Alright friends. I’m about to do something that I haven’t done in many, many, many years.
Awhile ago, many, many, many years ago, I decided that I would never do a product review without giving away that same products to my readers. You guys are important to me, I have always said “I like free stuff but I like my readers better.” Believe me, I know what it’s like to go to blogs and read endlessly about products they are reviewing and you end up scratching your head and wondering “is this person even telling the truth?”
You know I’m right.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I was contacted about reviewing something called the Fisher Price EZ Bundle.
Aren’t the colors cool and fantastic? I think so, too. But, I just couldn’t do it. I have standards, people! I showed it to Brian and he was like “so, when do you get it?” I was taken aback…”um, no, I’m not going to do it because I don’t do reviews when there isn’t a giveaway attached” and he was like “yeah, but maybe do it, this thing looks pretty awesome.”
Me: But no giveaway!
Him: But lots of free things, things we will actually use!
Me: But
Him: FREE
Me: STANDARDS!
Him: We have $14 in our checking account.
Me: BUT.
and I surrendered and I sort of want to apologize to you because I feel like I’ve let you down but I feel kind of good about this because maybe you should know about this product and also I have SO MANY CUTE PICTURES OF ELI! (so, we’re cool, right?)
Also, maybe Fisher-Price will be like, “awwww…let’s give away some to her readers! You’re getting a Fisher Price EZ Bundle! You’re getting a Fisher Price EZ Bundle! You’re getting a Fisher Price EZ Bundle! You’re getting a Fisher Price EZ Bundle!” or whatever.
Aden + Anais blankie, froggie and cute baby are not included.
This is what I put Eli in each morning while I shower and get ready. I like it pretty well! ”I like it, too!” he says.
That chair piece comes off and attaches to other components. The idea being that rather than having all four of these full size things (swing, infant seat, toddler seat and highchair) taking up much needed space in your home, you can just have one. But really, that’s not true, you have one put together and two other components, lying around.
So, less stuff but still stuff. And good news, you need not be a genius to take these things apart and put back together. I did it without instructions WHICH SAYS A WHOLE LOT.
Here’s Eli in the highchair. We love this highchair. He sits up incredibly well in it and he things it’s pretty fancy. The other components are placed in front of the highchair.
Cute baby and crinkly book not included. This is Eli’s FAVORITE book. It’s about crinkles and things to bite on. and drool.
Hey Mom, I dropped my book about crinkles. A little help?
And then his brother came home from school. (neither brother is included. They are mine.)
And here’s the seat as an infant seat.
Eli likes it pretty well but we think he would have REALLY liked it 2 months ago. Now he thinks he’s sixteen and wants to sit up all of the time. Fortunately, there is a toddler seat, which is the highchair without the legs, but we haven’t put him in that, yet.
So, what are my honest thoughts? Well, HONESTLY, when I saw that first picture (pictured above) I thought, “WOW! Four products in one box, SMART!” So, either the marketing is a little misleading or I have zero brain cells leftover. Then Brian took it out of the box and I was like “wait, there are 325 pieces missing.” And then he explained to his wife, who has lost too many brain cells, exactly how it works.
We like it. It’s incredibly sturdy, high quality, lightweight, easy to clean and really we think traveling with it will be awesome. Would we want it instead of having each thing individually…not necessarily. I’m always on the move, from one task to the next and having to put Eli down (on the floor?) to move things around just doesn’t seem to fit with my life, so that bothers me a bit. But for the price $150.00? I think it’s a pretty good deal.
Questions? Concerns? Ask me! And thanks Fisher-Price for the review.
*and now back to our regularly schedule no reviews without a giveaway show. Thank you for your patience.*
This product was given to me, free of cost, in exchange for an honest to goodness review, which you see here.
I JUST saw this in Babies R Us when i was there yesterday,
I stopped and looked at it and thought… hmm..
Cool concept, but yes, having to move the seat around when you want to move the baby around isn’t exactly easy.
But cool idea!
And Eli looks VERY cute in it!
First of all, I was super excited and then I realized:
1) Eli doesn’t come with it. Eh. No sale. He’s the cutest part, for sure.
2) You’re absolutely right about going from room-to-room. I used to have the big swing in the living room, the small swing in the family room, the seat in the bedroom, and the bouncer in the dining room. Having to disassemble and reassemble as I moved rooms would be awfully annoying.
Sometimes I think we spend so much time as a society trying to make one thing do absolutely everything just because we can, we forget that there are reasons why people didn’t before.
My sister in law got this for my nephew and LOVES it. They don’t have a lot of room in their house so this works well. Each part stays in it’s place and they don’t have to lug it around. The infant seat works really well at our house when they come to visit too!
Ummmm but where’s the giveaway??
Love it!! I will definitely look into this for kid #2. I’m all about something that can be used and reused…and reused again!
oh, COME ON Fisher Price…go all Oprah! i can see that moving around from room to room would be a little inconvenient UNLESS the baby was sleeping. i am really good at moving sleeping babies, but this seems like it would be the PERFECT set up for that, no?
and seriously? elijah is full of so much cute. i love him.
you are (mostly) forgiven. but the adorable pictures of eli are certainly helping with the last part
Jeez, my ovary!!!! You have the cutest kids
My youngest (almost 2 1/2) has outgrown all that stuff – looks pretty cool though!
Okay, those are really the cutest pics of Eli. AWWWWWWWWWWW!!! I won’t hold the product review against you. I might be one of the few bloggers who really doesn’t have any objections to them. Besides, yours was fun to read
This looks really cool. It looks perfect for an Aunt or Grandma to have around!
Forget the gear, I want the baby! Those eyes. Those cheeks. Squee!
eli is too adorable! i think the way you crossed your standards was VERY forgivable…because you showed us how adorable eli looks using the products! i think he approves.
We’re here regardless of giveaways. Do whatcha gotta do.
This looks very cool though! I’ll have to check into this for my pregnant friends.
Meh on the Fisher-Price, but how much for the leetle boys? I’ll have those, please.
I have no need for such an apparatus, so I don’t really care a whole lot about how well it works. But I LOVED the kid pics. So you can do product reviews like this anytime. That picture of the older brother after school is golden. Thanks for sharing!
That looks so cool! Why didn’t they have that 6 months ago BEFORE I had my daughter?! It would still be cool, except for the swing because now that she is mobile, she is over the swing.
I would totally use the rest of that. I registered for (and got) one of those FP space-saving high chairs. It’s one of those “really cool, but…” products. It works well if you don’t mind giving up a chair at your table. I would rather have a set-up like that.
So FP people-send one my way! K, thanks!
BTW, I don’t mind product reviews at all. I’m one of those people that WANTS to try new things, but not until someone else has tried it first.
From a distance, the product looks like a genius idea but when you look at it closely, you realize why you have the jumper, the swing, the high chair, etc in the first place. With two girls, I had something in the living room, in my bathroom, and in the kitchen so I could easily secure them when I am in those areas doing something. That works a lot better for me than having to drag one piece all over the house, which I probably would end up doing because I’d be too annoyed to take it off and place it in another component.
wow, very cool product! Makes me want another baby just to have something like that!
But Eli is just stunning!! Utterly adorable! So yes, you are completly right in doing this, just so we can all enjoy the sweet smiles from Eli! And his big brother too!!
I am actually really glad you did this review. I saw this a few weeks ago, and then we discovered my SIL is expecting and I thought “Yay! I’ll get to buy the cool new swing thingy for someone!” but then the Hubs was all “what if it sucks…”
Also? Can’t get enough Eli pictures! So stinkin’ precious!
Wow! I love all these pictures!
And the F-P set looks like something every grandparent should have around.
I think the putting it together would be too much of a pain in the butt for me…
But my daughter has the exact same crinkle book. (Rite Aid?)
I just read a review on this on another blog! It looks mighty cool to me!!!
I’m with the hubby! It’s FREE! You made the review fun, esp. with those absolutely adorable pictures of Eli!
The colors are just beautiful!!
We had a Fisher Price high chair and one of their swings and we really loved them!
I agree that this would be useful for a grandparents’ house!!! Having options there with minimal ‘stuff’ is beneficial. Not sure I’d like to have it in my own house with a little one unless it’d be easy to move with baby in it (though I don’t think they’d condone that for fear of lawsuits from people dropping their babies!). We have the SnugGlider swing that the carseat sits right into and I like that concept A LOT (a further extension of the travel system strollers) since you can bring a sleeping baby in from the car and the swing actually is meant to mimic the feeling (vibration and sound) of being in the car. I think it would be nice if they made something more in this line that would put the carseat at highchair level or possibly a bouncy contraption you could put the seat into? The carseat is meant to be moved with a baby in it (handle, 5 point harness), so I think this would be more useful. I would much rather have several spots to “park” the carseat.
However, I have to wonder how EATING in a seat that you also sit in all day long would work once babies are self-feeding and/or making messes by grabbing the spoon, etc.
Wow, these are awesome! I kind of hate it when they come up with cool things like this AFTER my kids have outgrown them.
BTW, You’re a much better person than I am. I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought about reviewing.
I’m glad you listened to Brian, because this looks pretty amazing. Also, I would like to purchase the bigger kid with the brown hair and mustache. I will give you $50 and a waffle cone.
I totally flaked on sign pics this week… however- I am SO looking forward to our next assignment! I just got a couple of great new books about using my camera and photography in general… VERY excited to see what I can capture this week!
Okay this is officially my favorite blog review. Ever. Even including the ones with giveaways! I love that you are so real about it (why am I doing this? We decided we want the free stuff! How was it? The idea was cool but here are the things that were problems for us!). I hate it when reviews just gush and love for the sake of gushing and loving the free. Pros AND cons make me more happy and more likely to buy the product! So I am completely cool with this interruption to the regularly scheduled blogging, thanks for letting us know what you thought of it and I hope you find a way to make the free stuff (yay!) work for you!
I wonder if you could buy extra legs for it? It seems at least you’d want the high chair and the swing to each have legs at all times so you can just move the seat. Hmmm.
OMG I just read Erin’s comment and nearly sprayed Cherry Coke Zero out of my nose.
Haha! That’s my policy for “reviews” too. I like to give back to the few readers I have!
I agree with you. Seems like it would kind of be a pain to have random components not in use sitting around the house. It’s hard enough to keep a house that is “clean” from looking unclean by becoming cluttered when there are baby items strewn all about it. But definitely sounds like something I may look into next baby.
— Oh. Hubby says “if”. IF there is a next baby.
Looks like a neat idea. Thanks for the review!
For the record, I’m glad you reviewed even without giveaway, or I might not have seen this cool product for a while! Looks like a potential baby gift i might want to give friends or family!
Ok Beth listen here… Listen good! YOUR FAMILY it he most important thing!!!! Thats it!
I am so happy you caved and did the review! People love reviews ESPECIALLY of baby stuff! I know I will not buy anything if it had a ton of bad reviews! So you are giving something back to us!
This looks awesome! But I am very done having babies!
Again… I am so glad you caved! You have to do whats right for your family!
That’s Miles’ favorite crinkle book too! In fact, it’s one of his favorite toys thus far, and I love that it’s a book! I always say I won’t spoil my kids with toys but I will shower them freely with books! (Well maybe it’s cause I like to read kids books!)
Thank you for the review. My wife and I looked at it while we were registering this weekend and were intrigued but not sold on it. I was worried the multiple use aspect would weaken it in performance and stability. It appears I am wrong and this would be very good for us.
There is a good chance our little girl will get some decent travel in our family and it would be easier to pack this than a whole bunch of items I would think. Also looks like it might be good to buy for grandparents – my mom in particular – who think they need to be fully prepared for a baby despite not being a regular caregiver.
@Raymond I agree it would be GREAT for grandparents’ houses b/c it gives you so many options even as the baby will grow that most single items wouldn’t allow. I’m not sure about travel, but it’d certainly be easier than bringing each individual piece!