A Look Back at My Registry: My High Chair

Okay friends.  I have done worn myself plum out on these review posts today.  Whew!  This is my last one for today, but because of the great feedback I’ve gotten, I think I’ll do these more often.  Not blog blitzes, but maybe once a week I’ll review a product I’m using.  For now, let’s get this last one over with so I can get back to laying around eating Oreos and cheese pizza, like God intended.

The last product up for review today is my high chair.  I have the Evenflo Expressions Plus high chair (amazon.com, $74.99).  Like my diaper bag, I can’t find it on Babies R Us or Target, but last year mine came from Target.  I felt a little weird having a high chair so far in advance.  I mean, Bean wasn’t even born yet and it was there in my dining room.  It felt like FOREVER until Bean would be big enough to use it.  But in actuality, we started using his high chair around 4 months hold.  As soon as he could sit up on his own, we’d put him in his little chair.  We didn’t feed him in it at that point, but it was a nice play for him to sit with us while we cooked and ate dinner.

Now, we use our high chair all day, every day.  And I’m so glad we have the one that we do.  Like with the pack ‘n play, I chose the one with muted colors because it matched my dining room and I figured it might blend in better with the room when we weren’t using it.  And that actually paid off.  Now, with our tiny rental house, the high chair is front and center in our tiny kitchen and I still like the color scheme.

What I really love about this high chair is that its on wheels.  We don’t eat in the same place every day for every meal.  Sometimes we’re in the dining room, sometimes we’re in the kitchen, sometimes on the couch in the living room.  With Bean’s chair on wheels, I can move him wherever we are really easily.  It maneuvers great with one hand while I tote Bean or a plate of food.  I call it his Meals on Wheels.  Also, this chair can raise or lower in height.  We didn’t really know about this feature or how much we’d use it when we registered for the chair, but this is a great quality in a high chair!  If we are sitting on the couch having dinner, I can wheel Bean over and then lower his chair so that he’s sitting at the same height as we are.  Or, if I’m sitting on a stool in the kitchen feeding him, I can raise the chair so he isn’t so low.  And its really easy to raise and lower, too.  I love that feature and would definitely look for that in my next high chair.

This one is really nice also because it has the high back (which I think most high chairs have now).  Bean has gotten pretty active in his high chair and can turn himself all the way around in it in about 2 seconds.  The high back has saved me more than once from having sweet potatoes spread all over my wall because Bean can’t reach over the seat.  Also, the entire seat is lined in vinyl, so clean up is as easy as wiping it down with a Lysol wipe.  I do it every time he eats and it never gets gritty or nasty.  The chair gets pretty gross during meals, but clean up is so easy that it still looks pretty new when its all clean.

My favorite feature about this chair is that the tray has two levels to it.  The top layer pops out and can be put in the dishwasher.  Of course, I only dishwash it once a week (sometimes…).  What I use it for is when I am carrying Bean to his chair and I remember that I forgot to wipe the tray down from his last meal.  I can just pop that top tray off and voila!  He has a clean tray underneath that he can use while I clean the other.  The only problem with this feature is that Bean recently learned how to take that top layer off his tray.  So, I walked in the other day and he handed me his tray.  With all his food on it.  That was a bummer.

Final verdict:  Pay more attention to this part of your registry than you think you should.  It might be a little farther down the road that you’ll use it, but it will be really important when you start to need it and you’ll want to have a good one.  I got a mid-priced chair, I think, and we have been really happy with it so far.  I’m not sure I would need much more out of a high chair, so I feel like it was money well spent.