Autograph Books For 2 Year Old

[mcgrawfan]

I have been thinking about getting DD (she will be 28 months at the time of the trip) an autograph book. I thought it might be a good "ice breaker" for her at the character meals. Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated.

 

[alloyd1170]

At 2 my son was scared of the characters and wouldnt go near them without me. DD was also scared of them at 15 mos and buried herself in my shoulder (and still does if anyone acknowledges her).

However, I still got an autograph book for DS on his first trip (now the kids share one as I only need one signature). Now he is 5 and Im so glad I did it. Heres what I did-I took pics of him (sometimes he and I) getting the characters autograph on every trip. I scanned the autographs into the computer, shrunk them down and then added the pics I took to each character to make a 4x6 page. I got a photo album in the park and put the pages in it. He loves to look at his pics over the years, how much he has grown (and how brave hes gotten), etc. DD loves to look at hers and her big brothers too. I dont change the pics as the years go by, but you could. If you got a big enough book you could put all the pics in there.

alison

 

[gabbysmom04]

Both of my kids DD 2 and DS 1 love the characters and I tried to get my DD to get an autograph book but she did not seem to want it at all. I was also afraid that it might turn into a drawn out process with her! I am not saying it would be like that for you but my DD tends to take her time when she does things! They don't cost that much maybe you could get one and just try it out. If she is not into it then keep it for next time.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I think it is a great idea.....you know your child best. The worst thing to happen is she doesn't want to be that close to the characters but.... you having it signed for her will be a beautiful keepsake for the future!

 

[LCtonra]

We started an autograph book when my DD was just over 2 years old. I got one of the regular ones down in Disney. When the book was open and you were looking at two pages I had the characters only sign on one of the two and leave the other one blank. I would just hand them the book open to where I wanted them to sign. Then when I got home I put a picture I took of my DD with the character on the opposite blank page. It was nice because then she saw who wrote in the book seeing that she couldn't read. The next year was even more magical when we used the same book because it was only halfway full. So many of the characters would notice what we did and looked through the book. One of the green army men took a long time looking through it and then called all of his other army men over to take a look too. Such an awesome keepsake!!!

 

[reenie1]

The autograph books were a great icebreaker for my daughter when she was two. The pictures are so funny - her standing, reaching her little arm out as far as she can to hand the book to the characters. She warmed up quickly once she got used to them!

 

[skoba-nelson]

Hi Mcgrawfan-
Hope this helps. For our just turned 2 DS in Sept 04 we bought him one of the autograph books. What we did for his first couple of characters was to stand back and watch the other kids interact. This might not work at a character dinner though. We had the advantage(?) of our DS's first character experience waiting in the very busy lobby of PC during hurricane Frances' preshow (day before, but all parks shut down). So I had the time to let him watch and watch and watch other children before he then decided on a 3 step program for each character he saw the rest of the trip. First get the autograph, get a big hug, then a high five. I remember one child crying in fear therefore getting our DS nervous. I told him the girl was crying because she just found that she had to share Mickey with all these other boys and girls and she did not want to share. The little white lies we tell our children hopefully will not get me in trouble. I still tell him to shut the refridgerator door, that he's going to waste the battery.

I just think the key is let your child decide on their pace, give them a chance to see the interaction first.

 

[Ellester]

We just got back and my son loved his book (he's 34 months). His two big sisters had their books and I knew that he would not be happy if he didn't have what they had. He really got into it at the end of the trip. He also liked coloring on the pages himself, I had to make sure he left a few blank pages for characters! He was a little bothered by the face characters, but loved all the cartoon guys. My oldest daughter was the opposite at age 2. My younger daughter loved all the characters from her first visit at 18 months. So, you just don't know until you get there. But, it is a small investment so I would go for it. I made their books this time, I bought a small sketch book at A.C.Moore and put the kids' names and a Mickey or Minnie decal on each one. It had more pages than the ones at the parks so it didn't matter if a few pages were used for personal drawings!

 

[Barb D]

When DD7 was a toddler I made her a small autograph blankie. It was two layers of fabric, one cotton with a Minnie print, and the other lightweight fleece. I sewed a pocket into one end so that it could be folded into a pillow, and also sewed a handle onto it so that it could be clipped to her stroller. We had the characters autograph the cotton side with Sharpie. (I had something hard to put under it.) She still treasures it, and the autographs show up after many washings.