What to put in a Toddler's Easter Basket (Besides Candy!)

Easter is so early this year, y'all! It doesn't feel right to start putting together an Easter basket in February, but that's when all the brainstorming and gathering started. Now that Forest's Easter Basket is complete, I figured I'd give you guys a glimpse at a few non-sugar-coma-inducing items that we are putting in his basket this Easter Sunday. I wrote a similar post for younger toddlers last year that you can read here. Some ideas for an older toddler’s Easter basket are: 

1) A DVD or movie. 

Now that Forest is over 2 and TV will magically not rot his brain any more (ha!) and we have been having months worth of rain here, we have been having fairly frequent movie nights.  

He loves movies so much and will talk your ear off about Bambi (his favorite- so cute!), Nemo, Frozen, Lion King or Monster’s Inc. When his grandparents gave him two DVDs for Christmas, he walked around holding them like a security blanket. Sharing one with his cousin Rayne was an inspiring act of sacrificial love if I ever saw one. He doesn’t even need to watch the movies; he’s happy just to hold them in his arms and memorize the covers. 

We have a DVD cabinet with glass doors which we’ve had to childproof otherwise he will take out all the movies and just stare at them for hours. Now he just stares at them through the glass. The highlight of his week is when the Netflix movie comes in the mail and he gets to place it in said cabinet. So, you get the picture? Child is obsessed. I myself have been a Disney collector for years so already have a pretty wide selection. However, I figured Forest’s Easter Basket was a great excuse to build on our current library. So we purchased the newly released The Good Dinosaur. 

I can’t wait to see his face when he gets his Easter Basket. He has been watching trailers,  reading books, and coloring his The Good Dinosaur coloring books for months now. 

If you're looking for something more educational, I HIGHLY recommend Leapfrog Letter Factory. It a super cute and ingenious introduction to Letters and their Phonics. With reinforcement from us, Forest knew all of his letter sounds after just 3 viewings. 

2) Coloring Books. 

The Dollar Tree has a great selection of little activity books. I picked up this small Sesame Street one and I know Forest will be excited. Anything with his boy Cookie Monster is a big hit. 

3) Flashcards. 

Forest is already a bit of a geek. He has a fascination with letters and numbers and loves flash cards. When I saw these Sesame Street  ‘Count’ Number Flashcards I thought they’d be a great addition to his Easter Basket.   

4) Stretchy Dinosaur. 

Forest received one of these as a party favor at a birthday party and was instantly obsessed. Unfortunately said dinosaur accidentally got sucked into the vacuum cleaner and didn’t live to tell the tale. I immediately phoned the friend to inquire where I could find a replacement and she pointed me to the Target Dollar Spot. I replaced his dinosaur undetected and then stashed another species away for Easter Morning.   

5)Stuffed Animal. 

Forest is obsessed with stuffed animals. He has plenty but for some reason I cannot help myself from getting him more any chance I get. My His Favorites are the Jellycat ‘Bashful’ line. He has the penguin, monkey, and lamb and they are the softest and sweetest stuffies in the land.  

They come in small, medium, large or giant size, but Forest loves the itty bitty small ones which are the perfect size for an Easter basket! We decided to stick with the Dino theme and got him this adorable little guy. 

6) Books. Y’all know I’m a huge proponent of books for gifts. If there is any collection larger than Forest’s catalog of stuffed animals it is his library of books. Now of course, there are plenty of Easter story books that would be great for an Easter basket but I’m pretty sure we covered most of them in Forest’s first 2 Easters. Same with bunny books. So I was a bit stumped for what book to get him this year. I saw this Cheerios Animal Activity book at Homegoods and thought it would be a good quiet independent activity for him to help with fine motor skills.

7) Lacing Toys. Another good  fine motor skill activity is lacing toys. Last year we put one of these simple lacing toys in his Easter basket but now that he’s mastered them I thought we’d move up a level and got him these animal lacing cards from Melissa and Doug. 

8)Puzzles. 

Melissa and Doug also makes great puzzles for all skill levels. Forest has recently been showing interest in more challenging jigsaw type puzzles so we decided to get him his first 12 piece jigsaw puzzle for Easter. 

9)Paint with Water. 

I promise I get no kick back for promoting Melissa and Doug items. They are just the best! My Mom and Dad got Forest this paint with water set for Christmas but it’s just a little above his skill level because it requires kids to dip the brush in the water, then the color before painting the picture. 
 
All Forest would do was dip his brush in the water and then spread water all over the picture, totally skipping the middle step to the process. When I saw that M&D also made a beginner version where all the kiddos have to do is literally paint with water,  I thought it would be a perfect addition to his Easter Basket. Their Water Wow line is also great, especially since they have a Bible Story version which is super perfect for this holiday. 
 

Well, Forest’s Easter basket itself is pretty tiny so these 9 items were all that would fit. I think it’s certainly plenty to keep him occupied this Spring. I predict that the DVD and the toy dinosaurs will be the biggest hits this year. 

Other easy ideas for a toddlers Easter basket are: Play dough, silly puddy, sidewalk chalk, Dinosaur eggs, crayons, stickers, bubbles, toy cars/trains, potty training supplies (new undies, a foldable potty seat, etc), number or letter magnets, a new toothbrush, or a new water cup. Are there any other great items that I’m leaving out? What’s in your kiddo’s Easter basket this year?

Spring Break Book Recommendations

A friend texted me over the weekend to ask for a book recommendation. It reminded me that it’s been a few months since I cataloged my reading escapades on the blog. My book reading goal this year is a lofty 50 books, one of which includes the mack-daddy of all books, The Bible. 

I’m doing a 365 day plan through our church and doing pretty well with it. I'm even a few days ahead as of now. Right now I’m sludging through Leviticus which is pretty….detailed…I’m fairly sure I’d never even glanced at this book of the Bible before so I’m glad that I’m getting exposed to new scripture and getting a lot of context and background in terms of the Old Testament. Of course I recommend everyone read The Bible! Other books I’ve read recently that I can recommend are (links included for your convenience) : 

1) The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett. 

 

Ann Patchett is my new favorite author, so chances are if you ask me for a book rec I will respond ‘anything by Ann Patchett'. That being said, The Magician's Assistant didn’t hold a candle to Bel Canto or State of Grace. 

I was told by a friend that when reading Patchett you should start with The Magician’s Assistant first. It’s a perfectly enjoyable and masterfully written novel. It’s just that Bel Canto may be one of the most wonderful books ever written so reading any book after that is going to be a bit of a let down. As it happens, I read State of Wonder first and absolutely raved about it. Had I read Bel Canto beforehand, maybe I wouldn’t have found it so cutting edge? 

Anyhoos, all the aforementioned books get a staff recommendation from me. I never met an Ann Patchett book that I didn't love. The Magician’s Assistant is about a widowed woman who discovers a family of her late husband that she never knew existed. The beauty of Patchett’s novels come in the complexity of relationships and how the most unlikely characters end up inextricably linked. 

2) Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. 

 

Speaking of Ann Patchett, a while back I recommended her memoir Truth and Beauty which archives her relationship with fellow writer Lucy Grealy. This memoir is Grealy’s own work, an introspective look at how childhood cancer which demanded the removal of part of her jaw shaped her self-image of beauty. One of the most beautiful chapters of the book is called Truth and Beauty which is where Patchett’s title came from. I think this is a great pair of books to read together. If anything it shows how differently two people can experience the same period of time, and how one thinks they are viewed by others might be totally inaccurate. 

On a side note, in Patchett’s Truth and Beauty, she visits Grealy in Aberdeen where she is having reconstructive surgeries. Patchett describes Scotland as dreary, dark and depressing. I was pleasantly surprised that Grealy described it as gorgeous and somewhat magical, more in line with my own memory of Aberdeenshire. 

3) What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill. 

 

I’m on a bit of a memoir kick lately. This one is written by Carole Radziwill, the widow of Polish prince, Anthony Radziwll. From humble roots, Carole moves up in the world of journalism, fatefully meeting her husband Anthony in the process. She is introduced to a world of European aristocracy as well as American royalty, since Anthony’s uncle was JFK and his cousin and best friend was John Kennedy. Shortly after they married, Anthony was diagnosed with a slow but terminal cancer. 

This memoir follows her marriage as well as her close relationship with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. It’s a tragic telling of how, as she’s preparing for her husband’s final weeks, the couple loses their closest friends, John and Carolyn, in a plane crash. I’ve never much followed the Kennedy family, so this was an interesting read for me. Not groundbreaking by any means, but certainly enjoyable. Fun Fact: Carole Radziwill was one of the cast of Real Housewives of New York City. 

4) Comeback: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey through Hell and Back by Claire and Mia Fontaine. 

 

Sometimes when I feel myself getting stressed about Forest’s 2 year old antics, I remind myself of the old adage ‘small children, small problems’. Yes potty training power struggles and transitions to a big boy bed are daunting and pressurized, but they are really small potatoes compared to the trouble he could get into as a teenager. This memoir is a terrifying tale of a mother who was losing her 15 year old daughter to drug abuse and how she fought to get her back.   

5) Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. 

 

Harris is best known for her beloved novel-turned-film Chocolat (which I’m currently reading). I was not a humongous fan of the movie Chocolat (I mean, it was a’ight), so I never felt the need to read it. Somehow I caught wind of Five Quarters of the Orange and the premise sounded right up my alley so I decided to give it a try. It takes place in the French countryside during the German Occupation of WWII. So yea, basically my historical fiction jam right there. The narrator is an elderly Framboise, reflecting back on the summer she was 9 years old and how her mother’s severe migraines and her siblings involvement with German soldiers culminated in disaster. It’s a dark tale but beautifully developed.   

6)Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. 

 

Yet another memoir on the list! Something I can’t seem to get enough of are anthropological books that examine differences in cultural parenting practices. This book shares Chua’s own parenting tactics which she claims fall in line with traditional Chinese child rearing. Her children are expected to be perfect and the highest achievers amongst their peers. With her first daughter, this seems to come easily enough (if you consider hours of piano practice each day starting at age 3 easy) but her experience with her second more-spunky daughter was  humbling and eye opening: not all children can be easily controlled.

Jonathan jokes that I am a bit of a Tiger Mother because my competitive spirit seems to creep out in my parenting of Forest. It’s true that he already knows his letters and what sound they all make, numbers, shapes, colors and is starting to read and spell a few sight words. 

We’ve also been discussing which instrument we will start him on at age 3 since we know that learning music can help significantly with math skills. And don’t even get me started on the swim ribbon issue. If you ask Forest what he needs to do for his final 'SUPER aqua baby' swim ribbon he will repeat: Fall in, Turn around and grab the wall. Now, why he won’t actually dooooo that is another issue....

All that being said, Forest has a lot of freedom and fun in his life too. We go hiking, we have play dates, we go to the park. If he isn’t in the mood for learnin’, we don’t push him. We know he’s the sort that is going to be super motivated to learn what he wants to learn, and super un-motivated to learn things he has no interest in. So basically this book is fascinating and makes me feel a bit better about my negligible tiger mom tendencies, because comparatively I am your typical laid back permissive Western parent. Still, you can’t argue with results: Both of Chua's children became musical prodigies. 

7) Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. 

 

This novel documents the lives of 4 orphans in the year after their parents die in a car accident. The responsibility of caring for the younger two are claimed by the older two brothers who give up their own dreams in the process. It's a complex look into their relationships and poses some very important questions on what it really takes to have an impactful life.   

Alright friends! That should keep you busy for a while. Now, if I’m going to read 50 books this year I’m going to need a few recommendations myself. Hit me!