Monday, January 2, 2012

lessons from a toddler christmas

I ordered most of Evan's gifts online. Reading the reviews and consumer comments helped me pick out some stuff that looked really fun and interesting. I was so excited to see him playing with some new toys and puzzles. Boy, I was way way off base with my gift choices! He really only likes one thing, which was not even from Dad and I! So here's my list of gifts to Evan:
  1. A tent that was MUCH bigger than I thought. It stands about 4.5 ft tall and takes up half of his room. He crawled through it a couple times and walked away....It's going back to Costco.
  2. An easel with a chalk board and white magnetic board along with easel paper, markers and crayons. He's not really tall enough to use it well. He drew on it a little bit then started to eat the crayon and draw on the couch. I looked closer and the easel is for 3 years old and up....I didn't see that when I ordered it. It's going in the garage for 2 years....
  3. An little chair made just for little people. He uses it sometimes but mostly to stand on and give me heart attacks. He'll sit in it to eat his snack for like 5 minutes. I'll keep it around but I should have given this more though before dropping $70 on it....
  4. A ball popper push toy. He likes this for a few minutes a day. Usually in the early morning...It's loud. I trip on it. I'll keep this in his room but it's not an attention keeping or learning type toy. I wasted more dough here :(
  5. A climber/slide contraption for the backyard. Now, this was from the Grandparents. It's sweet. Evan climbs up the ladder throws balls off the top and slides down the slide all by himself (of course I'm standing right there so he doesn't fly off or tumble down the slide) all while laughing and squealing and staring over the side in awe at how tall he is. He plays on this for 45 minutes or more and gets really upset when it's time to go inside. Clearly he is an outdoorsy type kid and I should have focused on that when gift buying. The kid loves to be outside and run around.
The big lesson here: I don't need to spend a lot of money on toys that don't suit my toddler's personality. They'll just clutter up the house and serve no purpose. Just because I thought the toys were cool, doesn't mean my child will. Focus on what he already likes and build on that. Also! Pay attention to age limits!

Evan is a 17 month old who likes being outdoors or in the kitchen playing with pots and pans and spoons. He's really active and loves to climb and run. He's not into drawing and making forts just yet. I need to be more observant and stop making him grow up faster than he is!

Oh, the lessons of parenting. Did you get your kid something they aren't interested in?

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