"play mat" reccomendations please

[Snapdragon]

Does anyone use these for their little ones- and can you recommend a good one? Are they all pretty similar or are there better ones?

[Knitting Mama]

I have this one by Lamaze that I got at half price when it was on kids.woot while I was still pregnant. So far, Cecilia hates tummy time with a fiery passion, but overall I like the mat itself, and I think that she will like the dangly toys when she's a little older. It does have a mirror for tummy time, and you can put batteries in the arms that go over the top of the mat that make the toys sway.

[MamieCole]

We have this one from Fisher Price.

I chose it because my DS loved looking at lights and this one has a light feature built in. I like that it can be set to play music or rainforest sounds, so it can be stimulating or not so much, depending upon your LO's mood. The music is not annoying, (I actually think the tunes are pretty catchy ) has two volume levels and can be set to be off, on for 20 minutes or motion activated. The lights are in sync with the music/sounds.

As far as the toys, he likes the elephant best, followed by the mirror, monkey and the parrot spinning thingy. He also likes the dangling butterflies and the crinkly leaf.

The only thing I don't like is that it looks like a rainbow threw up all over the place... It is SUPER colorful. It doesn't exactly blend with adult decor. But baby liked it from about 2-6 months, so I dealt with it. Now that he is crawling he just sort of spends a few minutes playing near it then is off exploring other things.

We had this one when DS1 was a baby and I liked it as well. I actually think it was a little more padded than the one we have now. But he spent maybe a grand total of 10 minutes total playing with it. He was not interested, but I chalk that up to his personality, not quality of product.

[Mom2M]

We have the Fisher Price one also and she loves it.

[omelette]

We had a Tiny Love Gymini mat passed onto us from my cousin. I liked it b/c it was black, red and white and very basic. Nothing that made noise or was to wild and crazy.
I would suggest looking for a used one or borrowing one if you can as it doesn't seem to have a very long life - once they're rolling around they roll right off it and go on to explore more exciting things (mine did anyway). I used it with my first and never brought it out with my 2nd.

[Novus]

DS never liked his play gym--something about those dangly toys really upset him, apparently! But he loved this mat. In fact, he still likes playing with it sometimes and he's 12 months. Plus, it's kind of plush, so it was good when he was learning to roll over--kept him from smacking his head on the hard ground.

[MsVyky]

We have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Lamaze-LC27125.../dp/B001TEIGYI

We like it because it's machine washable

[Xavismom]

We have this one http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Starts-...5501346&sr=1-1

I liked it because the sides fold up. We have a mini dachshund who likes to run around the house like its a racetrack, so I thought it would be great for DS to have a 'protective shield' We use it outside a lot on the lawn, and downstairs bc we have wood floors. It has some crinkly petals on it DS likes to smoosh and gum on, and it wipes up pretty nice.

He likes it ok, but we get the most use of of the bee toy that came with it. It makes music, and DS is in total love with that bee. We used the music from the bee in utero to encourage him to turn from his breech posistion, and I swear he recognized it and loved it right from birth. We can not go anywhere in a carseat without the bee. The price we paid for this darn mat brand new, was totally worth it just for the bee, even if, 6 months later, I feel like clawing my own ears off everytime I hear it, bc he loves it so much.