Other gift ideas:

1) Craft items – play dough, paint, pom pom balls, eyes, glitter, craft sets, markers, crayons, stickers, etc. Most moms can’t just go out and stock a craft cabinet. Becca loves to make things – she loves to paint and get messy. And a great thing about craft gifts is that they can be used and then discarded!

2) Imagination gifts – blocks (got to have them, and lots!), plastic animals (Becca has several Little People animals and plays with them regularly), cars, puzzles, kitchen and play food, magnetic alphabet letters and number, Magna Doodle, wooden train, etc. These are gifts that help the children use their imaginations. With the exception of the puzzles, these don’t have to be used for one thing – they can help with all sorts of adventures throughout the day.  A word about stuffed animals – I know some parents are particular about having too many stuffed animals in their homes. Becca loves her animals and would have a room-full if she could. One helpful gift idea is to give a stuffed animal that goes with a book.

3) Outdoor Fun – chalk, bubbles, balls, kites, water balloons, and squirt guns.

A word about technology – currently Becca has 4 different types of alphabet related computer-like toys. Though they were interesting at first, she doesn’t really pay much attention to them now. Her Babar books are way more exciting. I’m finding at her age, things with batteries are cool for a short while and then they cease to be interesting. I’m guessing this is because they are limited in their function. And another word of advice: wrap the gifts, if only with tissue paper. If the gift has multiple parts, take them out of the packaging and wrap them all (well, maybe not a set of 100 crayons…): unwrapping the gift is one of the best parts for toddlers.

So – there’s my rather random list of gift ideas for toddlers. I guess I would include Isaiah (a 10-month-old) in this list – he also loves books, blocks, plastic animals, bubbles, play food, etc. I haven’t tried many craft items with him yet. . .I’m sure he’d love eating them!

There’s at least one other list I’d like to record for myself: gifts/helps for young mothers (and maybe another for families going through stressful times). But we’ll see if I ever get to that. We’ve been having a week full of picnicking and being outside. . . who wants to blog when you can spend time with the family!