My best friend son is turning 1yr old soon and I would like to get him something special, but can't come up with anything good. I plan to purchase him a savings bond, but I would like to give him something extra as well.
My son got a Tigger/Poo airplane for his first birthday and at almost three, he still loves it. When he was one it helped support him while he walked behind it or he can ride it. It has a foam propeller with lights and music. You can get it at Walmart for about $20.00 It has been used more than any other toy in the house and he has many.
Edited: My best friend bought my son a pushcar to help him practice walking. He's 2 now and still loves his car, and even had it in his preschool's 4th of July parade. If you're looking for practical, that is a GREAT gift. Another practical gift that can't go wrong is a nice wagon. We take our wagon on walks around the block, or to the park, and it's a MUST for trick or treating, which is coming up quickly. When little they can just ride in it, but as they get older they can pull it too: my son can walk halfway around the block pulling the wagon, and then I let him ride the rest of the way. We wouldn't be able to trick or treat without a wagon! We also use it during clean up time: he has to go around picking up all his toys and putting them in the wagon and then takes it all at once to his toybox.
If you're looking for sentimental, the rest of this is that...
I'm overly sentimental, I think, or maybe I just couldn't pick "just one" idea. I got my son a plain white Tshirt (adult size) and put his handprint on it and dated it. Took his picture with him in the shirt and every birthday he'll take a picture with his updated "birthday shirt" to see how he's grown. (New handprint, maybe a different color every time? New date). I also had a pretty large party because a lot of friends/family were meeting him for the first time on his birthday, so I had a table set up with a little child-size shoebox, decorated (like what we used to do in elementary school for valentines) and had pens and pre-printed slips of paper on the table....people could choose what paper(s) they wanted to fill out and then drop the papers in the shoebox. They were things like: "meeting you for the first time was..." or "you're special because..." or "you make me laugh when you..." and stuff like that. (Can't remember them offhand, but I had 5 of them). It was a chance to have something a little more personal than just a birthday card. At the party, I had a group picture taken of everyone there (paid a passer-by at the park $5 to shoot the pic so noone was missing). At one of the many festivals we have around here I bought a really cute decorated frame that says "My First Year" and has 12 little cut outs for one pic/month, and one big picture on top from the party, with some cute little cutouts the makers made. Everyone loves that.(Babyfest? But I've seen the same people at Grapefest and some art fest as well). For girls, I love the idea of a nice charm bracelet like from James Avery with the first charm. Since I had a little boy and he wasn't really "interested" in anything specific yet and hadn't developed hobbies, I thought the memory stuff was cool. We don't have to spend a fortune to have cool, well thought out gifts!
One more thing I saw at someone else's party: a little video someone made of combined video bits taken of a little boy's first couple years: from the hospital on up to the present, and at the end they had a picture of the boy sitting with a half-poster that said "the best is yet to come". It was funny, but very cool. At least, we all liked it.
Is his mom getting his pictures taken with the number one? Maybe you could take the both of them and have their pictures taken and make sure you get him some taken with the number one. Sears takes really good ones, I am not for sure Target has the number one but you can check with them. Also check out www.portraitinnovations.com. I love that place. They have a $9.95 coupon on line and mom can purchase more if she would like. I think you get greeting cards with this offer too. Good Luck and hope this helps!
If you want to get something special, it's better to get something for the parent that is child oriented, I think, because the child at 1 year old doesn't really care. You just never know what the little ones are going to love/enjoy or ignore at that age. Perhaps some sort of keepsake would be best.
I asked everyone to write a little note, which I put in a time capsule for my twins to open when they turn 18. I also included a newspaper from their birthday and a few other things.
If you're crafty you could make him a personalized book. Laminated paper or cloth depending on your talents. You could do a counting book, alphabets, animal sounds, etc.
I've still got one that was made for me when I was little. It's the Brown bear, brown bear style with hand colored (not drawn) pictures. A picture of me is on the last page saying "I see M. looking at me."
My three year old loves to read this one, because mommy's in it.
For my second son, I just told everyone to give him diapers and wipes! Of course, only my mom and sister listened.
:)
Disney bonds are fun- I would invest more in that and jsut a small toy for him to open- They are clueless at that age and I alwasy enjoyed the bonds for them
