Grandma's can be hard to buy for. Mine sure was. We bought tons of 'stuff' for her over the years. She in later years said just give me something I don't have to feed, walk, dust or worry about keeping safe. And I don't like perfume or clothing that needs dry cleaned. We found she didn't like shirts that went over her head or slippers. We started to give her cookies and dried fruit and candy (which she loved to share with the little kids) We gave her calenders and photos and anything home made she loved. I found out later she just loved the jams I made and only brought them out with guests so she could say her granddaughter made it. She loved an old lumpy pillow my cousin made her when she was ten. And another cousin made her a horrible drawing that she framed and hung over her bed. My sister made her some bread once and again she froze it and served it to guests for a year. My son made her a cutting board one year, she never used it as a cutting board, she didn't want to muss it up, but showed everyone the wonderfull board when ever she had company. At time time of her death we all found the homemade stuff in her home but the other expensive stuff was missing or stuffed in a box. Except the bottle of really yukky bubble bath one of my cousins gave her as a child. She knew he worked a week of mowing lawns etc. to earn it. Maybe the framed art work isn't such a bad idea if could be taken to copy plase and shrunk down to make fidge magents or a keychain or something. I love the idea of a photo on a sweat shirt or tote bag. Maybe fill the bag with her favorite coffee or cookies or ????

Kids are funny. My DGS turned 2 in January, and he's just as happy playing with sticks and retractable tape measures as he is with his toys. Electronics are something else entirely and his parents have had to curb his enthusiasm with that. Here are some gifts that were hits with him since he loves school buses and Thomas the Train Engine. Fisher Price Little People School Bus. Thomas train set and the Brio train set. My daughter got him the trains and track for Christmas. I'm not sure if both sets of trains will work on the same track. There was some question about that at Christmas. I'm not sure they do. I bought him Playhut's Thomas the Train Engine Play Hut. He loves that when they put it up. Mega Blocks First Builders Big Building Bag. He's had that for a while now and plays with it all the time. They're kind of like the old Duplo blocks but more colorful. They make artificial fruit and vegetables that can be "cut" with a plastic knife on a cutting board. His other GM gave him that. I was a bit leery of the knife idea but he really loved it. Get the fruit/veggies that are joined together with velcro. It makes a neat sound when you "cut" into them. I think the others use magnets. I bought him a bright yellow slinky last week. He liked that. Good Easter Basket item. He has a baby doll, plastic head, hands and feet, but a soft body that's he's had for over a year now. It was really cute when he was smaller and would cover the doll and pat it to sleep. The pats were pretty hard. He still takes it and his teddy to his crib every night. I bought him a little kite which I think he'll really like, but we haven't flown it yet. One book that I got him which I think is cute is Even Firefighters Go to the Potty. I bought something called the Kaboost Portable Chair Booster to have at my house in lieu of a high chair. That's been working out fine now that's he's bigger. Just something to think about so you don't have to deal another high chair. Amazon sells them.

Thanks, everybody. I feel real good about the swimming lessons. Last summer, we (sprites and I) were sitting outside chatting about everything on their minds, and she asked me to measure how tall she was. She finally told me that she had been invited to a friend's swim party and the shallow end was so many inches deep. So we compared her height to the depth of the pool. She also wanted a description of what it felt like to be under water, did it hurt to upen your eyes....could you see? As much as I tried to make it sound like fun, I could tell that she was troubled and anxious. Turns out that she faked the proverbial stomach ache so that ahe didn't have to go. Poor thing, she's so athletic and physically fearless in everything I've seen her do. I think that will love learning how to swim and overcoming her fear. About the cake......SHE will decide what she wants to make. We've done layer cakes, buttercream frosting, she's enamoured with pastry tips, etc. I'll pin her down tomorrow so that I can be sure that I have everything.

How fun is that! I'll keep in mind . . . DS just moved from 5 rooms, 3 closets besides the bedroom closets, (2 roommates) to a studio with one closet. No room for a unicorn lol. It will be challenging to give him gifts this year: gift cards, public transit cards, theater tix will be in order, I guess.