I recently brought my daughter to a toy store and told her she could pick anything she wanted, but I ended up reneging on that promise. What she picked was a zoob jr. building set:

http://www.amazon.com/Zoob-13030-ZO...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1321368400&sr=1-9

The problem is that she's 2.5, and in the 3rd percentile for weight. If she uses every bit of might in her little body, she can snap a piece together with another piece, assuming she's lined them up perfectly. She can't really build anything when it's that hard to put the pieces together. We ended up getting "The Cat in the Hat I can do that" game:

http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Hat-Can-T...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1321368589&sr=1-1

Does anyone know of a building set appropriate for a small 2.5 year old girl? She's been playing with megablocks for a year now, and I think she wants to take the next step.

She specifically requested "gears for girls" as well. I'm thinking about getting her this gear set from Trio, but I don't know if she'll be able to do much with it herself. The reviews are kind of mixed. Some people say 3 year olds do it, others say Trio is better for 5+ because of the difficulty in putting the pieces together.

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1321367995&sr=1-4