We were recently invited to a birthday party for a 2-year-old, and you know what I don’t remember? What 2-year-olds like. It’s funny how that was only three years ago and yet I had to go back into my journals to find out even what KIND of toy the kids were playing with at that age.

One idea we considered was musical instruments. Several of our kids were invited, so it seemed like a good way to bring a gift from each child: maybe one could bring this cool percussion toy (photo from Amazon.com), and one could bring bendy bells, and one could bring a harmonica and a kazoo.

Or maybe one kid could bring an instrument and one could bring a set of helping/digging garden tools (photo from Amazon.com).
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Last week I wrote about the pirate-related ideas I was considering for Henry’s birthday. This week: knights.

Schylling Sword and Shield Set (photo from Amazon.com). Henry picked this out. Does he care that he already has a couple of sword and shield sets? No. Does he care that he can’t choose the image on the shield among four possibilities? No. Does he care that the next item on his list ALSO includes a sword and shield? No. he says raptly, “Oooo, I don’t have a WOODEN one yet!!”

Small World Toys Black Knight Set (photo from Amazon.com). Henry wants this more than anything else on his list. At my mom’s house he plays with a castle and knight set, and his favorite guy is one he calls Shadow—a black-armored knight. This costume would let him play Being Shadow.
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I am getting ready for Henry’s 5th birthday. I wouldn’t say I’m feeling morose about it per se, but I keep thinking of a science fiction short story I read a long time ago where male children were taken away on their 5th birthdays and educated all in one single day by a brain implant sort of system, so that they returned at the end of that day fully adult, not needing their mothers, and chatting with their fathers about office stuff. No moroseness, though.

This year Henry claims to be done with dinosaurs. He likes knights, and he likes pirates.

And he likes walruses. This is not something I would have guessed about him. But a couple of months ago I was at Hallmark buying postcards to support my Postcrossing.org addiction obsession issue hobby, and I walked down the clearance aisle, and I ended up with an impulse-buy walrus: a little beanie-baby-sized guy. I’d planned to put him in with a care package, but the minute I showed the walrus to Henry, Henry was squeezing it and cuddling it and wrapping it in a blankie and pretending to give it a bottle. So for his birthday, I got him a Cuddlekin Walrus (photo from Amazon.com). Cuddlekin is probably my top favorite stuffed animal line: they are not kidding one bit about the cuddliness. If the walrus not a hit with Henry, I’ll snuggle it myself.

My parents bought Henry the Melissa and Doug Pirate Chest (photo from Amazon.com), with extra coins. (My mom checked with me first, because she knows and I know that those coins are going to end up in every single corner and under every single piece of furniture in the house. I don’t mind. Treasure hunt! And it’s not as if all of those locations aren’t currently occupied by playing cards, paper clips, toys from gumball machines, toothpicks, checkers, rubber balls that got away, etc.)
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For Mother’s Day this year, Paul is taking all five kids out of the house for most of the day. I’m…not sure I can find a single thing to complain about there. I plan to buy a box of chocolates and/or a pint of ice cream ahead of time, and spend the day reading and/or watching TV. Then I’ll go to Wendy’s for lunch. Maybe bring the food home with me, just so I can eat the fries with the maximum awareness of not sharing them with anyone.

Perhaps you are not expecting such a nice Mother’s Day yourself? My boss is looking out for you: she’s giving away a $25 Amazon.com gift card to one commenter on this post. You don’t have to comment anything in particular, though of course we all enjoy reading stories of past outrages and disappointments! They don’t even have to be your OWN stories, if a friend of yours had a particularly good-story one. Come on, spill it.

In the meantime, many of us have a little shopping to do for our own mothers.

My own mother greatly enjoyed The Cazalet Chronicles, a series of four books by Elizabeth Jane Howard. (Photo from Amazon.com.) The Light Years (careful: there are a bunch of other books with the same name) is first, followed by Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off. The first thing you’ll likely notice is that some of the books are unusually EXPENSIVE for paperbacks. Well, perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to buy all four right of the bat anyway, until you know if your mom likes them. Get just the first one and see. Or maybe the first TWO, since the second one is the cheapest of all four.
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Recently I’ve needed to buy baby gifts for two people in the “casual acquaintance” category. This category includes anyone where (1) it seems like it would be a nice thing to buy them a baby gift, but (2) you don’t really know them well enough to know what they’d like/need, and (3) you don’t want to make things awkward by getting something too large for the relationship. In other words, you want a token that shows your general good wishes, but this is not the time for engraved silver baby cups or a $100 baby swing.

I find in these cases I fall back on the same five basic ideas:

Idea #1: A set of board books. (Photo from Amazon.com.) Books with dust jackets and paper pages make good sentimental gifts and are a fun baby shower idea, but many of them can’t be enjoyed by the baby for years; baby board books can be used almost right away, and they’re less sentimental and more practical. I read this particular set to my particular babies one million times, and they were also good for propping in front of a baby suffering enjoying tummy-time. They’re good basic “a picture per page” board books, nice and bright and durable. And they’re $10ish for four! Perfect.

Idea #2: The sleep-and-play. (Photos from Carters.com.) Many new babies wear these around the clock at first, changed not for “daytime” and “bedtime” but instead with every diaper leak and spit-up. Such changes can happen many, many times a day with some babies. I know some parents report getting way too many baby clothes as gifts, but even with handmedowns I was still buying more of these with every baby in the first two sizes (newborn and 3 months). They’re easy, comfy, cute, and no one has to try to match colors on too little sleep.
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