Iris is such a little fusspot when it comes to play gyms, so when we were asked to review a fisher-price laugh & learn learning gym, we were sceptical with how she would react to it. We purchased her a pink one when we were expecting her and it cost about £15; it was just plain and simple. She refuses tummy time on it and gets bored laying on it after about a minute. We wanted her to be able to do something instead of just laying there bored and only staring at these cute, but not very exciting pink polka dot animals, so we were quite excited to see her reaction to the puppy 'n pals learning gym.
On Tuesday, this brightly coloured play gym arrived on our doorstep, with this singing puppy, lots of little toys and we were excited to see how she would like this one. I was a little worried, but thought, if she doesn't like this one, it will be an Iris problem, not a fisher-price problem.
Within 5 minutes of Iris laying on it, I was shocked. She was still there and she was playing with the little letter that crinkles.
10 minutes later... still there. That was 15 minutes that Iris was amusing herself. So off I went to put the kettle on.
The gym itself comes with a cute little puppy, his nose flashes and he plays 2 different music tunes for 20 minutes continuously. Iris and Lucas love the music, and I like that I don't need to keep getting up to press it's buttons to amuse Iris. Although, even in two days I can hum the tunes. Note to parent's though, it's a nice volume, not loud enough it drives you mad, but loud enough that they can hear it.
The activity toys are really sweet, my favourite is the little cloud. I also love the way Iris looks when she catches herself in the little sun mirror.
She's now at a stage where she enjoys putting things into her mouth, so the crinkle letter and the counter activity toys are her favourite.
She's also a fan of sitting on my lap, letting me put her little toes on the touch pad and making the bird, bee and frog noises. I like how she's learning with her feet too.
I love that it's brightly coloured, so it's super appealing for babies and toddlers. It's one that will grow with her too. She'll be able to sit on the mat, play and learn with the puppy and play with the activity toys instead of just looking and kicking them. Added bonus, its neutral colours so great if you're planning on expanding the family in the future.
Finally, one thing I look for when buying children's toys is easy storage. Our lounge is a lounge/diner and the diner is also a "playroom" too. So at the end of the day when the children go to bed, I like to look out onto the lounge and be toy free. It makes me feel like it's home, and not a pre-school. This gym folds and unfolds to a good size - yay! for easy storage.
So overall we absolutely love the learning gym. Iris will actually play on it, Lucas also wants to play on it, Iris and Lucas play on it together, and it's cute. But, most importantly, I managed to drink a hot cup of coffee without having a child attached to my breast or in my arms. It was amazing.
You can grab yourself one of these from Argos HERE. There are more place's that it's available in, but Argos is the cheapest I believe. I also have to say that the price is more than worth it, and we would have happily paid that for it.
*We were gifted this item from Mattel (Fisher-price) in return for an honest review, all words, opinions and images are my own*
