I find myself buying something from Bannor Toys for just about every occasion. The wooden toys are timeless, easy for baby to grab, safe when they inevitably get chewed and encourage imaginative play. They fit perfectly in an Easter basket or Christmas stocking – I’ve even tied them to the top of a package with ribbon for special gift wrap. Best of all, the toys can be personalized, making them excellent keepsakes as well.
I love how customizable the wooden rattles are; you can choose from several shapes/states, select from the standard color sets or make your own combination from the 20+ options, and you can have them engraved. For our oldest, I had his full birth stats engraved but since then I’ve been doing just first names since the font is bigger and the look is more simple.
The personalized rattle is actually my favorite baby gift! I love choosing one that I think the family will like and adding the child’s name makes it one of a kind. It’s practical since the baby can play with it in their early years, but I also hope that it’s one of those special toys that will get tucked into a memory box. The teethers and many other wooden toys can also have names added, so there are a ton of options.
If I’m buying before the baby is born, I sometimes choose the classic baby rattle, which makes a great set when paired with a swaddle or soft stuffed animal like one of these:
[amazonjs asin=”B00CR5VVR2″ locale=”JP” tmpl=”Small” title=”aden + anais (エイデンアンドアネイ) 【日本正規品】 モスリンコットン おくるみ 2枚セット twinkle two pack grey stars swaddle 2 pack-4024″]
[amazonjs asin=”B0012SDXUI” locale=”JP” tmpl=”Small” title=”Jellycat（ジェリーキャット） バシュフル バニー M ぬいぐるみ ウサギ 座高20cm クリーム”]
In our most recent order, I also picked up this star wand. Our little guy has been doing magic in his imaginative play and I thought this would be the perfect complement to those games. He was also asking for a “king stick” (sceptre) the other day and I can picture him using it for that purpose, plus as a dozen others, as well. Other than their individual keepsake rattles, I haven’t been engraving our kids’ toys in the hopes that it makes sharing a little easier down the line – and maybe better for handing them down someday too.
This circle stacker is a new favorite for the baby, who has just started sitting and crawling. She loves pulling the rings off, chewing on them a bit and chasing them around the room. As she gets older I’m sure she’ll eventually get around to stacking them back onto the base. We had the colorful Fisher Price stacker for our son and while it’s a classic toy, I prefer the wooden pieces scattered on the floor over the plastic. That said, I think that plastic set is what many people have in mind when imagining a stacker toy, so they are surprised by how much smaller wooden sets are (I see those comments on just about every wooden stacker when browsing online toy stores). For reference, here is the Bannor Toys stacker next to a child-size Camelbak bottle:
And last, but not least, we also picked up one of these sight word sets in a recent sale. We’re saving it for our little guy’s next birthday, so I can’t say too much about it except that it’s cute.
Bannor Toys is a small, family-run business and they ship internationally. In our experience, turnaround is usually very quick, even with the personalizations. They are also active on social media, offering limited edition toys and sales campaigns relatively often.
What are your favorite toys for little kids and new babies? Have you saved any of them in your child’s keepsake box?
Kxx