7 Best Toys for 2 year olds

Now that my boys are two, I thought I'd update you all on their current toy favorites. If you'd like to read about their favorites last year check out this post.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a fan of loud, flashy toys- my boys zombie out and button mash until the darn thing gets glitchy. And then it really drives me NUTS. So for the most part we avoid toys with batteries. Most of the toys we have are gifts and with twins everyone always gets us double so we have a LOT of toys. But I've narrowed this list down to their 7 absolute favorites. So here we go...

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and make a purchase I'll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. To learn more you can view my full disclosure here.

*Disclaimer* This post contains affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission when purchases are made by using the link. Regardless, all product reviews are my honest, unbiased opinion. If I share it, it is something I have honestly used and loved. Otherwise I wouldn't share it!

1. Little Tikes Water Table* It's currently summer so this one makes total sense, who wouldn't want to play in water when its 10 million degrees outside (not really but 115° is pretty darn close). But these water babies will probably be begging me to fill this in the winter too. Water is their jam. They love to scoop up the water and sprinkle it around the yard and pour it on brother. HAHA. But they also enjoy the spinning wheels and the ball launcher (although they'd rather launch water).

2. Badger Basket Covered Sandbox* We bought this for their birthday and it is a huge hit. The shade and cool sand are the perfect relief from this awful desert heat. They seriously love burying their feet and legs. Pouring and scooping are a close second. the fact that the sandbox is covered is a huge bonus in my book. It helps keep them out of it when I don't feel like hosing the sand off, and it keeps away the neighborhood cats. Of course you'll need some sand toys to go with it, I picked up a cheap beach toy set from Walmart.

3. Pocket Stix* My boys are drummers, it's in their blood after all (daddy's a drummer too). JellyBean especially loves his drumsticks. It's one of the few things he'll ask for daily, multiple times a day. This toy is for brave mama's who are patient enough for the banging. We have taught the boys that they may only drum on certain surfaces. Their favorite things to drum on are the laundry basket, cardboard boxes, and empty coffee cans.

4. Little Tikes Sizzle and Serve Grill* This is mama's favorite! It is so adorable to watch them cook on the grill just like daddy. They love to bring me food to eat. My sister got them this for their first birthday with an extra set of food*, but since they weren't walking yet it sat unused for a few months. But once they were confident walkers and had watched daddy grilling they were all about it. Pretend play is so important for their development, I love watching their imaginations grow!

5. Little People Animal Friends Farm* They love the vintage version of this farm that their Speech Pathologist has been using with them, so I knew we needed one at home. This was at the top of their birthday wishlist! They were so excited when they got it. They love putting animals down the shoot and matching animals to their spots. Its great for identifying animals and practicing their sounds, perfect for 2 year olds!

6. Balls* This is the set my boys got for their birthday and they love it! Rolling, kicking, and throwing are all very important skill for toddlers to practice. These balls are perfect for indoor or outdoor play. They're air-filled and on the softer side so no one will be hurt by a stray ball. And they are small enough to be easily managed by toddler hands.

7. Lego Duplo* or Mega Bloks* These last two are so similar I grouped them together. Every little guy needs a building block set. Both Lego Duplo and Mega Bloks have their advantages. My boys like the Mega Bloks because they are easier to build with and destroy, essentially the slide together and apart very easily. They also don't need to be perfectly aligned to fit together, which is nice for inexperienced or impatient builders. They are perfect for the boys to play with on their own. So far we love the Lego Duplo for when mommy and daddy are joining in on the fun. Together we can make fun creations. My boys love the construction themed set they have and it made the perfect cake toppers for their construction themed 2nd birthday! They just love filling and dumping the dump truck. Eventually they'll get the hang of building Lego Duplo on their own but for now its a great family activity. And I have to admit both my husband and I have been caught building while the boys were off doing something else. :)

Bonus: Toddler Learning Charts These are learning charts I created when my boys fell in love with the ABC chart at the back of their favorite book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom*. They would carry the book around asking "What's this?"  So to save the book from extra wear I made and laminated an alphabet chart for them to carry around. Before I knew it they could identify most of their letters! So I added shapes, colors, and numbers too! They love asking about them and really love identifying them when we asked them to point to specific ones! The chart is a free printable in my Teachers  Pay Teachers shop here or available to download free here.


So there you have it, our twin-tested, mom-approved toys!

I hope you found this list helpful, if you did I would appreciate you sharing it with your friends. Comment below with your must-have toys for 2 year-olds!

 

9 Best Toys for 1 year olds

Lately I've had toys on the brain... Can you blame me? It's practically Christmas, and I have yet to finish shopping for my boys! Figuring out what to get the boys can be challenging for me. As a twin mom, it's so easy to be inundated with toys--ALL THE LOUD, NOISY TOYS, that we mamas just love. We decided long ago that two of everything wasn't going to work for us. And we agreed that our boys need a ton of toys, we'd like them to value the ones they do have. So we've carefully selected toys that have a good lifespan, meaning our boys can't {easily} destroy them and that they will hopefully enjoy playing with for a long time.

**This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and make a purchase I'll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. To learn more you can view my full disclosure here.**

Honestly, this has been a tall order so far. Some duds have definitely slipped past our radar. Seeing as I'm probably not the only one who has a tough time finding quality toys for this age group, I thought I'd share with you the toys that have been hits with our now 17.5 month old twin boys.

Toys we own and love: 

1.  Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy**. This is BY FAR my boys' favorite toy. If I took everything else away and left them with this, they'd still be two very happy boys. This is one of the very, very few toys we actually have two of. We take it with us on trips to grandma's and hotel stays. They love it that much!

2. Fisher-Price Classic Infant Trio. There's a reason this is a classic. I remember playing with all of these as a kid. My boys love sorting the blocks {and chewing them}. They love the stacking the "donuts" as we call them, and they really love balancing them on mama's head. BUT their favorite is definitely the xylophone. Yes, it's noisy, but they are making their own music. I love that the cord on the xylophone is short, so that they can't bang each other with the stick.

3. Melissa & Doug First Bead Maze. My boys love things that spin! We actually earned one of these by saving up and redeeming our diaper points. Score!! I love that it has suction cups on the bottom. We suctioned it to our french doors, to encourage the boys to practice standing.

4. O-Ball Infant Rattle. This was one of the very first toys they actually played with. Those little holes are perfect for little hands to grasp and shake. My boys still love playing with these. They are great for throwing and rolling practice, because they are flexible and light. I don't have to worry about them hurting each other or damaging things in the house. This is another product we have two of.

5. Melissa & Doug K's Kids Pull-Back Vehicle Set. These little cars are adorable. My boys haven't quite mastered the pull-back idea, but they love pushing them around the house. They think it's hilarious when we adults pull-back and let them go. I love that they are soft, I don't have to worry about the boys falling on top of them as my wobbly new walkers do often.

6. Early Years Roll 'n Swirl Ball Ramp. This one is prefect for teaching cause and effect. My boys love dropping the ball down the ramp and hearing it plunk-plunk-plunk down the ramp. They love playing together with this one, thankfully it comes with 3 balls- one for GummyBear, JellyBean and Mommy.

7. Bright Starts Lots of Links Accessory. Technically this isn't a toy, but my boys have been playing with these since they could grab them. We used them to attach extra toys to our play gym and infant chairs. But our boys loved grabbing them and waving chains of them back and forth. They also happen to be my boys preferred teether {haha}. Bonus use! They can still be found in our play room. In addition to chewing them {molars, anyone?}, they love collecting them and putting them into containers. They also love when mama helps them make long chains of them.

8. Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Workbench. Another big time favorite in our house. This is the toy that encouraged both my boys to sit up on their own, just so they could play with it. This one has all the bells and whistles, but the volume can be turned down or off. Also there are three settings that change the songs, so that you aren't constantly hearing the same song over and over. I actually find the songs to be cute and some are even educational (ABCs, counting, size, colors). I appreciate that the boys can still enjoy it when mama turns the sound off, since all of the moving parts still work without power. I'm going to be honest here... my boys were super rough on this toy, because they loved it so much. I mean they literally spent hours ramming that poor little drill press lever up and down very rapidly, multiple times a day for extended periods {they would sit there and take turns with it, giggling away}. And between the two of them it was just too much for that poor little drill press lever to handle. A spring in the mechanism broke, and the drill press stopped spinning. I honestly think it was a freak thing, because I've read many reviews and I haven't heard of this happening to anyone else. Fisher-Price customer service seemed surprised too. They were great and sent a check to pay for a replacement. We definitely bought a new one, because my boys just adore it! We'll let you know how this one holds up!

9. V-Tech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker. Okay, let me start by saying this was not my favorite toy to begin with, but it's grown on me since my boys LOVE this thing. Initially we used it in the "sit" mode, and basically it's your typical noisy and flashy toy, with very repetitive songs {thankfully they can be turned off} and some "educational" toys (shapes, gears, and a piano}. My boys liked the moving parts but it really didn't hold their attention for long. When they started cruising, we switched it to "stand" mode. That's when they absolutely fell in love with this toy. In fact they love it so much, that their first and only biting incident was because one of them tried to steal it from the other! We were lucky to a have friend who offered to let us borrow a second one, but we definitely would've purchased a second one if she hadn't offered. It has been such a great tool for encouraging walking and for their independence. They love racing around the house and following us around too- it's so much faster than crawling.


And just for you a bonus idea! 

10. Books. They're not technically a toy, but my boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE reading. They love when we read to them and they love to "read" them independently. Seriously nothing melts my teacher heart more than peeking into their room and hearing them "read" aloud. Those little babbles as they turn the pages are so, so precious to me. Now, I could link to a million books, but I'll limit myself to our top 2- Little Blue Truck and Peek-A Who. These are the ones we all go back to over and over. Currently they are also loving touchy-feely texture books and flap books, some of the best are from Usborne Books and More. {I'm not a consultant and I'm not being compensated for linking, I'm just a big fan}.

So there you have it, our twin-tested, mom-approved toys!

I hope you found this list helpful, if you did I would appreciate you sharing it with your friends. Comment below with your must-have toys for 1 year-olds!

**Disclaimer** This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission through when purchases are made by using the link. Regardless, all product reviews are my honest, unbiased opinion. If I share it, it is something I have honestly used and loved. Otherwise I wouldn't share it!

 

12 Homemade Gifts for Toddlers

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and make a purchase I'll receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. To learn more you can view my full disclosure here.

Christmas is right around the corner, can you believe it? I sure can't! As I was compiling a list of ideas of what to make for my boys this Christmas, I realized my list was quickly getting out of control! There are so many ideas I love, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you!

So here you go, 12 AWESOME homemade toys you can make for your toddler. Perfect for Christmas and birthdays, especially when the budget is tight!

{see below for sources}

1. A- Frame tent from Cakies Super adorable and WAY cheaper than the ones you can buy. I love that it can be personalized to match your nursery decor or your child's current favorites just by switching up the fabric.  I'll be saving this one for next year when the boys are a bit older.

2. Roll-up Play Kitchen from Joyful Abode How awesome is sweet little stove top? Perfect for traveling or small spaces. GummyBear loves watching mama cook, so this is just perfect for him! For sure this one is at the top of my to-do list!

3. Bean Bag Game from Pocket Full of Whimsy My boys love to throw things...duh mama they're boys! So they would love these, and it's good practice for their motor development. Oh and I love the "mommy-approved silencer". Yup definitely a must!

4. DIY Wooden Blocks by me. Originally I made these for my classroom as a way for my students to practice spelling words. They were a huge hit! But they're also perfect for toddlers. For now my boys love knocking over block towers, hopefully someday they'll love spelling out words, too. For this set I simply decoupaged alphabet stickers on to these blocks,  Woodpeckers® 50 Pieces 1" Square Blocks Unfinished Craft Wood Cube Blocks. But really the possibilities are endless, I've also used nontoxic paint and other themed stickers to decorate. These have also been my go-to for a quick and fun baby shower activity.

5. Cardboard Plane by my hubby, he used this post as inspiration but in true aeronautical engineer style he made sure it had authentic moving parts. This was our present to the boys on their 1st birthday. They love riding in it, spinning the propeller (see the steering wheel!), and flapping the wings and tail. It was a HUGE hit. JellyBean and GummyBear still love it 5 months later, although it has needed some trips to the mechanic (aka mama and lots of tape).

6. Fabric Letters by Twin Talk. Can you tell I'm a teacher? I sure do love a cute alphabet toy.  These are also at the top of this year's Christmas list. Such a great way to use up fabric scraps. My boys are going to love these. I may even make them magnetic by adding magnets inside the letters, how fun would that be?

7. Easy Fabric Roads from Lil Mop Top. For all those little cars that have inevitably taken over your home if you're a boy mom! What a simple and easy way to help your little ones exercise their imaginations. And so easy to take along to grandma's house!

8. Button Snake from Happy Hooligans. Perfect for practicing fine motor skills. And such a great way to keep them quietly occupied. This would be so easy to throw in a diaper bag for car rides or waiting at restaurants. Love it!

9. Plantable Felt Garden from A Beautiful Mess. I LOVE this one! I just about died from cuteness! It's so perfect to go with the roll-up play kitchen. What a sweet way to get your little ones excited about their fruits and veggies. This one is a must do for me!

10. Super Hero Cape from How Does She. What toddler wouldn't love a cape? Boy or girl they've all got super powers, now they'll have a cape to match! It's such a simple tutorial, even a beginner (like me) could pull it off. So easy to personalize it with a favorite color. You could even do a heat transfer with their favorite super hero's emblem or their monogram.

11. Fabric "wipes" pull by me. I honestly just threw this one together one day after watching my boys destroy a box of tissues. The joy on their faces was precious, as were the belly laughs. BUT that's not a habit I want to encourage, so this was an easy compromise. I grabbed an empty wipes container (or tissue box), and threw in fabric scraps that I knotted together. Easy-peasy and they just love it! Eventually I used contact paper {apparently in two different colors, haha} to cover the wipes container, because visitors kept moving it out of reach thinking it wasn't a toy!

12. Fabric Memory Game from Begin with B. I loved playing memory as a kid. Using fabric is a great way to make it more toddler friendly, these should last much longer than a card game. And it is pure genius to use a thrift store bed sheet for the images on the matched pairs side. I love the vehicle theme, but you could easily use any fabric scraps to make your matched pairs.

My list of projects just got way longer! If you'd like to see more Homemade Gifts for Toddlers and kids, check out my Pinterest board.

Follow Love2bMrsB's board Handmade Gifts for Kids on Pinterest.

What cute projects are next on your list? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!

 
**Disclaimer** This post contains affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission through clicks or purchases made by using the link. Regardless, all product reviews are my honest, unbiased opinion. If I share it, it is something I have honestly used and loved. Otherwise I wouldn't share it!