I mentioned back here how I am not anti-presents at Christmas. So, in that vein I thought it would be so nice of me to show you some of our family’s Best Ever Gifts!! What you need to do here is not go “Black Friday” shopping and instead shop like a sane person ONLINE where you will get Ah-MAZ-ing deals from the privacy of your home. My one exception to this don’t-go-to-the-store philosophy is if you’re going to shop at a small business. If you’re going to do that then go hog-wild.
Yes, the following links are Amazon Affiliate links. So if everyone of you click through and buy something then I will be able to
retire purchase our next box of diapers for
Pickle my child who un-potty-trained himself
almost for free. Don’t be a hater, diapers are expensive.)
I’m starting with what has to be the best present I have ever received!! My
ipod Touch, without which my world would stop going round. This is one of my best parenting/therapeutic parenting tools. I love it. Love it. And I’m ignoring the fact that my barely a teenager niece has a newer one than I do.
Second to my ipod, has been my
Kindle. I go through more phases of use with this than with my ipod which I rarely let out of my sight. But every time I use it, I like it more. Plus, I’m not reading half as much as I used to so it’s not just that I’m not using my Kindle, it’s that I’m not able to read much. There is a ton of free and/or very cheap content for the Kindle as well. I didn’t know that before I got one and I probably would have been asking for one sooner if I had known that. It’s not a big money-suck like I thought it would be. I mean, it *could* be, but if I’m able to be responsible with it anyone can. And they’ve got newer ones now and more price points so I’d definitely be checking this out if you have a reader on your list.
Okay, now moving on to the kids. These toys are all well-played favorites of
ours the kids that they
play with every day! I’m going to do books on a different day because there’s so many great ones.
Creative Play
- Calico Critter Cozy Cottage & Family: I chose this one so that she could have a doll house, but without having to realize (subconsciously or otherwise) that whatever family we bought for it wasn’t going to reflect her family. I wanted something small and well-made. This has been awesome. This has also been a very calming and “organizing” activity for Boohoo when she needs some quiet time.
- Fisher Price Walk-In Deluxe Kitchen: The main requirement here was that it be big enough that multiple kids could play at the same time. This definitely works, but is large. It’s been very sturdy though and all the kids play with it every day.
- Melissa and Doug Ice Cream Set: This is the most played with food items. It’s also the one that inspires me to get rid of some of the junky plastic food that we’ve acquired and just have a few really nice sets like this one.
- Green Toys Tea Set: This is a very cute and eco-friendly little tea set…that we pretend is for coffee. When I’m “on my game” we also use this to practice some table manners. lol.
- Baby Stella Dolls: This whole line of dolls is all called Baby Stella. We have “brown” Baby Stella and we have “boy” Baby Stella. Boohoo and Pickle each got one for Christmas last year and they are the most played with out of a small collection of dolls. They are soft-bodied dolls, but they have a little magnet on the inside near their mouth so that their pacifiers stick into place. They are very cute and we’re actually getting a few accessories for Christmas this year.
Building Play
- ">Zoobs (including Zoob Mover and the Zoob Bot): We got our first set of these when Peanut turned 3 and we’ve been adding sets on since they. This is an unjustly unknown toy set that is great for boys and girl and provides for hours and hours of creative, fun, child-led play. This is a great gift for the preschool set. (This company also has crazy-good customer service!)
- Legos & Duplos: Really, I don’t think I need to explain anything here. Peanut loves to build and just "graduated" from Duplos to Legos, but Pickle and Boohoo still play with the Duplos and they are what we have available in the playroom.
- Wooden Blocks: Again, there’s no reason to say “why” these are a great toy, but if you don’t have any of these get some!! I did link to the specific sets that we have, the ones that I could remember like the set we got for Pickle on his first birthday. (sniff, sniff)
- Wooden Train Track: Peanut got his first set of these when he turned 2, and again we’ve just added a set here and there since then. We’ve got a big bin full of them in the boys’ room and they’re another Daily Toy. All train tracks are the same and the pieces all fit together. We started with this small Melissa & Doug Figure 8 set, and added some Circo sets. The Melissa and Doug set is PERFECT for a first train track for the 2-3 year old set and is half the cost of other brands
Misc Play (aka: my weird kids)
- Hexbugs: this is a new thing for us in the last month or so. I bought one little starter set for the Hexbug Nano because (ahem) I wanted to see how it worked and because I was thinking about putting them in everyone’s stocking, but wanted to be sure they were interested. It’s a yes! These little buggy-things are pretty entertaining to the kids. Peanut and Pickle are the most interested and will sit and play for an extended time. Peanut got an additional little set for his birthday as well. The sets are definitely the way to go because you get the Nano bug and the track for him to run on.
- Bilibo: My kids play with this weird little thing a lot. They mostly use it for a stool or to sit in and spin around. The kitten likes to hide under it. He does not like to be spun though.
There are always cars, trucks, and rockets being driven/flown around. The kids will rally around playdough and stickers with just a moment’s notice. We have books and movies that we love. Peanut has really taken to drawing as soon as we got him his own box of crayons and drawing journal. The babies like dress up clothes. We have a mini-trampoline and bicycles and shovels for playing in the dirt and on and on it goes. But, that list is definitely our Every Day Toys (and did you notice that they’re almost exclusively battery free?)
What are the every day toys at your house?
