Now that Elian is a little older he is starting to notice and play with stuff more, rather than just staring at items. He actively enjoys grabbing certain items, pulling and shaking them, and of course putting them in his mouth. Certain items he still isn’t that interested in but he already has a few favourites and is happy to play with certain things for a while. So here is what we are currently using to entertain Elian.
Lamaze Dragonfly – This was a gift from his Aunty Vikki and is his number 1 play toy at the moment. I love all of the Lamaze toys as they are all so colourful and interactive for babies, with squeakers, crinkly fabrics, tethers, mirrors and other stuff for the baby to play with and feel. We’ve already bought him the dragon with the flappy wings for Christmas. He loves to chew on the wings rather than the tethers though, typical! But he is mesmerised by it when we play, I flap the wings about and he stares and giggles and kicks his legs. It comes everywhere with us and is attached to his car seat when in the car so he can hold it and occasionally chew it. Ours has been renamed Darcy by his nanna.
Fisher-Price 2-in-1 Sensory Play Bouncer – I was initially looking for a simple bouncer chair as my mum bought the Hauck one from the Aldi Baby and Toddler sale and he loved it, but I got drawn in by all the bells and whistles on this bright one from Fisher Price so decided to splash out on it when he was about 7 weeks old. And for the first 5-6 weeks of having it he hated it 99% of the time! Typical! He would go in for a few minutes then just scream till he was picked up. But we kept trying every now and again when we needed to put him down and now he is much better in it. He rathers it just being the chair in front of the TV though (see Octonauts below!) than having the activity bar on, but now he is a bit bigger he is actually staring to play with the toys and pull on them, but he still bores of it quickly. The chair vibrates which is supposed to calm them, we don’t bother using this as it did nothing for him. The activity bar plays music (continuous for a few minutes or via pulling the centre toy, and has 2 volumes which is great if you’ve heard it enough) and it lights up around the mirror/lion, as well as having 3 toys (a rattle, a flower pull and a crinkly leaf). It takes weight unto 20lbs so hopefully he will get another few months out of it yet.
Percy Puppy Play Gym – We were kindly sent this as a Thank You gift from …. after I did some work with them on an article for The Bay magazine. The quality on the playgym is amazing, it is so beautiful and soft and really well made. I really didn’t want a brightly coloured one so the Percy Puppy one is perfect. The mat itself is really padded and has crinkly moveable ears and feet, plus soft movable paws with a squeaker. The gym part comes with 4 detachable toys; a teddy rattle, a bone bell rattle, a mirror with soft tabs and a music box mirror with rattle on end (this one can also be added to cot bars as a music box) as it has lots of loops to add toys we often hand his Lamaze Dragonfly and other toys too so its always changing to keep him entertained. It also came with a large bone tummy time pillow which we try to use every other day or so, and we are getting there with tummy time, he wasn’t much of a fan at the start. We had a similar problem with the mat as we did with the chair in that he didn’t like being put down but now he is much better and will go down for 10-15 mins at a time and happily play with the toys and kick his legs about.We’re going to be using it for a long time yet, and he even naps on it sometimes as its so soft and cozy.
Octonauts – I’m not the kind of mum who wants to pop her kids in front of the TV to entertain them all day, I was 100% sure I wouldn’t use TV to entertain him at all when he was small, but…as I’ve said before this dude don’t like being put down often! When we were in the car and he started having a melt down because we were both in the front and he couldn’t see us, even me clambering into the back didn’t calm him so I tried some baby stimulation videos off YouTube (our fav channels are Hey Bear, Adventure TV, Fisher Price and Little Baby Bum) and they worked amazingly, he was transfixed and he eventually calmed down. So we have been using them on drives to keep him calm. When we are at home though rather than an aid to calm him down, we have a bit of a routine in the morning where we have boob in bed, then get dressed, come downstairs and go in our bouncer chair and watch an episode (or 2 id Im lucky) of Octonauts while I make a cuppa and some breakfast or pack our bags to go out for the day. Ive tried other programs but none seem to entertain him as much as Octonauts. And luckily I actually enjoy them too as they are really informative about the ocean and sea creatures!
What toys does your little one love?
