So I played the violin as a kid. I also went to a million concerts in high school, owned too many CDs, and may or may not have used a lot of Napster in college (is that what us 1st wave millennials will say wistfully about college?). Suffice it to say, music is important to me...That said, I didn't practice the violin, mostly went to radio festivals and other concerts in 1000+-seat auditoriums, and never heard of a band before you did (though my college roommate did, so I was like 6 weeks ahead of all of you on Modest Mouse). Suffice it to say, music isn't that important.
So how to find a good mix of goofy kids fun, some active dance, lots of instruments, and a dash of music theory without devolving into silly songs you'll hate hearing, or kids doing hand motions and forgetting about the music entirely? Alternatively, I don't need to pressure them to Carnegie Hall (ever, but especially in preschool). Music is important, but it's not that important.
Music Together
It's not perfect, but my three criticisms are minor. 1) The attempt to be multicultural occasionally feels like it borders on cultural appropriation and/or parody. 2) Someone has clearly decided it's in their interest to tweak classic tunes just enough to make them copyrightable, which can feel a bit ridiculous at times. 3) The whole thing fits pretty neatly into a formula class-to-class and session-to-session, which is great for toddler brains, but I found that I had to take a couple sessions off once in a while to regain my enthusiasm and interest in going week after week.
To their credit, they are extremely welcoming of all sorts of family and work situations. As a Dad who works part-time and thus finds himself often in Stay-at-Home-Mommy-land, a program that expects/welcomes Dads, grandparents, nannies, or whatever other person you have caring for your kid is refreshing. The couple times I've dropped in on a weekend class to makeup for a missed session, it's been a lot of Dads too, which is great.
Music Together works as a franchise, so you'll need to find who operates it where you live. If you're in Boston, it's Groovy Baby Music and if you click through on this referral, it'll even net you a $15 discount.
. These bags were supplied by my insurance company last time around, but I've bought a set for this time as well. They kind of fail on most of the above criteria (don't stand up, have very inaccurate markings, only fit 5 ozs, and occasionally leak). I have a set because the adapters that come with these guys screw on to any pump that takes 
and let you pump directly into them. I keep the bags and the adapters at work for emergencies. I've also now used them enough that I can interpret their markings into much more accurate guesses at the volume. Oh and the fields to fill out on them are great. 
. These are frankly the worst bags I've tried. Originally I was optimistic because they advertised that they were made out of a thin plastic that heats quickly (
.
. We recommend this one over the more popular 
, because it does not need to be charged overnight. Parents have a slight tendency to be absent minded, so go ahead and simplify this one thing in their life for them. 
) or sell (
) 
. It's sound quality is pretty good, you can buy a kit with a second parent unit, it supports two-way audio (which is nice when a nursing mom needs something), and the audio feed is digitally encrypted (so your neighbors don't get to try out You Radio). We're using it as long as my son is still nursing at night. Once he's done, we'll put it away until the next time we travel somewhere and want to have a drink on the porch after the kids go to bed. Everyone will sleep better for it. Cheers!
and the 
. I can tell you with full certainty that the 
. What family member of a St. Louisan wouldn't want to buy that for their new-parent relative? And that is exactly the problem. You'll note Amazon doesn't have a "look inside" option for this book - probably because if anyone really did look inside they would sell zero copies. If the book is for babies, there's nothing really to read to them (captioned photos and drawings of baseball equipment aren't much of a read-aloud winner). If it's for the next generation of kid fans whose earliest sports memories will be from the late 2010s, a black and white photo of a pitching star from the 1960's is pretty irrelevant to them.
are insane. The hammer plays recordings of "realistic sounds." I'm pretty sure my kid can generate her own realistic banging sound by... you know... banging it like it's a hammer.
is another prime example of a random noise making toy. My daughter loves playing with the various toy foods it came with and has even brought the bag to the store with us so she can participate in grocery shopping- great! But, you see, there is a giant button. It plays songs about grocery shopping and saying "please and thank you." They're nice lessons, but why does the shopping bag need to do this at all? She was already using it perfectly as a bag! "So turn it off," you say. But she's a toddler who understands off switches to be her mortal enemy. 
, which is obviously the least essential technology of our day (and I love my smartwatch).
that makes kitchen noises (running water, etc.) when the kid interacts with it. This is good.
advertised as having "5 in 1 uses," I was extremely skeptical. I was originally looking for a cover to use with a 
is a well regarded example). We pretty much just put her in a warm coat and headed out. If it was particularly cold we'd throw a blanket on her and if it was windy we'd use our 
are a popular choice in this category). I tried to make this bra work for me, I really did. But after somewhere around 5 attempts I gave up and it stayed at the bottom of my pump bag for the rest of the year. The bra was then lent to a friend who I also believe used it pretty much never. It was just too hard to get in to it in a way that it was tight enough to hold the cones, and even then, the cones never felt secure.
. (Note: they also make the 
, but by now I am too loyal to my 
to give it a try). 
for diapering when out and about. It worked great at first. However, as our baby grew and we were no longer using the wipes on a weekly if not daily basis, we noticed they were often drying out between uses. This is a mostly solvable problem, of course, since usually one is changing diapers in a bathroom and thus can re-wet them slightly in the sink. 
permanently for use when not at home. Generally I wouldn't recommend a disposable solution when a reasonable reusable one exists, but with 80 large wipes per bag (you would rarely need more than 2 for a diaper change) I doubt we'll be using more than 3 packages a year. This way, there is also peace of mind that a wet wipe will be available, even if I haven't checked the bag in a long long time.
to be really useful because the lid over the main thermos part a) helps keep the whole thing relatively cool inside the diaper bag, b) contains spills if you have some leakage, which you shouldn't, and c) serves as a cup you can pour the water into to immerse your bottle and heat it! So for the size/weight of a normal thermos, you get all the stuff you need.
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