It's hard to know what to get a 5 month old for Christmas, especially if that 5 month old is the third child. We were just going to count his monkey music classes as his Christmas present. He'd never know, we don't need any more plastic and he loves monkey music. But then Mama Designs came out with this luxury quilted play mat a couple of weeks before Christmas and it looked so good I pre-ordered it.
Mama Designs is a company I've been aware of for sometime but only since having Jim (in the middle) so I've had to just resist its lovely temptations. But the playmat spoke to me. And for so many reasons.
It's a great size. It doesn't take up vast amounts of room, it's not so much fabric that someone of 5'2" struggles to lift it, you can pack it in a bag or the back of the car and it barely takes up any space. It comes with a storage bag with a drawstring so you can pack this away and store it somewhere - it will stay clean and ready for use and fits easily into the bottom of a suitcase.
We have 2 dogs, a metric ton of lego and quite a lot of jewellry making beads. Before Jack was mobile it was so nice to be able to put this down on the floor and know that he was sitting or lying somewhere clean and that was just his. Even the big brothers learned that this was a lego-free zone. When it arrived, before he could sit up it was so great to be able to put this down on the floor and lie him on it without having to worry about how clean the floor was.