I did a post a year ago about my top baby items, so I thought I’d update now that he’s a toddler! I put together a list of the items we use daily! (Links are posted to most items in case you want to check them out.)
Sleeping:
- Dohm Noise Machine: We use this even when traveling! Great for drowning out noises. We are able to watch movies and not have to be quiet after he goes to bed.
- Dock-A-Tot: We started by having him co-sleep with this in our bed, and then transitioned him into his own bed with it. It fits in his crib and in a pack’n’play. It’s great because no matter where he is, he can sleep in something that is familiar to him.
(Him at 10 months old already loving his DockATot. Now at 15 months he still loves it!)
Toys:
- Slide: He LOVES slides. Any size slide. At playgrounds, pools, or indoors. We have two different ones at home. A small and a large one. The small one I let him play with anytime. The large one, only if I’m right next to him. He’s too much of a daredevil with it.
- Balls: Any type of ball. Bouncy ball, basketball, soccer ball, football. You name it. He loves them. He can throw or kick a ball.
- Stacking Blocks: These instantly distract him if he is upset. At first he would hand them to me to stack, but now he can stack them himself! Great learning tool too!
Cups:
- Munchkin Sippy Cup: We use this only for milk. He’s great with it, and it hardly ever leaks. (Usually only if he throws it.)
- Munchkin 360 Cup: We use this for water. He loves when we put ice in the cup as well. I thought he’d have trouble learning how to use it, but he figured it out right away! Easy to clean and doesn’t leak.
- Munchkin Weighted Straw Cup: Again, we only use it for water. He hasn’t ever had any juice, but I have put fruit in his water before to give it some flavor! Love this cup. Doesn’t leak, but harder to clean.
Clothes:
- Freshly Picked Moccasins: Babies outgrow shoes super fast. It’s crazy to spend a lot of money on shoes, BUT these shoes are amazing. I didn’t want to buy “nice” shoes until he could walk and actually use them. The problem is that most shoes will mold a babies feet to the shoe and therefore effect their arches. These shoes do the opposite. The babies feet will mold the shoe and therefore their arches can develop naturally. Since my husband has a desire for his son to be a super star soccer player one day, he wanted to protect his son’s feet (the “money maker”) and it was worth it to us to buy these shoes! He’s actually been wearing them for 3 months now and still have lots of wear left in them! (Usually about $60, but I hear that Nordstrom is having a sale on them right now for almost half off….haven’t checked for myself yet though.)
Mommy Must Haves:
- Coffee: I’ve never like hot coffee. So instead, I make it ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. In the morning I use the Ninja Blender and use the cold coffee with ice and a little chocolate syrup and make my own version of a frappacino. (When traveling, I just pour coffee over ice with a splash of Almond Milk.)
- Collagen Peptides: I lost so much hair post pregnancy that I think I was getting bald spots and a resetting hairline. Then the regrowth started and it was just as bad! How do you style little flyaway baby hairs?? This powder has helped my hair, skin and nails post pregnancy. It’s unflavored and I just put a scoop of it in my morning coffee drink.
I’m sure there are more things that are important, but these are the things that I use on a daily basis that we couldn’t live without. Kids are expensive! I hated having hand-me-downs growing up, but now I totally get it. Why buy more things when your second child can just use everything from the first child? Sorry to my future children, and especially if it’s a girl, because they will definitely be using ALL of Braxton’s hand-me-downs.