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Yes, I know it’s still relatively early in my pregnancy to be thinking about the above…I haven’t even crossed into my 3rd trimester yet, but any excuse to go shopping is a good enough excuse for me… Anyways, I wanted to complete my baby shopping list before I get too heavy to spend time going from shop to shop to compare prices and products (and just in case baby decides that she would like to pop up 1 or 2 weeks earlier!) and I hate leaving things till the last minute.

Anyways, I’ve been spending the past few days researching about playmats and baby mobiles. Thank god for the Internet…there’s so much information out there that it makes your head spin! I waded my way through numerous reviews and found that quite a lot of articles highly recommended this brand for developmental toys: Tiny Love.

Tiny Love’s website has many articles about the various developmental milestones that your child will pass at different stages, so I won’t reproduce it on this blog (there are too many articles anyways!), but it’s a good read if you’re interested to find out more. I was impressed with the website and the look of the toys, and I liked that there were many varieties to choose from.

Playmats
Tiny Love calls them Activity Gyms, and boy, did they have quite a selection! The thing I like about their website is that most of the models have a ‘demo version’ online which enables you to see what features are available for that particular model. After browsing through the available models, I decided on the ActiviTot Developmental Gym. They have two versions, one is called Tropic Isle…

…and the other is the Sun Garden.

I personally prefer the Sun Garden…it just looks so cheery and girly!

Anyway, I liked the ActiviTot more than the Gymini because it’s configurable. The two arches can be repositioned, and there are anchor ports located around the mat where you can position different toys. I felt that this would make the playmat more interesting for the baby as we can easily change the toys when she gets bored with them. The ActiviTot also comes with a ‘tummy time’ pillow which helps to support the baby as she lies on her tummy (tummy time helps to strengthen baby’s neck and shoulder muscles).

Mobiles
There were two types of mobiles that I wanted to get…one to hang over the baby cot, and another to hang from the handle of the infant carrier.

The latter was easy to choose…I decided on the Clip & Go Musical Mobile (above) as it’s double sided…one side of the mobile has black, white and red elements that are suitable for baby’s visual development from 0 to 3 months (babies at that age apparently have difficulty distinguishing between color tones that are too similar and are drawn to more high contrast colours such as black and white), while the other side consists of 3-D dangling toys. I also like the option of using the strap to attach the mobile to the infant carrier handle as it’s more secure than an alligator clip (which is also provided).

As for the baby cot mobile…wow, this was a tough choice. After browsing through the different models, I found myself torn between the Nature’s Serenade Mobile…

and the Sweet Island Dreams Mobile.

The music from the Sweet Island Dreams Mobile is nicer IMHO, and I love the movement of the toys - they’re attached to the top of the mobile by several strings, and therefore, they ‘dance’ around like a marionette vs. just…erm…dangling.

The Nature’s Serenade Mobile however, appears to have lots more features in terms of movements to capture baby’s attention, plus it emits a soft glowing blue light that can double as a nightlight in the nursery.

I was so confused…so I did the next best thing. Asked hubby to choose (he chose the Nature’s Serenade Mobile)…

Supplementary Toys

As the ActiviTot had extra space to hang more toys, I decided to buy the three Fruity Pals, also from Tiny Love. Yes, they’re called Fruity Pals…namely, Anna Banana, Ozzie Orange and Andy Apple… Although the toys are more suited for ages 3 months +, I thought I would just hang them from the ActiviTot arches till baby is a little bit bigger. What drew me to these three fruits vs. the other toys were that they could be opened up like real fruit by peeling or separating the halves!

Purchasing
Therein lies the slight problem.

I managed to find the ActiviTot at The First Few Years @ Curve, but they only had the Tropic Isle, not the Sun Garden. I didn’t want to wait for their next shipment as even the store manager wasn’t sure if they would be able to get the Sun Garden in. The ActiviTot is not very heavy and I could easily carry it from the store to the car. It comes with a laundry net that doubles up as a carrier for the playmat when you travel (good for when we go to Ipoh and shuttle between our place and my parents’ place), and the quality is good…toys are well made and oh-so-cute!

I found the Clip & Go Musical Mobile and the Fruity Pals at Little Whiz, a Malaysia baby & children online store, and best of all, all four products were on sale so I promptly placed an order.

My biggest frustration however has been that I haven’t been able to find any store in KL or Singapore that stocks a larger range of Tiny Love products so far. For some reason, both Tiny Love’s e-store and Amazon do not ship these products out of US so I’m unable to order online either and I really do want to get the Nature’s Serenade Mobile (and no, couldn’t find it on eBay either). And even if I buy another model (from eBay), the shipping costs more than the toy! Sigh sigh sigh. In addition, I would like to buy the Wind Chimes, Pull ‘n’ Play Activity Arch and the Double Sided First Book, all of which doesn’t seem to be available locally either.

I suppose I could easily buy another brand like Lamaze, Fisher Price, etc. but I really really like Tiny Love’s products! Oh well, for the time being, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that The First Few Years will bring in the Nature’s Serenade Mobile (quite unlikely as I emailed a few online stores and one responded saying that they were told by the distributor that the Tiny Love Nature’s Serenade Mobile is not available here in Malaysia… )…and more Tiny Love products in the next shipment…

Note: Photos are all from Tiny Love’s website