Thursday, May 1, 2014

Grimm's Set of 5 Small Wooden Stacking & Nesting Rainbow Bowls, Red Outside

Grimm's Set of 5 Small Wooden Stacking & Nesting Rainbow Bowls, Red OutsideMy 12 month old baby loves these cups. As soon as I opened these, he was fascinated. He discovered right away how to put the cups inside eachother. It seems that I could have gotten these much sooner. I had been looking for a long time for cups made from bpa-free plastic because I wanted him to be able to play with them in the bath and I knew that he would put them in his mouth. I couldn't find any. He can't play with these in the bath, but they are great. The colors are so bright and the wood is very durable after many times being thrown to the floor. A previous reviewer mentioned that they have a strane taste. It is true, but my husband assures me that this wood and finish (milk paint it seems?) is very safe.

This is such a simple, yet versatile toy. This toy has been used to practice stacking and unstacking, to knock over towers, to put things in, and with the upcoming developmental milestones I am sure it will be put to other great uses. An absolute favorite and it is looked for during each play time. I would purchase this toy over and over again. Love the colors and durability.

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These bowls are lightweight, colorful, and easy to grasp. My baby loves to play with these they are easy for him to manipulate, nice to chew on, and the bright colors capture his attention.

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I was coming to order this as a gift for a young nephew and after reading the reviews, I wanted to share our experience. I approach toy buying with a quality over quantity approach. My daughter received this toy when she was about 9 months old. It got used a lot until she was about 4. In combination with Grimm's Small Wooden 6-Piece Rainbow Conical Stacking Tower, Made in Germany and Haba Baby's First Blocks (or some other colorful blocks) there are a lot of possible ways of manipulating and arranging. Now that she's 6, these occasionally get used as bowls for feeding toy animals. They're really a great size for small hands.

As far as the quality of them, I'm sure you could break them but we always taught our daughter to be careful with her toys (or tried to). After 6 years the colors still look lovely and if anything they've gotten smoother over time -though they were quite smooth to start.

Another reviewer mentioned Melissa and Doug. At a public playroom we visit we've gotten to see how their "wood" toys hold up. They're all made of engineered wood which after the finish is abraded you can see that they're more glue than wood.

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Great for ages up to at least 4. Hours of fun stacking up and knocking over. Very durable product. A bit smaller in size than I anticipated.

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10 Piece Baby Rattle and Teether Toy Gift Set with Giant Baby Bottle Coin Bank

10 Piece Baby Rattle and Teether Toy Gift Set with Giant Baby Bottle Coin BankBaby loves each of these toys from day one.. She is three months now and now she tries to hold and rattle :)

I was asked to make a diaper cake for my friends baby shower. This product made a great center to build the diaper cake on. After the 3 tier "cake" was finished this product was hidden until my friends discovered it later when dismantling the "cake" for their new baby. That was an extra surprise! Sorry I have no review for the toys within but I wanted to share this great idea.

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This baby rattle set really exceeded my expectations. I love how it is packaged in a baby bottle.

You can't tell the size from the pictures shown, but the baby bottle is actually pretty big and it is packed with all kinds of baby rattles and teether toys.

The baby bottle also acts as a coin bank, so this set definitely has a lot of different good uses to it. A GREAT gift idea.

Planning on buying another set for our cousin who is expecting next year. I highly recommend this product!

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Our little one has some issues with midline play, so our doctor suggested we get some lighter weight rattles and toys. Apparently, the lighter the better and the fancy ones we had purchased were too heavy. After looking everywhere for lightweight rattles, I decided to try this group. They were perfect. They are on the lighter side and come in a variety of sizes. About 6 of them are size appropriate for our three month old and the rest she can grow into.

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I gave this as a babyshower gift and came in a bottle for a Boy! fantastic gift. I recomment this item,

Early Learning Centre Bath Rollers & Friends

Early Learning Centre Bath Rollers & FriendsMy daughter is already 3.5 but loves "baby" toys and that's what she calls these. They seem to be very durable and they are larger than I expected. Very cute:)

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Crayola Beginnings Baby Rainbow Tower

Crayola Beginnings Baby Rainbow TowerI bought this for my 6 month old last year for Christmas. While it was not played with much I left it in the toy box because my 2 year old used the domes to play with other things. It's been about 11 months so my now 17 month old brings over the base and it has peeling green paint! I can't even touch where it's peeling with out it flaking off. I made sure to get rid of it right away. I would not recommend this item to any one especially those with small children who chew on everything!

Looked forever for it to replace one I gave away. The new one does not work properly. I was very disapointed in it.

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Although this toy seems very simple, both of my children (now 2 1/2 and 14 months) have LOVED it! So much so that I'm ordering one for a friend's baby for Christmas. My kids have spent hours with this toy over the last few years. From the time my kids could sit up and grab things (7-8 months?) they really liked playing with this toy with my help, of course! The box states that it is great to encourage child/parent interaction. As they've grown, though both of my kids will play with it independently now, or with my help, stacking and restacking the levels in different ways. This toy is always "on top" of the toybox because it is used so much. I like it because the music is quiet and it encourages a higher level of thinking on the childs part; this isn't just a push the button and it makes noise kind of toy.

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The box says 6m+. Well, that is not true. The only correct part is the +. As someone else mention, it is lame. True, the light is supposed to shine through and make the cups change color. False that it actually does this.

Also, the child has to have better dexterity and hand-eye coordination than a 6 month old has in order to appreciate this some what.It is super hard to stack if you're six months old. The grooves are very precise and it only plays a tiny bit of music when you put the cups into the narrow grooves. Once the baby knocks over the stack of cups, nothing happens and then she can't put it together herself.

It's boring, not as advertised, and frankly, not age appropriate according to box. Maybe when she's older ...

Buy something else!

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If I was writing this review based on my own thoughts, I would give it a 1 star. It's dumb, plays only a short tune and the whole "tower" doesn't light up when the cups are stacked.

However, since this toy isn't for me, my opinion doesn't count for much, except to say it is very durable and has withstood multiple children fighting over it.

My 11 month old absolutely loves this toy. He loves to stack it, he likes the sound it makes, and likes that the lights blink. It's not a fluke either we regularly have his playgroup friends over and this toy gets played with the most.

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Gund Fluttering Fairy Abby Cadabby

Gund Fluttering Fairy Abby CadabbyMy granddaughter and I love this doll. When she is talking and her wings are fluttering it just brings a smile to your face.

This was a birthday gift for my toddler who adores Abby Cadabby, & it was a huge hit!! She loves listening to Abby speak to her! An added bonus is watching her face fill with joy when Abby's wings flutter. Great doll!

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This is a delightful toy to transport a child to magical places. A perfect present for children of all ages.

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I ordered this in October as I started collecting Christmas gifts for my granddaughter. It didn't work changed batteries 3x works for a minute and then stops. Even though I just gave it to her, because I ordered it in October (took a while to get here too) store won't do anything even to confirm it was defective. It came packaged in a plastic bag and so when I got it I feared it might be a knock-off. Since I have nothing to lose, I'm sending it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and I'll update based on findings.

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BOUGHT FOR MY NIECE. SHE LOVED IT CARRIES WITH HER EVERY WHERE. MIGHT HAVE TO GET ONE FOR MYSELF.

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Fisher-Price Soothing Motions Glider

Fisher-Price Coco Sorbet Soothing Motions GliderMy wife and I were deciding between a Fisher Price two-way swing or this two-way glider as our "tool" to help put our newborn to sleep when she's less than cooperative. In the end, we decided on this "glider" because of the ability to pick it up and move it around. Here are my thoughts: (1) at first, I thought it was more like a solid infant car seat with a motor attached beneath. It is not. It's just a hammock draped over a tubular metal frame--quite flimsy. But it gets the job done. (2) The arch from which the toys dangle is NOT a handle that you can use to move it; it's just a non-weight-bearing tube from which the toys dangle. To move it, you grab two handles at the ends of the seat. (3) The motor is much quieter than what I expected after reading some of the reviews here. Maybe in a very quiet room, the motor noise may be noticeable. But the "noise" is never annoying or intrusive, and it doesn't disturb baby. (4) The faster of the two movement speeds is probably about right; any much faster and baby's head would get jolted back and forth. The slow setting is very slow. (5) The seat is rotatable 360 degrees, so the back-and-forth movement is not just limited to 2 positions. (6) The music tends to be on slightly louder side even on the softer setting, but it's not a big deal. (7) As with all such seats, baby's back is slightly arched, and I'm not sure it's healthy for baby to sleep long term day in and day out in this posture. But for calming baby to put her to sleep, it's fine.

My wife and I went back and forth between this and the portable swing ( fish theme). I am so glad we chose the glider. My son LOVES it. He has hated his crib from day one so the only thing that gets him to sleep through the night is the glider. I wish they made an adult sized one sometimes, it looks comfy and the gliding motion is pretty smooth. The motor might seem a bit loud but I think my son finds it soothing. It runs fairly constantly and we are only on our second set of batteries (first set was cheapies and they still lasted a decent amount of time).

This is one item I would buy again!

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Much like the other reviewers, our son was only able to sleep in his car seat or swing (due to reflux) and for no more than a two to three hour stretch at night. I saw this glider in an insert in Baby Magazine and hoped it was the answer to our prayers. It was! The first night we tried it out our son (eight weeks old) slept for six and a half hours!

Nearly two months later he is still sleeping in it for eight to nine hours a night! We have a "mini co-sleeper" attached to our bed and the glider fits in it perfectly. If he starts to stir or is startled by something, I just reach over and turn the glider on and he falls back to sleep!

Since we bought this glider, we have gone out of town twice and did not even consider leaving it at home. Yes, it is big and not the easiest thing to travel with but the sleep we get each night is well worth the trouble. He will be four months old tomorrow and I am dreading the day that he outgrows it. Hopefully by then he will have also outgrown his reflux.

The Soothing Motions Glider is wonderful and we credit it for the return of our sanity!

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The good: The gliding mechanism in our unit has lasted six months. I never thought it would make it that far! The sound quality of the music is very good. This is a very good little bed for newborns, I must say.

The bad: The gliding motion is too slow even on the fast setting (icon of a hare versus a tortoise, or low). To actually rock a baby to sleep the gliding needs to be faster. There is no calming vibration option, a huge omission.

The ugly: I would say the correct price for this glider is $45 or less.

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We have this glider in a different color scheme and it is FANTASTIC. My children loved to sleep in it. I got many extra hours of sleep thanks to this. Love it!!

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Chicco Toys Smart Driver (Spanish / English)

Chicco Toys Smart DriverMy son got this gift from Santa when he was a little over one year old. Now he's a little over two years and still plays with this. We are a bilingual family and so need toys that are versatile, and this toy is very durable as well. I have no complaints and can see this toy will make it through at least a couple of kids and then some! A winner!

I had high hopes for this toy based on the reviews, so I bought it for my 15 month old son for Christmas. He loves all things car-related, so he was interested in the steering wheel and seemed to enjoy the noises and lights.

There were two major problems with this toy. First, there are two settings for volume, but both settings were equally loud (and I mean LOUD). This could just be a problem with our individual unit, but it was quite annoying.

Second, and more importantly, within 2 months this toy's audio gave out altogether. The lights still work, but there is no sound at all. Granted, it has taken a lot of abuse from two young children, but given that it is made for young kids I would have expected more durability.

Overall, I was very disappointed in the longevity of this product and would not recommend it for younger children who may be too rough with it, as it doesn't appear to be very durable. My children have lost interest in it since it stopped making noise, so for the short time they played with it, it was not worth the price.

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I got this for my 6 mo. old son and he just loves it!!! He's 11 mo. now and this toy means hours of fun and activities for him. For me, it's hours of torture. :( This thing is too loud even when it's set on low! :(

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My son loves this toy! We got it for him when he was 4 months old and could only kick the buttons and chew on the key, and now that he's 10 months, he loves to pretend he's driving. He's pushed this toy off his highchair and out of his carseat several times and it hasn't broken at all. The rear-view mirror comes off and he's strong enough to take it off but he just likes to carry it around with him. Not necesarily made for the carseat, but you could put velcro on it and the carseat and attach it that way. Great toy!

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Ordered this for our grand daughter and she had lots of fun with it. She passed it down to her sister.