Are Play Couches and Playsets Worth It?

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Thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post and viewed the slideshow with Zackaël’s videos. In addition, thank you for your votes on the Grief Myths; I am keeping the poll open for now, in case some of you didn’t have the chance to vote yet.

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In mid-November, in the midst of the pandemic and with the onset of winter, we decided to invest in some indoor activities for the kids. We ordered a small gym for Adélie, a “jungle gym” play structure for Maxandre and a modular couch.

Adélie’s Gym

This small gym by Wedanta Kids was recommended to us by Adélie’s physiotherapist and was the first structure we got. Not only does it allows Adélie to burn some energy, but it allows her to practice her balance, flexibility and strength, which is important after a brain injury. The structure can be used during her physiotherapy sessions, which she has 1-2 times a week. Adélie loves to climb the bars and use the slide.

Here is a video with Adélie. You can see how better she got with her right hand which she wasn’t using last year!

Limikids Playground

We also decided to get an indoor playground for Maxandre. This jungle gym set is from the Canadian company Limikids. We opted for the Jupiter model, in green of course. It was a nice birthday present for Maxandre! See below for our review.

Price: prices vary depending on the set, here is the link to the products offered.

Quick tip: We shared the delivery costs with 3 other Ottawa families. All three orders were delivered, to our house and the other families came to pick up the boxes, allowing us all to save on shipping costs.

The Joey Modular Couch

Finally, we ordered the modular sofa “The Joey”. We were lucky to have been in their first pre-order. After more than 4 months of waiting, we received the Joey this week!

I know, it’s a lot of expenses in a short period of time. However, we have good reasons. Maybe these reasons will help you (or your spouse!) justify a future order? 😉

8 reasons why we Invested in Interior Activities

1. We knew the pandemic and the lockdown were going to last and so we’d be stuck at home a lot. Sports and activities had been canceled.
   
2. Our kids deserve to be spoiled after the horrible year they had (the accident), and to top it off, a pandemic!
   
3. Both the structures and the couch allow Adélie to work on her mobility and do physio exercises.
   
4. Maxandre no longer has his brother to play with. We are trying to find other games and fun things for him to do.
   
5. They are a great way to get physical exercise and stay away from electronic devices.
   
6. The modular sofa can also be used as a comfortable playing surface and an extra sofa. It can even create extra beds, perfect for when we have family staying over or when the kids have a sleepover. Goodbye inflatable mattress!
   
7. We are spending less money on entertainment activities (no museums, no travel, etc.) because of the pandemic, which helps to justify higher expenses for our household activities.
   
8. Even I can use them for exercise!
   
   In order to make all this safe, particularly with Adélie’s mobility issues, we have surrounded the equipment with gym mats to cover the floor.
   
   

Our Experience with the LimiKids Indoor Playground

The structure was a fair bit of work to install. If we had a drywall ceiling, it could be installed directly from ceiling and floor with pressure (no need to drill holes). However, with a drop ceiling we needed to install particle boards on the ceiling studs to create a solid surface. Carl’s mom Judy helped us install the ropes for the ladder, rings, trapeze and spider web when she was in town.

LimiKids customer service has been extremely helpful as some parts of the installation were a bit tricky.

At this time, the LimiKids playground is mainly been used by Maxandre. He loves to use the trapeze as a swing and also likes to use the rings. He finds the monkey bars a bit rough on the hands, but I’ll encourage him to use gym gloves.

Our ceiling (in the basement) is a bit low to take full advantage of the monkey bars since Maxandre is not able climb on top without bumping into the ceiling. A higher ceiling would be ideal, but is not possible in our basement.

We also bought the parallel bars kit, which allows us to do more exercises. I plan to start using it more for myself.

Here is a video with Maxandre:

Our Experience with The Joey Couch

Last year, I had heard great reviews about “The Nugget” modular couch. But as Nugget’s inventory was completely depleted due to the pandemic, I was happy to hear about another similar couch on the way “The Joey”. Best of all, it is from a Canadian company, called Chew Chew Baby Roo (CCBR)! Helen, the mom and creator, along with her team have been offering outstanding service with regular updates about shipping and their products. They also have a Facebook Group to allow discussions between parents about their products.

What is The Joey?

The Joey is made up of 7 pieces and can be ordered in 9 different colours.

Joey vs Nugget vs Foamnaisum

Price: The price of the Joey with taxes and delivery is approximately $ 338 CAD. For the Nugget and Foamnasium, they cost around $ 400 CAD.

Protection: The biggest difference between the Joey and the Nugget is that the Joey comes with a waterproof protective liner between the foam and micro-suede.

Pieces: Aside from the protective cover, the Joey comes with an arm rest pillow which is not included with the Nugget.

My first impressions:

We chose to order 2 Joeys to offer more flexibility in the configurations we can build. They were ordered in November and we kept it a surprise for the kids. We were hoping to get them for Christmas, but only just got them last week! Here’s a video that shows the kids the first time they saw their Joeys:

First of, no installation is required! The quality of the product seems fantastic and the zippers look solid. The micro-suede was a bit wrinkled at first, which isn’t surprising considering the cushions were all compressed in a box. But I am happy to say that they have quickly smoothed out. One of the half moon cushions was badly scuffed and appeared to be faulty, but after 2 hours it became full size!

Sage is a lovely subtle colour, but it’s a bit pale so care must be taken to keep it from getting dirty. Fortunately, the covers on the couch are completely removable and washable, in addition to having a waterproof liner! If I could re-choose the colour, I think I would go with the navy. However, navy was not available when we ordered. CCBR continues to add colours and is adding teal to the next pre-order. The colours are all gorgeous, I am a little jealous to see some of the new colours!

Do you have indoor gyms or modular couches, or would you like some? If so, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

See my next post for the different colour combinations!

That’s it for now. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in the comments!
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