If you get books, PLEASE get her the board books! We lost so many books to ripped pages no matter how hard I tried to show him how to be soft.
For Caleb's first bday, we put together a time capsule,
http://www.timecapsule.com/a_prod_info/a10_mcb.html he will open it on his 12th bday. This is something you'd have to give to her now to start in advance though. She can put her hospital id tags, u/s video etc in it. We had each family member bring something on the bday to put in the time capsule and we closed it up at the end of the bday party. Things like a little toy 4 wheeler from g-pa, a little book from g-ma, empty bubbles from a little cousin, etc. The g-ma's and me and dh also wrote him a letter. We also put in things like the front page of the paper from his bday, a grocery receipt, movie ticket stub, pictures of his first house, pictures taken around the city to show what it looked like. (I even took a pic of gas station prices, $1.57 in May 03!!) Anyway, we put in lots of things like that, as well as cd's of our favorite songs and stuff. It comes with a book you fill out with a family tree, pics of mom and dad's cars, work, etc. It would be a bit of work for her to do, but your gift to her could also be to help collect all the info and things to put in it. It might not mean much now to a one year old, but she might cherish it later on. Just a thought, because when I look back on what Caleb got first bdays-I can't really remember anything, except piles of toys that I had to always pick up lol.
Although the one toy I would super recommend for that age that all one year olds I know love, if the Leap Frog Table.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...555206-7550546
Toysrus is a GREAT website for sorting out toys by age range, price, and customer ranking. I always read the reviews, it has stopped me from several toy purchases once I read about problems others were having, and also helps me make a decision if I am split between two or something.