Opinions on baby gear


Our general rules:
Amby baby hammock: Our very favorite thing for the baby. The baby sleeps happily in it. You can move it around the house; you can take it apart for travel and put it back together easily. But best of all, you can bounce the baby to sleep with one hand while lying in bed, and bouncing in her hammock soothes her at least as well as anything else. It's as good as the car; it's as good as being cuddled and walked. And you can do it while almosr entirely asleep. Opal is a thrashy baby, not fun to have in bed with us, and the hammock keeps her comfortable, safe, and near.

Symphony in Motion mobile: The first thing Opal focussed her eyes on. She was hypnotized by it up to about 3 months; then it became amusing but not indispensable. We had it over the changing table, and sometimes we just put her down there and let her watch it when she was fussy. The music is nothing you'd choose yourself, but it's quite bearable, and most importantly, the baby loves it. At 6 months, we haven't been using it much, but we still play the music some.

Lamaze baby mirror: This mirror has velcro straps, so you can attach it to all sorts of things. It makes any place interesting, we adore it. And it's machine washable. On the other hand, we almost never use it with its wedge, and I'd rather have a wedge that was a 60-30-90 triangle instead of 45-45-90, so that the wedge offered more options. This started being good early and is still a big hit at 6 months.

Gymini: This is a playmat. Tiny Love makes a lot of variants, and this is just the one we happened to get s a gift. For the first month, she couldn't have cared less, but after that she just got more fascinated. We attach the mirror to it for maximum joy. It's machine washable, folds up for travel, and the toys can be moved around and interchanged. Another one we couldn't live without for several months. Once she became an active baby, it lost some of its luster. She desperately wants to use it to stand up against and can't, which makes her cranky about the whole thing. But for several months it was indispensable.

Gund Crinkle, Tinkle, Rattle, and Squeak: The first toy she could actually play with! She likes to chew on it, the crinkle is mildly amusing, and it has two squeakers, so adults can do all sorts of amusing stereo squeaker games. Still amusing at 6 months.

Dan Dee Chirping Duck: The demented duck, a $2.50 easter reject in long, aqua fur (yes, a furry duck). Not intended as a baby toy, but she adores it. She can make it squeak all by herself, and she can pick it up and thrash it around. It has a friction-based squeaker that squeaks when something in its head moves around. Why don't more toys have these? Currently the chirping duck is waiting for a less drooly moment, because since she started teething it's been too disgusting.

Fisher Price rocking chair: We like this, but we don't love it; on the other hand as the months go by and we're still using it, while people with bouncy seats and swings put them away, we're growing to love it. We use it every day, and it works fine. She's happy with it, but not enthralled (it won't work if she's seriously fussy, but if she just wants to be reasonably vertical, it's fine). The toys on it are not as nice as the Sassy ones with her Boppy or the Tiny Love ones, and the musical one plays a short and nasty tune and doesn't have a replaceable battery. She sits in it happily for long enough to go to the bathroom or even to shower if you put other toys on the toy bar -- the original ones aren't interesting enough.

Boppy with arches: Another one we like but don't love. I ended up using mostly plain old bed pillows as nursing pillows. The Boppy makes a good place to prop up the baby, and you can drape her over it on her stomach, which she'll put up with longer than most stomach positions. The toys on it are pretty good, but mostly for older babies (the Tiny Love ones interested her earlier), and I had to add extra links to get them low enough for her to bat at. But unlike the Fisher Price ones, they are made for use with links, and Boppy provides extra links as well. This one is slowly coming into its own as she gets bigger and more able to sit up with support.

IQ Baby octopus: We got this because we wanted a big thing we could take a picture with every month. Up through three months she couldn't have cared less, but at 4 months it started to come in handy. In particular, she can sit facing it and it keeps her from face-planting when she falls over.

Pat the Bunny The bunny is very chewable, particularly the crinkly ears, making the baby look terribly vicious as she lunges for it. It is a favorite, although it requires a good bit of adult intervention, because it is all too literally a runaway bunny -- it has a weighted base, so if you're chewing on its ears, an incautious movement will cause it to stand up and disappear. At 4 months she liked to cuddle it sometimes when falling asleep, and to stare at it when she's sitting up (it's at her eye level in her slumped-forward baby sitting position).

IQ Knock-Knock Blocks Most toys that say 0-36 months are lying, but these may be telling the truth. She loves looking at them, and chewing on the square ones.

Sparkle Dragon This is a big adult pleaser, lots of oohs and ahhs from grown-ups. Opal loves it too, but for different reasons. Adults like the light-up feature, which she finds briefly amusing when it's dark out. Adults also think the teething wings are cunning. She will chew on them if a grown-up shoves one in her mouth (and be quite happy with it) but she never chews on them voluntarily. On the other hand, it has a squeaker paw which she absolutely adores, and she will chew on all the paws with glee. She likes the sensation of the little ribbon fingers. She also likes to suck on the soft horn on the nose. The velcro straps at the tail are popular with everyone -- she thinks they're a chew toy, we are thrilled to be able to connect it to restaurant highchairs so it can't be dropped.



Wrist rattles: I should have known better. Opal has no interest in rattling and could care less. She'd be interested in chewing on them, but she hasn't figured out how to get the back of her wrist to her mouth on purpose. They look pretty cute, but they just annoy her.