Vocal Voices

The daughter of friends of mine turns 1 on the 20th of next month and I'm totally stuck on ideas of what to even get her as a birthday gift. This child has everything plus more - they have enough for 10 kids! You may recall my posting January last year about friends who lost their first baby shortly after birth? Well this is their second baby and as you can imagine right from day one has (understandably) been spoilt by everyone. She is smothered in love and affection and equally smothered in toys and gadgets.

So just what on earth does one get? I'm leaning towards something to wear?

What do you think?

How about a book with the child as the central character?

Eg..once upon a time 'x' lived in a lovely house with her mummy and daddy. IYSWIM??

J and C got these from my parents for their Christmas (aged 14 months) and I have to say as a mum it was lovely to see their names in print..as it were.

I'm sure there are companies that still do this.

Sorry...not much help.

that sounds like a very good idea... provided I don't have to write the story that goes with it. I'll have a look into that

Ria..I googled 'personalised children's books 1st birthday' and there was lots of ideas there.

I hope this is of some help.

Thanks Ally, I had a look as well and that definitely is top of the list at the moment

I love that idea Ally!!!!

The one mum got J and C was so lovely..two liitle boys visiting Father Christmas for the first time.

I can get a lump in my throat just thinking of it..seeing their names written down made the story so much more real. Huggy huggy.

I got ones for my niece and nephew one year and was able to weave my children's names into the story asthe main characters friends. The site I used, you just add the names and anything else, and they plug it into their story and print it.


Or another idea is a treasure box. It's simple and kids love them and I wouldn't mind betting they dont have one. It's a shoe box filled with everyday items, like a rock, a leaf, a small whisk, large threaded buttons, nylon scrunchie ball thing, length of chain, a piece of string, pinecone, natural pumice stone, hair brush, feather, comb etc etc. make sure it is safe to be chewed and sucked which means natural materials are better.

My two spent hours playing with theirs. The chain was the biggest hit with both of them still. I keep it near where I change nappies, so they have it to explore while I do the change, which means they don't wiggle. My two started exploring it when eldest was 9months, now at 3.5 years she still comes back to it and looks. I change the items in it every now and then to keep it fresh and different. M

Weka, we did a similar 'treasure box' for ours. A picture of them at birth, and others as they grew - a birth spoon, used dummy, baby clothes, teething ring, rattle.....

We kept adding to it as they grew and they kept looking in to see what had changed. They are both in their twenties now and the boxes still exist!

Each of our 3 boys has one of those boxes WM...they're funny and amazing to look back on.