Jealousy around Presents

Okay so here's the dilema...

Grace's 1st birthday is less than two weeks away now eeek!

At Christmas while Isabelle loved her toys Grace was asleep when she was opening them - so when Grace woke up and opened hers Isabelle wanted to play with Grace's toys... It was easily resolved as she had lots of presents of her own to play with and be distracted by...

I can forsee problems on Grace's birthday though as she'll want to play with all of Grace's toys and to a certain extent this is ok but they are for Grace not for her and her birthday is only a few weeks later...

I don't really want to go getting Isabelle a present however small as
a) it's quite close to her birthday
b) it's Grace's birthday not hers!

We do plan to get her involved choosing Grace's present, wrapping it, etc and obviously will be planning her birthday and writing a list with her asking her if she wants a party etc...

Ideas / thoughts please!

My grandma buys the 'other' child a gift so they don't feel left out. I however do not agree with this, I wouldnt want the 'other child.children" to expect this every year!
I try to explain to the non birthday child that they will get a turn on their birthday. Involving them with wrapping/choosing is a great way too. Maybe she could lay out the pressie's for Grace when she is asleep? Also, if Isabelle has a toy camera, get her to help mummy take some pictures because thats a super important job! I also let the non birthday child give her sister the present "they" bought for the sibling too.

Actually that's a good point about the camera - she uses my small digital camera and is getting quite good at it...

Actually that's a good point about the camera - she uses my small digital camera and is getting quite good at it...

Well once you have got a few shots you could say something like " because your SO good at taking photo's you can have the most important job of the day..." My kids would love it

Well today Finn had his second birthday, and Connor didn't get a present. It was absolutely fine and tbh it didn't occur to me that there'd be any major problems, just the usual day to day sharing issues which can usually be resolved fairly easily. Connor helped Finn by doing the important job of starting off the unwrapping so Finn could get his fingers in to do the rest. And Connor and I had also discussed what present Connor would like to give to Finn, so due to a bit of steering in the right direction it meant he was very happy to see how much Finn liked the present he'd bought for him. There was one particular present that Connor liked the look of but we explained that Finn had to have a play with it first and then he'd share. Which he did, fortunately! You might find that some of the toys/games Grace gets will be too advanced for her just now - Finn got a couple of jigsaws and board games that he isn't quite ready for so I told Connor that we could sit down with Finn and try to teach him how to do it. He loves to be the educator

Connor and I sat down and planned today's birthday tea too, and made a card for Finn at preschool yesterday, so has been as involved as a four year old can be really.

Also it's Finn's party on Saturday afternoon, and in the morning dh is taking Connor out to a local dad's playgroup. It's not a treat as such, but normally he'd take Finn to so it's a bit of time for them to do their thing away from the birthday boy. It's only six weeks til Connor's birthday so not too long for him to wait!

We worried about this when Phebie's first birthday came around but it really wasn't a problem at all. MIL wanted to get Hannah presents as well (and by presents I mean as 2or3) we refused to let her as its the birthday childs special day. We involved Hannah in the planning and she chose the colour theme, party hats and things. We also sat her down the day before and explained all about it and how it was Phebies day but she was still special too, we've done this with each of them for the others birthday and we've never had a problem

Thankyou for sharing your experiences ladies - sounds like we'll be ok then