It’s the second week of November and I know some people have started making a Christmas shopping list. Even though we don’t celebrate Christmas, I still like to see the word SALE when it comes to toys, books, and shoes! 

If you have a tiny baby, you may wonder what toys to get for the baby (at least I did). I know say to our friends who recently become parents or will become parents to not bother to get them any toys, and invest in great children books instead.

We bought Alia some toys when she was an infant, and honestly, she didn’t really play with many of them then. But there are some toys that became quite popular aka got played anywhere and anytime: 

Oball (rattle ball): you hold it with one or two hands, you shake it, you roll it, you chase it… It’s a fun ball to get for an infant! 

Taggies doll: There are many different kinds of taggies doll. I think the one that we have here (a puppy) is no longer available. Alia liked playing with the tags. This was her first soft toy 😀

Plush monster bowling set from Melissa and Doug: So I found this set at a second hand sale and I thought the monsters are adorable! I couldn’t resist them hehehe. It was a fun to see her doing a staring contest with the monsters :p She used them to get her during tummy time and to motivate her to crawl.

She also liked to play with the very fuzzy monsters. 

Mirror: Ok, this isn’t really a toy, but I bought this at the toy section :p If you have a wall mirror, you obviously don’t need this. But babies love to stare at their reflection and it’s even more fun once they can smile! We use this mirror a lot during tummy time. 

So as you see here, the list is fairly short. The NOT-to-buy toys is longer sadly… Alia and I ended up playing with toys created by yours truly like this diy sensory board and sensory bottles like this one. I’ll write more about these diy toys. A piece of advice from “a year old” mom to new parents, get your babies picture books for Christmas instead!