I received Tiny Love’s Gymini 3-D Activity Gym from my cousin at my baby shower. I had done my research on Babies R Us before adding it to my registry so I knew that lots of people were very satisfied with it. But even better, was hearing my cousin (who has two kids of her own) say at the party that she bought it for me because her friend has the same one and thinks it’s great.

Packaged in a clear, plastic, square bag with a yellow handle, the Gymini is a lightly padded play mat for ages 0-10 months with horizontal arches from which three rattle-like toys hang. The Gymini is mostly black and white with some red on the mat (which is decorated to look like a circus scene) and on the toys. Infants can lay on their backs and swat at the dangling toys. One is a half-moon-shaped, mirrored-bottom, jingly cloth rattle. The half moon is divided into three sections that are colored either red with white flowers, black with tiny white polka-dots, or white with big black polka-dots. The second toy is a solid-red spongy nylon flower. When you push the center it plays a high-pitched cheerful tune. (It can get frustrating trying to press the musical button. It’s a very elusive thing!) The third toy is a white plastic ring with little red and black beads. All three toys can be removed from the cloth-covered arches for individual play or can be moved around and placed in different height slots in the arches. The mat folds in half, thereby making the crisscrossed arches fold together and form a shoulder strap (the folded-up mat basically looks like a giant pocketbook), and can be toted around with ease. The play mat can be washed and dried with the rest of your laundry (I’d suggest delicate cycle of your dryer) once the arches are snapped off of their cloth-covered bases.

Even though I had read that black and white is supposed to help stimulate a baby’s development, this was the only toy/nursery décor I registered for (or currently have) with that color scheme. I can’t say whether or not it’s done anything for my daughter’s brain, but I will go so far as to say that the Gymini has helped her motor reflexes.

Although the suggested age is 0-10 months, I didn’t let my daughter use the Gymini 3-D Activity Gym until she was around 3 months old. She was born in November and our house was drafty so I decided she’d be better off in her swing (which was a wonderful thing; stay tuned for that review!) than on the floor. But at three months, she pretty much outgrew the swing and kept trying to get out of it (she’d do these little crunch-like exercises and kick her feet at the same time). I took the hint and dug the Gymini out of its hiding spot and let her move around. She’d kick and squirm a little, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. But I was amazed at her grip. She would reach up and tug at the toys. She’d tug and tug, until one day (only a few days after she started using the mat) she was able to pull them off of the arches. Granted, the toys only loop through the slots in the arches, but, hey, that’s one strong (and persistent) little girl. Of course, she loved the fact that once she had pulled them off she could chew on the toys. She still loves that at 7 months.

Now that she’s older, she rolls around and off of the mat. The Gymini is a good starting place for her acrobatics, but she rarely stays still. It’s a much safer spot than on my bed (from which she’s been inches away from falling off of). I’m not sure she’ll still be using it at 10 months because I’m sure she’ll be crawling around by then.

Sometimes I sit her up and let her play with the dangling toys and she enjoys that. She’s never shown much interest in the circus design on the mat itself, but she loves the toys and the arches. (I stand her up sometimes and she leans on them for support. They bend down so I’m careful to keep my arms around her, but they do provide a little resistance to help her balance. At least one of the toys comes with us everywhere. I usually have one in my pocketbook and sometimes one in the diaper bag, too.

Clean up is fairly simple. Like I said above, the arches snap off and the mat can be thrown in with your wash. The snaps, however, are very tight and I use the edge of a screwdriver or the tip of a pen to get inside the cloth covering to undo the snaps. Because of the cloth covering (which almost entirely conceals the snaps) and the tightness, I wasn’t even sure the arches did come off until around month 5. That’s when I couldn’t take it anymore and pulled out the screwdriver. Up until then I was just sponge washing the mat. The snaps are much easier to close than open.

The mat itself lost some of its rigidness after its first wash. I used to be able to fold it in half and it would stay creased. After the first wash, the folded mat tended to droop and sag in the middle so it sat a little uncomfortably against my body when I toted it and didn’t hide in a corner quite as well as it used to. Perhaps a little ironing would refresh its original form, but that’s not happening anytime soon in my household.

Overall, I’m happy with the Gymini. There may be better play mats out there but this one has served its purpose. It’s entertaining, easy to clean, and easily mobile. The package came with three “medals” stuck onto it: Parenting Magazine Winner Toy of the Year, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Toy Award, and Parents’ Choice Silver Honor. Obviously, I’m not the only one who’s happy with her Gymini 3-D Activity Gym.


Recommended: Yes