Following on the success of the Rainforest Bouncer, I ordered the Rainforest Gym from amazon.de. At first, Hayden wasn’t terribly impressed, mostly beacause he had to lie flat on his back, not sitting up like in the bouncer. However, as he has developed, he seems to be enjoying this a lot more. Now that he can rock from side to side, he slowly wiggles his way around the mat, play with the various hanging toys. He likes to hit the rattle with his feet to make a noise, and hold the spinning paddle with two hands and slowly rotate it. He will often look quite serious when interacting with the hanging toys, almost as if he is conducting neurosurgery rather than shaking a toucan rattle. He also gets very chatty, singing along with the rainforest song. We try tummy time here and I hold the mirror up to his face, but he’s not very impressed and much happier on his back. He will entertain himself for up to an hour now, which would give me time to do other things, if I didn’t just love sitting beside him and watching him play.

One of our best baby buys has been the Fisher Price Rainforest Bouncer that I picked up second-hand from the BCT Nearly New Sale at the beginning of this year. Since he was about a month old, Hayden has loved playing in this bouncer. I can put him down in this chair and he is usually happy to play in it from ten minutes to up to maybe up to an hour until he gets overstimulated from too many monkeys.

The chair vibrates and bounces with his movement, and the animals twirl, light up, and play music whenever he moves the toucan or the monkey. The “baby-activated” setting has been great for him to learn that he can control his environment with his hands, and he seems so delighted when he can manage to get the waterfall going and sees the animals swinging back at forth. One can also switch off the music and just have rainforest sounds, if two dozen renditions of “pop goes the weasel” is getting a bit much.

On his most recent trip to London, Adrian brought me back a gift that combines two of my favourite things – hand embossed Smythson stationery and fancy cupcakes on cake cake stands. Now I have some lovely new correspondence cards with which to correspond, complete with tissue-lined envelopes. Thank-you Adrian.

Over the weekend, Hayden discovered that his hands belong to him. He is now reaching and grabbing and very awkwardly moving objects around. Often a quick rattle or squeeze toy is all it takes to stop the tears and cause him to break out into a huge grin. Yesterday Adrian looked in the nappy bag and asked:
(1) Do we now have to carry Sophie with us whenever we leave the house?
(2) How is it that I know the name of the giraffe?