1st Birthday present ideas please!

[sparkymummy]

My little lad will be 1 in about 6 weeks and his Grandparents want some ideas on what to buy him. We are not really into electric toys (prefer wooden stuff really) and want something that'll last, and that he'll enjoy playing with for a long time to come. I think they'll be spending around £30 to £40. I wondered about something to play with outdoors but we have a weeny postage stamp of a garden so nothing huge!

We got our DS a sandpit for his 1st birthday and he has had soooo many hours of fun in it, he thinks it's the best thing ever. He'll be straight out there now as soon as he's up from his nap. It was about £40 in John Lewis, but I think Argos do the same one now too. It's a nice wooden one, not too big.

Boys are so much harder to get 1st birthday presents for.

We got our little girl a charm bracelet and each guest was asked to contribute with a pendant that "represented" them. It was hugely successful and everybody enjoyed searching for a pendant that matched them.

As for our wee boy, because we did not feel we could do the same for him, we tried to concentrate on the fact that he is half Scottish, and we got him a flask with his name and date of birth engraved on it. That will last him a life time, he can pass it on to his children, and we are pretty sure that is one of the first things he is going to remember when he puts on his kilt in his young age .

wheelybug?

last well

Thats wierd aDad, my fiend just suggested one of those too, are they ok to use outside as well or more an in the house toy?

friend

more for inside I guess, but sturdy and dont see why you couldn't use them on any hard flat surface outside like paving or decking etc. Not much cop on grass.

They're great though

We bought our little girl a little ride on Winnie the Pooh "car" from John Lewis. She loves it. She has played with it indoors all Winter and now takes it out into the garden. She loves opening the storage seat and keeps all sorts of things in there. She has just turned two and still plays with it everyday. Highly recomended!

definately recommend a wheelybug. If you do, go for the larger size. My dd used hers as a walker first and then to ride on when she was about 18 months. She still rides on it nearly age 3.

I bought DS a ride on trike thingy, that you can push along, then when they are older they can pedal themselves. He has so many toys I didn't know what to get him, and this was perfect. He loves being pushed around in it, we have no garden but up and down outside, and to the swings. You can get wooden ones, I got plastic type.

Definitly something trolley-like to push around, there are loads that come with wooden blocks too, blocks are good if you don't have any yet. My DD is aproaching 3 and still loads her trolley with animals and whizzes round, so very good play value. If you're near an Ikea they do wooden ones quite cheap.

Would recommend a ride on too, wheelybugs are good.

Also those puzzles with a shape to lift out and eg for easy grasping

we bought our ds a push along/ride on car from elc, its's great indoors & outdoors also recently bought a plastic sandpit from elc too which you can have water in too, he loves both & easily can be taken apart & stored in garage till next summer.

we got dd a cow wheely bug from funkymoose.com

her grandparents have got her a trike with a parent handle

other people have got her a paddling pool, and a tent with a tunnel attached.

Same as The Gradener we got DS the sand and water table from ELC and DS really does love it. Also a little armchair which he feels very grown up in.