[dspakowsky]

It's almost my oldest's birthday. I have so many ideas of what to get her, but I want to get her something she'll really love. She's very mature for her age and she says she wants a purple cell phone and an ipod - two things I don't even have! - (but she's seen her cousin has these things). Anyways, what's something your little girl has got a lot of use out of? Thanks!

[sissyminsky]

We got our 3yo boy an "ipod." It is the playskool MP3 player. We have put some of his music and story cds on it so he can listen to them on his own in his room. We can change the content on our computer. He seems to like it alot. He likes it that he has an "ipod" like daddy's. Ours is gender neutral but amazon has it in a 'girl' style
Amazon.com: Playskool Made For Me Mp3 Music Player - Pink: Toys & Games

[catsnkids]

My daughter's 4th birthday is today, although we had the party yesterday. She got so many things she loves and I'm sure she'll be playing with a long time. Her favorites are probably the fisher price camera, fisher price dollhouse, and Dora scooter. She also really likes the princess reflect and draw and princess hippity hop. We have yet to try out the t-ball and fishing pole. Board games are good and she also got a recorder (a start at learning to play music).

Right now though the dollhouse is number one.

[robandjulie]

DD turned 4 this month. She's a HUGE crafter, so her current obsession is a suncatcher painting kit. She also loves her loom thing with the stretchy nylon bands.

She also likes when people get her craft-boxes/bags: just a whole gift bag full of cheap-ish supplies: construction paper, some gift ribbons, markers, crayons, chalk, a few rolls of clear tape, stickers, scissors with fun designs, stamps, ink pads, etc etc. Honestly her favorite treat is just a lap-sized dry-erase board and a pretty pencil case full of colored dry-erase markers. She colors and writes things, I write words for her to read, draw mazes, etc.

SIL got her a sew-your-own-pillow for Christmas which she loved and we had a great time working on together, so for her b-day she got her a little cranking gadget that lets you fill your own stuffed animals like build-a-bear. Both of those were very much appreciated but were more single-use activities.

She's also a bookworm and is learning to love chapter books. Magic Treehouse Adventure books, classics like The Borrowers (series), Wind in the Willows, Winnie the Pooh (classic).

Finally, anything "like mom" or "like dad" so gardening tools, bike water bottles, a cookbook of kid-cook recipes, a kid-friendly fishing pole (they have rubbery weights rather than hooks, but are fun for practicing casting and reeling)...

[avoel]

I have one who is 6 and one who is 4 and things that get played with EVERY day and have for years in our house are:

1. Books, books and more books. I second the chapter book recommendation too. We are now doing that and the Tinkerbell/Pixie Hollow fairies books got us started as well as a lot of the Usborne fairies/princess/fairy tale collections.

2. Our collection of My Little Pony stuff.

3. A big container of matchbox type cars and a car mat with a road/city scene on it. (Yes, these are my GIRLS!)

4. Our collection of little plastic animals---started with the Little People stuff where we only ever played with the animals and now we just have a conglomeration of little plastic animals-farm animals, jungle animals, sea creatures etc that you can find in little plastic tubes in any toystore---we love these! We have Littlest Pet Shop stuff too---but only play with the pets!

5. Puzzles...at 4 and 5 we moved up to the bigger floor type puzzles and they love these.

6. Our box of dress up clothes and shoes (have to have the shoes!).

7. Board games/decks of cards. They can play for an hour with a deck of cards if the pictures on them are enticing enough that they can sort them in enough different ways (ie/by colors, characters, shapes, numbers etc)

8. A plastic tea set I bought for my oldest as an infant before she ever came home. It still gets played with every single day!

[Mariais5]

Anything that belongs to her 13 year old sister ;-)

[dianneemily]

My 5 y/o likes her leapster, Barbies, art supplies, and outside toys (jumprope, hulahoop, t-ball, etc.). We bought a Step 2 Grand Balcony house for her to play with her Barbies which is much sturdier than the real Barbie houses - she loves that.

[Suzeb1]

My daughter turned 4 in April. She loves her box of fairy dress up clothes (complete with mutiple sets of wings!), her tea set (plastic, for playing with in the bathtub!) and her scooter.

She also is madly in love with the ET plush doll I got her, but I think that might be somewhat idiosyncratic to her

Susan

[Theslaws]

OUr oldest will be 4 in August. She loves:
1. Dress up
2. Books
3. Crafts - a big box of all kinds of junk she can create with
4. Leapster
5. Doll house (they particularly love the playmobil one we have - are actually playing with it right now)
6. puzzles
7. games

Happy shopping!

[tonyy]

My daughter LOVES Littlest Pet Shop animals and the playsets for them! She wants a Nintendo DS like her older brother, but enjoys playing w/ LEAPSTER LMAX, too!

[nannyisme2004]

My DD is 5. Polly Pockets are her favorite. She plays with them every day. My Little Pony too, but not as much as Polly Pocket. And anything to do with crafts. The babysitter helped her make soap the other day from a kit I bought 2 years ago. And she is really into dinosaurus as well. She is going into Kindergarten and is enjoying working in her workbooks.

[Slatond10]

Well my DD ( 4.5 y.o.) loves:

• portable DVD player ( with her book of DVD's) she is a huge movie buff
• her bike
• her mini trampoline / balance beam/ gymnastics mat
• her guitar
• her computer ( it is my old one but she thinks it is new) w/ pre K games
• Anything Hannah Montana
• Her battery operated Jeep ( I bought used from garage sale )
• Her battery operated 4 wheeler ( again used but she loves it anyway)
• Scooter
• Horseback Riding lessons
• Gymnastics lessons
• Pedicures

[jennandsteve]

Sophia loves her Bitty Twin, carries that doll everywhere. And I can pick up special clothes for special events. She loves to have matching clothes with the doll. She also loves the leapster. We started reading the little house books last fall and have just started Silver Lake. We read a chapter a night. She really enjoys those and since we live in MN we are going to take a short trip to visit various spots in the book, this fall.

She adores her bike, wants roller blades, she ice skates pretty well so might try roller blades for Christmas. She also loves the computer and her webkins, which are stuffed animals you feed and buy things for on line. She has three I think. She logs on to PBS kids and American girl sites.

She turned 5 the end of April.

[WVUMom418]

I have three girls, 6, 4 and 3 years old the one thing they all love to play with is purses. We have purses of all sizes and shapes, they love playing dress up with them but then they also play store and other games with them.

My oldest is really into crafts and drawing so she loves to get craft supplies like someone else mentioned.

The other thing they absolutely love is the CD player (boom box), it's a Hello Kitty one and they are constantly changing the cd's and dancing around the house. The only thing I wish is I could have a remote to turn it down from the other room.