The idea for The Toy Tether originated during our second wedding anniversary. At the time, our daughter was seven months old and we really didn't plan to do anything special that evening. But at the last minute we changed our minds and decided we wanted to go out to dinner. Since this was a spur of the moment decision, finding a babysitter was out of the question. We decided to take our new addition to the family out to dinner with us. The situation had the potential to work out great...or become a major disaster. Let's just say if that night had gone as planned, the idea for The Toy Tether would have never crossed our minds.

This was our first time taking our daughter to a nice restaurant, and it was also our first time out since she was born. We both wanted steak so we decided we would eat at our local "Australian-themed" steakhouse. Lucky for us we got to the restaurant a little early and were seated right away. The hostess sat us in a nice booth and our daughter was in a highchair at the end of the table.

All was well until she became bored and wanted to play with her toys. Being the good parents we are we had plenty for her to choose from. It is a good thing we did! We were amazed by the number of times she could accidentally or intentionally drop her toys on the ground, and this is when our anniversary dinner started going south. We don't know how many of you have ever had the pleasure of eating a salad with one hand, or better yet, trying eating a steak this way. Well, this is exactly how our dinner went. We took turns using one hand to eat with, and the other hand to hold the baby's toy. I spent the entire meal complaining to my wife about this situation, but at the same time I told her I could come up with a simple solution to this problem. Thus, the Toy Tether was born!