"As an anxious, do-gooding millennial mom, I would plop my daughter down on the rainbow-colored, safari-themed play mat I'd gotten at my baby shower and scatter a bunch of plush toys around her . . . and then search Google for answers. Often, the results were overwhelming. One day, I'd panic that I hadn't been doing enough to boost her, say, fine-motor skills and then submit her to a baby grasp-the-rattle boot camp, and the next day, I'd freak out about how someone like me, with no experience or background, was supposed to introduce gross-motor or language or sensory stimulation.
After just a week, I'm already trying not to feel guilty about the amazing things my baby (and I!) could have done with this mat months sooner.
Turns out, Jessica Rolph had the same frustrations when she was a new mom. 'I was dissatisfied with the toys we had, and then I thought about the play mat,' she told POPSUGAR. 'It has so much potential to be a platform for learning for the first 12 months, but I wasn't happy with what was on the market.' So she created her own, The Play Gym by Lovevery ($140), which was designed by a team of experts and pediatric neuroscientists. In addition to the requisite hanging 'batting' toys, the spacious mat has five different developmental zones, or flaps, at each edge. Each one offers an array of essentials for each of your baby's learning stages, providing for what they want to see, touch, and explore as they grow." — Kate Schweitzer, senior editor, Family
