Money Well Spent...

Here are some examples of money well spent at our household...

From IKEA...

Now, granted we've broken this toy, but for $5.99, it really did make up in the price in the amount of play-time that was used.
The center pole is a plastic/foamy thing for the rings to go on.
My son was able to break this. Which sucked.
But, he broke it by falling on it, and it was better that it was a little flexible & broke instead of impaling him through the chest.
All in all, money well spent in my opinion.
and, if the IKEA store weren't so freaking far away, I'd run out & get him a new set b/c he likes the colors, rolling the rings, the stacking, etc.

The Kolcraft Tot Rider 2
It's $19.87 at Walmart (the demon retailer...)

Endless hours of fun.
So fun in fact, that he had one at home, and one at the mother-in-law's house.
Twenty bucks has really never gone so far....
Definitely worth every penny!

Bright Starts Bounce Bounce Baby Activity Zone

I think we actually purchased this at Target......oh, no, wait. Santa brought this toy to our home...but now they are selling them at Target & Walmart. Walmart's price: $39.87.
Again, a worthy investment.
Tons of fun for our little one......and, it still sits motionless on our back porch until we need to do something in the backyard...take the dog out, whatever. It's a safe place to secure Baby Gage so we can have our hands free.
Now that he's a little bigger--he's not super excited about it anymore, so it buys you VERY little time these days....but oh, it used to rock. He'd play in there for...well, it seemed liked a long time.

Baby Einstein Discovering Water Play Gym

So much fun. So much fun for Gage to look up & see the stuff.
So much fun for me to watch him lay there & look at all of the stuff!
...gosh, he was soooooo little then. 8 weeks....10 weeks....so little.

...and now he's so big & runs all over, and climbs all over, and opens doors, and pulls groceries out of the pantry, and runs away when you even mention a diaper change...oh my. time just flies.

I've gotten off subject......

Back to $$ well spent.

The baby swing.

Now, this is not the EXACT model that I had, but similar. Same bears, same fabric, etc.
The baby swing. So great. So so so great.
But, I wanted one that would blend with the color scheme of my house...not stand out & be all bright colors. So, what happened? I ended up hanging bright colored Link-a-doos on my child's swing b/c he preferred bright colored objects at that time, and he found the bears a bit boring.
So, forget the color scheme of your living room, or whatever room. Your house will soon be covered in bright toys everywhere anyway.

Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium

$23.77 at WalMart.
I always thought, "no crib toys. I want him to associate sleep with his crib"...etc.
Well....then I picked this up. It's great. It has soothing music that we play at night before we go to sleep. It's not up-beat & fun to hang out & dance in the crib. The lights are slow & soothing. But, it does have some little toy features that keep Gage entertained for about 10-15 minutes on weekend mornings if he wakes up before we do. Now, you can forget him staying in there until 9am or anything...(not on a usual morning...)

The Baby Papasan...

This was a gift, but it was great. We could set this up in the living room, bathroom, everywhere. So portable. Clearly, I look for that in great baby gear.

Swaddle Me Fleece Wraps.

This was awesome. So awesome.
They're $9.99 each at Babies-R-Us.

Loved these sleep sacks when Gage was really little. Now that he's bigger, I don't use these anymore. It just seems kind of weird to use it when he can stand up & walk around in his crib...but when he was little, I loved this!

They are $13.99 @ Babies-R-Us.



And of course, there's a whole segment of things that are worth every penny but not mentioned here: soothie pacifiers, the boppy, dependable carseats, a stroller, etc...

***********New Category*****************
Things that I see now, that look totally awesome, but I've never actually tried.

At Walmart, for about $50, they have this foldable, portable swing frame that fits with any SnugRide or Infant SafeSeat.
My favorite thing: the portability of it!
Our swing---hell, we'd have to take it completely apart just to put it in the attic. Forget taking it on a trip to visit someone...although that would be sooooooo convenient.
This thing looks like it would rock!



This has been fun. I may be doing more of this over time...