Big gifts for 1st birthday, Christmas for a 13 month old?

[smilequeen]

DS turns one right before Thanksgiving, so will be 13 months at Christmas. I guess I like to plan ahead :)

So, what I have come up with so far is

-Train table. I already have one for him in our storage room, what do you get to go with it for this age? Anything, or do they just randomly play on it until they are old enough for a train?

-Kettler trike...not sure which one yet.

Is there anything else cool I'm missing?

How about smaller gifts that I can tell the grandparents about?

I have nothing against any particular kind of toy, but I tend to like the quieter wooden toys better...

Thanks :)

[dules]

Hi there! My DD turned one on 11/28 last year so I know just where you are coming from! It seems like a lot in one short month, and then a whole long year in between.

This is what we did:

Our big gift to her was the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Learning Home. She loves it and plays with it every day. This was for Hannukkah (DH is Jewish, my family is Catholic, so we have her birthday + 2 gift holidays in a month). For her birthday we gave her the LeapFrog table, which she no longer plays with and I've put away. For Christmas we gave her some smaller toys as we traveled to my parents' for the holiday: Haba Big Voyage set and a Brio Hammer Ball toy.

Gifts from family: Birthday: Fisher Price Little People House (still a favorite), some stuffed animals. Christmas: Baby Doll, board books, Push/Walker toy. Hannukkah: Melissa & Doug wooden food (set aside for this year).

I think the train table is a great idea but he probably won't be ready for trains until he is closer to two. But as he gets more into pretend play (maybe middle-late summer) he will certainly like playing trucks etc. (tea party?) on the table. And at 1 and up it will be nice for blocks, duplos, etc.

If you don't object to the plastic toys a Little People set (the barn maybe?) would be nice to play with on the train table too. Then also think ahead to things like simple wooden puzzles, good-sized blocks, etc...if you're OK with it a doll is a nice gift for a one year old.

We ended up getting the most mileage out of these toys for the year. We live in a place where it's cold in winter so we got her a sand/water table in the summer (easier to find then anyway), my parents gave her a Cozy Coupe car, and we picked up some Little Tikes climbing toys on eBay and local garage sales.

Hope this helps and have fun planning! I always think how extra thankful my Thanksgiving baby makes me!

Best,
Mary

[betsydenny]

My little guy just turned one and we asked for balls and things with wheels and both have been a great hit! We got a fun megablocks car carrier truck with some cars that everyone loves and assorted other cars and trucks and some fun balls of all sizes.

DS is also just getting into playing with our FP Barn and the Little People that come with it. Loves to dance to the song. so cute!

good luck
Betsy

[nfowife]

One present that I've given to lots of our friend's babies for their 1 year birthdays is magazine subscriptions to either Wild Animal Baby magazine or Babybug magazine. If you order from magazines.com through ebates, 20% of the price is rebated back to you so it's a great deal! I think it's a good smaller gift because you get a whole year out of it (unlike all the other presents at once, it might get lost in the pile) and it is a sturdy board-book type of magazine that you can keep and read over and over and add to your book collection. Everyone I've given these to has loved them! They also have fun activites for the parent and child to do together, WAB in particular is great because it has real pictures of baby animals.