We are lucky to have so many beautiful and dear friends who invite us to their lovely birthday parties. While sometimes it feels like we are on the birthday circuit, attending several a month, it's never a chore. Instead it's sort of the best thing ever, getting to see a 3 year old light up at omg-three-whole-candles-on-my-cake!
But you know what can be trying? Figuring out what to get these little ones. And the last minute scramble to hit up the local toy store to find something age appropriate and not too messy or noisy and generally agreeable to both child and his or her grown-ups.
My friend does this awesome, genius thing that's up there with Matilda Kahl's business uniform: she picks one toy and buys 12 of them at once, and every kid gets the same thing for their birthday that year and she's never, ever running to the store an hour before every party. Um, yessss.
It only took me 3 and a half years but I finally took a page from her clearly organized Mom book and bought 5 copies of the clever and beautiful Flashlight by Lizi Boyd.
Flashlight plays with the idea of light and dark, and the magical flickers of a light in the woods and is the perfect kind of book for a pre-reader to explore by him or herself, in a darkened closet. They'll have the satisfaction of 'getting' the story since it's told entirely without words: a meditation for the preschool set.
We gift ours with a flashlight of course, available in packs of 5 here. (Throw in a few batteries and you'll have a happy parent on the receiving end.)
