When I was a little girl, my “special” stuffed animal was a plush dog made by GUND.  I still have it.  He’s a bit worse for wear  – with fur so matted his facial features are hiding!  But it’s been about 30 years, and he is still holding up.

Given both the nostalgia factor and the obvious quality of the products, I am thrilled to be able to use GUND products with my own little ones.  Until recently, I didn’t realize they made anything other than “traditional” stuffed animals.  But they do!  We got to try out this “Comfy Cozy.”  This is a play mat for babies, with feet and a head that make it a critter. Ours is the Lilly Lady Bug.

The texture is great!  The underside is satiny.  The main plush portion is sort of a “nubby” textured kind of plush.  It’s super-soft, but…varying in length of the fibers, I guess.  It gives a nice textural feelwithout being any less soft.  The dots are a standard woven cotton.  The face is a very soft…microfleecy-type feel.  I’m so eloquent in describing these things!  😉  The point is, this is quite soft, but has a variety of textures to enable a baby to explore the sense of touch.

In this picture, you can see the texture of the plush:

I really thought that my toddler was simply too big for this – the play mat is a bit small for her at this point – and that we’d have to save any heavy-duty testing of this for when the wee one comes in April or May.  But she loves it!  She found it today, and she held its little cheeks to turn its face toward her so she could talk to it.  Then she picked it up and cuddled it and carried it all over the house.  I guess it’s easy to hold, because of the blanket-y part!

So this is good for itty-bitty babies, who can lie on it for tummy time.  And it’s good for bigger babies and toddlers, who can love on it and carry it around!

Do you have a favorite childhood toy?

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Disclosure: I was provided by the manufacturer with the Lilly Lady Bug Comfy Cozy pictured above, to facilitate my review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.