Gearhead Mom

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Post Holiday Round-up: Lame or Game? Auntie’s Grab Bag of Goodies

Posted by Jenny M. @ 12:55 PM

My little two-year-old’s winningest Christmas gift was one of the simplest:  a purse and “accessories” from her aunt and uncle.  She played with that purse and carried it with her everywhere solidly for a week.  And it still features prominently in what we lovingly call her entourage (the cache of stuff she brings to our bedroom in the middle of the night, in the car on errands, on walks in the stroller, and which she attempts to take to preschool each day). 
There are plenty of plush purse sets on the market labeled variously My First Purse (see this one or this one).  But any self-respecting toddler knows the difference between a PANDERING purse and YOUR REAL one (even if it is only a knock-off…), which is why they will continue to rummage around in yours, ruining lipsticks, texting your friends gibberish, and taking your keys to an undisclosed location far far away from your bag, if you should mistakenly think the Commercially Packaged First Purse will suffice. 

Instead, take my sister’s lead, and buy a cute, albeit cheap little pocketbook (WITH a shoulder strap, of course!) and then fill it yourself! 

Little C received a pink patchwork clutch with a play cellphone (FYI, there are Princess cellphones and Hannah Montana cellphones and John Deere cellphones, but I suggest a more realistic-looking one (see PANDERING, above), a real-life chapstick (which was mostly eaten by day 2 but TOTALLY cherished), a pair of groovy kids’ sunglasses, a mirror compact (surely you can dig up an old one to throw in), and a compact pop-out hairbrush (by the way, this little wonder occupied my daughter’s attention for a nice long while).  If you have some old keys lying around, I suggest throwing some on a super dorky key chain from Florida (no offense, Floridians!) and including them too. 
My mom, who is clearly in the habit of stealing hotel card-keys, is going to hook Little C up with some “credit cards” when she sees her this week.  Sweet! 
When it comes to giveaways, who doesn’t love a grab bag of goodies?  I like it when my daughter grabs her bag instead of mine.

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