Fantastic Fisher Price

Wow, am I fishing for add revenue or what? No really, the point of this post is to share with you a surprising discovery I’ve made. One that thousands, if not millions, of mothers have made over the past 78 years, I’m sure. What surprises me is that I’m going to sit here and adamantly advocate to other parents to consider using, buying even, products made in China, probably out of toxic plastics painted with lead (not really, but who knows these days). (By the way, since I haven’t made it clear already, I strive to buy mostly all natural, wooden toys and all that. But sometimes plastic is just so goooooood).

So what is this discovery, you’re no doubt wondering. Well.....I’ve discovered the magical wonders of Fisher Price. Yes, it’s been around since our grandparents were first learning about cause and effect, music, and mirrors. And there’s a good reason it’s still one of the most popular and successful toy companies to date. Their toys are brightly colored, but often relatively simple (i.e. not ADHD-inducing madness). They are most geared at teaching infants and children important developmental skills and discoveries. But most importantly, they have truly saved my sleep-deprived, only remotely sane self on more than one occasion.

Here are my favorites - my life savers:

Rainforest Jumperoo - we really wanted some sort of activity center for Punkin, but most of them were so busy we were truly afraid of giving him ADD. This one was the most tame of the lot at Babies-R-Us, and he looooooved it! We ended up getting a lot of the "Rainforest" gear and Punkin really liked the monkey the best. But we liked that he might recognize the characters when he moved from the car to the changing table to the jumperoo.

Ocean Wonders Cradle Swing - ok this one truly did save my life. I could go on and on, but basically for a few months of Punkin’s early life, it was the only way we could get him to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time. The most important part was that it swings side-to-side as well as front-to-back and the side-to-side motion is key in inducing happy baby snores ;)

Rainforest Peek-a-boo Leaves Musical Mobile - we mounted this over the changing table to distract Punkin during the dreaded diaper change and it worked! It was especially cool when he started tracking the animals going around above him.

Rainforest Monkey Auto Mirror - Punkin was like most babies and hated the carseat and the car. When we got this mirror he started “talking” to the monkey and they soon became best friends. Plus, like any mirror, it let me see what he was up to.

Healthy Care Booster Seat - this thing’s just awesome and it will last us forever (or at least until Punkin’s ready for a real chair). In our tiny kitchen it works much better than a full high chair, and we’ve taken it with us on long distance trips - it fits perfectly in the carseat bag.

Some other Fisher Price stuff we’ve been using:
Rock-a-Stack
Sound N’ Lights Monitor
Rainforest Delux High Chair Cover

So that's my spiel on Fisher Price. If I could only recommend one thing, it would be the swing. Even though we only used it for about 4 months, it was worth every single penny.