One Special Gift to Celebrate My Son’s Birthday

I bought one and only one gift for my son’s second birthday. My family buys a lot of presents for the little guy so he really doesn’t need a whole lot of new toys from my husband or I. He has a room full of hand-me-downs he still plays with and two or three inexpensive toys I purchased from Ross and Marshalls earlier this year.  The new toys tend to sit in a big plastic bin in the basement and make their appearance only after a couple of dreary, rainy days.

Actually, (don’t tell my in-laws or parents this), but I also store a lot of his birthday and Christmas gifts in the basement. He opens the wrapped gifts on each special occasion but after he turns in for the night I typically place a bunch of them in storage. Then I rotate these toys throughout the year so he doesn’t tire of them too quickly. I know this technique won’t work forever. Actually we’ll see if I can get away with it this year. At two years old he might notice that his new toys are missing.

I’ve written a couple of times before about my two gift rule, but this year I actually only purchased one gift for him. I bought him a book of nursery rhymes, which he asks me to read/sing at least three or four times a day. I knew he’d love this book because he has a similar one called This Little Piggy that he absolutely adores. There’s actually a whole series of these books and I considered buying him a couple of different ones. I really liked the Old McDonald version, but settled on just one.

I purchased the book at Babies-R-Us using a $10 off coupon that I received via text message. Actually I threw another item in the cart so I could use the entire coupon and ended up paying just a few pennies for both.

On his birthday we placed two candles in a cupcake and sang to him. Then when we climbed in bed that night to read stories I showed him the new book I purchased. I didn’t even wrap it. Instead my husband and I snuggled close next to him and spent a long time reading and singing just like we do every night. That’s definitely the way I wanted to spend the evening with our two year old. Snuggling and singing and enjoying every minute of being together.