Here are our favorite toys non-essentials from the first four months. I'm sure to add more soon as things change.
I'd originally titled this "our favorite toys," but as I added them, I realized some are purely functiofrustratedthers are just toys... here's the best of it. You may notice there are only a couple plastic items. I really don't think plastic is good for babies' mouths, and our little baby dude puts everything in his mouth. I really like cloth and wood toys, and try to provide mostly these for him. Of course, there are some exceptions. I haven't found a picture yet, but his all-time favorite toy is a plastic maraca (percussive shaker toy). It's also the first toy that he bled on- it cut something in his mouth when he chewed on the handle. Boo... I'll add a picture shortly. It was absolutely fabulous until he started chewing on the wrong end, so we got at least 3 good months out of it. Not bad at all.
Hape toys makes some great stuff. The xylophone/pounding toy pictured is really fun. We bought it used and didn't know we should have gotten a hammer. It's great as it- we can sort of punch the balls through (a little bit of silicone holds them in place but they budge easily with pressure) and the balls fall onto the xylophone. The xylophone has a handle and easily slides out of the hammering bench to be a mobile instrument. Very innovative, colorful, and probably a toy we'll "hear" a lot of. We'll find our own hammer.
We love this wooden rattle from Grimm's but sadly they only sell to end-users in Austria and Germany. If you can find someone who sells them, their toys are gorgeous. Here's the site.
Once
our baby really got into tummy time, I wanted to give him a ball to
encourage him to go after it, and I wanted it to be easy to grab. This
one makes his *hugely* soccer fan daddy happy, too. LBD spends a lot of
time grabbing this, and he even caught it once as it fell off a couch.
It's easy to hold onto, lightweight and BPA free.
Where
are they? I haven't seen these in a couple weeks, but these were the
very first toy our baby played with. They're easy to grasp and fun to
shake. They kept his attention - even stopping the crying sometimes in
the car. They're eco-friendly, too. They are BPA free and made from
recycled plastic. These folks make cars and stuff too- we'll probably
buy more of their stuff later on.
These two IKEA kids' soft toys are super sweet looking and soft to touch. They are lightly stuffed, easy to clean, and have no removable parts. The hedgehog has a squeaker inside that our LBD hasn't found yet. The bunny is much bigger than the hedgehog, and fits across the LBD in his carseat. It's 15 inches long, so it covers his lap when he's face to face with it. It's hilarious to see him suck on its face and wrestle with it.
This set of little chewy mushrooms
by Vulli (french company) are playfully called "chan, pie, and gnon"
(mushroom in french, right?) This squeaky toy was fun to prop under
LBD's leg when he was in the heights of his kicking phase, and now that
he's almost crawling, he has just started to realize he can make the
squeaking sound by pushing on it. It's hilarious to see his surprise and
delight when he squeaks it with his face, tummy, or legs, and he looks
to us to be sure we know that it's squeaky. It sounds just like a dog
toy. Ha! The Chan, Pie, and Gnon are easy to grasp, soft natural rubber
and have "alimentary" paint. I'm not sure what that is, but I
uncharacteristically trust this company. I just really like their
stuff... They are also the makers of Sophie la giraffe.
I like the mushroom waaay more. It's just so cute! We got the one with
the curvy handle head, which is great for chewing as well as holding.
Now
that our LBD is all out teething, we got a toy just for this. It's the
NUBY silicon teether and he likes it pretty well. He's quite fussy and
when it's chilled he seems to enjoy the cold. It's tough to see him so frustratey, but
it feels better to give him something cool & comforting.
We have all four of these. (I know, they aren't toys. I still think they belong in this post- maybe it's a post on diversions rather than just toys.) I really, really didn't think I would be OK giving our kiddo a pacifier, but I am sooo glad my cousin gave us one at the baby shower. It was so helpful numerous times when we wanted to soothe our little baby dude in the car. We don't really give it to him otherwise. After we had two and I thought we lost one, I insisted we buy another set so that we would not run out again. Hehe, I went from wanting none to four! They are Gumdrop Soothie, modeled after the NICU style and human nipple-shaped. (supposedly better for mommies who breastfeed.)
This rattle is made by a German company, Haba. We love it. The
rainbow parts are flexy with a taut rope inside. It doesn't stretch, but
the wooden pieces still move enough to be fun. This is a favorite
teething ring for little baby dude. There was a stir about Haba moving
production to China. Here's an interesting article about it.
Our LBD totally chews on these kitties every
day. Lately he's taken to nursing the tails and legs. It's pretty cute,
and I feel comfortable with it because they are washable. The stripes
are delicious and these plush rattles are easy for new babies to grab.
He's been playing with these since very early on - among his only "first
toys." Hooray IKEA. Note: I recently found our cat playing with them. Apparently they're not just fun for babies. :/
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