Nora 0-3 month favorites

I loved sharing my favorites with y'all the last time around, so here we go again:

one: k'tan. So helpful in the early days to give attention to a 2 year old and to still have arms available. I also used it the other day to carry a sleepy baby around the grocery store while pushing a cart full of groceries and a 2 year old in it. (And nobody cried. K'tan FTW.)

two: Boogie Wipes. Nora has had a clogged tear duct since she was born. I followed the recommended "warm wash cloth" for the first 200 or so swipes and then decided these would be a much easier solution. Great for eye "goopies" as we call them in our house.

three: stroller hook. I stole this one from a friend of mine after watching her grocery shop with her baby and a stroller and some reusable bags. It's perfect for hanging your bags to fill with groceries, OR a very clever way to make your toddler stay with the stroller, by holding on the handle. Lucy loves it!

four: Covered Goods Nursing Cover. I am in l-o-v-e with this nursing cover. It goes around you 360 degrees, which I find useful when nursing a baby while chasing a toddler at the park (no side boob flashes to other park goers.) It's lightweight and soft, and gorgeous. Can also be used to cover the carseat, as a grocery cart cover or a scarf. I actually left mine at the beach last weekend and nearly cried because I love it so.

five: Honest sunscreen. So I know the whole "Don't put sunscreen on your baby till they are 6 mo old" shpeal. But let's talk about real life with a toddler. Summer= pool + beach + park + everything outside. So after testing this completely organic and happy sunscreen on Nora's wrist and finding no reaction, I use it when necessary on all the things I cant cover up with clothes or a hat. Because sunscreen beats sunburn every day in my book. {Also, Costco has a 2-pack right now!}

So, there you have it!

What have your favorites been in 0-3 months with your first/second/third baby? I'd love to hear! (And possibly steal some more ideas.)

Lucy 2 month Favorites/ Lucy 3 month Favorites 

twelve months!!

It sounds so cliche to say that I can't believe my sweet Lucy Mae is now one. One year of a wonderful adventure I feel blessed to take a part in. One year of sleepless nights and sleep training, breastfeeding to learning to eat, teething, and learning how to roll, crawl and walk. 

And I find myself wishing time would slow down just a bit. 

Because I see right before my eyes a toddler where my baby once was. 

Sweet baby girl, you are so smart and excited about this world around you. You are running and trying to talk, and love to help mom and dad do everything. You love hair bows and animals and love to play outside and to wash your hands.

My sweet sis made the beautiful smash cake.

Which was almost too pretty to smash. (almost.)

Before:

This was the best picture of the three of us we got. I love that she is blowing for the candles...but in the wrong direction!

After:

Happy Birthday sweet baby! 

 As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

eleven months

This little lady turned 11 months on us {about a month ago}. Maybe I'm in denial. Maybe I've been busy. Maybe its both. But I seriously put off posting her 11 month stats. Wheredidmybabygo?

Favorite Words: "Bewa" (Bella the cat),  Papa, Mooo, and Puppy

Favorite Food: Yogurt and avocado

Favorite Activity: Running! You are a busy little bee and we can't slow you down! You also love to read books.

Favorite Animal: (other than Bewa) is a Cow. Moooo! You love every animal and giggle with excitement when you see an animal.

Teeth: Six teeth!

We've already seen so much of your personality begin to blossom. You've thrown tempertantrums, love to give snuggles, and love to talk. We call you tiny tornado, because you leave a path of destruction in your wake. I can't believe my sweet little dumpling is almost turning ONE.  

Favorites:

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

And this is how entertaining it is to try and take cute month-by-month pictures of a busy 11 month old.

10 months and favorites

Ok ok I'm back.

Life has been crazy lately! We a) put our house on the market and b) I started a new job. Which so far has left zero time for blogging.

But I didn't forget about you! Pinky promise.

In the meantime, someone in this house turned 10 months old. Can you believe it?? Just 2 months until this little pickle turns a year old.

This baby girl is WALKING. Yep. Mercy. 

A walking 10 month old means I'm getting plenty of exercise myself chasing her around, keeping her from touching the electrical outlets, the fireplace, and every other non-child friendly thing in our home. She is loving the freedom and her new view, and is a very curious little tornado now (who leaves a path of destruction in her wake.) 

We are loving every minute chasing this toddling dumpling around. 

Her favorite word is Papa, favorite food is blueberries, (she gets giddy when I pull the carton of blueberries out) and she has 4 teeth!

We have also been working on baby sign, and on a good day, she signs "water", "all done", "food" and "milk". {Sometimes she throws in a made up sign to confuse us.}

I'll probably say this forever, but this is my favorite age!

1. Safety1st child locks: Since we are selling our house, these non-permanent locks are perfect for keeping little hands out of dangerous cabinets. Now if mom and dad could just figure out how to use them...

2. Neat Solutions Biodegradable Table Topper Disposable Stick on Placemat: These are awesome for throwing in the diaper bag and taking along when we go out to eat. They stick onto the table and you can throw baby's food on the placemat without worrying about the germs the last people at your table left behind.

3. Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Magnetic Cookie Puzzle:   My in-laws got this as a hand-me-down gift from some friends, and Lucy quickly claimed it as her own. It's a great little shape sorter, sings songs about cookies, and the little cookies are magnets and stick to each other so baby can carry them around the house.

4. Arbonne ABC Baby Wash: Pure, Safe and Beneficial is Arbonne's motto, and they stick to it. This baby wash is free of animal bi-product which I do not want to be slathering all over baby skin. It makes Lucy's hair silky and leaves her skin super soft.

5. Vtech MyFirst Laptop: Lucy likes to watch us typing away at the computer and tries to mimic us by smashing her hands down on the keyboard over and over again. {Probably not so good for our MacBook.} I found this Laptop at a consignment shop for $7, and its the perfect toy to give her when she is in the "smashing keys" mood, because it actually sings songs and makes noises when she smashes them. Score!

What does your 10 month old love to play with? Do you hunt consignment shops for baby toys?

9 months and favorites

9 months in...

And 9 months out! 

What an incredible 9 months it has been! When you are pregnant, you think nothing could top the feeling, until the day you meet your sweet baby. 

At 9 months, you are amazing us every day! You are attempting to baby sign (and making up your own signs along the way), you are working on your two top teeth (teething is the pits,) you stand and balance on your own and are thinking about being an early walker (slowwww down!) 

You understand what "no" means, but you don't like to hear it, and you say "uh-oh", mama, dada and baba all day long. It is music to our ears!

Pink Bow

You also love to stick your tounge out and blow raspberries in response to all of our questions. Quite the little clown already!

Our favorites this month: 

1. Silicone Bib: A must for babies eating finger food. Lucy loves to peek down into her bib pocket and pick up food that didn't make it in her mouth.

2.Sassy Sensation High Chair Toy: For entertaining your little one while you are cooking, trying to open their jars of baby food, microwaving food, etc. (Gets crazy dirty but goes in the dishwasher great!)

3. Leapfrog Animal Fridge Toy: My sister gave me this toy and Lucy is in love. She dances to Farmer Ted's songs, tries to take the animals out, and me and my husband like to make weird animal combos to hear the "That's Silly" song. Fun for all ages.

4. Nosefrida: This thing looks absolutely gross and crazy. It's basically like siphoning the snot out of your little one's nose. But it is simply amazing. And really easy to clean. I'm afriad to see what the middle of my nasal aspirator we have been using looks like. With the NoseFrida, you can make sure you get every lick of snot out of the tube when cleaning it. I wish we had introduced this to Lucy early on because she hates having her nose touched or sucked out with any apparatus, but she does think I look funny with the hose in my mouth.

What are your 9 month favs? 

eight months & favorites

What a fun age 8 months old is! You are walking around with help, pulling up on everything (and have thankfully learned how to lower yourself down), are learning how to give kisses, say Ba-Ba, and have two bottom teeth!

We took you to the beach, and at first, you wanted nothing to do with the sand. Until you realized you could eat it! (And try to sneak the little seashells in your mouth before mom could catch you.) You're still not so sure about the ocean, but we will get there by the end of the summer!

Your absolute favorites this month have been:

1. Playschool Walker. We just learned to pull ourselves up and walk around with our little walker unassisted. I got our walker from a consignment shop for $8. They had 7 to choose from! This one pops into a riding toy also. 

2. Tadpoles Playmat Set. We were using a blanket in the living room where we have hard floors for Lucy to play on. It was finally time to get something baby-friendly that she wouldn't slip on now that she is pulling up and standing to play. This Tadpole mat is super cute and matches our decor! 

3. Target Up & Up Formula.  Formula is expensive, y'all! So we tested out the Target brand on Lucy and she loves it. The price is great, baby loves it, we are sold and saving moolah. (Doctor approved too!)

4. Baby Einstein Mirror Me Book.  Lucy's favorite little book right now. It has a mirror on the right where mom/baby act out what the Baby Einstein characters are doing (stick out tongue, puff up cheeks, smile, etc. ) It makes her giggle and smile even when she's being the crankiest of crankpots.)

5. Mandarin Oranges. Her absolute favorite food! They are squishy, she can pick them up easily and eat big bites. She goes crazy when we put them out on her tray during meals. 

6. Dolphin Baby Pool. A great way to beat the heat and splash about this summer! 

What are or were your favorite toys for babies at this age? 

7 months and favorites

Happy 7 months my sweet baby!

You are growing before my eyes. Crawling, pulling yourself into standing and squealing with delight.

It's so amazing to watch you discover the world and get excited over things like measuring cups and the crinkle of a wipes bag that we overlook every day!

Here are the 7-month Lucy-approved items we couldn't have lived without:

1. Kitchenaid Measuring cups. Seriously her favorite toy of all. She whacks them against the floor, against each other, likes to eat them, entertainment for hours minutes.

2. Baby Mum-Mum's Lucy goes crazy over these Rice biscuits! She loves that she can hold onto them herself and feed herself while everyone else is eating. (She will not let you eat food/snack without her eating too.)

3. First Years Key Teether.  They jingle, you can throw them, and there are lots of colors to taste. Plus she feels very grown up with her own set of keys. Nuff' said.

4. Baby starters ballerina lovey.  We had to employ some tough love in the sleeping department after we passed over 6 months. We went to our 6 month appointment and the doctor said she did not need to be waking (1-2-3 times) to eat anymore at night. She was crying in the middle of the night because that is how we taught her to go back to sleep (milk=sleep). So we started putting this lovey in the crib with her, about 10 pacis, and we worked on some self soothing {we chose the Ferber method}. Now she is a great sleeper at night-and our world has changed. She wakes up happy and rested and likes to shake her lovey all around the crib to hear it rattle and also likes to eat her. It's adorbs.

5. Puffs. She loves munching on Puffs while she waits for mom to heat up her baby food. I have found that they also make grocery store trips fun and not fussy as long as we don't forget the puffs! She is even practicing picking up the little pieces and feeding herself.

6. Leap Frog Activity Table. Last weekend, Lucy discovered that she can stand up by herself! Yikes! She went from crawling/scooting at 6 months, crawling at 6.5 months, and standing up by 7 months. Oh Lord, are we in for it! It's exciting and scary all at the same time. She falls and slips now as she tries daredevil maneuvers to go from standing to sitting to crawling to standing again. So I wanted to make sure she had a couple of toys that encouraged safe standing. At daycare, I usually find her standing at this table with a huge smile on her face and decided she needed her very own at home. We actually got this one from a consignment store (make sure you look there-they had 5 when I went to go find one!)

We can't imagine what 8 months will bring!

6 months..and favorites

Can you believe it! Six months already. Half a year.

It's been amazing, and it goes so fast. As we age as adults, our lives speed up, but its hard to quantify until you have a child, and you literally watch them age before your eyes. I'm trying to enjoy every second I can with my little dumpling before she becomes too independent for her mama.

Milestones:
*Rolling all around the room to get a toy/mom/dog/cat that she wants to play with.
*Sitting up unassisted
*Pushing up on front arms, and scooting backwards. {Arms are ready to crawl, knees havent figured it out yet}!

It's amazing the amount of pride you can feel when your little baby does new "tricks"!

Here are the things we couldn't have lived without up to 6 months:

1. Vulli Sophie the Giraffe teether. We've had this teether since day one, and cute as it is, she didn't care one bit about it. Until now! She loves to bite Sophies head and "give her kisses" on her nose and whack the giraffe against the floor to hear it squeak. Adorableness.

2. Bounce Baby Activity Center. We keep this near our kitchen so when I'm cooking I can plop her in it, talk to her, and keep her away from cooking splatters. So far she is excited to stand in it and bite everything on it, the monkey, the lion and the leaf are her favs.

3. Boon Squirt Spoon.  Awesome travel spoon for a baby who is eating solids! You put the baby food in the handle and squirt it into the spoon. We were using this one morning out at breakfast and a man at another table commented how genius it was. 

4. Jeep Umbrella Stroller.  Little miss chunky is getting too heavy to be in the sling all the time. I snagged this jeep umbrella stroller at my favorite consignment store in N.Raleigh, Uptown Kids, for $15 and its perfect. Lightweight, folds easily, and is normal 5'6" person height (another one I bought must have been for short people), and Lucy loves to look out at the world in it.

5. Ocean Wonders Seahorse Rattle.  This little thing is one of her favorites. She shakes it around like a little tambourine and gives the seahorse kisses. Its precious, really.

6. Jenny Jump Up. She has recently started getting bored with rolling around on the floor all the time and likes the change of scenery of standing, so we put her in the Jenny Jump up, and while she doesn't quite jump yet, she does twirl and look around and is usually all smiles while shes in it.

6 month bloopers reel {because shes adorable even when shes coughing or throwing a temper tantrum}:

five months.

Oh time, how you have gotten away from me! How in the world do I have a 5 month old?

I was thinking about doing the normal monthly favorites like I did for one, two, three, and four, but the only new things we have used are baby food! And we have had so much fun with it.

I even started making our own food. It's a lot easier than it sounds.

I'll fill you in on the details later.

So far, my hungry little hippo likes everything. {Except her first bite of peaches. Please don't be fooled by the face below, she wolfed them down afterwards.}

So far we've successfully tried:
Oatmeal
Green beans
Sweet Potatoes
Bananas
Peaches
Carrots
Applesauce
Pears
Avocado
Peas

Phew. I keep waiting for her to dislike something I give her, but if its food, and you are scooping it in her mouth, she gobbles it up.

She is kinda over oatmeal though.

I don't blame her. Its flavorless, and has no color to stain her bib, her bumbo, her highchair, or her mom with. Who needs it?

Happy 5 months little darling!

4 month favorites

My little dumpling is 4 months old! I can't believe how fast she is growing!

Milestones: 
*Rolling over...both ways
*Eating food-which is so incredibly fun! She has had oatmeal and green beans so far.
*Squealing and jibber jabbering all the time.
*Holding her head up

Here are our favorites we couldn't have lived without this month!

Carseat Playbar: My sis over at Are We Really Doing This gave Lucy this for Christmas. She loves it! She used to fuss a little when we put her in her carseat, now every day she gets excited when she sees the toybar and plays with it right away. She has played herself to sleep in her carseat on multiple occasions. This also fits on a stroller and I've finagled it on a thick blanket for her to lay on too. Thanks sis!

Elephant Humidifier: Lucy has had 3 colds since she started daycare. {And she hasn't even been there a month yet.} We love this humidifier! It is a cold mist humidifier (we tried the warm vapor humidifiers and it turned Lucy's room into the Caribbean), and its amazingly adorable when the cool vapor shoots out of the elephants snout.

Sassy Rings: These are $6 rings that we have put to good use this month. Lucy has discovered her hands can go in her mouth and she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. We hand her these rings and she twists and twirls them around in her hands and likes to bite each and every one.

Oatmeal: Lucy tried oatmeal last week! She ate it like she knew how to do it all along. We got oatmeal instead of rice or rice cereal because apparently arsenic has been found in rice cereal lately-um...yikes! {Plus I love oatmeal, so I just knew Lucy would.}

Boon Drying Rack: We have actually been using this for months, I have just forgotten to rave about its awesomeness. We use it for bottles, pump parts, passys, everything. It's cute enough to leave out on the counter and great enough to use every day!

Halo Sleep Sack: Lucy decided it was time to transition out of her swaddle this month. As in, she busted out of each and every swaddle we put her in. Our advice for transitioning out of the swaddle? Brace yourself for sleepless nights.  Ok so there might be a couple of sleepless nights, but we really just  swaddled one arm for a week and then put her in the sleep sack thanks to a tip from a friend and it did the trick. Now she sleeps unswaddled and rolls all over the place.

High Chair: We got Lucy's highchair for christmas and it has come in handy this month! I put her in there while I'm cooking or getting her bottles ready for daycare, and now that she is getting food, she needs it even more. (We also use the bumbo for feeding).

Nipples: So this was news to me. You have to switch out the nipples on your bottles as your child grows! Ha-who knew. Well Lucy is still EBF (exclusively breast fed) and after she started making me sore again and I was having flashbacks to when she was first learning how to feed, I began to wonder if she had outgrown her nipples on her bottles. The answer was yes. I came home from Babies R Us with these 3month medium flow nipples and announced to my husband "So I got new nipples today" and he went on to ask me what was wrong with the nipples I have. The moral of the story--at 3 months move your little one up, your feeding sessions will be much happier if you do.

Three month favorites

SwaddleMe wrap. After trying to transition Lucy to the crib from her Rock N' Play, she would squirm herself awake every 10 minutes or so. After about 2 days of putting her back to sleep, oh, about a hundred times, I decided to try swaddling her arms down. (She hated this from day one.) She loves her little SwaddleMe wrap and it puts her to sleep beautifully! She feels snug and cozy and her arms don't flail about since they are gently swaddled down with velcro. Now I just have to transition her out of the swaddle...

Sling. My sister has 4 children and has always sworn by "baby wearing." She got me a couple to try, in hopes that I too, could wear my baby. Finally, by month 3 Lucy was big enough to fit in this cute ruffle pink sling. She loves being toted around in it. Anytime I go shopping or even to lunch, if she gets fussy, I put her in the kangaroo pose and she cuddles right in and falls asleep. It's a lifesaver for going out and about with a baby!! Plus this sling has ruffles and so you look adorable while wearing it!

Bumbo. Lucy is now holding her head up! So now she loves sitting in her bumbo like a little grown up. She has actually started to pull herself up to sitting with help, so the Bumbo is excellent for strengthening those little baby tummy muscles. 

Handsfree Pumping Bra. This thing is a lifesaver at work! I zip it on top of my clothes and set up my pump and have both hands free to check work email, make a phone call, etc. This is a must if you are going to pump at work or on any regular basis. Because, lets be serious, who can hold a pump in each hand, and turn the pump on, and push the "Let Down" button and just sit there idly for 20-30 minutes while pumping. Maybe... if you're an octopus. Otherwise, get the bra! Use your pumping time wisely.

Tummy Time Mirror. Lucy is spending more and more time on her tummy, so for Christmas, we got her this Taggies mirror. She loves to look at herself and drool/talk/smile and bite the little green whale on the tail while doing tummy time. She may or may not have opened this mirror early so she could play with it all December long.

Winter hat. I found this great little reindeer hat on Etsy by AngelinasCrafts4U. It's so soft and adorable and put her in the Christmas spirit and it keeps her little baby head super warm. We have gotten lots of compliments on it--most being "did you make that hat?" I wish I could be so talented! 

Books. Part of our bedtime routine is to rock in our glider while reading a book. She loves to look at the pictures while I read. I am amazed that she pays attention this early on! Our favorite books right now are Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Owl.

Tommee Tipee Bottles. I will honestly admit I picked these bottles out on our registry because they are marketed to be "Closer to Nature" and in the shape of mom's breast. Made sense to me. So I registered for them.  And they have worked great for us so far! I have read that a lot of moms have to try a bunch of different bottles before their baby will take them, but we have had success since day one. We introduced a bottle at 3 weeks so the hubby could have a chance to feed her, and we gave her about 1 bottle every week after that and didn't seem to have too much nipple confusion, except for maybe a some stand-up nursing sessions that I have had to do more recently. We love these bottles--and they are in pink!

What can't you and your little ones live without at 3 months?

Month 2 Favorites

Lucy is 2 months old! We can't believe it's already been 2 months. The time really does start to fly by as Lucy gets more squirmy, smiley, and has begun sleeping longer stretches through the night. 

Here are our 2 month favorites that we couldn't have lived without over the past month!

1. Bamboobies: super soft washable nursing pads. These are awesome leak proof nursing pads that stay soft against your skin. Bonus ** if you leave one lying around while nursing you will be less embarrassed by bystandars because they are cute little heart shaped pieces of fabric and not weird circle maxi pad looking things (like disposable nursing pads). My sister has renamed these "hooter hearts."

2. Passy's. As I mentioned in my original post, Lucy wasn't interested in passy's the first month. We kept "plugging" away {har har} and finally found her favorite from the Dollar Tree. She now has a new favorite: MAM Pacifiers. These seem to stay in her mouth better while she's taking her naps than the Dollar Tree passy's do. My advice, try them all until you find the one your baby likes! They are a lifesaver in stores, car rides, during immunizations, and general times of fussiness.

3. Play Gym. This is what we spend most of our awake time during the day on. (And by we I mean Lucy.) She loves to swat at the little dangly toys that play music, and there is a mirror and lots of colors for her to look at when she is on her tummy for tummy time!

4. Undercover Mama Nursing Tank.  This tank top clips onto your nursing bra and can be worn under any normal shirts to create a nursing shirt! Let's be honest, nursing tops are frumpy. And terrible. This tank top turns most of your clothes into nursing clothes without your belly getting exposed while nursing in public! (Any stretchy tank top will work too, you just have to be willing to stretch it out and may not be able to wear it again in your post-nursing future.)

5. Costco Kirkland Diapers. My sis-in-law swears by these diapers. And at $31.99 for 216 diapers at Costco {that's $0.15 each} the price is awesome. Plus they come in bulk, because lets be honest, you go through a ridiculous quantity of diapers every week. They work just as well as Huggies or Pampers, and even have the little yellow line that turns blue when they pee for itty bittys.

6. Nursing cover. Cute and awesome for nursing little ones while you are out and about.

7. Passy clip. This was a sweet gift from one of my husbands cousins and it is absolutely adorable. It's personalized and great for traveling and getting out and about with baby. It forever answers the question, "where's her passy?"

8. Swing. I've heard some babies don't like these. But for us, it is a registry must! When Lucy starts to get sleepy and wants us to snuggle/rock/cuddle her and we are cooking or cleaning or trying to be hands-free, we plunk her in the swing and she loves it. She coos and talks to the little birdies in the mobile as they dance around above her head and we use it just about every day. She's only fallen asleep in it about 2 times; however, I have friends who used it exclusively for getting their little one to sleep.

9. Video Monitor. We are just now trying to get little Lucy to take naps in her crib, so that we can eventually get her to sleep in her crib through the night as well. This monitor is awesome because it has a video with night vision where you can keep an eye and ear on baby while she sleeps. You can also spy on your husband when he is up giving a diaper change too, because the controls are on the handheld device. This pose shown in the monitor above is what we call "Roller Coaster Ride." She makes the most awesome poses with her arms while sleeping-and we love being able to catch them on the monitor.

What items could you not live without at two months with your little one?

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1