A triple-picture frame? Or picture books to read to the littles.

My sisters each gave me a gift that I loved. One was a set of "doll" dishes in a little suitcase that I've since seen at toy stores. We had many tea party/restaurant meals with this. The other one was a large container of pretend food which also was used in much pretend play. One of my favorite things to do with small children is pretend play, so these two gifts were a real hit for me!

Letters to my Grandchild

Love the picture frame idea. Grandparents need a lot of frames!! I just got a couple this week for the grand's Christmas photos.

My neighbor, new grandma, was given a collection of household safety stuff, the items you put into electric outlets so kids don't stick anything in the it, etc....that kind of thing, for when the grands visit.

I always had a collection of books here for when the kids came. Start with board books.

Board books are a great idea!

The grandchild is the gift. It fills a place in your heart you never knew was there. It would never occur to me that there are now new grandparents gifts. I had friends that don't know the parents give me small gifts for the baby that I thought was thoughtful of them. But a gift for me? Awkward.

My girlfriends had a Grandmom shower for me. They are a very thoughtful group of friends. We were all members of a local hospital Wellness Center and over the past 10 years we've become very close - 4 of us live in the same little neighborhood and we celebrate birthdays, new hips, new knees, sometimes even just the arrival of spring or the first of the month. I'm the last one in the group to become a grandmother so they enjoyed the celebration along with me.

They gave me some baby outfits, Sophie ( a very popular rubber teething toy), baby books, a Grandparent photo book (but I've never used it since I just take the photos on my cell phone camera), a few infant toys, one made a baby blanket and another knitted a sweater and a matching bib.

People threw me baby showers just to celebrate the happy occasion when I became a mother, four times over. I never needed any gifts. I did love the festivities.

I like to crochet baby blankets with the baby‘s full name, birthday, and sometimes weight. Grandmas have a need for naptime, overnight, and play supplies.. i gave away most of our supplies, but I did keep a few special toys and lots of books. The Fisher Price barn and animals,record player, and Bristle Blocks and Duplos have gone through two generations.

My parents have a Fisher-Price grill and a bunch of play food that live in the front hall coat closet. I can't count the number of children that have played with them over the decades. The toys are always a big hit with toddlers through about six years old.

There are several books "How to Babysit Grandma" or "Just me and Grandma" or "Just me and Grandpa".

Tonight I am preparing my house for a weekend of grandchildren staying here. Luckily I saved a personalized wood stepstool with my sons name on it. I'm thinking a stepstool for a little one to reach a sink when visiting would be nice. Donations to worthy organizations were made in honour of Grandchildrens births and I appreciated that sentiment.

My mother, who will be 90 in February, is a great-grandmother. She loves visits with her great-grandchildren and keeps toys for them to play with when they visit her (she doesn't babysit for this generation of children, but they know where the toys are in her house when they come!) I love the story Marie_cate told about a Grandmom shower!!

Wildchild - I love your phrase - "It fills a place in your heart that you never knew was there."

Rho - the stepstool is a great idea.

Seagrass - it was such a surprise. I am so thankful that at this age I have such wonderful friends. We had lunch reservations and I thought we were celebrating the fact that the oldest of our group had finished PT after her new hip. She's the most active 85 year old that I know and a great grandmother. Two of the other women divorced and never had children, and the other two women have many grandchildren. They knew how much I was hoping for grandchildren and the difficulties my sons and daughter in laws experienced trying to conceive and finally resorting to IVF. And to think that in these past four years I've gone from none to 4 little grand daughters is such a blessing. And to make it even better 2 live about 15 minutes away and the other two are an hour.

Maire