2Nd Birthday Gift Ideas

LEGO has a nice group of sets for her age, castles and such. My daughter loves them. And yes, babies and kitchen things, wooden fruits and veggies, etc.!

Hi A.!
I teach in a toddler program and the 2 year olds enjoy so many toys and activities..You can certainly purchase a wide variety of toys and books.. lakeshore learning is where we buy a lot of our classroom toys and resources.. you can go on their website and they have a store in Palatine on Rand and Dundee.. they have wonderful educational toys and great craft items too!

Children also enjoy playing with everyday items as well that you could pick up at a garage sale and so forth. The kids in my class love the dress-ups.. with shoes.. purses.. hats.. pretend and real phones, dolls and the like.. Pretend play is a wonderful stage of development for young preschoolers and they love to pretend they are like the adults in their lives.

If you don't have a sand box with sand toys or a little kiddie pool where your child can fill and dump water and sand with a variety of bowls and pots.. that is an idea too!

Also, you can make your own playdough, the kids LOVE toplay with that for hours..and pick up some cookie cutters and playdough tools..rolling pins.. and pounders.. they sell these things at lakeshore.. all sorts of neat things to use with playdough.. you will go nuts in that store looking at everything!!

I can give you my recipe and it is readily available if you just google it and it is also in toddler craft and activity books too.
Good luck.. also reading to your child is the BEST gift you can give her!!
hope that helps!
have a great evening!

Anything by LeapFrog is excellent. I got my daughter the "My First Leap Pad" when she was about 2, she is still using it as well as the "Leap Pad Learning System" to this day. (she is 4 now) She also loves her building blocks, I think they are "Mega Blocks" they are large so there is no threat of swallowing them. Hope this helps insipre some ideas for you. And Happy Birthday to your little one.

This won't be a gift for her, but a great resource for you. Tanya Remer Altmann's "The Wonder Years" is a great book that you can use as a guide for "helping your baby and young child successfully negotiate the major developmental milestones". You can go to www.aap.org to purchase it.

The book covers gross motor, fine motor, sensory, mental, and social/emotional development at many ages and activities/toys you can use to help your child. It's an easy read with lots of information for you in helping determining what activities your child may enjoy and find appropriately challenging. It includes both activities your child can do on her own as well as ways you can play with your child.

As a first-time mom, I've really enjoyed reading it. It's not full of heavy medical jargon, nor is it preachy or slanted towards any particular parenting philosophy.

Try going to The Chalk Board store or any other "teacher" stores. I have found great things there.

If your daughter is into fairies and princess stuff, there is a book that can be personalized just for her. It's a story about picking a fairy princess using all the letters of the child's full name. I got it as a gift when my daughter was born and thought it was the neatest idea!!! I think it'll be very nice when she is older and reads the book about herself!!
http://www.iseeme.com/index.html

Hi A.!

Ya know the best thing I ever bought for my son was his power wheel. We bought for him on his second birthday and he is 5 now and still loves that thing and drives it almost everyday! It was so fun watching him learn how to steer and create all kinda different routes he would take. When daughter turned two I immediatly went and got her one too. They have sooo much fun riding together. They also have pretend velcro seatbelts in them and the kids never drive without buckleing up first!! Its so cute. So yeah maybe consider that. It has seriously brought some good laughing fits on for me and my husband watching them pretend to drive away while being "so important" and "growm up"!

I don't know if you have already had any experience with them but, I really like Discovery Toys. They have some great educational toys. My almost 1 year old son has quite a few of them and really enjoys them. Just a thought. I can send you a catalog if you like - I won't pressure you like the other sales reps - I really only joined to get good discounts on the toys for my son. If you would like a catalog - let me know - I promise not to follow up after it - I honestly just enjoy there toys and want to share them with others. I hope you have great success in finding the right birthday gift! I'm getting ready to shop for my sons 1st birthday! : )

Take care!

My 2 yr old daughter loves her play kitchen. Don't know if your daughter has one or not, also she is really into puzzles at the moment. Another idea is a chalk board. Good Luck!

how about a wagon? My daughter loves to ride & play in her wagon. Leap Frog toys are fun & great learning toys for any age. Memory games, water paints, just a few ideas