Thad turned 2 just ten days after Thatcher was born. Because I knew the timing was going to be tight, I had everything planned ahead of time. And by “I had everything planned”, I mean that I had it planned for everyone to do everything for me. Slight exaggeration, but my sister had offered to bring a birthday party to us, and I took her up on it.
I bought all of Thad’s gifts ahead of time from Amazon (my favorite way to shop). I try to maintain a level of organization with his toys, and buy him things that build on things we already have. I also really want to get him things that encourage his imagination, development, and keep him occupied for more than 2 seconds.
Play Doh Accessories: I wanted make better use of play doh than him just asking me to “make dog”, “make face”, “make cat”, and so on. I found this huge set of cookie cutters (extra bonus…now I have a huge set of cookie cutters for cookies). Strangely enough, we haven’t actually used these with play doh yet, he is entertained by just going through them and looking at all the different shapes. I also got him this placemat to play with play doh on, instead of having to scrape it off my kitchen table.
Stickers: He really likes the window decals that I have gotten him at the Dollar Tree. Those seem to be better at his age than real stickers that are only useable one time. I found this cool sticker book of reusable stickers and sticker scenes. This one has been a big hit, although he has to have someone take all the stickers off the the sheet for him.
Craft Supplies: This one is a no brainer, craft supplies are always good. The more you have, the better. Yes, they can be messy, but they can also occupy for a long time and be lots of fun. These items, along with the other things I got him are put up out of his reach. That way, we get them out at specific times, and they are not always accessible.
Whenever we have a gift-giving holiday, I always put EVERYTHING up and bring it out one by one. That way he is not overwhelmed with a ton of new things, and can focus on one thing at a time.
He also got some great stuff from the rest of the family. Lots of books (including books on disk, which he loves). Our families are really good about getting gifts that Justin and I approve of, and are in line with what we want our kids to spend their time doing.
We celebrated the weekend of his birthday. Justin’s parents were already in town, they had stayed most of the week prior to help me while Justin had to be out of town for training. My parents and sister with her family drove down for the day. They brought everything. Mom and my sister made lots of food. My younger sister who had to work made John Deere cupcakes (the theme of the party).
Thad had great fun opening presents and playing with his cousin (and Uncle Sam).
And we were all happy to have another chance to see new Baby Colby, who Thatcher met for the first time.
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