Up until now, 2.0 has been using 1.0's hand me down high chair. We're frugal like that and a boy using a brown and pink high chair just didn't bother us. It was great for the first year or so after he came home from the NICU, but now that he's getting bigger, he has figured out this technique of rocking forward and SLAMMING his head on the back of the chair, which causes him fits of laughter and tons of enjoyment, but takes years off of our lives as his parents because a) it looks like it hurts, and b) this is one of those space saver high chairs that sits straps on to the regular kitchen chair, and every time he does it he gets 1 millimeter closer to toppling the whole thing over. So, yeah. This had to stop.
I went online to look for a high chair with great reviews that had a 5 point harness so that I could prevent him from rocking it back and forth when he got into one of those moods. (I know, I'm so mean). I also asked a couple of friends, and the Joovy Nook came highly recommended, so I agreed to give it a shot. I could tell from the website that this just might be the perfect high chair for what we needed, and it even had some bonus features that I hadn't even thought about. I loved that it had an adjustable 5 point harness, the black leather was a nice style that fit in with our home decor and didn't scream BABY ITEM, which is especially nice since he's turning 2 and not really a baby anymore (just don't tell his mom, I'm still in denial). With 99.9% of his feeds still coming via g-tube, he's going to need a good quality high chair for some time still as we work on getting him to eat more orally. The other nice thing is how compactly it folds up! Imagine that, you can actually take your real high chair with you places when you're on the go. This is HUGE for us! Now we can easily bring it along on visits with friends and family, holiday meals, even restaurants if we want. I won't even show you the bouncy seat we used to have to bring over to other people's houses when he would need a feed while we were there because it was the only thing that would fit in our car. No more! We also love that the tray has an easy release button that allows it to swing out to one side, making it SUPER easy to get him in and out even one-handed while holding him. I'm not kidding, this is one of those things you don't realize how awesome it is until you try it. Then you're like, "How did I ever live without this?" (Hmmmm, much like the Spray Pal! <-----Yeah, I said it. Shameless plug.) ;)
Now that you've heard why WE love the Joovy Nook as parents, I'll let Ryan give his review:
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="426"]
Don't be fooled, he's not touching that food. ;) But he's loving the Joovy Nook and we're loving that he's not banging his head with those shoulder straps![/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="426"]
This smile speaks for itself. I'd say he loves the Joovy Nook. Yes, he threw his food on the floor, but that's typical and not a reflection of this high chair. ;)[/caption]One last thing I wanted to add, a few of you saw my post on Facebook about this chair and asked some specific questions. The first was whether or not the tray was too far away from him. The first photo above shows that there is a bit of space between 2.0 and the tray when he's seated, but it's not too far in my opinion. Our guy is off the charts small, so it's nice he has space and room to grow. For a bigger baby, I'd think this would be just right. And you can see he's still able to reach the food, he just chooses not to touch it. ;) The next question was whether or not the tray was hard to clean. After just taking his cake smash pictures in this high chair, I can assure you that it is not difficult to clean. The top, opaque part of the tray clips on and off, so you can easily remove it to wash it. The rest is easily wiped down, including the leather-ish fabric on the seat. This is another plus in our house!
We're truly grateful to Joovy for providing us with this high chair for review. We were not paid to write this, and the opinions are our own after trying the high chair for ourselves. We love the quality and style of the Nook, and we especially love how this chair is great for our son's special needs since he has to be in his chair for his g-tube feeds for numerous periods of time throughout each day. You can learn more or purchase your own Joovy Nook here: http://www.joovy.com/p-46-nook-highchair.aspx or stay tuned for the #miniSPbdaybash giveaway starting on March 20th where you could WIN one of your own! Huge thanks to the amazing people at Joovy for sponsoring!
