help - need b'day ideas

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Cheers

Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

Jeff

Cheers

Anne

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

Banty (who had a relative who opened up a small custodial investment account
for my son, and was shocked, SHOCKED, to find out I wasn't contributing
regularly to it)

Jeff wrote:

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

I'd only do that if the relatives that sent the money are OK with it.
They may want the child to have some physical toy that is 'from' them.

Go on-line and look at some of the toy catalogues to get ideas and
then you will be better able to shop.
http://www.youngexplorers.com/search...4+Years+and+Up
http://www.brainbuildingtoys.com/new-educational-toys/
http://www.discoverytoysinc.com/toys2a5.htm
http://terrifictoy.com/store/shop_age_4yrs_up.html
http://www.museumtour.com/site_produ...ly+ Childhood

Some simple old-fashioned ideas

# Stacking blocks
# Puzzles
# Balls
# Floating Toys
# Clay, chalk and boards
# Books
# Simple Role Play Toys
# Pretend playsets like garages, airports, dollhouses etc

\
Get dd a stuffed toy or rag doll of her own (probably not good to hand
those down).

In article , Rosalie B. says...

Jeff wrote:

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

I'd only do that if the relatives that sent the money are OK with it.
They may want the child to have some physical toy that is 'from' them.


Does she get to deduct gas cost and the value of her time from the amounts??

Banty

Banty wrote:

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If you have not had children of your own (not all relatives have or
they haven't all had boys), then it can be a challenge to figure out
what kinds of gifts they would enjoy. And if you ask the mother, and
she doesn't know either (as Anne doesn't seem to have had any ideas)
then what else is there to do but send money. Would that not be
better than giving them something completely inappropriate?

If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

This seems ungracious to me.

Banty (who had a relative who opened up a small custodial investment account
for my son, and was shocked, SHOCKED, to find out I wasn't contributing
regularly to it)

That's the other side of sending money.

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy
birthday presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy
presents from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2
in two weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child,
we've got most things already!

They are both at an age to love tents and tunnels.

I saw some kind of megafort thing at Toys-R-Us where you build the fort and
could change it around. That would take up a lot of room but I'm sure both
kids would enjoy it although the 2yo wouldn't get into the building part
yet. That would be a good combined gift if they have enough smaller toys.

My 4yo loved a mini indoor trampoline with handlebars. It makes sounds and
counts the jumps etc. Again, the downside is that it takes up a fair amount
of space and can't be stored away like a tent.

Outdoor things like pools, sandboxes, bubble stuff, etc.

Hmm - can you tell my kids aren't much for sitting around, lol. I do a lot
of bigger ticket combined gifts if I can manage to rustle up enough money
(and money from relatives helps with this). At 2yo and 4yo I imagine one of
those nifty toy kitchens would be great. The 2yo won't know better so if
you have the money but want separate gifts - get the 4yo the kitchen and the
2yo the dishes to go with it. For less expensive ideas a good quality
shopping cart would be fun for the 2yo. Play food would be a good add on.
The 4yo could get a play cash register and they could get separate gifts but
play together.

--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

I never had any trouble buying gifts when they were younger, but now that
they are older, it gets somewhat harder. I mean there is always, money,
books, clothes.. I guess it depends what your son is into and interested in.
Is there a certain character or something that interests him? If so, go with
that.

--
Sue

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy
birthday presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy
presents from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2
in two weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child,
we've got most things already!

Cheers

Anne

In article , Rosalie B. says...

Banty wrote:

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If you have not had children of your own (not all relatives have or
they haven't all had boys), then it can be a challenge to figure out
what kinds of gifts they would enjoy. And if you ask the mother, and
she doesn't know either (as Anne doesn't seem to have had any ideas)
then what else is there to do but send money. Would that not be
better than giving them something completely inappropriate?

Nothing wrong with giving money. A lot is wrong with expecting that they fund
presents quickly gotten by someone else for you.


If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

This seems ungracious to me.

Why? A gift is a gift. One doesnt' have to say what was done with a gift. One
thanks for the gift. This time, the gift is money, so you thank for the money.

Now, I do understand that a very elder person who is having trouble getting
around may make an arrangement with a parent. Or someone deployed overseas,
etc. But that's an explicit arrangement. Then more would be said in a thank
you note. (And it's getting less and less necessary given the internet - fewer
and fewer people really are in that position.)

But on the other hand, I've seen (and had) a lot of simple laziness or "If I
can't find it at Walmart I'm just sending the money for it" or "I don't know
what to get", but expecting that $xx.xx that they sent be accounted for with the
description of some single tangible something fitting the value of the check,
and on time by golly, from some relatives. When Anne says it's several
relatives and she doesn't have any idea what to do, I'm fairly sure she's
describing the latter case. Or at the least, she's allowed too many relatives
to have that understanding with her.

Banty

On Sat, 26 May 2007 01:02:38 -0700, Anne Rogers wrote:

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Cheers

Anne

Does she like dolls and other girlie toys that perhaps DS didn't have? My
DS is 5 and DD is 3 and birthdays are not a problem because she is very
girlie and he was very boyish.

Personally, I put all money sent to my children into their college fund.
We don't need more toys and people sending money never ask us to use it to
buy anything. I don't feel that's right, but if they do that, then I would
pool their money and buy something big, like a playhouse for the backyard
or something.