Haba Blossom Rattle

My four-month-old daughter loves this toy and will almost always choose it over anything else in reach. The ring shape and the soft petals make it great for developing hand skills -- she has a pretty good success rate in her attempts to pick it up. The petals are stuffed with different materials with varied textures and sounds and the face in the middle spins and slides side to side making a clacking sound that is inoffensive to adult ears. It is safe to chew on and easy to clean. It is a terrific baby toy.

This is another beautiful toy from Haba. It comes apart into two - the elastically bound crinkly petals part, and the wooden teether part with a face in the center that goes around. My toddler and I find games to play with it and if I engage the baby he will be interested in it, but if I leave it for him to teethe on he goes off and does something else. We bought it for him to chew on but we do everything but with it so it gets four stars. It's not really a rattle either. The petals crinkle, as I wrote before, and the face in the center goes around silently.

I have been concerned about lead paint in toys from China, so I was happy to find this German-made product instead. I gave this to my daughter for her first birthday and she loves it. She likes to chew on it and spin the face. I appreciate the solid wood construcion and the fact that the cloth part can be removed for easy washing.