Surviving The First Year: Infant Toys We Love

Infant Toys We Love by jmjohnson4 on Polyvore

Infantino Pat Play Water Mat Infantino / Exersaucer Doorway Jumper Bumbly ExerSaucer / Little Tikes® Discover & Learn Activity Center™ | ToysRUs / Infantino Go GaGa 12-Piece Block Set / Infantino Go GaGa Textured Ball 10-Piece Set : Target

Full disclosure: I'm not a perfect mother—far from it in fact. Hard to believe, right? Someone on the internet admitting their faults? HA! Sometimes I really am on the ball and we are a well-oiled machine of love and grace and baby laughs. Sometimes we are just decidedly not. Like last week when I forgot to send food in the babies' bag for daycare and they had to eat back up baby food. Thank God in Heaven for their daycare director, she is my personal angel.

But, as we are about to enter into the 10th month of doing this life with twins thing, I think I have a pretty fair handle on what's worked for us and what hasn't, product-wise. After their first few months I posted the newborn products we couldn't live without, and if I am being totally honest, we still can't live without most of them. Long live the MamaRoos!! & the Baby Keurig, for realsies.

As Fitz and Alex have grown, changed and matured, I've noticed that a great deal of the "active infant" entertainment stuff hasn't really worked for us. What has? The old fashioned methods: Rubber balls, a few other baby toys and the middle of their room. They will entertain themselves for hours just broing out.

I wish I was kidding.

And then there's the Pat & Play Water Mat. It was one of the only toys I registered for and I ended up buying it for myself, months before the twins arrived. I absolutely love it and so do they. I swear, I've seen them almost fight over who gets to whack at it play with it, during tummy time. It makes me so happy to see a toy I loved in store bring them so much joy. 

We've got a set of door jumpers we love, the boys especially love jumping in them in the front door; as well as a set of activity centers, which if I'm being honest I don't totally love, but the boys seem to like them fine. Otherwise, we're not fancy.

I'm sure other folks like their high chairs with bells and whistles, but these IKEA chairs work great and are extremely easy to clean. When you're talking about dried baby food and mashed puffs and spilled juice and baby funk, hard plastic that can be hosed down with 409 really is the ticket.

The boys aren't crawling yet, though they certainly haven't let that stop themselves from being mobile, so I'm sure I'll have to invest in some walkers in the future. I honestly haven't even looked into them. What else do I need to keep my eye out for on Babies R Us?