What to buy a three-year-old girl for her birthday

Dimples is milliseconds away from celebrating her third birthday. I am obviously milliseconds from clinging to an almost-empty Gin bottle sobbing “where did my baby go?” but will refrain until after the watershed.

When asked what she wanted for her birthday, Dimples had one answer: baby things. Baby clothes, baby real food (I know!) baby highchair, baby cot, baby snowsuit, baby bibs, baby tights. The irony.

Now, whilst this is good and nice and easy for people, it rather limits them and makes for a mountain-sized pile of Baby-Annabell-related detritus sitting in the corner of the bedroom, so I have drafted a rather neat list of suggestions for gifts that you can buy a similarly disposed three-year-old-girl for her 3rd birthday.

Galt Fun to Write set: we were sent this to review and Dimples was beyond delighted. She is desperate to do homework like her big sister and these laminated sheets allow her to improve her pen control and letter-writing skills whilst her sister works on spellings. They even fit in my handbag for trips to the dentists and sitting whilst the sister does her swimming lesson.

Bendaroos: a no-mess craft medium, The Girls were given a box of these for Christmas, and have had great fun creating shapes and structures from what I think are wax-covered pieces of string in bright colours. They are great for taking on holiday since they make no mess and can be reused. The boxes come in several sizes too.

Pinkalicious sticker books: stickers and children go together like fish and chips, Ant and Dec and Chas and Dave. They also go together like girls and pink. So Pinkalicious- the story of a girl who turns pink- and stickers together in the same book? Awesomeness. Of course if you can’t get these, any sticker books will do. Stickers are something that children love because they can play independently and adults love because they don’t make much mess.

Pretty Bows: there is no such thing as too many hair bows in our house. And these hand-crafted bows  from Candy Bows are very well priced and make a great gift. I *ahem* may even have a couple of them myself for nights out! Added to which you can also buy gorgeous frou-frou tutus and angel wings on the site so you can get all your girlie accessories in one place. Love!

Carddies: another brilliant craft that is perfect for handbags and suitcases. These are sets of card characters for children to colour in and then play with. Designed by two mothers, the sets are available for boys and girls and come in a cute little box: ideal for rainy days and long journeys.

Wind-up torch: simple fun. Kids love torches and they are often useful. A wind-up torch adds the element of science and ensures you aren’t going through batteries like we go through chocolate biscuits. It’s never a bad thing to have a torch around in case of unexpected power outages, and the ones that we got have the added bonus of being a phone charger, so are ideal for taking camping!

Little Puggle activity box: a box filled with themed activities for your child, this takes the stress out of crafting. You can subscribe to a monthly bow or buy a one-off themed box for a special occasion. My girls really enjoyed the princess-themed activity box sample they received before Christmas and because so many of the activities included were designed for independent play, it left me free to get on with packing, so I was a very happy parent. There are boxes to suit all tastes and budgets and International Shipping is now available.