Playmats or baby gyms are all the rage in the last years among parents. It seems like everyone loves them and every friend thinks it is the best gift to give a new parent. I bought one for my daughter before she was born and received two more as gifts after she was born! So, when I was recently offered to try out Tiny Love’s Gymini Move & Play I was a little underwhelmed as I have so many and thought how different could this one be from the others?

Surprisingly,  Tiny Love’s Gymini Move & Play is different.  One of the first things I noticed is its quality: You can really tell that it’s of a superior quality.

The mat itself is smooth to the touch and well padded to support the baby. The padding might not be quite thick enough to break a big fall of your baby if he/she were to fall(from a sitting position) but for small falls it’s more than adequate.  It is divided into 4 different squares, one green representing grass, and blue for the sky along with the sun, purple for some monkeys flying some planes, and orange which seems to be the jungle along with some elephants in it. The design of the mat in my case is not primordial but it is nice and pleasant and our baby seems to enjoy going tapping on the different shapes and colors going from one square to the other.

The mat is squared shape but it has extra edges on each side that roughly rectangular-shaped which in a way constitute the outward barrier of the mat since these can be folded up and attached in order to lock your baby in. They also serve to give your baby more playing space when not folded. or a baby below the age of, and even for babies that are older, the mat is big enough to allow your baby to roam and have fun, even if the baby will opt to get out and explore.

The special thing about this play mat, however, is what Tinylove calls the “Revolutionary arch connector”. Basically you have two arches that are connected in a central mechanism at the top of the highest arch. You can control the way you want your arches to be positioned through this mechanism. For example, if your baby is lying down face up in the middle, you can just leave the arches in the middle so that your baby can play with the surrounding toys from there. If your baby is positioned in a corner or if your baby can’t reach the toys, you can move the arches so that they’re closer to the baby and the baby can touch and pull the toys around. It’s a pretty unique concept and we’ve even used it to “lock out” our baby from the side that we don’t want her to get out of and roam. Just to add the arch area also has electronic lights and plays 7 different tunes.

The toys that come with the Gymini Move & Play are: A jitter elephant, a monkey rattle, a sun and cloud rattle, a colorful teether, an engaging mirror and a crinkly square toy. These are removable so they don’t have to all be up at once to clog your baby’s play space.  The toys themselves are great fun for the baby since she can play with them while on and even when she’s off the mat and the clips that hold the toys can be adjusted to the desired height. We tend to make them hang very low, just barely off the ground so that our baby can pull, twist,  and do whatever she likes to them. She seems to like it that way the best.

All in all, I can’t but be pleased with this play mat. The quality is great, the ability to customize almost every part of the Gymini Move & Play comes in very handy as we often change things around to please her depending on the kind of mood she’s in. We use this mat countless times per day and since we’ve got it I can’t say that we’ve used any of our older mats.

For more information check out HERE!

No monetary compensation was given for this review.

The other night, my kiddos were both suffering from horrid diaper rash. So, off I dashed at 9:30 pm to my local Walgreen’s to find some relief for their tushies! Standing there in Walgreen’s like I was a first time mom I was surveying the line before me. I could go with the stand by of Desitin or I could venture out and try the Walgreen’s brand and save me some money! And then I stumbled upon BabyGanics: Soothing Rash Cream. It was naturally the most expensive one on the shelf, but at that time, it was buy one get one free, making it the cheapest. I looked over the back of the tube and saw that it had the same amount of active ingredients as the Desitin brand. It also talked about it being hypoallergenic and how it was totally ‘safe’. So I figured since it was the cheapest there and who doesn’t love a deal, I’d try it.

So I got home, lathered the kiddos up and sent them to bed! The next morning to my amazing surprise NEITHER of them had ANY trace of diaper rash! I was thrilled. Even with Desitin I would have to to buy the maximum strength to achieve the same results. I’ve never gotten over night relief with any other diaper cream. The cream is the same exact texture as Desitin and nice and creamy! (I’ve found that the walmart brand doesn’t smooth as nicely as Desitin does, this however had NO problem!). That NASTY Desitin diaper cream smell, yup, not even close! It was so nice to not have that nasty lingering smell. It works just as strong as the maximum strength creams and yet had NONE of the nasty smells. Now here would be a draw back, it was the most expensive cream on the shelf, running $2+ than the comparing tube of Desitin. However, for the lack of smell, the over night relief I’d say it’s worth EVERY PENNY!