somebody gave us a hand me down ride-on zebra. it stays outside and our son LOVES it! rides it very seriously... even turns the sound off when he's done. : )

We've done pretty well with only nice, wooden, creative play toys but we did cave and buy a super-plastic, beeping, flashing cash register for our daughter's shop and she thought it was the bee's knees! We loved that we only spent 5 bucks and in many ways it's much more realistic than the super expensive wooden ones we covet :-)

TV. No, we don't actually HAVE a TV, but we let our son watch way more Netflix than we had planned on. It's still within healthy limits, and he never sees ads, and I genuinely believe it encourages his creativity! But when I was on 3 months of bedrest with his sister, it was a LIFESAVER, and it's lingered. And he's turning out just fine despite it all.

We also have a Wii. I wasn't allowed to play video games growing up, so I was dead set against it, but my husband DID grow up playing video games and was dead set FOR it. Same thing - within healthy limits, with gentle games, it has actually been a really fun bonding experience. And when I start to hyperventilate about it, I remind myself that my husband is almost finished with his PhD in bionengineering - I don't think it stunted his brain growth TOO much.

this isnt so much a product but... i wasnt allowed to eat much sugar when growing up and i wasnt planning to let my kids eat any really. we do limit their consumption but it is just to fun letting them enjoy some sweet and adorable treats. here is a super cute pic of my son demolishing one of his favorite desserts...

http://lovelybud.typepad.com/lovely-bud/2010/04/i-heart-desserts-who-doesnt.html

my mom bought this for my son when he was an infant. i threw a huge fit because it was a huge, loud, ugly piece of plastic. but honesty, i don't think he has ever loved a toy so much ;)

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=product&pid=41463

Video podcasts... specifically, the They Might Be Giants and Sesame Street video podcasts. It's like magic. She can be screaming her head off and one glimpse of Murray Monster has her grinning from ear to ear.

Chewing on the iPod is just a bonus.

My 1.5 year old loves this ball plunger game. It is one of our only plastic toys. it doesn't have electronic sound or lights:
http://www.amazon.com/Playskool-Explore-Grow-Tumble-Twirl/dp/B001WRSER6/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-

the cow car is the #1 most popular item: http://www.princelionheart.com/site/p_wheely_7503.htmlgames&qid=1271719280&sr=1-11

Several things, actually:
the Fisher Price music/activity table
the hideously ugly (but beloved!) red furry Elmo chair---I was looking for a nice neutral one to match his room decor, until a friend gave us the Elmo chair. He let out such a shriek, and then began hugging the thing. Favorite place to sit. (How did he know who Elmo was at age 1-1/2? Read on...)
the Sesame Street video podcast on the iPhone. Also intended to have a complete ban on screen time til age 2, but this has bought me much-needed minutes peace on several occasions. (No actual TV yet, but this is basically TV, on a small device.)

I love our cloth wipes warmer! :)

I read about how wipes warmers are so unneccessary and didn't get one with our first. I caved and got one for baby 2 and I think it's the greatest. Why make baby cry with cold wipes when you can use warm ones? We use cloth dipes and wipes (most of the time). I prewet them and keep them at the ready. They are also great for wiping messy hands and faces.

It's this one:
http://www.princelionheart.com/site/n_bc_9001.html

Match box cars. He found one on the playground at 11 months and there has been no going back. The three we've collected since then are waaaay-up on the favorite list.

This is not our only plastic, non-idealistic toy, but it is our favorite and one I was not expecting given my deep affection for the little wooden cars.

I used to work for a toy company that did licensed merchandise (like AmberM's furry Elmo chair). I had to work on a lot of Thomas merchandise and got sick sick SICK of Thomas. I vowed that if I ever had children that they would never see Thomas.

Today? We have a big basket of Thomas trains that I bought off Craigslist stored under the sofa. They love those darn trains and it keeps them occupied for hours. They even take trains with them for their nap times. (and I secretly sing the Thomas roll call song when I'm by myself sometimes)

We're pretty idealistic with our twin boys. We use cloth diapers and make our own baby food with organic veggies. However we're totally fine with plastic contraptions (the boys love their exersaucers) and have a 5x5' play area with several different musical toys that are loved. They have non-battery toys, also beloved, and we keep them away from tv. But here's my feeling, they're only tiny this once and if they like it then I like it. And so what if our house looks overrun with baby things. Babies live here. And they won't be babies long. And someday we'll look back fondly and say, "remember when our babies were small enough to fit in those exersaucers? I miss those days..."

I think it is hilarious how "evil" battery toys & TV have become yet the same people will fondly recall their days of watching Captain Kangaroo, playing with their Speak n' Spell, Commodore 64 or Atari...
I don't think there was person from my generation who didn't watch "Silver Spoons" and dream of owning a ride-on train in their living room and full size Galaga or PacMan video game machine. Now those same people only want to purchase attractive toys that blend nicely with their decor and are, of course, only all-natural and completely open-ended less their children end up mindless zombies. Go figure.

My sister in law bought my now 3 yr old son a green plastic Chicco ride-on train. That thing is his utter favorite. Still. And much to his chagrin, it is rapidly becoming his 14 mo. old sister's favorite too.

My desert island baby/kid toy is stacking cups. Sounds ridiculous, no? We stack and nest them, spin them like tops, use them in the bathtub, use them for counting, colors, size... they are so versatile, it's amazing. My boys are 3 and 6 now and we STILL have our stacking cups. I give them as part of baby gifts all the time. Best $3 ever spent!

My mom gave us a clip for my daughter's toys so when we were out they wouldn't fall or get lost. The clip itself ended up being her favorite toy for a couple of months especially when she started to teething. Also love stacking cups! So versatile and has saved me from many a meltdown on trips.

Plastic hockey stick.

The Fisher-Price music chair (this one: http://www.amazon.com/Laugh-Learn-Musical-Learning-Chair/dp/B000F5Z2V2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1271818536&sr=8-1).

It sings the alphabet when you sit on it. It's our one noise making toy. Someone gave it to us second hand and I was waiting a polite amount of time to pass on but, you guessed it, every child that comes to our house is deeply fascinated with it, even five year olds. Seriously. It's like Elmo, there is something about it that fascinates!

Perhaps the title of this post should have been "Toys you hate but your kids love", eh?

I couldn't agree more, abbygraykit! All of this toy-oriented PC-ness is pretty funny. Loosen up, people. A well-timed episode of Word World is a life saver and allows my curious, active, book-crazy preschooler some much-needed downtime every day. And come on, can't a baby fall in love with a Fisher Price music table as well as the pots and pans in the kitchen?

photoms - I actually laughed out loud when I saw that "little superstar" stage. Hilarious. I can even picture my face if that showed up at our house Christmas morning.

Well, we had anticipated being pretty strict about TV. But someone recommended Wee See (http://www.weeseeworld.com) to us when our daughter was born so we checked it out and love it. I suppose it's not exactly what you'd call "television" in the traditional sense so maybe we can still claim that we've been pretty good about things. Now that our daughter is a little older we've introduced a few other more videos into the mix that we feel are equally as well-considered. Now that she's older we still put on Wee See from time to time as it chills us ALL out. I seriously sat down a couple times with a glass of wine and just put it on the background for myself! Other than that, we had avoided the princess thing like the plague, but ultimately, some things just can't be stopped. Particularly once they start going to school and the other kids have it. We do our best though. ;-)

The Jumperoo. We wanted to keep things simple when it came to baby gadgets and toys, but caved in at 4 months and bought one. Best money we spent. We just passed down our Jumperoo to a friend who has a 4-month old but it gave us a good nine months of opportunities to answer the door, put the laundry in the dryer, go to the bathroom, and stir dinner on the stove. Also nine months of seeing our daughter squeal with such joy.