The Activity Saucer
I do not have a lot of friends with young children - maybe that is why I had no idea about getting Allie a saucer until she was about four months! I was first introduced to the saucer in February of last year when we went over to a girl's house that I had met through Gymboree ( more about that later!) She had two saucers set up in her living room and she invited Allie to try one out. Allie immediately loved it! She played with all the gadgets, spun herself around in the little seat and generally seemed happy and quiet ( any new mom will tell you that the best noise from a baby is no noise at all!). I turned to my husband, asked him why we don't have one, and insisted that we run to the store to get one the very next day ( yes, of course I wanted to get one that very evening but unfortunately Babies R Us had already closed for the night). I was so excited, thinking that I had found the miracle toy that would keep Allie content, stationary and entertained! I had not yet discovered the phenomenon that occurs with babies, where they absolutely love a toy or product in someone elses house, but when that same toy appears in their house, they like it for approximately 5 seconds. I wholeheartedly believed that Allie would spend hours of her day amused in the saucer and I could not wait to get one!
The next morning, we embarked on our Babies R Us journey. We excitedly looked for the same exact model that my friend had, feeling disappointed when we found out that model was no longer available. We tried Allie in multiple different saucers to see which she preferred and we eventually decided on the Baby Einstein Neptune Activity Saucer. We went home, my husband put it together and we excitedly put Allie in it, waiting for the happiness from last night to spread over her face. Unfortunately she stayed in it for about 3 minutes before the crying began. Did we do something wrong? Why wasn't this miracle toy affective in our house?
Allie is now 10 months and she occasionally uses the saucer ( by occasionally I mean for about 5 minutes every other week). Although we frequently put her in it, we have yet to witness the happiness and contentment that we observed at my friend's house. I now know that a saucer is pretty much a baby " must have" on every list and I am glad we purchased ours, if only to try it out and see if she liked it. However, saucers are not inexpensive ( ours was around 90 dollars at Babies R Us but we were able to get it for Walmart's price of 75 dollars because Babies R Us will price match other stores) but I wish that we had looked at a consignment shop or tried to get a hand me down from someone we knew. I do not feel that Allie used it enough for us to get our monies worth, but there were times that the saucer gave me a five minute break and that, as all moms know, is priceless.
Bottom line? Every baby is different and your baby might love the saucer! Or she might not. Its hard to gauge a baby's reaction to a product until you try it repeatedly in your own home. If possible this might be a great item to get used or from a friend whose baby has outgrown it.
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| Allie in the saucer at friend's house |
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| Allie during a brief moment of saucer induced happiness |
