On The Road Again.
I also vowed to keep the annoying electronic noisy toys to a minimum. One exception is the Aqua Seal Kicker that I use during car seat meltdowns. Along with the catchy tune you can’t get out of your head an hour after you’ve left the car, it must emit a hypnotic frequency only babies pick up on. My son can be in the middle of a crying jag and the second that tune starts, he sits quietly transfixed, watching the bubbles and fish float to the sound of the beat. It also has a play option where he can kick it to make it play the song for just a few seconds. We use it strictly in LP meltdown mode. When he stops crying for more than a few blocks, I get out at the light and turn it off so he can just stare at it. Works like a charm!
Having A Ball.
A great online source of neat toys for kids of all ages is CreativeKidStuff.com—toy experts with great customer service. That’s where I discovered the Oball, a ball made up of finger holes that are easy for even babies to hold onto. Ames thinks it’s the funniest thing to throw it to him and say, “ball,” and have it bounce off his stomach. I can throw it sixty times in a row and he laughs himself silly each toss. It also doubles as a cool bubble blower (dip it in a shallow dish of water and wave it around.)
Worth Sinking Your Teeth Into.
While a teether may not seem like a toy, to a baby, everything goes into the mouth, which makes every toy a teether to some degree. The Twisty Teether Ball is a teething, twisting ball with nubby ends that offer soothing relief to gums. It encourages motor skills and auditory awareness—and gives my knuckles Ames prefers to chew on a break.
The Raz-berry teether looks like a pacifier (which my son doesn’t take, yet oddly enough, loves this). The in-the-mouth part is a bumpy texture that looks like a raspberry, the part that hangs out of the mouth, a leaf of the raspberry for easy gripping. It’s made of non-toxic silicon.
