VTechBaby Lil' Critters Soothing Starlight Hippo, Blue

My daughter loves this before bed. She is 12 months and loves to play with all the buttons. She especially loves the stars projected on the wall. She will stare at them while listening to the soothing music and fall asleep most times. I love how much you can adjust the volume and even how bright the projector shines. There's a lot to choose from on this from nature sounds, music and stories. Definitely recommend.

We love this hippo! Our daughter began enjoying this around 2 months of age and it has become an integral part of her falling asleep routine!1) The stars that shine on the ceiling gently change colors, keeping her attention without being distracting or stimulating.2) There are 4 basic sound options - story, song, nature, and combination. Then, depending on how many times you press each button, there are a number of sub-options. For example, the "song" button has options with and without a singing voice, lullaby-type songs, classical songs, etc. This is nice because, like any child's toy, it gets repetitive to adults and stuck in your head. I find that my husband and I prefer different options and love that we have the choice!3) The volume ranges from quite soft to loud.4) The timer has options for 15, 30, and 45 minutes. Fantastic way to not waste batteries.5) Speaking of batteries, we leave the power button in the "on" position out of pure laziness and batteries still last probably 8 weeks. Woohoo! I hate toys that cost more in battery power than they do to purchase. Of course, if you use cheapo batteries you won't get this result, but regular old Duracell seems to be working well for us. We activate it for each nap and then at night time as well as any time she activates it herself.6) The noise activation feature is really neat. It won't activate for quiet noise (cooing, regular baby talk, normal adult voice, etc) so you don't run the risk of waking baby up further if she's just kind of in that in-between stage. It takes a significant noise like a cry or scream to turn on.Over all, we love this thing, see the potential for long term use, and will definitely be putting it on our list of gifts to get expectant moms!

This hippo works great for my 1 year old! The music and gentle lights puts him back to sleep and he likes to play with it when he’s awake in the morning which keeps him happy and not mad to be in his crib.The volume control is good. The sounds are alright. It has different options, but if it turns on from “cry activation” it always uses the melody + nature sounds. I would personally design it differently like with a selection bar for the different sound options and a single activation button that way you can pick which type of sounds are played on cries, because I would rather not have nature sounds. My baby isn’t fond of loud rain.I also wish it had a low battery light indicator or something. For a couple nights my baby kept waking up and not going to sleep. I was half asleep so I heard the hippo activate and saw the lights were on in my monitor, but later I realized that with low battery, the lights still work and the music will play for 20 seconds then die. So with low battery it’s not fully functional but can be deceiving. No one wants to change batteries at 3 in the morning!Product seems durable and well made otherwise. Even with my critiques I would give it 4.5/5 stars (0.5 deduction since I can’t choose the sounds with cry activation)

This is a sweet, well-made product. We bought it for my one year old, and "hippo" quickly became one of his first words. Every night, when it's time to go to bed, I ask him to come upstairs with me to see his hippo and up the stairs he goes! He likes to hold it and snuggle it, and of course press all the buttons. I had hoped that it would help him get to sleep on his own without our support, but it hasn't quite done the trick (but check out the Lulla doll...that has worked great for him). The hippo has become a nice part of his bedtime routine, however. I turn it on while we are getting him into his pjs, snuggling, and reading, but usually turn it off before he goes to sleep. The music/sound options are plentiful and not at all annoying to listen to. We like the music setting best. The stars are fun to look at, but my little guy seems to find them too distracting when getting down to sleep -- perhaps that will work better as he gets older. My older child has a Cloud B Twilight Ladybug, which is a similar product without the sound options. Truth be told, I think the Ladybug is a little better for use as a nightlight, but for a baby/toddler, this is really sweet. It may not have solved all of our sleep problems, but it has become a really special part of my little one's bedtime routine.

I had bought one of these for my son a few years back and he loved it so I tried this with my little girl, and no doubt the same joy comes out of her when we turn this on at night. She loves to watch the stars appear and disappear and the different colors. Puts her right to sleep!!