Fisher-Price Kick and Play Piano

The pictures (and especially the video) in this post are blowing my mind. I simply can't believe there was a time when Baba G could barely move and we needed to encourage "tummy time" with the help of the Fisher-Price Kick and Play Piano (full name: Fisher-Price Discover 'n Grow Kick and Play Piano Gym — good god).

He barely sits still for a second these days, and to watch him struggling just to keep his head up makes me realize how quickly time is flying by, just like everyone warned me it would.

The great news is that the KNP Piano is one of the rare products that we've made use of for an entire 8 months so far. In the early days, we'd use it as shown below. He was motivated to look in the propped-up mirror and reach for the animals. (The arch shown in the official product photo above can be connected horizontally as well — you can see the extra holes in the yellow nub thingy.)

 

As he got bigger and we were trying to give him reasons to roll over (from back to front and vice versa), we'd put the arch the normal way and he'd have a ball reaching for everything and turning from side to side to make sure he wasn't missing anything. 

From the video below you can see that the "kick" part of the piano helped make Baba G feel like he was accomplishing something. You can set it for either long tunes or short ditties to play any time a key was pressed (we always chose the latter). I haven't found the tunes to be annoying, but some people might.

Truth be told, I've never set it up this way yet:

But I totally should, because BG loves to bang on things and he really likes music in general. Right now we've still got it set up the normal way, and while he spends ZERO time on his back or stomach anymore, he has taken to trying to pull himself up to stand using the arch as support. The arch is not meant for that and is pretty flimsy, so Baba G is learning important lessons about what he can and cannot trust to hold his weight. (We've got the piano set up on top of his floor tiles, which are on top of carpeting, so rest assured when he falls over he's landing on a padded surface. But I do think it's important for him to know he's gonna fall if he tries to pull himself up on the arch!)


The bottom line: The Kick and Play Piano has been one of our most-used toys (is it really a toy? I guess it's a "developmental toy"?)... and we haven't even made the most out of all of its features yet. It runs about $50 and, considering we've paid more for products BG has grown out of in a matter of weeks, I'd say that's a decent deal.