We’ve had a wave of birthdays here the past month or so, I wanted to do a blog post to share my tried and true birthday presents that I love to get for my nieces, nephews, and my own kids! I will include amazon links to each product.
If you ever purchase any amazon products from MY link, I do get commission. If you buy, let’s just say, $150 worth of other stuff while you’re on Amazon by following my link, I also get commission on those things you purchase. It’s a way to support my blog and it is a way to score some great quality products. I just want to be honest with you guys. I would have raved about this product even if I didn’t make any money off of it.
The Perfect Toddler Gift!
Georgia and Gannon had their first birthdays at the end of February/beginning of March. Here are some suggestions for a one year old birthday gift!
Kelli specifically asked for a ball for Georgia to play with. Gannon’s first word actually that my mom has been working with him is BALL! Needless to say, they love to roll them and it is actually a form of communication/interaction by practicing to roll the ball back and forth to each other. Needless to say, every kid needs a good ball or two. I bought Georgia these sensory balls and a baby’s first toothbrush to go along with it!
There are four balls in the package. Carver got a little too excited and wanted to play with them too! They are easy to grip for those tiny one year old hands.
Gannon’s occupational therapist suggested starting to brush his teeth to work on densensitizing his gag reflex to help him tolerate different testures of foods. When I went to buy Gannon his tooth brush, there happened to be this package of FOUR toothbrushes to share with Georgia! It worked out great. These would make a great addition to any baby present or easter basket for anyone under the age of 2!
HERE is a link to the balls for only $11.94 right now! https://amzn.to/39RTMe9
HERE is a link to the toothbrushes – FOUR for $9.99 right now! https://amzn.to/39RTTq5
STEM Toys for Busy Minds!
We are going a little stir crazy in the Friedman house. I stopped by our local toy store just to check out some options to keep Carver busy. Carver is 3.5 years old and loves to be engaged and learn how things work. I explained this to the lady at the toy store who happened to be a retired STEM teacher. If you don’t know what STEM is, I didn’t either. It really started developing after I graduated high school but had taken off ever since. A quick google search tells me that…
STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.
She walked me around the store and showed me different options. They having coding games, robot games, it really is incredible how they can take such complex concepts and turn them into a toy for a three year old. I settled on buying Carver this game:
We had so much fun putting it together and making it go. We learned which color of gears could move which part. The lady at the store who sold them told me she had a hard time getting students away from them and she was right!
After some investigation into the brand Learning Resources and checking out their Amazon store front, I look forward to purchasing more educational toys from this brand. In the meantime, if you have someone who loves to tinker, I highly recommend this toy!
HERE is the amazon link to the exact toy I bought for Carver: https://amzn.to/3b0PH7T
HERE is a link to the Learning Resources amazon storefront – you can shop for toys based on age! https://amzn.to/38TbHQx
Bathtime UPGRADE!
I used to dread bath time. Seriously. It is just another task that needs to be added to the list. Now that Gannon can sit in the water independently and play without having to worry about him falling over, bath time is FUN again – especially with the addition of a few new bath toys!
As you can see, Carver turned the bathtub water PURPLE! I found these tablets at Walmart and I will be buying them for the rest of my life. Carver has such a fun time mixing colors – adding a purple, then adding a blue or a green. He says “I used my Elsa powers!” The tablets are a bit misleading – the purple is more of a pink and the orange is a bit more like yellow but it makes for a fun surprise! These would be fun for each grandkid in the easter basket!
One of the milestones/assessments they ask me about Gannon is if Gannon can scribble or color. They suggested buying bathtub crayons to help promote this skill to develop. Well Gannon doesn’t seem to grasp the concept yet, Carver loves his bathtub crayons! Most of the color washed off just from splashing by the end of the bath so don’t worry too much about the staining.
Now someone must think like I do because they put these two products together into one amazon link for quick purchasing!
For BOTH the bathtub crayons and the bath water tablets, HERE is the amazon link: https://amzn.to/2QwFU1F
For JUST the bathtub crayons a pack of two, click HERE: https://amzn.to/3aXKayY
For the bathtub tablets (two jars for $7.99) click HERE: https://amzn.to/2xFdko6
That’s all I have for today folks! I hope you can find something to include in an Easter basket or a birthday present for the little tots in your life!
Balloons filled with water are great fun in the bath!
That’s great that you have Gannon in OT so early. My daughter had feeding issues, speech delay and issues with eye contact (she would not make any eye contact). Her doctor didn’t believe me about her feeding issues and blamed me for them and also my husband was in denial about a lot of her issues. I finally got her evaluated at 19 months and into therapy at 21.5 months for speech. At that time she had one word she barely ever used (feeding therapy at 19 months was a complete fail and I pulled her out after 6 weeks and her speech therapist was also terrible so I pulled her out of there at 22.5 months too). Our third therapist we found when our daughter was 23 months was amazing. We discovered she has low oral motor tone, oral sensory issues and poor mouth coordination. Now at nearly 2.5 she is eating incredibly well and speaking in up to 7/8 word sentences. Her eye contact is perfect now. I wish I could’ve started her in therapy much younger like you’re doing for Gannon. It will make such a huge difference for him. The earlier the better. You’re doing a great job!