Best Books & Toys for 1 Year Olds: Our First Birthday Favorites!
Hi friends!
There is a one year old in this house now! Time both flew and crawled by, especially since about 1/3 of her life has been in quarantine/safer at home due to COVID-19 (I literally can’t believe it).
We made banners, bought balloons (she was on the fence), baked a cake (she did NOT want it) and Zoom’d or FaceTimed with people to celebrate.
We didn’t go hog-wild on the gifts or anything but she did get a few things from us and family members - based on a mix of both what she’s gravitating towards at this age and what we wanted to start introducing - so I thought I would share a quick round-up of our favorite toys and books as we hit the big O N E for anyone looking for inspiration in their own gift giving.
TOYS
Walker
Katie had started pulling up on things/walking around the edge of the couch and coffee table a couple months ago so I was excited to get her something to help take those skills on the road (or…down the hallway at least) - there are a TON of these around with varying degrees of activities built in, but I specifically wanted a wooden one, and loved the idea of it having a block set since that will get a lot of use as she gets older too!
I fell in LOVE this Le Toy Van one and really had to hunt to find it in stock anywhere after I discovered it (it’s currently back on their UK website)
This one is also super cute and a little less expensive.
Musical Instruments
We’ve started banging on ev.ry.thing. lately and love the shakers that came with our bi-monthly Panda Crate (from Kiwi Co) a few months ago so I wanted to add some instruments to our play. This one is great because it’s fairly compact (our house isn’t huge so multi-use/compact items are a big consideration for us), and is also a pull toy! The drum/xylophone comes off the snail base, and the drum sticks are the antennae!
Shape Sorters
In addition to the blocks in her walker, she also has a little shape sorter to further hone hand-eye coordination, and learn shapes and colors.
Cars & Trains
Katie loves things that move! So we added a couple of cars to her collection (here and here), and my sister got us the start of a train set from Bigjigs Rail which I am SO excited to build onto for future birthdays and holidays.
Water & Outdoor Toys
We haven’t pulled the trigger on a water table yet (though the longer we are safer at home, the higher the chance we end up with one this summer! We like this one and this one)
We did however get a bubble wand and the cutest It’s A Small World water toys for more bath time/pool time/outdoor fun. Had to add a little Disney magic in here SOMEWHERE 😉 Plus, while she is generally a huge fan of the bath, she’s less sure of getting in the pool still, so we’re trying to find ways to make it more fun in addition to just keeping at exposure.
Dolls & Stuffed Animals
Katie is only just getting interested in stuffed animals or dolls - she mostly passes them up for other things. She has started to gravitate towards this Maileg hippo though so more of these might be on our list in the future, and we want to eventually add more diverse options to her dolls (she currently has a Princess Leia from Galaxys Edge and this one) so will probably get this other Corolle one or this gal.
BOOKS
Part of our baby shower involved friends gifting us with books so Katie’s library has been large from the very beginning, but we have recently picked up a few new titles to encourage learning some new things and adding some more diversity to our bookshelf!
Most of these links are from Amazon but I encourage you to see if your local bookstore has any of these picks as well (bonus if they have digital storefronts but hopefully they have curbside pick up if you aren’t wanting to spend time inside right now)
That’s our roundup for now, but I’d love to hear in the comments if there are any books or toys your 1 year old is loving too (or your 18mo old, or 2 year old!) to build up our wish lists.
