Christmastime for a toddler, is not about the gifts. I have had 10 children and each and everyone of them, grew tired of opening presents on Christmas morning. They had more fun playing with the paper and the boxes. Our first children, we would buy all the neatest toys and thought they would get great enjoyment out of them. I was wrong, by mid year I was already putting them in the “for sale” pile. No more. Our toddler this year is 1. He doesn’t really like playing with toys just yet. But he loves pictures and picture books. I decided to make him a personalized one.
That is our toddler on the card, Stephen. Our only blonde hair/greenish eyed baby. His favorite thing to do, is grab his picture book, that I got from the Dollar Store and show me the “nana” and “apple” photos.
What I did, was I got photos of all of his favorite things and people. I did some clip art searches on line and used some photos I took. I printed them off onto paper and then had them laminated. I took mine to Staples cost about $1 per page. You can probably do one of those homemade laminate things, they sell at the store. I then cut them apart into the same sized cards, and punched holes in the corners 
I used one of those circle clips. I am not sure what they are called. They open into a C and then clamp shut. 
This is perfect because we can sit, in church, at home, or in the car and go through all of his favorite things. This was extremely helpful when I had a squirming toddlers for church services. I will admit, I have made these numerous times over the last 8 years for various children. I only had one time that I left this item in a bedroom unattended with three curious preschool/toddlers. They had opened it and removed all of the cards. I normally would keep this in my diaper bag or on the bookshelf, but that day I was lapsed. It was a good reminder for me to keep my things picked up:)
Stephen is also receiving a nice assortment of balls. I bought a big bag of them at the Goodwill. They had a 10 pack of light up balls, squishy balls, footballs, all small toddler type balls. I also got some board books from Goodwill. I like to buy them there, as I KNOW that they will eventually get ripped:) Then I won’t feel so bad that they cost $.25!!
Daddy is also hard at work on a wooden Noahs Ark pull toy boat. I will get pics when he is finished with it.
This is the last item for Stephen. Daddy made it, in our wood business.
When I was a child, we had this vintage stool and it had this saying on it. I had my husband replicate that stool for our son. I love it! We put it up for sale, on ebay last week, and we have sold 10 already. 
It is a great solid hardwood, sturdy stool. Stephen, right now takes any type of container he can get his hands on, laundry baskets, block boxes, etc and will turn them upside down so he can climb. I am thinking he is going to like his stool.
If you are interested in one of these personalized stools, we have them up for sale on Ebay. If that link does not work, as someone might buy that listing, you can do a search for “step up to be tall stools” and you will find it.
