My baby registry
I've been looking through my baby registry to check out the developmental value of the toys and other stuff I'm registered for. The world is so exciting from a baby's perspective! Here are some highlights:

Baby's First Toys: This is a huge assortment of brightly-colored baby-safe objects, from letter-shaped teethers to rattles and crinkly animals. I think the greatest value in this set is that there are so many objects in it. Piaget would love it--a very young baby in the earliest sensorimotor stage needs to experience as great a variety of colors, shapes, textures, etc. as possible to learn about the world. These toys are small enough for even a very small baby to hold onto, and begin to learn the difference between objects and herself. About half of the items here also provide some sort of interactive experience--rattling, moving parts, crinkling, etc. I think this set will be one of the first things our baby is able to play with, before she's old enough for the more complex toys.

Einsten Number Blocks: OK, so I do realize that our baby won't be reading the numbers and words for some years. Even so, these blocks are just great for the developing infant, and are sized especially well for a sitting baby to pick up and move around. These are potentially more interactive than Baby's First Toys, with different pictures/words/numbers on each side of each block, as well as a number of interactive features like a grabbable tiger tail, rattles, and bells. Baby-safe soft blocks are a great way to learn about cause and effect (a primary goal of the sensorimotor stage, right?) because you can toss them, stack them and knock them over, etc. One Amazon reviewer said that these also seemed to encourage large movement in her baby because they will roll away from the baby a little, but not as far as a ball, which will roll too far for the baby to get it herself.

LeapStart Learning Table: This one is for our baby once she starts to sit (legs can be removed so it can be used on the floor), and pull up to standing (put legs back on!). I'm realizing looking through these toys that in the sensorimotor stage, great toys are really all variations of the same thing--lots of textures, colors, etc. and plenty of opportunities to examine cause and effect. The LeapStart table is much more complex than the other toys, but it's based on the same principles. Depending on the operating mode the parent selects, activating parts of the table through buttons and other devices will produce sound effects, music, or words. Younger babies can enjoy just pressing the different buttons to see what happens, while older babies and toddlers can start to learn more advanced concepts like how the notes move on the little piano keyboard. Does that adorable little kid come with it, I wonder?

Crib CD Player: As a musician, I can't forget the developmental importance of sound and music! Of course, our baby is already being exposed to music day in and day out, but from most accounts of other musician-parents, it seems likely that music will comfort our baby even more than most since that's what she'll be used to. Though the "Mozart Effect" research (or lack thereof) is currently getting a bad rep, numerous studies have shown that most musicians and great music appreciators were exposed to a lot of good music as babies. It's not just the old boy's network that created the great musical families. Plus, musical intelligence has been shown to be deeply connected to mathematical (logical-mathematical, according to Howard Gardner) intelligence. And if it helps the baby sleep, who cares? :=)

So that's just a small sample of our registry... I'm starting to think our baby will be a bit overstimulated!