Hellobee Boards

I like the ideas @Mrs. Microscope: gave. The Melissa and Doug water wow books are around $6 each and great for travel. And a gift card for mama to get a coffee is a great idea too. We also do stickers and a new hot wheels or other small toy. You can find those little coloring books with stickers and crayons inclided in the kids favorite characters at the dollar store. We travel a couple of times per year for LO to visit a children's hospital a few hours away. I basically bring a handful of quiet dollar spot items to keep him busy if we have to wait a while. Sometimes I wrap each one individually to give him something to do. You are sweet to think of your friend at this time. I hope everything goes well for them!

When my niece was in the hospital, I sent my brother a small care package for them. I found out the hospital had a subway (and my bro likes to eat there) and a Starbucks, so I sent a $10 gift card for each to him. I also sent him some snacks like granola bars, pop tarts, etc. I sent a small stuffed animal, and some small activities for my niece. I think I got a couple of those $1 activity grab bags with different themes from the Target dollar spot. She had a lot of wires/monitoring, so I wanted to give her some low movement activities to do. I've also had my DS pick out books and we've sent those to her. She had multiple long hospital stays where my brother would spend the whole day there, stay at the Ronald McDonald House, and take the whole time off work, so I wanted to get him some helpful things for the long stay.

The hospital also had lots of donations of toys they give to kids, too. We visited once with our DS and a nurse took him into a room and let him pick out a toy to play with and take home (she actually came and gave him more after we left the room). So hopefully the hospital they are visiting will do something similar. It is so hard to have young kids in the hospital and to bring other kids at the same time.

If the 3yo is the crafting type, wikki sticks, and definitely books with flaps for both kids. Bubbles, laminated pages and dry erase crayons, big lacing beads, gift cards to easy chain restaurants like ruby tuesday's, little lotions and chapsticks, stickers.