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Hawaii Babies
-- Stuff I Like
Mamas, please give me your gift ideas! (long)
I posted this on TN a little while back and got some great answers, but now the situation has changed.
Original situation: We're going to MN over the holidays. We are staying with IL's and then were planning to take a day trip (2 hours by car one way) to visit DH's friends who just had a baby in October. We were planning on making some freezable meals while at IL's house and taking some fresh fruits and veggies to DH's friends place when we visit. Those who responded to my post on TN said that food was a good idea.
The new situation: Now, the only time DH's friends schedules and our schedules match is the day we fly in. They live near the airport we fly into, so that works out. DH has a bunch of points we could use for a hotel so we decided to see them the night we fly in, then stay over at the hotel, then MIL will come and pick us up the day as she has stuff she has to do in the city.
So now that we'll have no access to a kitchen nor time to go to a supermarket to grab food, we would have to buy gifts before our trip. I've read a lot of new moms say that clothes are the last thing they need, but other than clothes, I have no idea what to get!
This couple gave us a check for our wedding, so I don't think they'd be weirded out if we gave them a check, cash or gift card (although I don't even know what stores or restaurants are near them). That's honestly all I can come up with right now.
If you can think of anything I could get for them, I'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks! 
-- Stuff I LikeThis discussion has been closed.
Re: Mamas, please give me your gift ideas! (long)
These are great ideas! Thanks, ladies!
Christine, are there particular titles that are "popular" among babies/moms?
Chiming in....
There are "classics" that come in board books...Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Catapiller, Guess How Much I Love You, On The Night You Were Born, etc. Also, anything with colors, counting, shapes, numbers is awesome...even though they have a NB now...it won't be long until their LO is interested in these things! Amazing!
Two other gifts I recommend...Twillight Turtle and a sound machine. Oh, and Fisher Price Sooth and Glow Seahorse (in Pink or Blue). And Dr. Harvey Karp's "Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD. All worth their weight in GOLD! You could get them from BRU or Target and provide gift receipts so if they don't want them or already have them they can exchange for something they need!
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
We LOVE touch and feel books and also any books by Sandra Boyton, she's so amazing!
Honestly, I hated when people gave us books because EVERYONE gave us books. I had like 3-4 copies of the popular ones, like Goodnight Moon. It was a real pain to return and regift them all. Even now, we have SO MANY books... The good ones, though, are priceless.
Here is a blog about Alexa's favorite books at 1 year old: The First 100 Words large board book is the best!
https://growinglimabean.blogspot.com/2010/10/alexas-favorite-books.html
The thing I was going to recommend is a gift card to a baby store, like Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby, whatever they registered at. No offense, but friends who do not have babies pick out crappy baby gifts. They just do. So accept it and give a gift card. Someday you will be good at picking out baby gifts, but not yet. :-)
Still..... If you want to surprise her...... My 4 favorite baby gifts:
-- Large Lands End tote bag with "Alexa" on it.
-- Nod Chair with cool cover, also with "Alexa" on it
-- If they have a girl... A wall hanging that has ribbons for you to store pretty hair clippies/bows
-- Leap Frog Learn & Groove Learning Table. Hands down the best bang for your buck re kids toys. You can put it on the ground without the legs for them to play with when they are just crawling, then put the legs on when they start pulling up. This is a toy that Alexa has consistently played with from 3 months to 15 months.
https://amzn.com/B000ETRENI
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
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Everyone gave great suggestions on books. Re: Malia's comment - we didn't get a lot of books as gifts, so I guess it just depends on them. I think we didn't get a lot because a lot of our gifts were from showers when we were in Hawaii and people knew we didn't want to lug heavy stuff back with us. The only book we got 2 copies of was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and funny enough it was from the same family. (My cousin gave us one, then his mom gave us one, not knowing he had given it to us.) But one was the board book and one is the regular one so we just kept them both.
I also like Dr Seuss books and they have some that come in board books. You can also go to Sam's Club or Costco and get board books. I really like the ones with only one picture and one word on each page. I feel like the ones with multiple pictures are too overwhelming for younger babies.
As for clothes, we got tons of clothes up to 6 months but not much in bigger sizes. So you could always get them 12 mo + clothes but make sure it's appropriate for the season when they'll be wearing it.
Ditto on the gift cards because it's too hard to know what they do or do not have already. I loved getting gift cards because I could just get what I needed with it. Target was better than BRU because BRU is often overpriced so I felt like it was "harder" to use the BRU gift cards. Target offers baby-themed gift cards so it's "clearer" that it's a baby gift.
I would've loved board books too but I think it also really depends on their friends and whether they have already gotten/will get more board books. We personally received no books at all, so I ended up purchasing a dozen on my own. LO loves lift-the-flap books (not so much touch-and-feel though) and cloth books (like "Squishy Turtle and Friends"--also because it's crinkly...babies love crinkly stuff!)...and ditto on the classics ie. Hungry Caterpillar, etc. GL!
ETA: Redshoegirl's post below on the weekly check-in reminded me. Another option is getting them a Sophie (the giraffe). It's the #1 most popular toy on Amazon and I remember thinking in the beginning "Omg, I'm so not getting a $20 toy for a baby" but I ended up doing it because I needed ~$20 for free shipping and I'm SO glad I ended up getting it. It is actually a MUST for every baby =P
HA! I was just going to post this! Honestly, I thought it was one of those trendy overrated toys for sure, and ridiculously overpriced...right up until the boys started teething. And then OMG that thing is a lifesaver! It's absolutely worth every single penny. Will and Dash teeth on anything within reach, but she's their favorite by far, plus they like squeaking her when they're not chewing on her.
Other than that, I agree with suggestions of gift cards, board books (I thought I'd get a lot of books but I only got 2, so I'd have loved to get more!), and anything that makes noise - like a soft toy with a crinkly bit. Lamaze makes really excellent toys and every baby I know loves them - not sure if they're sold in the USA?
Definitely agree with the idea of getting Sophie and/or Lamaze toys. K LOVES them both to bits. Not sure how much you wanted to spend, but you could always do a small gift like Sophie for the baby and a gift card to a restaurant to the parents?
I'm jumping on the gift card bandwagon. We go SO many clothes and SO many books, it was great to have some extea monopoly money to buy some fun things that I either needed, or just wanted.
Cerclage placed @ 21w6d due to CI (IC)