By Beth Ann Bayus.
Him: Do you have it?
Me: I thought you had it!
Him: I forgot to grab it.
Me: I’ll go get it.
….and so goes the conversation between my husband and me before just about every trip with our daughter Meredith these days. Whether it’s by car, stroller or boat or bike – - we can’t ever leave home without it.
“It” is the Baby Bling Design Portable iPod Speaker System, an item right up there with the video nursery monitor on our list of parent “must-haves.” The gizmo is a totally portable speaker system for an iPod no bigger than the device itself that velcros onto stroller handles, bike handlebars, or whatever. In short, it’s pure genius! Here’s why.
Like most kids her age, Meredith loves music – - everything from Mozart to Elvis Costello to Jimi Hendrix to The Cult to Van Morrison. And that doesn’t even include all the kiddie compositions and toddler tune CDs that clutter our countertops and fill our iPods. Fulfilling that unquenchable need to hear, “Here We Go Loopty-Loo” or “Voodoo Child” just one more time is easy-peasy from the comfort of home base where CD players and computers abound, but when those musical requests come from the back seat, the bicycle carrier or the running stroller, that’s when your true maternal muster is called into play.
And that’s exactly where a gadget like the Baby Bling system will save you every time. The $34 is probably the best money I ever spent on a piece of kid equipment. Not being a gadget person myself, but having married one, I almost flipped right past the Baby Bling when I saw it in a catalogue. But for some reason, I folded back the page and, during that last-minute-ditch to find a Christmas present for my husband, I broke down and ordered the Baby Bling, fully expecting it to one day join the pile of similar techno-gadgetry in a box in the attic.
But it hasn’t. All it took was one jaunt to the neighborhood park with the Baby Bling strapped to the stroller to discover its worth.
Sure, our minivan is equipped to play tunes from an iPod, so handling Meredith’s musical requests while driving isn’t dependent upon the Baby Bling being in the vehicle. But it’s the requests that come once we get to our destination that can be the toughies, and that’s where the Baby Bling is worth every dime. Grandma’s house doesn’t have a computer to hook the iPod to? No problem – - we brought the Baby Bling. Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary don’t have an iPod interface? No worries – - we brought the Baby Bling.
It also makes bike rides with Meredith possible now that she’s entered her, I-Don’t-Want-to-Wear-a-Helmet stage. The promise of music, made possible by the Baby Bling, proves just enough “bait” to get her in the bike seat, helmet strapped securely and off on a ride down to the lake.
Similarly, having access to all her favorite tunes while out for a walk in the stroller lets us go a couple more blocks before full toddler melt down ensues. I’m sure people on the sidewalk wonder where the sound of “Fairies Wear Boots” is coming from when we stroll past them, but Meredith knows it’s coming from her Baby Bling, and more importantly, she knows that there are hundreds more songs where that came from just waiting for her to request them.
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