Gifts for Lucy

I've had people ask me what to get Lucy for her birthday, and so I thought I'd share a little about what she likes so far and what we'd like for her to have. The easiest thing to do is look at Lucy's Amazon List. It's got a wide variety of things that can be ordered easily or serve as inspiration if you like to buy elsewhere. We do not mind used toys and clothes in good condition. Most of what we buy her is second hand.

What Lucy Likes: Music, Balls, Books, Bath Time, Fresh Fruit, and Destruction
Lucy owns a little drum, a recorder, a xylophone/keyboard, a maraca, some rattles, and two tambourines. She plays with all of them. Other instruments that can be shaken, banged, or blown would be a hit. She also likes to dance, so CDs, MP3s, or other music are also good ideas. She likes all kinds of music, but she reacts most strongly to classical music. Vivaldi's Four Seasons makes her bounce on the furniture.

Lucy probably has enough balls unless you find something really cool. She's got a variety of sizes and textures from ping pong balls to beach balls. But she's never met a ball she didn't like, so she would enjoy more balls whether she needs them or not.

Lucy owns quite a few books. We're limiting her to board books, fabric books, and plastic bath books for now because she's pretty rough on paper pages. She doesn't always sit still for us to read to her, but she regularly sits by herself flipping pages and looking at pictures. We have most of the Dr. Seuss board books and quite a few Sandra Boynton board books. There are many books on the Amazon list. If you have a favorite you'd like to share, that would be great. We also don't mind if we get a duplicate of something we have. We pack duplicates in the diaper bag or leave them in Matt's office for when Lucy visits him at school.

Lucy also loves bath time, so bath toys could be fun. We also use a lot of baby bedtime bath that smells like lavender. And she likes foam, but the bubbles would need to be edible because that's the first thing she'll do with them.

When in doubt, give Lucy fresh fruit. She loves mango, pears, peaches, watermelon, blueberries, and strawberries. She also likes trying new things. Is it weird to give a one year old a fruit basket? Not in this case. :)

Puzzles and blocks are supposed to be put together, but at this point Lucy just takes them apart. But she loves doing it. I like the chunky Melissa and Doug puzzles because she can play with the pieces as animal figures even when she can't put the puzzle together. We have a few wooden alphabet blocks, a set of nesting blocks, and some bristle blocks but could always use more. She enjoys it when I build something that she can take apart. Eventually, she will learn to build as well, so those are toys that will grow with her.

What I Want for Lucy
Lucy has started playing pretend a little. Everything she picks up--stuffed animal, puzzle piece, cup, blanket--is put to her ear like a telephone while she talks to it. She has also pretended to feed us with a spoon. Toys for pretend play--doctor's set, dishes, dress up clothes--will be something she will grow into.

We also like developmental toys. She already has a shape sorter, plastic chain links, and one ring stacker. If you know of other good developmental toys for toddlers, we like that stuff. She could probably use something that teaches fastening clothes with snaps, velcro, zippers, and buckles.

I don't know when she'll show interest in potty training, but she wants to be big so bad she can't stand it, so it wouldn't surprise me if she took to it early. We don't have any potty training supplies.

Other Things to Know
Since Lucy has not expressed an interest in princesses and other "girly girl" things, we're keeping her toys and clothes mostly gender-neutral. We don't consider boy toys or clothes off limits. We don't buy her things just because they are pink. We plan to give her lots of options and let her discover what kind of girl she is. She may decide to be a ballerina, but we're waiting to buy tutus until she makes that decision.

In general, we prefer toys that she can manipulate and investigate. Toys that play by themselves or repeatedly beg kids to play are kind of annoying. Things with microchips rather than mechanical parts seem like magic and can't be investigated in the same way. For example, I had the old Fisher-Price record player with thick plastic disks when I was little. I loved playing the Edelweiss record. It worked like a music box, reading bumps on the record. The new retro-looking Fisher-Price looks the same but uses sensors and chips instead of a music box mechanism. The old one actually lets kids investigate how sound is made, so it's the one I prefer. We aren't against electronic toys, but so far we've tried to choose them judiciously.

She doesn't intentionally watch much television. We've started watching Sesame Street sometimes, but she mostly plays and looks at the TV occasionally. She does like to interact with my Kindle Fire. She has a couple of apps that she plays with. There are some more book-related apps on the Amazon wish list that she might enjoy.

Lucy owns so many stuffed animals that we've only given her some of them to play with. She hasn't shown much interest in them yet, but that may change as she learns to pretend. Her favorite is an opossum. It looks like roadkill when she leaves it on the living room floor. She has a couple of dolls. She chews on them or laughs at them, but she doesn't really play with them yet. I've started modelling how to play with these things, so we'll see if she catches on.

She is currently wearing size 12 month clothes. She has been running at least a month behind what the size would recommend, so I expect her to be in 12-month clothes for another month or two. There are a few things she needs: a long-sleeve dress, long sleeve white onesies, and neutral colored socks with grippers on the bottom (bonus points if the socks look like shoes--man, I love shoe-socks!). She refuses to walk in shoes right now, and she'll need something to keep her feet warm as the weather changes.

Hopefully, this gives you some idea of what kind of kid Lucy is and what kind of family we are and helps you feel confident if you are selecting a gift.