2. Cozy Coupe Need I elaborate? Cozy Coupes are just the best.We have two and often if the weather is bad, I will bring them in the house.
3. Giant Stuffed Alligator My parents bought this for my oldest child almost six years ago before he was born. All three of my children actually play with it, pretending to ride it or wrestle it. More recently, my son started sleeping with it every night. I guess its kind of like a body pillow.
4. Toy Pizza This may be a pizza, but my children also pretend it's birthday cake or pie. The other night, behind my back, they turned the pan over and spread some leftover hummus on it, pretending to ice a cake. I wasn't real happy about that. But they were so thrilled with themselves I didn't have the heart to fuss.
My two year old also loves to cut and slice through the Velcro pieces over and over and over.
5. LEGO Duplos I actually put all our Duplos up a few weeks ago to take them out of circulation for a while and give them a rest. Within two days my children were asking where they were. These seem to hold their attention span longer than any other toy.
The beauty of each of these toys is they are all gender neutral and appeal to kids ranging from age 1 - 5. I think any of these would make great first birthday gifts.
What are your kid's all time favorites?
I've heard these Magnet building tiles are fabulous.
Here's a list of what stayed:
Legos
1 basket matchbox cars
3 stuffed animals
2 baby dolls
3 - 4 tractors
magna doodle
train table and trains
play kitchen
1 set toy sandwiches
1 pot
1 spoon
1 knife
1 tea kettle
a few bath toys
box of art and craft supplies that contains construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, crayons, & water colors
2 boxes dress up clothes (boys and girls)
outside toys (bike, tricycle, scooter, cozy coupe)
As you can see there are still plenty of toys to play with. But to give you an idea of how much I put away, I have 4 large boxes of toys packed and stored to rotate later.
The neatest thing I have observed since packing up so many of the toys is how hard they play with what they have. Stephen (age 4) has fallen in love all over again with his alligator, Shaun (formerly known as Jean Bordeaux). We take Shaun to the park, to speech therapy, to the store. We put Shaun in a seat belt. He gets a snack, an occasional bath, and he has been known to dress him up as Super Shaun a time or two, sporting a cape. His imagination has run wild with Shaun. I believe there is a direct correlation between the toy overhaul and his new found friendship with Shaun. Quality over quantity.
My daughter (age 3) loves her Melissa and Doug sandwiches and often they double as "pancakes." She flips them with her one toy knife.
Less is truly more. And it does not take me a long time to clean up. In fact, it is such a reasonable amount of mess, I actually get them to clean up. And they do it!
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