Monday, May 31, 2021

The Art of ALL Things "Boingy"

After reading a forum posting about a lady asking for the necessary objects needed to prepare for the arrival of her baby, I began to think back about the things I couldn’t do without: or rather, things that my baby’s couldn’t have done without.There was the usual of course, pajamas, bottles, pacifier selection and diapers. But then I listed IT, the one thing that nobody should be without, the bouncy-seat. 


You can stick your baby in a bouncy-seat almost from the time your bundle of joy arrives. It’s not like the variety that we had when I was little. 


The newer ones recline all the way back and have inserts that can be used to support even the tiniest newborn.

My tiny triplet preemies adored their seats and even used them up until recently. There is one teensy little problem with using them, though. 


They foster of love of all things that go “Boingy.” From the very beginning we place our children in these seats that are set to bouncing by the very tiniest movement of our infants. 


In the beginning this soothes them, and as they grow up, it becomes a source of amusement. After all, it’s a lot of fun to sit in the seat and make it bounce up and down as much as you can plus most come with really neat toy-bars that entice your baby to move thus fostering that love of BOINGY! 


Once they get a bit larger and able to hold their head up, the toy-makers came up with a way to perpetuate your child’s growing addiction of all things boingy by creating the “Johnny Jump Up.” 


Its this contraption that has a sort of springy clamp on one end and what looks like a sort of swing on the other end that is connected by a rather large industrial looking spring. 


You are supposed to be able to hang it in your doorway so baby can continue their love of boingy-ing on into their toddler years. 


Unless of course you live in a very old house with very large door casings, then you are out of luck. Or so I had thought. 


Then one day, we saw IT. Someone out there had figured out that there was a need for free-standing boingy machines and had invented the “Jumperoo” contraption that basically does the same thing only there isn’t any doorway required to function! 


This was a lifesaver for us. Just as soon as my preemies could hold up their heads, they were in that boingy machine. 


They bounced and drifted to and fro at first very lightly because they were so very light. Then, as they gained weight, they took to boingy-ing as hard and as high as their little feet could jump. 


In fact, even though we are a bit too old for it, we still have to have boingy sessions in the jumping machine. It’s just that addictive. 


If we don’t let them jump in their machine, they try & boingy in their walker or boingy in their beds. In fact they do it anyways.

My baby’s boingy in the stroller and standing in the play-yard, clutching the walls for support. They can be found boingy-ing in their exersaucers which thankfully have the good graces to have springs in them just for that reason, although it can get messy if they are having a snack and end up forgetting about it temporarily in a fit of boingy. 


Boingy-ing appears to be so very popular and spreading across the nation that our favorite show, “The Backyardigans” did an entire episode on “Boinga.”


Yes, we have the DVD so we can boingy along with them too! The truth is plane to see, baby’s need to boingy! 

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

HTTP://MIMIRANKINWEBB.BRANDYOURSELF.COM/

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