I spent quite a bit of time looking at entertainment centres at Christmas as had heard lots of positive things about them, the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumparoo being one of them. I was however, concerned about the amount of space they took up so was hesitant to purchase one in a hurry. Don't get me wrong, we have got plenty of space for one but at the end of the night when Louie is up in bed I like to tidy away anything 'baby' and feel like our house is fit for adults for a couple of hours. Anyway after hours of deliberating and various Facebook debates with other mums I decided against an entertainment centre. The next step of the process was to find a suitable baby walker. One with longevity and an inoffensive design was preferable. Unfortunately for me I have quite a dislike for coloured plastic, fortunately for Louie nobody seems to care about that and continues to get him lots of coloured plastic - good for him obviously as that's what he likes.
The Mothercare website was my next stop and crikey there's a large variety of baby walkers! I suppose I eliminated quite a few at the start due to their garish colours, heaven knows what kind of noises they made (another thing on my list!). So after quite a few hours I had finally selected The 3 in 1 Lights and Sounds Car Walker in red as a gift from his Grandad. A few days later after placing the order a giant box arrived. Speedy service from Mothercare meant it made it's way into Santa's Grotto upstairs until Christmas Day when is was opened by a 4 month old Louie (and a little bit of help from us). Daddy set to it, building this amazing red contraption so that the little man could have a go. Sadly when he was building it he noticed a bit was broken but a phone call to Mothercare on Boxing Day soon resolved this and we were able to swap it for another the day after. They only had blue ones in stock at the Preston store but that wasnt an issue for us, we were happy that they could sort it out for us quickly and there were not quibbles about if it had actually broken in transit. We brought the blue one home and personalised the number plate with the alphabet stickers that came with it – very exciting LOU1 :)
The reason I chose this walker was that I felt it offered a bit more than you're average walker. There are 3 stages:
- The first being a bouncer option where you can set the top half to be springy and have a foor support bar underneath baby's feet so that it can push up and bounce. The baby walker doesnt need to move at this point.
- The second option is a fixed top half at one level so it doesnt bounce. You then push the support bar underneath back so that baby's feet are lowered onto the floor and they are able to begin the fun of trying to walk. I found that ours worked better when I removed the buffer bits on the bottom as our carpet is quite thick so the rubber bits on the bottom seemed to catch more. Once I'd taken these off it glided better.
- The third we have not yet experienced but you can remove the back part and seat of the walker and push the support bar right to the front and baby can use this as a support to begin trying to walk. I would imagine that it would be advisable to put the rubber buffers back on at this point so that it doesnt move to fast to begin with.
- The walker also has an activity bar at the top with a steering wheel and horn, furry dice, a map and some radio buttons with 2 tunes on. Louie loves pressing all the buttons making sounds and flashing lights. Another great feature is the peddles on the foot support bar – these rev like an engine setting off and play a fun little tune.
We had a little problem with the activity bar after a week and it became faulty which was dissapointing but again, after another quick call to Mothercare we were told we could swap it for another one no questions asked. I must say, despite there being 2 problems with this walker since Christmas I cannot fault the customer service offered at Mothercare.
Having had this walker for 2 months now, Louie is whizzing around the kitchen on our tiled floor. I cannot believe how quickly he has come on in the last few weeks. Initially he was stepping slowly backwards not realising he was doing it, now he's walking forward at quite a speed laughing at the fact that he's so clever he can move himself forwards. If you're looking for a fun baby walker thats a bit different then this is it!
No comments:
Post a Comment