If you have any tiny terrors around the house, like moi, chances are there’s one of these cute and cuddly dudes residing in the corner of the crib or stuffed in a toy box somewhere. Ours lives on a shelf in the Diapered Darling’s playroom, but he’s missing his innards, basically, because I’ve long since co-opted them for my own selfish self.

Why? Because I’ve discovered that the “removable sound box” is a primo meditation tool. Since I’m a newbie with meditation, I still need a lot of props, CDs, bells and whistles, what have you, to get into the zone. And I’ve loved that little baby boom box from the moment I heard it;  I can still remember trying to rock our daughter back to sleep in the middle of the night accompanied by the sound of whales calling out to each other as they glided through the dark and stormy ocean. (Or at least that’s what I was imagining in my bleary-eyed new-mama mental state…)

While I’m still completely loving “Whale Songs,” I’ve opened my mind to the other lovely ditties contained within, specifically “Ocean Surf” and “Spring Showers.” The fourth soundtrack – “Mother’s Heartbeat” – isn’t quite doing it for me, although when my Diapered Darling tries to “help” me with my meditation, that’s the one she likes the best. Surprise, surprise.