Product Spotlight: Books and Toys

hestia-is-wearie

STM+s, what were your LOs favorite things to read and play with? (Any super annoying toys to avoid?) FTMs, what do you have your eyes on?

hestia-is-wearie

For my baby shower I asked people to bring a book instead of a card, so DD got a TON of books that I am forever grateful for. We always read three books before bedtime and she still sometimes chooses a book that I received at my shower!
It's never too early to start reading to a baby.  Newborns see best in black and white, so high-contrast board books like Spots and Dots are great for them to look at while snuggling or during tummy time. Reading aloud to them is soothing and gets them exposure to language. One of DD's favorites as a baby was I Love You Through and Through. We have most of the Leslie Patricelli board books, and my favorite is Yummy Yucky. 
My favorite baby toy is the O Ball. It's lightweight, durable, and easy for baby fingers to grab. I always buy it for every baby shower I go to! I love the baby gym we got for DD: the toys come off and can clip onto a stroller, and it can be used with or without the musical toucan. The toucan can also come off if your baby wants to take the music with them. And the music is pretty cute: nursery rhymes set to a jungle beat 
I always recommend playing any battery-operated toy before buying it: some things you'll tolerate and others you won't, and you never know until you play it. (DH hates DD's singing teapot but it doesn't bother me at all.) Many of these toys have a low volume/high volume switch, but you can also put clear packing tape over the speaker to make it even quieter.
Also, some kids are just not big on lovies/stuffed animals. The three stuffies DD sleeps with just sit around her head like they're protecting her: she never snuggles them. But they HAVE to stay in bed with her. 

BourbonBiscuits

YES to books. On The Night You Were Born and The Crown On Your Head are two of the favorites at our house right now. I also love having copies of all the classics my parents read to me when I was a kid - something just feels really special about reading those same books to my own babies.

jeep4x4mom

All the books. We read anywhere from 2-5 books a night. Highly recommend having guests at the baby shower bring a book instead of a card. We have all kinds from black and white for newborns, touch and feel books when they are a few months old and a variety of reading books. Some from my childhood which my kids get a kick out of when I say I use to read this as a kid. Also a little tip Dolly Parton has a monthly book club (not available in CA 😭) but the books are free. I believe it goes until kiddo is 5. I stopped looking at it when I found out it’s not available for us. 

As for toys hesita-is-wearie explained the battery operated toys perfectly. Clear tape is a good muffler and some have volume controls but even that isn’t enough. We love basic wooden toys for the first year but sometimes people give you battery operated toys which is fine. I get frequent migraines so lowering the noise on toys and using tape is AMAZING! 

I don’t know how to share links but Walmart has a teether that my friends have been obsessed with and I saw first hand how it works and loved it so I got 2. 

radioactivet

Has anyone been getting Lovevery ads for age-appropriate toys? Marketing has worked on me, so I want to put a couple of the toy kits on my registry but perhaps they are too expensive for what they are? 

BourbonBiscuits

@radioactivet I've heard great things about the Lovevery subscriptions from other mom friends. Never something I've committed to for my kids (mostly because we still have so many hand-me-downs from my oldest, who was born pre-Lovevery!) but I've always thought about it

caroduke

DD loves all the books, but we've kept her mostly to the board books so far. When she was really little the high contrast and simple books with just black while and red in the images were our favorites as I think those are what their eyes can see best first. I would just throw a bunch of books on your registry as we have used pretty much all of ours. Favorites that have gotten more use are the ones with the different texture areas like the "that's not my...." Series. 

As far as toys to avoid... There's not much you can do about ones that people buy you, but there was a particularly loud and annoying electronic dog rattle from vtech that was stashed for a very long time and not used. 

radioactivet

knottied91f42fab95e0ab2 said:

I do have a discount I can share if anyone is interested.


I'll use your discount code! You can PM me if you want.