Jump for Joy!

A few months back, our good friends Megan and Nate Henderson loaned us an infant activity center. It's one of those entertainment gyms that lets the baby move around, play with toys, stand up, and jump.

At first I wasn't too keen on using it. See, I have this personal aversion to toys with too many lights and sounds. **Mommy soapbox alert!!** I think that they stifle creativity, limit imagination, over stimulate, and promote a dependency on the toy to do the work that the baby should be doing. Don't get me wrong; I didn't have visions of MJ peacefully playing only with rag dolls, organic play dough, and wooden rattles made from sustainable harvested trees. But I also didn't want a living room full of Toys R Us' latest and greatest electronic gadgets.

So when I brought this home, I was a little hesitant to give it a go. But I could tell that MJ was bored and in need of something new. At the time he still wasn't yet sitting up well, so the "big boy" toys weren't something he could really play with.

We needed something new. Something fun. Something bouncy!

Here's MJ trying the jumper for the first time:



After a few minutes he was really enjoying it. But he wasn't bouncing.

Well, he bounces now! In fact, he goes crazy in this thing.

Take a look at this:



I think he loves it!

As for my opposition to the electronic-noisy-lighty-bouncy-toy, I stand corrected. :)