1. The first item is the Little People Disney Princess Songs Palace. You can buy this for $38.99 from Target. My sister got this for Isabella for Christmas and she absolutely loves it! It comes disassembled with clear instructions and was relatively easy to put together. It comes with batteries, stickers and 2 princesses (Cinderella and Snow White). You can also buy separate princesses that work with the palace. That link is a common set of them that you can purchase that she also got for Isabella. Once put together, this toy is very sturdy. We regularly keep it on a table in the middle of the toy room so the younger babies can stand around it and still play with it. Silas will usually attempt to pull it off the table onto the floor and several times it has fallen and remained intact. The flags on the top of the castle are attached to larger pieces and so are not in jeopardy of being swallowed, but they do regularly come off of the castle. Isabella uses them as a cup for her play kitchen. They love the elevator and the different pieces that move around. If you put in the batteries there is a noise that is played when the doors open and there are specific noises per each Princess that are made. There don’t appear to be any small parts once assembled that could be presented as a choking hazard. If any pieces come loose, I could see potential for choking but we haven’t had any issues. As usual use caution when small children play with any toys. 
2. The next toy is made by Circo from Target and is their Medical Care Kit. It is $15.49 at our local Target store. Isabella is enamored with a show on Disney Jr called Doc McStuffins. She is an animated child that plays doctor on her toys and stuffed animals. I saw this kit and knew that it would be perfect for her. It comes in a sturdy clear plastic case. I say that because it can support Silas’s weight of about 23-24lbs. He regularly uses it as a step stool to climb onto the couch. It is a 10 piece set of doctor’s tools including stethoscope, 2 hard casts, 2 soft bandages, syringe, tweezers, blood pressure cuff, thermometer, and a modified otoscope (that thing doctor’s look in your eyes and ears with.) Isabella loves these items and now plays doctor on all of her dolls and stuffed animals. I have to issue a warning on this toy though that with very little force my husband was able to remove the ‘pump’ part from the blood pressure cuff. A small amount of super glue though was able to keep the pump in place and served as a small modification that makes the toy useable by all children in my house. Also, be advised that the thermometer includes a small battery (you can’t easily access so there shouldn’t be any cause for concern that it would be swallowed without removing several screws.) I say that because the battery helps the thermometer make this SUPER annoying beeping sound that happens anytime the child pushes the button on the outside. You might want to consider removing that battery in case you like being driven insane by beeping children’s toys. Also, the tweezers could potentially be seen as a choking hazard if your child puts items into their mouth. Silas regularly does and he could easily swallow those if unsupervised. 
3. Any parent who has a little girl can vouch for me when I say that we have too many babies around our house. There are naked baby dolls all over our house. We have several Circo brand baby dolls. They are from Target and are less than $10 I think. They come with a single outfit which is a one piece outfit and a shirt. They are easy to remove and put back on for kids. Some of them come with a hat as well. You can also buy separate outfits and accessories for these dolls. We also have an American Girl Bitty Baby. This is a more expensive version of those same dolls. The arms and legs are still a harder plastic type material with a cloth body. It comes with an outfit, a tiny bear and a book for $55. We ordered ours through the actual American Girl website where we also bought another outfit as an accessory as it was on clearance. I would recommend this doll for older children because the doll and accessories are rather expensive. All in all she loves these babies. She sleeps in her crib with most of these babies every night. Like most toddlers, she prefers the cheap version over the expensive one, so keep that in mind when buying toys, especially dolls. They will be more interested in the box or the wrapping than the actual toy. 
4. Our next toy on the list is the Fisher-Price Soothe & Glow Seahorse. You can literally almost buy this toy anywhere. It retails for $14.97 at Walmart. I heard many good reviews about this toy before I had children and so it seemed like a no-brainer when I was pregnant. This seahorse was amusing when she was born and younger baby, but she wasn’t necessarily attached to it. She didn’t really care for it until she moved into her own room. Then it became a part of her night-time comfort routine. We bought a second one for Silas when he was born and he doesn’t care for it. It eventually migrated into Isabella’s crib and it remains there even today. If she doesn’t have both seahorses available to her at all times while sleeping she freaks out. For anyone who is unfamiliar, this is about a foot long plush seahorse that upon pressing the belly plays music and lights up for five minutes. It plays soft music and lullabies. This is an inexpensive toy that lasts a long time that most babies love. I would recommend this to any new parents.
5. Meemaw bought Silas this next toy for his first birthday. It is the Little Tykes Handle Haulers Deluxe Farm Truck. You can buy this from Walmart for $14.99. This is a super neat toy that looks like a big farm truck. The back end of the truck can be let down so the animals can get out. It comes with a cow and a pig. There is a handle in the back of the truck that has a button that, when pressed, plays music and farm sounds. All the kids play with this truck a lot. Silas loves the music that it plays and he runs that truck all over the house. It is durable as well – it has fallen off shelves numerous times and never broken. 
6. One of our most used toys is the B. Wheeee-ls! Soft Cars. These are $15.99 from Target. We have two of these cars in our camper and they are super durable. My son plays with these anytime that we go camping. You can easily wipe down or rinse off the outside. They have been stepped on, kicked around, thrown down, etc. These four cars are made of a super soft plastic material that is easy for little hands to grab on to. These are the kind of cars that you can pull back and release and they roll forward on their own. My son absolutely loves these cars and we would definitely repurchase if they carried more of them at our local Target. 
7. Next is the Choo Choo Wagon by Step2. This is single-handedly the coolest toy that my parents have. It’s a wagon that has several different compartments for the children to sit in instead of one big area like a normal wagon. You can connect ‘trailers’ to the back for extra seating. The wagon itself can be bought here for $99.99 + shipping with just two separate cars. Each car comes with a built in cup holder, and a bench with a seat belt. The cars are tall enough so the kids are up off the ground but short enough where the kids can easily climb in and out themselves. Each car can hold a max of 50lbs. My kids absolutely love this toy. If we could stand to pull them around for hours at a time they would gladly ride in this the entire time. We take this wagon every time that we go camping and they love being pulled around all day. We get a lot of compliments on this wagon. We have seen several around town with different families and it seems to be very durable. 
8. Earlier this year, my mom purchased a plastic rocking dog for her house and after seeing how well both of the kids loved it we decided that we needed to get one for our house. Corry found the Little Tykes Rocking Horse in blue. You can buy it from Walmart for $29.99. My kids absolutely love this rocking horse. It’s low to the ground so they can easily get on and off of it. I would imagine that if they rock too far back that they would be able to flip this over while they were on it, but it would take some effort and with proper supervision you should be able to see this happening. There is a lip on the front and the back that seems to act as a deterrent to being able to flip the horse over. Another warning – both of my kids use the seat as a step to get up on the couch, try to climb on different items around our house, or just to stand up on the horse itself. This can be dangerous if your children are unsteady and they can easily fall and potentially hurt themselves. We have also used this toy both indoors and out and it works just as well on grass as it does on carpet. It’s super lightweight and provides hours of entertainment for any age group. 
9. The next item is the Graco Room Full of Fun Baby Doll Playset in the multi dot pattern. We got this as a gift for Isabella for Christmas to use with her millions of dolls in our house. It comes with a pack-n-play, stroller, high chair, pacifier, teether and toy. You can still buy the same set for $34.99 from Toys R Us. It comes disassembled and requires a bit of finesse to get it assembled, but that seems to be the same with any child’s toy. The pack-n-play is the perfect size for several dolls – ours is now currently being used as storage for the other baby products. Several things that I dislike about this toy – one is that it is very difficult for my children to put Isabella’s dolls into the stroller and the high chair. The holes for the doll’s legs are small and they can’t always get the dolls out once they get them in. The second thing that I dislike is that the high chair will not stay together. The legs are forever coming out of their places and my husband had to end up super gluing them all in place. Same thing with the high chair tray – it comes off super easy and is very difficult for kids to put it back on. This isn’t a gripe, but just a warning – the teether, pacifier and toy are on the smaller side and we had to put them up because they were too small for our other children to play with. With all that being said, my kids love this set. I think that Silas likes it more than Isabella does. He walks the stroller around the house collecting all of his toys in it. They have touched this toy at least once per day every day since we got it for them. This toy is cheaply made but it is definitely worth it for how much they play with it. 
10. Last but certainly not least are the various components associated with household items, like a kitchen, vacuum, etc. Who would have known that children love toys that are affiliated with chores so much? My mother made the kids a kitchen (picture on left) from a cabinet that we bought from someone on Craigslist. It was a hit and she did an excellent job! There are a multitude of posts on how to do this on Pinterest as well. With that kitchen, we have had numerous people buy the kids play food, and dishes, and pots and pans for this kitchen. It is awesome and they absolutely love playing with this kitchen. We have since acquired another plastic kitchen that has some different features than the one that my mother made, and they love it. I am not sure of the make or the model of the second kitchen because it was purchased from Craigslist and I don’t want to speculate. We noticed more than a year ago that anytime we vacuumed Isabella would freak out and scream and cry until we were done. We bought her a toy vacuum to hopefully make her more comfortable with the process. She didn’t necessarily care for it when we first brought it home, but now it is a favorite toy of both kids. Silas drags it around all over the house. We bought ours from a toy outlet store for about $30. You can buy one like it here: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3142104 Our kids like this toy because it actually turns on and runs. This was not documented as a feature but it does actually suck dust and small fine items off the floor. Luckily the bucket comes off the front easily and you can fully empty it without an issue. Our last household chore toy that the kids absolutely love is the washer and dryer. This is an older model toy that we bought from Craigslist that comes with an attached washer, dryer and ironing board. The washer and the dryer both have a lid that fully closes and both tubs spin. It is made of a tough plastic material that seems to resist wearing. (insert picture) The kids love that toy and love it especially as a hiding spot for other toys. One of the bonuses is that older kids who come over can play with this group of toys and not feel like they are playing with baby toys.
Hopefully this list is helpful to someone who doesn't have a lot of toys or is a relatively new mom trying to decide what to buy for their child. I am more than happy to post more in depth reviews on any and/or all of these items.
What are your child's favorite toys?
-Sara
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