Baby Gear: Part I (Toys)

My wife and I are now almost a year into this baby adventure.  I’ve been planing for a while to document some of the gear we’ve found useful.  I’ll cover the less fun–but incredibly useful–stuff in Part II.  Right now, I want to focus on the fun stuff:  toys.  I’m sure that individual preference is a factor even for infants, so I can’t guarantee that your bambino will enjoy these things.  I just know that mine has.  Keep in mind, too, that some toys become more or less interesting at different points in your child’s development.  Some toys are instant hits.  Some become interesting later.   

Tiny Love Gymini Super Deluxe Lights & Music

This is a great playmat with lots of stuffed animals suspended from the two arches that criss-cross overhead. It plays classical music, which triggers three lights on the mat to fade in and out. There’s also a mirror (kids love looking at themselves). He has finally outgrown this one. But, for a long time, it was the main attraction. The manufacturer’s page proides more details about it than I can hope to summarize here. 

Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo 

I’ve often called this thing “the best $80 I ever spent.”  Haden loves it, and I think it has really helped to develop his leg muscles.  It’s not the sort of thing he likes to hang out in for long periods of time, as he tends to jump very vigorously when he’s in it.  It’s more a short, intense sort of activity for him.  But it really puts a smile on his face, especially if you stay close and occasionally jump along with him.  Besides the jumping action itself, the seat swivels 360 degrees to allow access to the various toys on the platform.  It’s height adjustable (3 positions) and the rubber feet keep it from scooting. It plays jungle animal sounds and music (two volume settings) in response to movement.      

Remo Kid’s Precussion 10″ Floor Tom

Technically, Haden isn’t old enough for this toy.  But he loves to drum on things so much that I wanted to get him a decent drum to play.  To keep it safe, I didn’t give him the mallets.  He just plays it with his hands (or his pacifier, or a stuffed animal, or whatever else he happens to be holding at the moment).  The head is tough.  The construction is solid.  It has nice little rubber feet that help keep it in place on hard floors.  It produces a pleasant, fairly high pitched tone.  Remo isn’t, primarily, a toy company.  They make real drums for real musicians.  

Leapfrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo

This toy is similar, in concept, to the See ‘n Say.  But it requires less manual dexterity to operate.  You just give it a spin, when it lands on a letter, you are treated to the name of the letter (in one mode) or the name of an animal that starts with that letter and an animal sound (in another).  The voice sythesis is very high quality.  And the Leapfrog folks have done their homework be adding nice attractor sounds at the proper intervals to encourage your kid to keep playing with it.  The base is a sturdy rubber of some sort.  There are blinking lights to indicate which letter is the current one.  It sings short little refrains as it is spinning.  It’s built to take abuse and Haden still plays with it, event though we bought it when he was quite small.  

I really wish the made a bilingual (or trilingual:  English/Spanish/French) version of this, as they do with many of their other toys. 

Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby’s First Blocks

Sometimes, the simple things are best. Shape-sorting toys are standard fare. This particular implementation uses colored shapes and a little bucket to place them in.  The lid has holes for each shape, and it comes off easily.  Haden hasn’t yet bothered with the sorting part, but he loves playing with the blocks (e.g. placing them in and out of the bucket, chewing on them, kicking them across the floor, etc.).  And here’s a perk: no batteries required.  

Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack & Roll Cups

This is deceptively simple. You have a set of ten cups in different colors, each sporting a different number, and a little yellow ball with a bell inside and a smiley face painted on it. I swear, if there had been nothing in the box other than the yellow smiley ball, it still would have been worth the money, at least for my kid, who was thoroughly fascinated with that alone. But the cups are great, too, and a source of endless options.  You can stack them one on top of the other, from largest to smallest. You can stack them inside one another. You can combine any cup with another one size larger or smaller to make a ball (and, by repeating this procedure, you can actually stack all of them together into one ball that contains all the others, like one of those Russian nesting dolls.  But, mostly, you can hold one in each hand, bang them together, and try to get one to fit inside the other. Endless fun, no batteries, easy to sanitize. 

Fisher-Price Little Superstar Sing-Along Stage

As a musician, I’m often hyper-critical of musical toys. And I was skeptical of this one at first, but what it does is really cool. There are several controls on the front, a big button that represents a drum, another that represents a keyboard, a slider switch that represents the saxophone, and a roller ball that controls the guitar. There’s also a rattle shaped like a microphone. It sits in a mic clip on the side, but it can be removed easily. There are two basic modes. In one, the device plays a song (some are traditional kid’s songs. Others are traditional melodies with new lyrics. There are male, female, and children’s voices). Hitting any of the various instrument controls changes the mix and lets that instrument step out for a brief solo.

In the other mode, clicking the keyboard starts an instrumental number. Activating any of the other instrument controls brings that instrument into the mix or, if it’s already in, takes it out.  The instrumentals are fairly groovy.  And you can build up a pretty interesting mix by this simple addition and subtraction of instruments. So, essentially, what the toy provides is a really simple mixing console, and your kiddo plays the part of the producer and/or engineer. 

There are lights and blink and two audience members who pop up when the drum or the keyboard buttons are pressed. There’s a large mirror that is a big part of the fun, during pauses in the action, the device responds to sounds–the idea is to use the mic for this, but any slightly loud sound will do–with some sounds of its own, to keep the child interested. 

Well, that’s seven to get you started. I may to a future installment with a few more, as there are some I feel guilty about not having included here.