Disney Baby encourages creative, fun play

One of my favourite things to do with Hannah is play. Her personality shines through when she is pretending to talk into a phone (really a credit card), not colouring in the lines of her colouring book or attempting to sing Ring-A-Round the Rosie.

She really likes music. She likes to sing. She likes to dance. And she LOVES to play instruments.

We recently introduced her to the Baby Einstein: Discovering Music Activity Table and she’s a big fan. As soon as it came through the door, she was pressing the keys of the keyboard and was impatient as Chris and I got it out of the box and put the legs on (I guess a few minutes to a toddler for their dream toy feels like forever.)

She loves switching the toy from English, to French, to Spanish. There are various “areas” of the toy but her favourite remains the keyboard. (I like this area best too, it plays one of the melodies from her Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym – a toy I HAD to purchase before she was even born.) The way the keys light up keep her attention and she loves hearing the different sounds.

Hannah's Pick of the Month - Baby Einstein Exersaucer

Forgive me, Hannah's Pick for October is a day late.

Her pick of the month is her Baby Einstein Exersaucer. Hannah's first experience in an exersaucer was at a Toys R Us - my Mom put her in there, and Hannah squealed with delight in the store. And as a mom, when your daughter squeals with delight your first instinct is to buy said toy then and there. And I could see Grandma reaching for her debit card. Alas, since she was 6 lbs away from the maximum weight, I couldn't imagine paying full price.

Enter Kijiji. I found last year's model at less than half the retail price of the current one (Hannah's has zoo animals, this year's has sea life). Daddy made a call, and the next day Hannah was enjoying her exersaucer. We saved money, and all Daddy had to do was take the exersaucer on the subway.

We bought this back in August, and she's still under the weight maximum, and probably will be until spring. However, I'm still happy with our decision to buy used. There are products I believe you MUST buy brand new for baby, but toys are certainly not one of them (especially considering a few months from now she'll be playing with a bunch of toys at daycare that a billion other kids probably have already play with.)

But back to the exersaucer - she loves clinking the panda bears on the tetter-totter, playing music from the keyboard and jumping up and down. She's also started to stand more on her legs, so I hope playing in this toy is working her leg muscles. It's also the perfect toy because she'll play in it while I'm making food or cleaning and would prefer to have my hands free.

Does/did your child have an exersaucer?

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Baby's First Fish

There were two gifts on Hannah's registry that were really meant for me. As much as I am all about her being her own person with her own likes and dislikes, I'd at least like to give her opportunities to enjoy what I do.

I really like fish. Like REALLY like them. When I was younger, my dream job was to be a marine biologist or, you know, work at SeaWorld. When I realized you needed to have good marks in science and math, those dreams removed themselves in high school. My marks in those classes just wouldn't cut it (I took Grade 12 Advanced Math TWICE in order to see if I could pass an OAC Math class - no dice).

Anyhow, the two gifts I wanted for mysel- er, Hannah, were the Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym and the FisherPrice Ocean Wonders Aquarium.

We purchased the Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym for Hannah before she was born with gift cards we received at our coed baby shower. It comes with an "electric water-filled toy" that was almost a small version of the Ocean Wonders Aquarium.

Hannah likes the Gym, and as she gets older I'm sure she'll take advantage of all the different toys it has to offer.

As for the Aquarium I would hmm and ha every time I saw it in the stores. I even showed it to her once and she seemed pretty interested but I just didn't know if I should buy something somewhat similar to what she already had in the "electric water-filled toy".

Then a couple of weeks ago Chris' parents threw Hannah a family shower. And one of her presents WAS the Ocean Wonders Aquarium. When we were setting it up in her crib, I think Chris and I were more impressed than she was. OK. I definitely was more impressed. It plays five songs, has three white noise settings, the fish move, there are bubbles and lights. Once Hannah realized what it could do, she will stare at it and coo at it for a good 20 minutes. Which is amazing, 20 minutes for any parent, knowing their baby is entertained and happy, is priceless. Later on, if it helps the baby go to sleep, the Aquarium also has a remote so you can turn it off without entering the room and disturbing their sleep.

So don't hmm and ha like I did - if you want to buy this toy it's totally worth it!

The Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Adventure Gym retails for $99.99 at Toys R Us (we got it on sale for $60) and the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium retails for $44.99 at Sears.