From baby's first smile to the first real laugh you share together, you and your little one are bonding through play. The unique fun that you create together helps your baby discover the world -- and lets you discover your baby as a person.

Lamaze toys

Although this toy may seem to be just a plush cube, it’s anything but. This compact little square tackles four of the senses through a variety of discovery-oriented features. The visual stimulation this toy provides is the most obvious of the sensory features. A combination of brightly colored pictures and black-and-white patterns grace each of the six sides. The variety of textures on the cube—a mixture of fleecy and satiny sides, fabric handles that are soft and fuzzy or flat and scratchy, and hard plastic rings—provide baby with some interesting surfaces to touch. For baby’s auditory development, the cube produces some crinkly paper sounds and jingles when shaken. The cube even awakens baby’s sense of smell with its refreshing green apple scent. And, while baby is welcome to teethe on the Clutch Cube’s plastic rings, Lamaze hasn’t developed any innovations just yet that add the final sense—taste—to this cube. This early learning toy is safe for babies from birth on and can be surface cleaned if it gets dirty. --Cristina Vaamonde