Looking for the best toys for babies or toddlers? Toy Insider Senior Editor Marissa DiBartolo stopped by Better Connecticut in New Haven to talk about the best toys for the littlest ones on your shopping list. For more on the items featured in this segment, check out the product notes below, and for our complete rundown of the best gifts for the season, check out our Spring and Summer gift guide.
FISHER-PRICE 2-IN-1 SIT-TO-STAND ACTIVITY CENTER (MATTEL)
- This grow-with-me activity center keeps your baby busy with exciting hands-on fun, even as they grow from sitting to standing!
- With three height adjustments, repositionable activity toys, a take-along musical alligator, and a removable seat, you can change up the fun as your little explorer grows.
- As your little one grows, you can easily convert the infant activity center—with its spinning seat for 360-degree access to the toys—to a toddler play table featuring a tall, windy racing ramp.
- For playtime on the go, little ones can grab the take-along musical alligator, which features light-up piano keys and up to 20 minutes of songs and tunes!
- Use only with a child who can hold head up unassisted and who is not able to walk or climb out of product.
- Ages: 6-12 months
- MSRP: $89.99
- Available: Amazon, Buy Buy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond, Staples, Target, Walmart
DOLCE SPRING ANIMALS (MAGFORMERS)
- The Dolce Spring animals are the perfect companions for your young one.
- Watch as your baby explores the crinkle ears, rattle belly, and learns new sensory and hand-eye coordination skills.
- Each animal is equipped with beautifully designed textured and embroidered fabrics, ribbons, and a connected ring with the signature Dolce teether.
- Animals include the Spring Bunny, Spring Chick, Spring Calf, Spring Lamb, and Spring Pony, with parts that crinkle and squeak, and beans in the feet.
- Ages: All Ages
- MSRP $14.99
- Available: Amazon and specialty toy stores
LAUGH & LEARN SMART STAGES LEARN WITH PUPPY WALKER (MATTEL)
- Two ways to play as baby grows: sit & play or stand & walk!
- Push Puppy along for fun music and encouraging phrases.
- Seven hands-on activities! Light-up piano keys & nose, roller, spinner, flip page, and more!
- Features more than 75 songs, sounds and phrases introduce the alphabet, shapes, colors, numbers, and more.
- Learning content changes with baby’s age and stage with Smart Stages technology.
- Easy-grasp handle helps steady baby’s first steps.
- Ages: 6-36 months
- MSRP: $24.99
- Available: Amazon, Walmart, Buy Buy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond
- Drop the balls into the shell and watch them pop out of Shellby’s mouth when you tap the tail, or when you roll Shellby along the floor!
- Includes four nearly 2-inch balls for lots of droppin’, poppin’, rollin’ fun!
- Ages: 9+ months
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Amazon
TUMMY TIME DISCOVERY PILLOW (VTECH)
- This soft pillow features a friendly giraffe and provides comfortable support for your baby with three ways to play.
- The crescent-shaped pillow provides support during tummy time play as your child begins strengthening their neck muscles.
- It also supports them while they are learning to sit on their own.
- As your child grows, it is great for take-along play.
- The pillow has multiple textures, patterns and colors for visual and tactile stimulation.
- Light-up piano keys on the removable piano introduce numbers, colors, shapes and animals, and play sing-along nursery rhymes, music and short tunes.
- Plus, the removable baby-safe mirror and rattle are perfect for on the go play.
- Ages: 0-24 months
- MSRP: $24.99
- Available: Amazon, Target, Walmart
- Designed with vivid spectral colors, exciting textures, and soothingly smooth surfaces, the three vibrant propellers thrill young minds as they twirl playfully down the free-standing corkscrew pole.
- Encourages sensory exploration, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, early counting and color recognition.
- Perfect for travel, bath time, quiet time, or anytime.
- Stoppers on either end of corkscrew do not come off.
- Ages: 10 MOS+
- MSRP: $12.95
- Available: fatbraintoys.com, Amazon, buybuy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond, Kmart
PIPSQUIGZ LOOPS (FAT BRAIN TOYS)
- These bendy, rattly, chewy, suction-cup creations feature vivid textures that instantly inspire little fingers to grab and feel, while their soft silicone material simultaneously makes them perfect for soothing sore gums.
- Flip and spin the textured, plastic rings to hear them rattle brightly. Press their suction cups onto any smooth, non-porous surface to set up a stationary play space and then pull them off to hear an exciting POP.
- Encourages sensory exploration, cause-effect learning, early experimentation
- Made from high quality silicone material, BPA-free – Exceptionally safe for baby.
- Ages: 6 MOS+
- MSRP: $9.95
- Available: fatbraintoys.com, Amazon, Walmart
BABY B. WONDERS ABOVE (BATTAT)
- This play mat is plush and cozy with lots to do, perfect for giggles, games and dreams.
- Thick quilt makes a cozy place to nap or play. The comfiest, most cushiony floor mat you ever did see!
- An arc of touchable, squeezable toys that magically float above.
- Sets up in an instant, anywhere!
- Machine washable, quilted cotton with a non-slip backing. Accessories wipe clean with a damp cloth.
- Ages: Newborn to 18 months
- MSRP: $69.99
- Available: buybuy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond, mybtoys.com
