Jumperoo

It's amazing what an industry this baby plaything market is. You end up with so many plastic megawhatsitdoozits that your little one plays in for a couple of months and then that's it. ebay ho! Unless you have a second. And a third. However, for the amount of free-handedness you score from plopping babes in these doohickeys for a few minutes (or, shame, an hour) makes them totally worth their weight in gold.

For us, it all started with Gymini. Max loved his first playmat, but eventually could roll himself right out the sides. We put it away, as he couldn't really guide himself back onto the mat, but now that he's crawling, maybe it will resurface...


Then, there was Bumbo. Less an entertainment device than something to make little ones stay put, it was great to be able to pop it on the counter and do dishes or prepare food while Max chewed on a spoon or whatever. Plus, unlike any of his other accoutrements, Bumbo was nice and portable. One day, however, Max was in Bumbo on the counter and then he was out of Bumbo and almost in the sink. Whoops. Goodbye Bumbo.




Then, there was Exersaucer. One of the products in the Evenflo family - this thing was made for people who love playing Ikea Builder Person. Many, many pieces. However, hours and hours of fun. Last week, we cranked it up to its final height adjustment so Max has precious little time left in his Exersaucer. To date, though, this has been the one piece of equipment in which Max has been most strandable. Plus, it's easy to move from room to room.


And finally, we come to Jumperoo. Recently, friends of ours donated a Jolly Jumper-type contraption to the cause, but we don't really have any suitable doorways on the main floor of our house. So Holly started scouring the pages of store flyers and found Jumperoo on sale. It's essentially a stand-alone, moveable Jolly Jumper. The first couple of times Max got in, he didn't really know what to do. But now, he understands that if he pushes off and then tucks his legs up, he can get a good ride out of it. Plus, he's figured out how to time his leg pulses to jump a bunch. What a guy!


All this to say, I'm not sure if there will be another contraption after we run out of height adjustments on Jumperoo. But then again, by that point, will we really need one? All of these things are just to keep kids occupied until they can really motor about on their own, right? Heck, the other night, Max decided to have a little crawl from our living room to our dining room table. Sure, it took him 5-10 minutes, but he did it. We were somewhat amazed and somehow terrified that our lackadaisical attitude toward babyproofing might just bite us in da buttocks.

PS Apologies for the lack of blogging. Let's just say that if there hasn't been an entry in a while, things are probably a bit crazy over here. We've got a few ideas in the hopper and will get them blogged as time allows.