Keep Them Little Ones Rolling: Rolling Toys

Bring in the holiday cheer because One Sassy Doctor presents (get it, presents!) our final post in the series BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS!

Playing with your baby is one of the most enjoyable duties of parenthood. Not only do you get to spend quality one-on-one time with your precious one, you also help him develop the skills and strengths he’ll need as he grows. Toys are a great way to make playtime even more fun.

Last week, we talked about toys for creative play. This week, we’re talking about rolling toys.

Getting Creative: Toys for Creative Play

It’s been a ball spending this month on BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS! We have explored various aspects of the basics, and ways Sassy Baby can help fill those baby and toddler dreams

A well-stocked toy box will give you ample tools to help your child develop their fine- and gross-motor skills—and give you plenty of ways to bond over belly laughs.

Last week we talked about the value of rattles and rings. This week, we’re looking at the benefits of creative play.

Creative play lets your little one build real-life skills while enjoying herself and exercising not only her body but also her brain. Toy pots and pans, play kitchens, baby dolls, dress-up clothes—all of these let her act out the activities she sees you engaging in.

Shake, Rattle And Roll: Baby Rattles And Rings

We’re talking BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS this month, because when it comes to babies, playing is serious business. Stocking your toy chest with the right playthings will not only prompt plenty of giggles but will also help your little one develop the important developmental skills he needs to grow big and strong.

Last week, we talked about the benefits of stacking toys. This week, we’re focusing on baby rattles and rings. It’s the holidays, right? Do you hear the bells?

When we think about baby toys, the rattle is one of the first toys that come to mind. These simple playthings help babies tune into their senses. Shake the rattle and see their heads turn toward to sound. Move it back and forth in front of them, and watch their eyes track the rattle. Choose a soft rattle that can be attached to her wrist or ankle, and, when she’s old enough, she’ll have a great time making sounds all by herself!

Stacking Up The Fun: Stacking Toys

This month of BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS, we’ve explored play mats, balls, musical instruments and now… we’re stacking up the fun even more!

Playing with your child is great exercise, for both the body and the brain. Not only do you get a workout, so do they! When it comes to toddlers, all play is physical and toys that they can manipulate will be among their favorites.

Stacking toys are not only fun, they are among the hardest-working toys in your child’s collection. If you choose a toy that has colorful rings, you can work on your child’s colors with her. The act of stacking requires sorting for size, and placing the rings on the stacker requires fine-motor skills. 

Making Music: Musical Toys for Baby

We’re continuing these super fun holiday months with BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS with a musical break.

Playing isn’t just for fun—when a baby plays, he’s really learning and growing! Fine-motor skills, critical thinking and hand-eye coordination are crucial for achieving these important milestones, and playtime helps encourage growth in all of these areas. Music is a big part of this development!

Last week, we focused on how balls can improve hand-eyecoordination and harness the energy of a newly walking toddler. This week, we’re hoping you and baby can make beautiful music together with toys that mimic instruments.

Toy Balls: Having a Ball With Baby

We hope you’re ready to play, because we’re all about BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS for the entire month of December. If you’re looking for great, age-appropriate toys for you and your baby, you’re in the right place!

Last week we talked about the fun you and baby can have with a set of building blocks and the week before, we worked out on a play mats

This week, we want you to check your toy box to make sure you have a ball or two ready. Balls are great toys for an active toddler, giving them ample opportunity to practice walking (by chasing the ball) and they also work wonders for hand-eye coordination. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids should be able to throw a ball by the age of 2, but you can have plenty of fun with younger tots, as well.

Toy Blocks: The Building Blocks of Fun

As you know, the One Sassy Doctor blog is devoting this entire month to BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS! This week, just in time for the holidays, we’re all about BLOCKS.

For babies, play is hard work and they need the best tools possible to do their jobs right. The right toys can help make sure your precious wee one meets all her developmental milestones, and it’s a sweet way to spend time bonding.

In our last post, we talked about play mats, and this week we’re focused on having fun with building blocks.

Blocks help to build a great foundation for physical dexterity and problem solving, and babies can begin to grasp and hold blocks as early as six months. By the age of 12 months, most babies will be able to stack blocks on top of one another, making a simple structure. Stacking helps hand-eye coordination, reaching for and grasping blocks develop fine-motor skills.

Going to the Mat: Playmats and Your Baby

As we’ve been talking about for over two years now on the One Sassy Doctor blog, playing is a wonderful way to bond with your baby, and it’s also a serious developmental workout! This month, just in time for the holidays, we’re BACK TO THE BASICS – THE FUNDAMENTALS OF GOOD TOYS! Choosing your child’s toys carefully can make playtime even more fun, for both of you.

This week, we’re talking about an overview of play mats – as you know we devoted an entire previous month to our new Inspire the Senses developmental playmat. (One Sassy Doctor is a little play mat obsessed!).

A truly versatile toy, a play mat gives baby a soft and stimulating spot to work on her gross motor skills—and it’s a great place to get plenty of tummy time.

Sensory Play with Baby on the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

This is the last post in our series about Sassy’s new Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. We are going to spend some time discussing the unlimited interaction possibilities the playmat Sassy provides, and why they are important. Gosh, a whole month on one product – we’ve never done that before! We’ve gone over:

• the playmat's safety, versatility and ease
• the 5 advantages of the playmat
• the important developmental aspects of the playmat
• fine motor development learned using the playmat
• developing vision using the playmat
• language and hearing development using the playmat
• benefits of tummy time on the playmat

Today, as a wrap up (and let me give you a hint – this is a GOOD THING TO WRAP UP BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS!), I’m going to share some of my favorite Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy features that encourage contact, communication and collaboration with your little one.

Benefits on Tummy Time Using the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

As you know, this month we’re focused on the development of your baby, and the benefits the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy provides.

In this post, we will focus more on why your baby needs to spend some time on their front. First, I’ll briefly explain the concept of Tummy Time. Then, I’ll discuss three important benefits.

Language and Hearing Development from the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

This month, we have discussed the many benefits of the amazing, stupendous, terrific Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. We’ve reviewed its safety, portability and ease as well as the developmental attributes. In this posting, we’re going to focus on using the playmat to foster your little one’s language and hearing development!

In infancy, listening to sounds and voices is critical for strong language development. Here are my four favorite sound features on the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy:

Vision, Mirrors and Color on the Inspire the Senses Playmat

This month, we are focused on the all-new Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. I am loving all of the developmental benefits the playmat gives your baby. In the last few posts, we have touched on safety and structure benefits, and the versatility and adaptability of the playmat in the development of gross and fine motor skills.

This week, I am going to focus on vision, mirrors and color.

Fine Motor Development and the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

The month of November is dedicated to Sassy’s brand new Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. In our first three posts, we talked about the safety, versatility and ease of the playmat, the 3-leg structure benefits, and gross motor skill development benefits on the playmat.

This week, we will spend some time talking about the development of fine motor skills.

Important Developmental Aspects of the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

This month, we are focused on the Sassy Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. In the past two posts, we discussed the safety, versatility and ease of the Inspire the Senses™ Developmental Playmat by Sassy, as well as the benefits of the 3-leg structure. This week, I want to discuss baby’s gross motor development stages. You can use the Inspire the Senses™ Developmental Playmat by Sassy to help develop and foster these important developmental steps in your little one’s life.

Five Advantages of the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

This month, we are dedicating our posts to Sassy’s spectacular new Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat by Sassy. Last week, we focused on the basic safety, versatility and ease benefits that the Inspire the Senses™ Developmental Playmat by Sassy offers. In this post, we’ll focus on why the unique arch structure of the playmat is so cool and why Sassy Baby developed this totally new concept in arches.

As I mentioned last week, the arch is made up of three posts that insert into a green piece, creating a three structure rather than the standard two arch, four leg structure of most mats. This has five advantages:

Why Dr. Jen Loves the Inspire the Senses Developmental Playmat

We are dedicating a full month to the inspirational, sensationally new Inspire the Senses™ Developmental Playmat by Sassy! This is a first on the One Sassy Doctor site, simply because there is so very much to dive into!

One Sassy Doctor loves the new Inspire the Senses™ Developmental Playmat by Sassy for so many reasons – enough so that we’re devoting eight postings to it!

As you know, there is a real mom of four/pediatrician behind One Sassy Doctor and anything and everything you read on this site is genuine.

To kick off the month, I’ll start by talking about the first reasons I love this playmat by Sassy - It is safe, versatile and easy!

Developmental Insight into the All-New Soft Set Toys: Object Permanence

Last week, I talked about the benefits of Sassy’s new soft set toys.This week, I will spend some time discussing the developmental concept of object permanence. As your baby grows and develops, she will begin to understand that objects continue to exist, even when she cannot see them! Object permanence emerges in babies around 8 months of age. (Fun fact- the concept was coined by psychologist Jean Piaget.) In this post, I’ll discuss a couple of ways to help your baby develop object permanence.

Why One Sassy Doctor Loves the All-New Soft Set Toys

In the last few posts, we have mentioned some of the new toys Sassy has created to help your child grow and develop. One Sassy Doctor predicts this new line of toys will be the new GENERATION of baby toys. Sassy GRANDCHILDREN (I predict) will be playing with this line! Why? Because they are DEVELOPMENTALLY BORN – started with pages and pages of developmental insights as a start and then the vision turned over to design & production. The heart and spirit of Sassy is about development… and that brings One Sassy Doctor to mailing a letter (not such a Sassy writing transition there!!)


The Grow Up Golf Set, Feed ‘em Up Fill n’ Dump, and My Own Mail toy sets were designed with elements of tactile development, color contrast and many familiar developmental features baby will enjoy. What makes these special are the imitation and modeling attributes, a developmental feature we will explore further in our next posting.


Grow Up Golf Set: Not a golfer yet, I love this golf set. Even though a day at the golf course is not something everyone partakes in, golf is a sport that your little one will probably be exposed to. As your baby gets older, it lets them pretend to be like Mom, Dad or a favorite golfer! The set is soft and made up of bright colors, designed for your baby to differentiate. I also love the different textures . And of course, I am always a proponent of toys you can bring on the go. The golf set has a carry-around handle that makes transporting it everywhere easy!

Developmental Insight on the All-New Loopy Ball and Bumpy Ball: Exploring Textures

We’ve already told you all about the All-New Loopy Ball and Bumpy Ball. There were endless developmental topics to choose in expanding upon what One Sassy Doctor affectionately calls “loopy and bumpy” – and we chose: Exploring textures.

Ahhhh the smell and sensation of smooth baby skin. We grown-ups get a lot out of the sense of touching our smooth and delicious babies, and baby gets comfort and developmental promotion in return.

When Does A Baby Start To Explore Textures?
Babies are exposed to endless textures and sensations starting from the time they are in the womb. As baby enters the world into the delivery room, for example, they go from wet and warm momma tummy to cold bright room to warm soft towel. The process has begun! As baby grows, more and more textures and sensations enter the context of daily living. Each of these new magical sensations promotes sensory and tactile (touch) development – and the more the better!

Why One Sassy Doctor Loves the All-New Loopy Ball and Bumpy Ball

As I mentioned in earlier posts this month, when it comes to recommendations and advice on product, know these reviews are genuine – coming from a real mom and real pediatrician.

As your baby grows, his sense of smell, sight, taste and touch are developing magically and FAST. This period of time in the life span is the maximum momentum of development (aka – it’s all downhill from baby time, moms!). As we discuss regularly on this blog, it is important to introduce your baby to new sensory stimuli during his development at every opportunity and setting that may present.

The Loopy Ball and Bumpy Ball are absolutely perfect products to foster hand-motor coordination, visual development and tactile sensory stimulation.