nicknack baby and toddler toys

Musical, light-up and sensory nicknack toys for the crawling-and-first-steps stretch.

Four toys for the months between sitting up and running away. Two of them move across the floor to be chased, which is the entire mechanism behind learning to crawl, and two of them sit still and make noise when pressed.

Every one of these has a volume control, because we have read the reviews that other brands get. Three take AA batteries that do not come in the box.

How we pick the nicknack toys that go on this shelf

A baby toy has to pass a test no other shelf cares about: it goes in the mouth. So the shortlist starts with safety — rounded shells, no loose trim, and a label that counts the parts and names the age band the toy was designed around. Then it has to earn its floor space. The crawling crab sings and rolls just slowly enough to be chased, which is the whole trick behind learning to move.

We looked at a lot of pictures of nurseries before settling on this collection. Half of them already held a drum, a piano and a pile of soft knick knacks nobody could name. So we made four toys that each do one thing properly instead of a box that does nine things badly.

Noise, batteries and what parents write to us about

Volume first. Every toy here has at least two levels, and the piano and the drum will run with the lights on and the music off, which is the setting most parents find within a week. Three of the four take AA batteries that are not in the pack, and we say so on the card rather than in the small print.

The stories we get sent are rarely about features. A dad writes that the crab is the only thing that stops the three o'clock meltdown. A mum writes that her toddler carries the mini piano to the car. One told us her cats have claimed the crab and she has had to buy a second. We read all of them, and they are more useful than any focus group a bigger company could run.

What a first toy is really doing

Nobody needs a game at nine months. A baby needs a reason to reach, roll over and then let go of the sofa. A toy that lights up when a palm lands on it teaches cause and effect in about four presses, and that is the beginning of real building — the same instinct that later makes a block tower and a budding builder. The coolest thing in the room to a nine month old is usually a saucepan, and we have made our peace with that.

The joy is in small moments: the first crawl after something on purpose, the first playtime that happens without an adult in it. We are not the world's largest toy company and we have absolutely no interest in claiming a plastic pig teaches creativity. Match the toy to the month, trust what your kid already loves, and the rest looks after itself.