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Infantino

This 2-in-1 Baby Seat From Target Is The Minimalist Baby Gear You Need

It's no secret that babies require a lot of stuff — bottles, onesies, strollers, car seats — but it's also no secret that too much stuff is seriously overwhelming. (Insert Marie Kondo's "ping!" here.) For my family, it's the "places to put your baby" gear that dares to swallow us. Bouncers, activity seats, swings, play mats — they're all safe places I can put my 4-month-old so that I can actually do something with two hands, but they're taking over the house. Which is why the Infantino 2-in-1 bouncer and activity seat is so intriguing. Just one piece of gear to function in two ways? I'm not a minimalist, but I wouldn't mind walking through the living room without tripping over a baby seat, you know?

I'm a work-from-home mom, which means I work forty hours a week in my home office (or from the kitchen table or the couch or standing in the laundry room with my laptop balanced on the dryer) with my 4-month-old (usually strapped to my chest) and my 4-year-old singing all of her favorite songs at the top of her lungs (but the remix editions where she screams POOP instead of an actual lyric). It's a madhouse. Yesterday, it was 10:00 p.m. before I realized I hadn't had a glass of water yet. But the kids were happy and had been fed and the emails had all been answered. Balance, you know?

Infantino

But part of that working-from-home shtick is finding ways to occupy the kids. While the 4-month-old does a lot of sleeping, she also has her periods of fussiness where she wants to be entertained and periods of fussiness where she just wants to sit and observe the world around her. And the 4-year-old? She just wants to be where the baby is. I do a lot of shuffling the youngest — laying her on her mat, putting her in a sit-up seat, laying her in the bouncer — that the amount of gear in our living room was too much. And honestly, moving it from room to room is too much.

But a baby seat with more than one function? Y'all, I can get behind this. The Infantino 2-in-1 Bouncer & Activity Seat has all of your baby's favorite things wrapped up into one piece of gear. The bouncer seat has a vibrating function, 20 minutes of music, white noise, or nature sounds, as well has three toys positioned on a bar across the seat. (The toys are also mega cute.) But when your little one's ready, you can transition the bouncer into the perfect activity seat for them. Bonus: the seat pad is machine washable, and it takes no time at all to switch from bouncer to activity seat.

Infantino

Whether you're trying to cut down on baby gear or just don't want to buy new items as your child grows, this bouncer and activity seat may be just right for your family — and it's cute. My baby happily bounces in it and bats at the toys (her old bouncy seat had no toys), and I love the switch to the activity seat. She's a big fan of sitting up like she's a year old and staring at all of us — with this bouncer and activity seat, she gets the best of all the worlds. (Although TBH, babies pretty much get the best of everything.) If you want one for your own baby, the item is available exclusively at Target and retails for $49.99.