Many parents have noticed that when you hand a baby a soft blanket or stuffed toy, the baby is often more fascinated with the satin tag than with the object itself. Babies suck on tags, chew on them, clasp them and use them to drag the toy around. Taggies are soft blankets, pillows, activity quilts, toys and clothes covered with many satin tags. The best-known product is a security blanket called Little Taggies, a 12- by 12-inch soft square with 20 different tags of various colors and textures sewn to the outside of the blanket ($25; pictured is the Confetti Little Taggie from the Colours Collection). It’s a great “transitional object” for infants or toddlers; it helps them transition from being awake to being asleep and is comforting when baby is faced with a potentially unsettling situation, like a new babysitter. Taggies Big Soft Blocks are exactly what they sound like – large soft cloth blocks with tags, fuzzy animal designs and lots of different textures for baby to examine ($30 for a four-block set). The Taggies Activity Quilt has a ladybug-shaped mirror, a squeaky pig and a crinkly cow, as well as the trademark tags ($50). Another site featuring high-quality infant and toddler toys is Genius Babies, a name clearly aimed at the proud mother and father. Genius Babies’ award-winning offerings include the Nooboo Pound-a-Sound ($25). Your baby can take the soft hammer and hit the toy; with every hit baby will hear a sound or see a pop-up surprise. A completely irresistible item is the jumbo Baby Face Photo Quilt, printed with photographs of babies’ faces ($30). Since infants love staring at pictures of other babies, this is a can’t-miss gift.

Children enjoy personalizing everything, even their shoes. Your child’s Crocs can be suitably original after he or she finishes decorating them, thanks to Croc-a-Doodles, a kit with three washable markers and four fabric paint pens, as well as sticker stencils and a sponge ($15). If they get bored with the design, they can wash with the decorations off and start over. Jibbitz (pictured) are cute charms that attach to Crocs; the dozens of designs include Spiderman, Green Goblin, Lighting McQueen and Tinkerbell ($3 each or $6 per pair). Clip-itz Shoelace Clips are both practical — they keep shoelaces tied — and decorative, available in a basketball that lights up, jewel-toned cubes and sparkly butterflies ($6 to $10). Another solution for kids who like a snazzy shoe look and have trouble with laces, is curly laces. The laces feed through the eyelets, and their springy texture keeps everything together without having to tie a knot ($2.50 per pair).

Consider the toy box: that indispensable item in every child’s room, a parent’s attempt to keep that vast arsenal of toys in place. Even small children can learn to lift the lid and put their things into the box. (You can teach them the Barney Clean Up song while you’re at it, which helps toddlers learn to clean.) Online, there is a treasure trove of toy boxes. At iToyBoxes.com, the best-seller is the KidKraft Inc limited edition toy chest, on sale for $149.98. It’s a classic toy chest made of wood, with a seatback that can be used as a bench. For boys who like pirates, iToyBoxes has a charming Guidecraft pirate toy box, $134.99. It’s black and gold, with depictions of a treasure map, skull and crossbones and a pirate ship painted on the side. For girls, iToyBoxes has a Guidecraft princess carriage toy box for $94.99 (pictured). It looks like a pink and purple carriage drawn by a wooden horse. On top of the pink carriage is a purple cushion, which serves as a chair for your princess. Another princess-themed toy box is the Disney princess toy box, $39.24 from Walmart.com. They also have the Disney Pixar Cars toy box, featuring the characters from the animated movie, for $39.24. At Woodtoybox.com, you can choose from a selection of wooden toy boxes, any of which can be personalized. Their attractive dark cherry toy box is $169; the letters of the child’s name can be in gold, blue or red. The toy box has three compartments and a seating area.

Recently at our neighborhood park, I noticed a little girl wearing adorable sandals emanating tiny “eek, eek, eek” noises as she walked. At first, I thought I was hearing things – who wants their child to sound like a rubber duck being squeezed? It turns out the girl was wearing Wee Squeaks, shoes designed to help a child learn to walk properly. The idea is that toddlers will be motivated by trying to make the shoe squeak, and in order to do that, they have to walk heel-to-toe instead of on their tiptoes. A cushion in the heel forces air through a nozzle, making a squeak. At the Wee Squeaks web site, you can hear the squeak by clicking on the button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. The company claims one advantage of this function is that “parents love the safety feature of knowing where their child is at all times” (because a toddler’s ordinary propensity to talk non-stop all day long is apparently not enough to let you know where they are). If you can overlook the possibility that the sound might drive you crazy, Wee Squeaks come in a variety of attractive designs – glossy sandals, snap sandals, pink tennis shoes, brown tennis shoes and camouflage tennis shoes. Best of all, the squeaker can be removed from the shoe by an adult. The hot pink crystal sandals (pictured) are $28.95; other styles are similarly priced. If sound isn’t enough, you can also find children’s shoes that glow in the dark. Skechers.com has a boys’ shoe called the Luminator Frontier-Reflectors, with laces and designs on the side that glow green in darkness ($45). Skechers also carries girls’ shoes with built-in blinking lights, such as the S Lights Bikers-Saucy in white or turquoise ($42). Speaking of shoes that light up, one longtime standard at Stride Rite has been the Fire Engine toddler boys’ shoe, featuring a fire engine surrounded with red lights that blink with each step. Thankfully, they do not come with a built-in siren ($40).

Aside from swaddling your child in bubble wrap or planting a microchip in his scalp, what choices do parents have in keeping young children safe from disappearing or injury? In recent years, a slew of toddler safety devices hit the market to help you care for and keep track of your little one. It’s takes a split second to lose sight of a curious kid in a mall, but the “Mommy I’m Here” Child Locator ($28.95, pictured) can help. This teddy bear-shaped “invisible leash” attaches easily to a belt or shoe and comes with a key-chain transmitter for the parent. If the parent loses track of the child, he or she can press the transmitter, and the teddy bear will start a chirping sound that’s audible within 150 feet of the munchkin. At Yoursafechild.com, you’ll find a handy, comprehensive ChildPrint ID Kit, which includes a non-toxic 10-finger fingerprint chart, a freezer-safe DNA hair sample storage baggie, dental charts for permanent and baby teeth and more ($4.99). If your child is injured on the go, you’ll be fully prepared with the MediBag Child’s First Aid Kit ($19.99), which comes complete with a variety of child-friendly, brightly colored bandages and supplies for every manner of cuts and scrapes, including plastic tweezers, burn gel and, of course, smiley-face stickers. For slightly older kids, parents could consider getting a cell phone. No, we’re not crazy. Check out this Wherifone G560 GPS Locator Phone, with GPS location technology, an SOS button and five programmable buttons for easy dialing ($89.98). Mypreciouskid.com has variety of safety products, including a fun alternative to ID bracelets: the Lost and Found temporary tattoos ($9.99), with six tattoos that can help identify your child whenever you take a trip, visit an amusement park or go to the beach.

The Zaky is one of those clever inventions I wish had been around when my children were babies. It is a soft, heavy pillow shaped like a hand and forearm, which can be placed next to, over or curled around a newborn. A mother can make the Zaky smell like herself by sleeping with it on her chest for a night, then placing it next to baby. For premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, the Zaky simulates the feel and smell of their mother holding them, even if she cannot always be with them in the hospital. The Zaky helps full-term newborns stay propped up correctly in their car seat, carrier or stroller (I used to roll up clean dishtowels and prop them next to my infant son, to keep him from tilting over and getting scrunched in one corner of the car seat). You can also use them when putting baby down for the night, after warming them up in the dryer. They come in beige (pictured), blue or pink and are fully washable ($49.95 each or two for $37.46 each; order here). Something else you’ll probably be buying once baby arrives is birth announcements. Baby’s Here offers birth announcements printed on recycled paper.) They have photo announcements, traditional announcements and invitations to baby showers. You can also get a free pregnancy ticker to add to your Myspace, Facebook or other personal web page (a sample one reads “My pregnancy is sailing along, only 123 days to go!”); the program updates the number of days automatically. That might be a little too much information to share with everyone who can see your site – but every mom chooses a different way to count the days down.