I kind of consider the baby play gym an essential these days. It seems to have replaced the play pen as a space to set your baby down with something stimulating while you, maybe, try to go to the bathroom. But most of them are made from fabric. We were delighted and surprised to find this new one from Finn + Emma that's made out of beautiful wood.
Each Play Gym comes with a birch arch from which to hang toys, including the Finn + Emma hand-knit dog and bear and two wooden scooter toys (or flowers for girls). All their wood is either untreated or stained with non-toxic products. Add an extra playmat made from organic cotton, or use your own blanket underneath.
Currently available for pre-order for $135; products will ship October 15. Check out Finn + Emma to order.
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These are beautiful but I can't imagine spending that money on one. Maybe it was my kid but I didn't find play gyms to be that useful--there was a very short time span in which my son was interested in the thing. As soon as he could roll over (4 months), he was done with it.
That said, I love the hair on the baby in that picture. :)
I'm with carrie. That is super gorgeous but my daughter used hers for about three weeks. I'm so glad we went with an ugly fabric hand-me-down.
Can we just back it up for a second and discuss that baby's fine toupee?
I just bought this IKEA one. It's birch so hazaah! More in my price range too.
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/70108177
That is beautiful! At $135 the price isn't as outrageous as I thought it would be. We paid $99 for our Baby Genius one that is plastic and fabric. I would have gladly shelled out an extra $36 for this beautiful toy!
We are getting the ikea one -- although I do love the one above, its completely out of my price range!
Okay, I just looked at it on their website... the dolls on their own are $75, so I wish they had an option to get just the gym (minus the toys, as we already have some we could hang) for the difference of $60...
love that more wood options are available, but the ikea worked perfect for our family and my 9month old now stands and plays with it!
I like this a lot. Well designed and reasonably priced for the materials. And this will be used by many, many children after initial purchase.
Yeah, I have an IKEA one for my little guy. I've noticed second time around the baby toys have to be a bit more sturdy so they can handle the 3-year-old's machinations as well. This is pretty, but too pricey for being a single purpose item.
We got the Ikea play gym that's linked above. It was $25 well spent. It looks beautiful in the corner of our living room. Our guy loved it around 3-4 months. Later he played with the toys separately. He's still intrigued by the spinning pieces on the sides. He pulled himself to standing using it, though quickly discovered that won't work :) Don't worry I was right behind him and it stays against the wall. It's still as good as new and I'm definitely going to reuse it for future babies.
We are happy to hear that our play gym as some new fans (as well as our model's "toupee" :) ) We saw that some of you mentioned that you were worried that it is a play gym that would only be used for a few months and then collect dust. So we thought we share with you that our play gym dolls are more than just that. You can remove them from the play gym and use them in many other ways. Some moms use them for car seat/stroller buddies by attaching them to the bumper bars or handles, attach them to the loops on our play mats others attach them to their baby carrier or highchair. There are so many different ways to use our hand knitted rattle and wood dolls that once baby outgrows the play gym there are still years of fun that your little one can have with our play gym buddies.
Thank you for the write up Ohdeedoh and thank you everybody for the feedback.
Yes it's beautiful, but I have the wooden Ikea one. We're on baby #2, who uses lays under it and spins the side pieces. I'd take the extra $100 and put it into a college fund.
Add some wheels to make this toy convertible to a walker fir when baby is older and I would be all over it. Convertible wood baby gyms/walkers can be found in Europe, but not so much in the US. For someone with a small budget and a small house, every baby item has to do double duty or we simply do without. But lots of people would be willing to pay more for an item that grows with baby and is as beautiful and well-made as this one is!