Best birthday present for one year old?

[Forevercurious]

DS is one soon and I feel totally stumped about birthday / Christmas presents. Ideas I’ve considered so far are:
A trike
A balance bike ( may be better to wait until he’s nearer 2?)
Pop up tent and tunnel (already have a ball pit)

Grandparents are getting him some toot toot car play sets and vehicles as he’s just started playing with his little cars. I’ve already brought him some books and a small wooden train.

I was just wondering what presents and toys went down best at this age? :)

[BertieBotts]

The chunky cars are great. Toot toot are OK but the wheels are a bit fiddly, I prefer the Happyland or ELC magnetic or Fisher Price Little People cars, for a better size. The plastic chunky Tonka Trucks are also really great. There are also some really good wooden cars from companies like Haba. They have a more stylised look but they do the job and DC enjoy them.

Too young for balance bike IME, but it's a great age for a wheelybug or that one which looks like a bug eyed spider with four legs, I forget the name. The key is wheels which swivel, so they don't have to line it up to change direction, which they find tricky. You also need something that doesn't fall over when they lean on it at this age as they aren't very stable even if they can walk.

Push along walker is the absolute key 1yo birthday present! Or a wooden truck, preferably with a set of blocks inside :)

Mega blocks also went down fantastically well - Duplo is too stiff at this age, but wooden blocks are frustrating to build with as they lack the dexterity to balance things (they enjoy bashing them together to make a sound, or putting them in and out of things :))

Also anything involving big balls (ball pit size) that you put into tunnels and things is a big hit. And anything you can put inside other things, like a shape sorter or stacking toys.

If you have the space, something like the curved boards they can crawl over, climb on and practice balancing are also great fun, but they do need a big room IME.

Also loads of board books! This is prime board book age, especially anything with sounds or textures to feel, and lift the flap if you don't have a child who likes ripping/can store them out of reach.

[Ilovechoc12]

One of those ride on - can do it in the house .... more stable than balance bike

Also little tikes cars perfect age

[BertieBotts]

IKEA also do a little set of pretend kitchen stuff, made to go with their toy kitchen but I found DC was fascinated by the accessories at age 1. You can then add the velcro, cuttable toy food at age 2 when they start getting into role play and the pretend kitchen at age 3 when they really understand what a kitchen is.

[BertieBotts]

Start a basic Brio/wooden train track collection. At age 1 just the trains or some cars which go on the same tracks are chunky, easy to use and they are fascinated by the magnets. Some simple tracks and then you can build on it every birthday/Christmas and makes a nice easy present for family/friends who can just buy a small piece towards it. DS1 stopped playing with his around 6/7 but he will happily build tracks for DS2 now and he's 12.

Add in battery powered trains at age 3 or 4 and they will be absolutely thrilled :)

[Moonsbury]

They will
Get so many toy presents I would go with something useful.
We got ours a mini armchair that he sits in when playing at the coffee table with cars or puzzles etc- he's now 3 and still
Uses it everyday, plus it's very cute.

[Erictheavocado]

One of dgs best 1st birthday presents was a set of instruments. It included different bells - both to hold and some to velcro to wrists or ankles, a tambourine, maracas, xylophone , triangle etc, all contained in a backpack. It was quite pricey, so good quality and has lasted very well. He also received some ride on toys and a contraption which starts as a pushchair but will eventually become a sort of bike.
this is the sort of thing.

[dreaming174]

We got our little girl the little tikes activity Garden and its fantastic. She plays in it all. The. Time. Best toy we've bought.

[Camomila]

I vote for pop up tent and tunnel, DS1 still loves the pop up tent at 4.5, it was also very handy to store stuff in at the beach/keep baby DS2 contained.

[mam0918]

my DS got this last year for his 1st

www.homebargains.co.uk/products/5527-mega-bloks-cat-dump-truck-large.aspx

he got other bits and pieces too but I cant remember what

[Forevercurious]

Great ideas thanks everyone :D