Planning a Get Ready For Baby Party began with cleaning my house. After Cleaning, we set up the house with a few party decorations, balloons and party favors. My kids had a great time making the party balloons themselves.

Mommies love to talk over food, I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a baby shower that didn’t have food. So we had to work on having enough snacks, chocolate covered strawberries, veggies and dip, and in our house you can’t have a party without cake. We were very busy the day before.

The Get Ready for Baby party was sponsored by VTech; they sent us a very large assortment of toys to check out with my family and friends. They also shared some really important learning tips from Dr. Lise Eliot, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science. Dr. Lise Eliot says it’s never too early to start infant development and learning. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you are getting ready for baby:

Parents Play a Key Role:

• For babies, parental interaction is their whole world, so moms and dads play a pivotal role in influencing a child’s cognitive language, motor and social emotional development. Through repeated, positive experiences, parents and other caregivers have a lasting positive impact on brain development.

Nurture Language and Sound:

• The nurture of language and sound is critical in the first few years. Engage your baby in face-to-face interaction so he can hear language spoken, read aloud, and object association with words. Music is also a great way to help babies because of the memorable context with sounds. Singing is a great way to stimulate your baby.

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind:

• Movement is crucial to a baby’s ability to learn. From the third month of life onward, a abyab’s limb movement increases significantly as she begins to crawl, stand and walk, so make sure she has a safe place to move and age-appropriate toys to grasp, push and pull.

Eyes on the Prize:

• As anyone who has ever looked into those big, wide eyes knows, babies are very visual, especially beginning around four months of age. As your child grows and discovers the world around him, he’ll start to recognize different colors, textures, designs and shapes. Help him along by surrounding him with bold, vivid examples that engage these new optical abilities. One great time to do this is during bath time. VTech introduced a full line of bath toys that engage baby with sound, colors and numbers and make bath time more fun.

Repetition Drives It All Home:

• All of these tips work together to become part of a routine you can incorporate into your baby’s daily life. The mind develops through repeated experiences, and the earlier you begin, the better. Find ways to make these tips fun for you and your baby, it’s a lot easier with a happy motivated child.

So we used the materials sent to us from VTech and had a play date and as always the play date was chaotic to say the least so we don’t have a lot of photos, but my son Miles made sure that his friends played with his favorite VTech Toy out of the bunch, the Vtech learning laptop. The Baby’s Learning Laptop is for ages 6 – 36 months, and older kids will like it too. Miles just turned 3 and he loved playing with it. I think developmentally he’s beyond it but it’s a laptop he’s allowed to play on, so I see why he likes it so much. The colorful keyboard interacts with a bright light-up screen to teach shapes, common objects and feelings. The sound effects, melodies and a movable mouse round out the fun of this electronic learning toy. It retails for 15.99

The Peek At Me Bunny was my favorite out of the toys we received from VTech. He was soft and cute and cuddly and still great for baby’s development. The bunny is geared for 6 – 36 months and retails for 14.99. There are two playful sensors creating an interactive play experience. The sound sensor activates peaceful sounds, endearing phrases, and short tunes in the “night” mode. The light sensor engages infants in a game of peek-a-boo in the “playtime” mode.

The other toys we received:

The Submarine Learning Boat:

Bath time is much more fun with a toy!! The VTech Submarine Learning Boat’s dolphin captain teaches children about colors, numbers, animals, animal sounds and animal characteristics. The dolphin also likes to play hide and seek, asking toddlers to help find his animal friends. Each press of a button on this electronic learning toy is rewarded with a squirt of water from the submarine’s spout. Two different intensities of squirting add to the surprise and fun of this submarine bath toy. Equipped with a water sensor, this little submarine knows when it’s diving into the water for some wet and wild fun or if it’s reached dry land for a little quieter play time.

The 3-in-1 Learning Zebra Scooter:

All the kids love ride on toys and push toys. Our neighborhood is out almost every afternoon riding and pushing things across the cul-de-sac. The VTech 3-in-1 Learning Zebra Scooter converts easily from push walker to ride-on scooter. Kids can discover their wild side as they move with the zebra and explore new territory with the scooter’s walkie-talkie, compass and flashlight. The zebra’s mane features five light-up buttons that teach colors, animals and destinations. This learning toy also features a fun horn button with a volume control switch.

Enter to Win:

3-in-1 Learning Zebra Scooter ($44 Value)

To Enter:

Tell me which of the toys mentioned above wins your vote as the best toy for your child.

Extra Entries:

Like VTech Toys on Facebook
Follow VTech Toys on Twitter

Tweet:
How To Get Ready for Baby with @MomStart & @VTechToys #Giveaway #VTechToysParty http://bit.ly/ms7dik

& / or

Win a #VTechToysParty 3-in-1 Learning Zebra Scooter @MomStart #Giveaway http://bit.ly/ms7dik

List this giveaway on any giveaway site, dig, stumble, like or share on Facebook (or use any of the share options listed below)
Blog About this Giveaway (10 extra entries, linking to the giveaway)
Follow me on twitter tell me your twitter ID
Follow/Like Mom Start on Facebook
Follow me on Google Friend Connect
Subscribe to MomStart

This giveaway ends June 20th. All rules can be found under giveaway rules.

Disclosure – A product was provided to me free of charge by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the writing of this review; however, opinions expressed are my own.