Day 358 - 1st Year Round-Up - Top 5 Favorite Toys

Today's first time parenting tip - Bring out your baby's favorite toy as part of play time

Is there a toy in the toy chest that your baby goes for every single time? You should have some time scheduled every day for active and quiet play, and toys can definitely be a pert of that. While there are lots of great ones out there, they're no substitute for the imagination and the fun games the two of you can come up with together.

As part of the 1st year round-up, here are my son's 5 favorite toys. Try them and see if your baby loves them as much as mine did.

• Lamaze Chime Garden


• Baby Einstein Discover & Play Color Blocks
  


• Playskool Busy Ball Popper


• Colorama Blue Ball 7in


• LeapFrog Phonics Radio

Honorable Mention - Giant stuffed grinch (this wasn't in the top-five only because he sees it so rarely at Grandpa & Grandma's house)

Parenting, Favorite, Toy

Day 340 - Early 1st Birthday Gift - A Chime Garden from Lamaze

Today's first time parenting tip - Get a Chime Garden from Lamaze for your baby, our son loved it



Our son's first birthday gift arrived in the mail from his aunt and uncle down in Louisville, Kentucky. It's a great toy that I can't say enough good things about, but the biggest vote of confidence comes from my son himself. He hasn't stopped carrying it around the apartment.

The Chime Garden from Lamaze is a group of five flowers that play melodies when they're batted or pressed. The faces on the flowers are friendly and colorful. What sets this apart from other baby toys that make noise is that the sounds it makes are actually pleasing and at a reasonable volume level.

If I could sum it up in a word, it would be "sweet". The way it looks, sounds and feels is very child-like and cute. It seems to be pretty durable too, my son's already dropped it on the hard floor in our kitchen a dozen times and it's none the worse for wear.

Parenting, Toy, Chime, Garden, Fun

Day 312 - Busy Fingers Love to Play with Buttons

Today's first time parenting tip - Anything with a button or something your baby can press should be a big hit

Our son is getting to the age where he can actually start interacting and using his toys for what they were 'meant' to do. This will make them last quite a bit longer than if he kept picking them up and throwing them onto the kitchen floor.

We noticed that his favorite things to do were to press the buttons on our alarm clock, play with our cell phones whenever he could get his hands on them, and play with the volume control on his Leap Pad.

We've added a few more button-having toys to the mix and those are clearly his favorites. The big winner is a LeapFrog Phonics Radio that lets you flip pages AND hit buttons to hear letter songs AND play guess the letter. He's in baby heaven.

Parenting, Toy, Learning, Buttons, Fun

Day 299 - How to Keep Your Baby Interested

Today's first time parenting tip - Rotate the toys your baby plays with to keep them interested.

I knew my son was getting bored with the toys he was playing with when he'd refuse to pick them up and instead tried to play with the computer, push over the boxes holding our clothes (we're still moving), rip pages out of magazines and cause general mischief.

Then he got some new blocks and we uncovered some books he hasn't ever read. Now he couldn't care less about the other things and loves to dump the blocks out and wants to play with the books all the time.

Babies are like adults. They want variety and excitement in their life. By rotating the toys they play with, even if its the same five toys, you can keep their play fresh. And, as an extra bonus, it helps them grow and learn much better than if they played with one toy for a long while and never really gravitated towards something else.

So every few days or so, bring out something that your baby hasn't played with in a while. See if that cures some of their boredom.

Parenting, Toy, Play, Development, Boredom

Day 298 - Keeping the House Clean with an Active Baby

Today's first time parenting tip - Do a daily "partial" cleanup

When you've got a baby, toys, a short attention span and the urge to move everywhere, your house can feel a lot like a plastic jungle with toys, tupperware, books and clothes all over the place.

One of my son's favorite activities is to carry stuff back and forth across the apartment. And since he's only interested in things for five minutes at a time, you can see how the mess could pile up quick.

If my wife and I tried to have everything in its place all the time, we'd go insane. So instead, we pick up his mess once a day when he goes to bed. And "putting something in its place" is a pretty loose interpretation too.

Instead of having things perfect, we'll stack all the books on the floor, put all the small toys in a box and the bigger ones arranged along a wall. Since our son is just going to get them out when he wakes up, there's no sense making everything perfect.

This way we don't spend a ton of time cleaning up and don't get overwhelmed when all our hard work gets erased the next day. And half the fun for our son right now is pulling everything out and discovering his toys all over again.

Parenting, Toy, Clean, Sanity, Mess

Day 271 - Fun, Educational Bath Toy

Today's first time parenting tip - Check out foam letters and numbers from Little Tikes to make bath time fun and educational

Soon after my son grew out of taking baths on his back and really started playing, we realized we didn't have any tub toys for him to have fun with! We had a rubber duck and a washcloth, which was pretty much the extent of his entertainment.

So we went to the store and found Foam Letters and Numbers from Little Tikes. Our son LOVES them. They stick up on the wall and they're really big so he can grab onto them, throw them around and splash in the bath.

He even likes playing with them out of the bath too. We keep them in a big bucket in the bathroom and when he gets in there those are the first things he goes for. They'll be a great toy as he gets older and starts to learn letters, numbers and words. It's very easy to slap letters on the tub and make him laugh just by spelling a word.

Their site says these letters are for ages three and up, but they seem big and sturdy enough. Definitely keep an eye on your baby, and if you're not comfortable with him having a toy designated for years 3 and up, then give him a year or two and let the fun begin.

Parenting, Activity, Bath, Toy, Play, Fun

Day 270 - Play with Baby Toys

Today's first time parenting tip - Play with your baby's toys so they can imitate you

There is a lot to be said for exploratory, solo play for infants. It helps them learn to do things on their own, entertain themselves and develop independence. Equally important is social play with not only other kids, but with you too.

You're going to have to get right in there with them. There are some great toys out there, but your baby isn't going to know exactly what to do. If you play with them every day, you'll find they quickly get "better" at playing with toys.

For instance, my son got a set of stacking cups for christmas. Set them in front of him, and he might knock over one or two, but then he's done. So I build a big tower out of them. He'll crawl across the room just to knock it over. Next thing I know, he's taking the cups apart and putting them back together. He knows small goes into big, and he still loves knocking over what I build.

The important thing is that while you can lead a bit, you can't force it. If your baby isn't interested or wants something else, follow their lead. But if you play right along with your baby, they'll quickly learn lots of things, and this is a good habit to carry forward as they get older too. Play games with them. Take an interest in what they're doing. You'll have a better relationship with them in general.

Parenting, Baby, Activity, Toy, Play, Fun