What Are Your 2-3 Year Old Favorite Toys?

little piano, anything that plays, or has to do with music.
her table and chairs for coloring
paints
my daughter loves loves her leapfrog lap top and it has become a lifesaver for car travel! Best $30 I've spent on a toy so far. (they are selling them at Costco right now)
tea set

My 2 year old loved the Bubble Mower! He’s older now but my neighbors still bring up every once in awhile how he was ALWAYS pushing that “thing” around! There is also the type with the balls that pop around in it. What his fascination was with it I’ll never know!

When my daughter was 2-3 her favorite toy was the play-doh ice cream play set and finger painting.

The best investment I ever made though was on those buckets of play animals. There’s the sea animals, dinosaurs, reptiles, etc. They vary from small to large. You can get the play mat that comes with it.

A few ideas:
A toy shopping cart. Both our kids used ours heavily. Our four year old uses hers now to push her dolls around. Best used toy ever in our house.
Building blocks
Duplo blocks
Doll stroller

Skip the piano (not so cute after a few days of hearing it), the laptop (our toy one just sits around), and moon sand (contrary to what the ad says, this is MESSY).

My almost 3 year old daughter loves her Playskool busy ball popper (loud but soooo fun!)
Her Disney princess tea party set
Her shopping cart
She loves anything "pretend" like her doctor set, playing "chef" with a mixing bowl and spoon with my apron on, dress-up things like a wand, mardi-gras beads, bracelets, tiaras, etc. , and her toy animal sets.
She also got the coolest toy from her aunt that is a puzzle with fish peices, but it came with a magnetic fishing pole to pull the pieces out. She LOOOOOOVES it! It was only a few dollars at Target.

I have a soon to be 4 yr old and a just turned 2 yr old. Anything with bubbles, anything with with wheels, anything with sand or water. Specifics are: bubbles blowers (huge price range at walmart and many diff types), cars and "bikes" (small ones that go by themselves, or big ones they stoop over to push at full speed and of course a trike of some type), good old fashioned sand box and buckets of water, or water guns. Also Aquadoodles (lots of choices in size and price) Moonsand and playdough are great for 2 yr olds BUT at that age you should play it with them b/c otherwise they just eat it! My 2 yr old likes train tracks and building blocks but I don't remember my girl getting that into it at that age, she is now though. Have Fun!

My son is a little over 2 and some of his favorite toys are:
Inside:
-little tonka trucks/cars and accessories- like the play garage and race track set
-tool set
-kitchen set
-magic pen board thing (with magnets)
-laptop
-crayons/paints- he likes to do "art projects"

Outside:
-grill set
-push lawn mower
-riding toys
-hockey stick and balls
-pool
-slide

hope that this helps.

You have gotten so many great responses and I think I would duplicate many. Just one thing.... You mentioned moon sand....don't get that yet. She is still young and that is VERY messy. We use it only outside in our sand table and we just started using it at 3 & 5 years of age.

Thanks for asking this question. I've been starting to put together a list for her October birthday (3rd) and Christmas. My daughter LOVES her play ironing board, her stoller, BOOKS, her table and chairs, buckets w/ shovels, stuffed animals, dress up clothes, dolls w/ clothes and wipes, her doll house that I got her for her 2nd birthday, her kitchen. This year I'm thinking of an easle, more dress up clothes, a doctor kit, a chaning table for her dolls, paints. I'll keep checking back to this post for more ideas!

My daughter will be 3 in October and loves her doll and doll size stroller and her doctor kit. She has recently started pretending the box of the doctor kit is her laptop, so that will be our next purchase. LOL

I'm with ya! My 2.5 year old's favorite "toy" is her bucket of pony tail holders & hair clips/bows that she loves to put into color groups. She also loves her books, stuffed animals and anything she can stack into towers but I can't think of any one toy that we've bought for her that she really loves.

I purchased the Fisher Price First dollhouse for my daughter's second birthday and she plays with it almost everyday. I also bought the "baby's room", "living room", and "grandma that comes with a stroller". She does A LOT of role playing, has them talk to each other, and has even added some of her other toys to be a part of her house. She also has 2 dolls and a stroller she has been playing with since she ____@____.com have bought some extra clothes and even some of her smaller baby clothes for her dolls. Another big hit and also plays with them a few days a week. It's fun to see her change the dolls clothing ad even diapers! One other toy is the Melissa and Doug Band in a Box. Hope the suggestions help!

I only buy to my son toys that he can use in different ways, so he doesn't get bored with them. He is a boy, so maybe some of my ideas will not apply to your daughter (in our house "gender neutral, just means that any gender kid can have any gender toy; my son can have dolls and my daughter cars). What he liked between 2 and 3 (and still does for most):
- wooden builing blocks, legos, duplo blocks
- play dough with lots of shapes and instruments
- finger paint
- easel
- animals (to play zoo, farm, vet...), mostly bath animal toys
- cars and trucks
- kitchen food (we built a stove and cupboard out of a diaper box and we just bought 150 pieces of plastic food and also dishes and pans). He can play cooking or shopping or feeding the doll with it.
- a doctor/veterinarian box with thermometer, stethoscope, syringe...

mine loves cowboys horses and animals. shoes buckets anything the cowboys horses and animals can go into. things for the animals and cowboys to climb on. he loves pounding things anything that makes noise and crayons and color books.

The Fisher Price Little people series was the most played with by my little one at that age. The farm & garage (with extra cars) were the biggest hits. He never tired of making his farm animals drive around and general pretend playing. Puppets were always his favorite for interacting with me. We suggest the folkmanis brand- they are very engaging. Have fun playing!

Hands down, my son's favorite toy from age 2-5 was the "Plasma Car". It was nicknamed the "Scoocher" in our house. Because while you can use the butterfly handle bars to move it, using your legs to "scooch" it was far and away the preferred method.

It can be used indoors and out (if you have tile, get the wheels replaced with rollerblade wheels so it's quieter). By age 3 we started requiring a helmet, because they *can* go very very fast. It became the favorite toy of the neighborhood, and ALL the kids had one and would race all over the place on them. Out of dozens of kids over 5 years (at 8 kiddo STILL rides it, and it can stand up to adults riding them as well, but with our heavier weights it's not as maneuverable) I only seen 2 or 3 spills. But the helmets were still required outside of the house.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Atoys-a...

His SECOND favorite toy was a REAL computer. Specifically www.starfall.com on MY computer.

Please go to www.toysofdiscovery.com and look for Place & Trace, Sunshine Market, Measure Up Pots & Spoons, Busy Bugs, Giant Pegboard. These are open-ended toys for 2-3 year olds that offer many layers of learning, so a child will not play with them one time and become bored.