Captain Colin

Last weekend, we finally broke down and bought Colin an exer-saucer. I'd been holding out on this for a while because I don't like the idea of just plopping him down in a plastic babysitter. Also, I dreaded bringing another piece of plastic baby gear into the house -- especially one that makes noise. But, he seemed to really enjoy the one at his Mae Mae and Pop's house, and he's definitely getting too big for the bouncy chair. Why, just the other day, he squirmed around in it so much that he almost flipped it over. So, yep, time for an upgrade.

We went with the "Baby Einstein" model, even though I pretty skeptical of any blinking, buzzing plastic thing that's marketed to make your baby smarter. (I mean, after all, baby Einstein didn't have "Baby Einstein.") It was, however, the least blinky, buzzy, plasticky of the options. And turns out, the boy loves it. He spins around in like a bad-ass: playing the slots, twirling the globe, checking out his rockin' hair in the rear-view mirror. We call it "Captain Colin's Command Center." (Or "centre," if you're Canadian.)

Of course, the feature he likes the best is the one that makes the most noise: an obnoxious button which alternates between barnyard sounds and few bars of Bach or Beethoven. As you can imagine, this drives the dog and cat absolutely wild, but you know, whatever the audience wants ... Spin it, Mr. Deejay!