6-12 Months

6-12 Months

Your babies are on the move, exploring new things, and loving it! Here are some of our favorite toys we have found that will keep them occupied for at least a little while, and learn while they play as well. Also listed is some new equipment that you will need to get and our favorite picks.

Toys

Exersaucer/Ultrasaucer - my babies love to play in these, and with two you can switch them when they get bored of one! Now that they're crawling, I can use these as a place to put them when I need to make dinner, etc. The bonus about the one below is that it's (somewhat) portable too!

Learning Toys:

Tables - anything they can pull themselves up on and stand at while playing is great. This table has a learning mode and a music mode to entertain as well as teach:

Learning Home - great for crawling in and out of, standing up on, and playing and learning all at the same time! Winner of the Mom-Tested! Pick Award by Parenting Magazine and Winner for Ages (0-12 months) by Parents Best Toys of the Year Magazine.

Lamaze Multi-Sensory Clutch Cube - This colorful rattle has been updated with a baby friendly green apple scent and is full of fun play activities for baby including peek-a-boo flaps, clinking rings and jingling chimes. This colorful soft cube rattle has fun textures to touch and chew. The bright colors and contrasting patterns stimulate baby's vision. Each handle is a different shape, texture and color.

Lamaze Chime Garden - expands visual, cognitive, auditory, motor and social skills (and is pretty cool to look at too!)

Put and Peek Birdhouse - develops motor skills and cause-and-effect understanding, and lots of interesting patterns and bright colors.

Whoozit - textures, sounds and shapes and a hidden mirror too! Great for in the car.

Stacking toys:

Nesting Action Vehicles - develops motor skills and hand-eye coordination while your child makes important discoveries about sorting and strategy (and affordable!).

Dance Baby Dance - Musical Stacker - Winner for Ages (0-12 months) by Parents Best Toys of the Year Magazine -- The Stackin' Stars is a 5-piece infant stacker of 4 dual colored translucent stars and a characterized musical note top that fits over a lighted post. Lights dance through the stars as classical music plays!

Teething Toys - good for those little droolers to bite down on (and better than biting on their crib rails!)

Outside play areas:

Equipment

Teething rails - covers to put on your cribs so that they aren't destroyed once they start teething! (Our cribs looked like beavers came and gnawed away the finish in just 2 days!).

Highchairs - you'll need 2 of these once they start eating solids. Try and get one with a seat that has a plastic type of cover so that it's easier to wipe off than a cloth cover.

Sippy cups - the Avent ones are good for transitioning between the bottle or breast to the sippy cup.

Double Jogging Stroller - great for taking the babies out on walks around the neighborhood and on some trails.

Car Seats - if you have infant ones, you will have to install these when your babies outgrow the infant car seats:

Transitions for the first year:

As your babies grow, there are several transitions in equipment and additional supplies you will need. The following is a list of the most common items needed in these months:

1. Wean to sippy cups from breast/bottle

2. Highchairs or booster seats (when start solids)

3. Babyproof! See our safety guide for more information and products.

4. New car seats (replace infant car seats when reach 26 inches)

5. Travel - use a backpack instead of a bjorn or other front carrier

6. Toys - will need teethers, stacking toys, things they can pull up on, toys to help walking, learning toys

7. Shoes - once they start walking