I recently gave birth to my second child, a handsome and wonderful baby boy! We made every effort to try and get big sister as ready for a new sibling as we could. One of the things I decided to do was to make a big sister bucket for her to receive at the hospital after the new little one was born. We also let big sister pick out a few small gifts to take to the new baby in the hospital. She loved getting to pick out a few things for the new baby!
The big sister bucket was a huge hit!
I chose a Thirty One round -about caddy for my bucket. These little caddies are great! They are water- resistant and have a mesh bottom which makes them great for taking toys to the pool or just playing with in the bathtub. This was something that big sister would have a lot of fun using since she is such a water baby. I also had her name put on the front of the bucket to make it even more fun.
Most of the items in the big sister bucket were for big sister to have something to do while we were at the hospital. I wanted to make sure that she had something to entertain her while everyone else was checking out the new baby. So here is a list of what I put in the bucket.
- A mess free Crayola coloring set. This was wonderful as the markers will only color on the paper that came with the kit so I didn’t have to worry if she colored off of the page.
- Some My Little Ponies. This are very popular in our house and get lots of play time.
- An art smock…What toddler doesn’t need an art smock!
A toy tester. More on this later!- And of course a big sister shirt embroidered by grandma! You can’t make a big sister bucket without a big sister shirt!
The toy tester was an idea given to me by my parents as teacher educator. I thought that it was a great way to show my daughter what toys she could safely share with the baby. The toy tester started out as just a toilet paper tube. I added some stickers and some washy tape to it to make it look prettier. My daughter also uses it as a telescope. How the toy tester works is if a toy fits though the tube then it is too small for the baby.
Not a safe size for baby!
If the toy will not fit in the tube them the baby can play with it.
A safe size for baby.
Big sister stills loves playing with the items that she received in her big sister bucket even now that we are home from the hospital. We often get the toy tester out and test what she wants to give to little brother. This was a fun bucket for me to put together and I really made it nice for my daughter to have something to play with while visiting me in the hospital.
The Crazy Hat Box 
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