It’s Simon’s birthday next week. Two years old already – I can hardly believe it.
We’re having a hard time coming up with gift ideas for him. There are already so. many. toys. in the house that don’t get played with. He’s got all the toys that we bought for Tristan at age two, plus all the new stuff Tristan gets, and aside from his obsession with the Wiggles, we’re having hard time finding things that are distinctly Simon.
A lot of you have kids in the two-year-old range. What were the big hits from Christmas time this year? Any thoughts?
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Aquadoodle. Gawd…Cael LOVES his. Just the regular one, not the fancy Thomas Tank Engine one. I also got him the extra little stamp-pad set to go with it. And extra pens so we can all play. What else… He loves wooden puzzles. Dinky cars are a fave right now. MegaBloks….tho those take up space. But out of all that, the Aquadoodle gets my vote.
NO clue what I don’t remember that far back. Good luck and Happy Birthday Simon. I remember when Mommy was telling us YOUR story way back when.
Keegan likes playing with the Megablocks.
The BC Builders we got him at Christmas are not the hit I had hoped.
Thomas stuff?
Duplo, duplo duplo!
Duplo was making a castle system for awhile, and now they’re apparently selling it out b/c its discontinued. My uncle got my 2.5 yo DD a castle with a dragon and she is THRILLED.
I know a friend who actually re-gifted some toys that her 2 y.o. hadn’t played with in months.
Why not a tent/tunnel thingy of some sorts from either Ikea or Loblaws (unless you already have one). The tunnels store up quite nice and small, as I have seen. We have the $20 Ikea tent since they were 18 months and still a big hit. Can also be fun in the summer outside.
Does he like FP? Need something new (or rahter does your Beloved?) how about the castle?? Rescue heroes? More Wiggles paraphenalia? (they have jeans and shirts at Zellers)….
Just trying to help.
Well, as a Mom whose son (was) is a Thomas freak at age 1 (and still LOVES trains at 6, almost 7) some ideas for you that are not toys: train lamp for his room (instead of a nite lite) – we have a beautiful one that is quite heavy and will last, Lionel makes a train clock (we bought at home hardware) that we have where every hour the train goes around the clock and makes train sounds (except when the room is dark). This may drive mom and dad crazy, but there was nothing better for learning to tell the time. The Aquadoodle is a big hit with my 2 year old daughter (I saw someone else mention that one) and its brain dead simple! Or, the best present my son received this Christmas was a Via rail train ticket from his Nanny for a trip to Kingston and back.
I bought carpentry plan on eBay for a train table with trundle boxes that store underneath and then I asked everyone to buy either one or both of the Thomas train rails and Thomas tank engine cars – all in wood.
My stepfather made the table. Here is a link to my blog entry about it, including pics of the table: http://momcast.blogspot.com/2006/01/tis-better-to-give-than-to-receive.html
At his second birthday he got a wagon (to replace the stroller in warmer weather for long walks and a triccyle, which he still hasn’t quite got the hang of, but loves to play with all the same.
Other good ideas: a simple quilt with themed fabric in a pattern that would match your son’s interests – my sis made Kieran a blanket with four large squares alternating denim and machine print (because if it has a motor, my son loves it). Kieran LOVES his blanket, it’s the perfect size for naps.
Special friends are always a hit in our house. We have special stuffed animals that Kieran considers close friends: Kermit, a sock moneky (again, made by my sister and dead easy to make), a stuffed dinosaur that came with the book set “How do dinosaurs say good night” which you can get at Indigo/Chapters, a Nemo puppet that talks and a handmade “baby body pillow” that my sister made that is perfect for cuddling on (it has Kieran’s birth info ironed onto it).
Other ideas: books! DVDs!
The great thing about kids that are two…..they don’t really understand birthday’s. You could get them a cardboard box to crawl in to and they would be happy as pie!
We got our two year old a fluffy sleeping bag with his name printed on it. He loves “camping out” on the floor in his tent.
Tallulah is right–mine didn’t get it at all. He liked the boxes more than the toys. He really liked a lamp he got this summer that looks like a fish tank and the fish “swim” around–he likes it when they return to view. And Play-doh. And puzzles and books, both of which you probably have a bazillion of.
I second the motion re: the Aquadoodle. It’s not very expensive (twenty bucks?) and it has LOTS of play value. The foldable tunnel is great too. My girls (6 and 4) were still playing with theirs last summer.
I don’t know if you want to buy toys that are really only usable in the summer, but when the girls were about that age my in-laws bought them this inflatable thing we called the “jumpalene”. They adored it for many summers… as did all the neighborhood kids!
It looked a little like this:
http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Intex_Original_Jump_O_Lene_Inflatable_Trampoline
but it was much smaller and had these wall-type things to prevent unfortunate mishaps.
I completely admire the quilt thing but whew – where is this person getting the time to be a super mom? I am still working on the quilt for my third born. He is now 2.5 years old. It was not so hard when there was just one.
I love the trampoline. My kids would love to play that at your house. Add that to the mini pool you have and my kids will be there all summer long!
My daughter hit her train phase in her second year. She’s now a bona fide Thomas freak. We went with the generic wooden track and whatnot that we got for a reasonable price at Walmart and supplemented with the actual Thomas engines and accessories. Got lots more track that way and it didn’t break the bank….