Must-have baby gear (things you actually need)

None of this is sponsored. Looking back at shopping for my first (and so far ONLY) baby, I knew nothing. I thought I knew what I would and wouldn't need, but I was way wrong.

One Several of my friends have recently announced that they are expecting. I haven't been bitten by the baby-fever-bug yet, but I did put together this list of what I found the most necessary and why. Everyone has different needs, so keep that in mind. For instance, we have a two-story house and a dog. We live in a cold climate. I breastfed, but I didn't do baby-wearing. Everyone is different. :)

Newborn must-haves (0-3 months)

Rock N Play (or some other portable basinet) - I took Hayden's into the bathroom while I was showering, and he could lay next to the table while we were eating, and then it's what he slept in by the bed. You could also have baby hang out on the floor on a blanket. With a dog, this wasn't viable for our family.

White noise (phone app or an actual machine) - miracle worker for soothing babies. Alternative: Saying "SHHHHH" for a long, long, long time until your tongue is numb and you have spittle flying from your mouth.

Sleep sack - the kind that wrap a baby's arms in so they don't scratch themselves in their sleep (plus, they like being cuddled up tight). You probably won't use these until your baby is about 1-2 months old, but we used ours even when Bubs was itty bitty.

Good swaddling blankets - some people swear by the muslin ones, but they're pretty expensive. Flannel ones are hard to swaddle. We found stretchy blankets like the ones they have at the hospital were pretty inexpensive and stayed wrapped for the longest time.

Night light - so when you're up in the middle of the night, you don't blind yourself and the baby. My phone just didn't cut it as a nightlight. We had one of those nightlights that projects the stars on the ceiling. This was also helpful for changing a diaper in the middle of the night without waking the baby up too much.

?Little bottles and big bottles - even if you breastfeed, the little bottles are nice for when daddy or grandma takes over for you so you can pump/nap. It feels ridiculous to put 2-3 oz. in a 10 oz. bottle. There are lots of mommy debates out there regarding introducing infants to bottles, so this one is on the maybe list. I'm not sure what your philosophy is.

Black and white toys/books - when someone gave me black and white toys as a baby gift I was like, "whaaaaa?" - these were the first toys that caught Hayden's attention because babies see sharp contrasts before they can see colors.

Boppy/nursing pillow - this will save your arms from having to hold baby for hours while nursing/giving bottles. Also good for propping up babies for cute pictures.

Nursing cover - for when visitors are over (also, get lanolin for the girls).

All-in-one carseat/stroller/baby carrier - So you don't have to get baby in/out of the carseat when you're shopping, running errands, actually being social, etc. Depending on when you have your baby, it's also helpful to have something to cover the carseat when you're walking into a store and stuff. In windy climates, blankets don't cut it, so we got a zip-around cover. Note: educate yourself on what is/is not appropriate for car travel. Don't get a cover that you put in the inside of the carseat under the straps. The packaging on these warns that they're not for car use.

?Pack N Play - I have this with a question mark because we didn't use ours frequently. We had the Rock N Play that we used constantly. However, when my aunt started watching Bubs, she used this for taking care of him and loved it.

Baby soap/washcloths and baby towel - Unless you want a dirty baby...Around when Bubs was born, Johnson & Johnson got their license taken away for putting carcinogens in the baby powder/lotion/something like that. I used carters or whatever smells good in the organics section.

Clothes - of course. Stuff for layers, even in summer!

Baby-safe stain fighter and laundry detergent - for all of the yellow poop that will soon be in your life, and in your clothes, and in your baby's clothes, and maybe on the door, the carpet, the dog, etc. Note: dark clothes don't show poop stains :) We really liked dark clothes we got and Bubbs wore them a lot. We felt self-conscious when he was out-and-about in stained clothes and baby poop stains are hard to get out.

Books or something to keep you entertained - for when you are nursing/feeding baby/can't sleep because you want to make sure (s)he's still breathing.

Bibs - Around 3 months, Bubbs started teething, so it was drool-central in our house. If we put a bib on him while he was awake, we didn't have to change his outfit a million times during the day.

Nursing bras, nip coverage, and granny undies - get bras that are comfortable, and something to prevent leakage from showing, and granny undies so you don't ruin your good ones :)

?A GOOD breast pump - I bought a little hand-held one. OMG OUCH! Shell out the couple hundred bucks for a good quality one. Also, avoid buying used off of Craigslist. Even if properly sterilized, the former pumper's milk amoebas are still floating around in there. If you get used, make sure it's from a family member you trust completely.

Meh for Newborns

Baby wearing things - I tried the Moby wrap and we had a Baby Bjorn and there were a couple other baby carriers that I tried and returned. It was pretty difficult to get a baby in the wrap by myself and Bubbs wasn't a big fan of them. I was worried the few times he fell asleep in them that he would suffocate. With that being said, I will probably use one of these for baby #2. They're easy for carrying a baby around while you're doing stuff. 

Baby tub - you won't need this until around 1 month since babies can only get sponge baths with their umbilical cord. You could just as easily give a baby a bath in the sink, though.

Changing table - I know a lot of people who just change their babies on the floor. No chance of baby rolling off anything. However, with a dog, this might be difficult unless you go in a room and shut the door. We used a changing pad until Bubbs was about 6 months old and started trying to roll off the pad. Now, he is exclusively changed on the floor.

Swings - some people swear by them, other parents say their babies hated them. Bubbs was okay with his swing, but he didn't like being left in it and got bored with it after about 5 mins or so.

Burping cloths - this is probably personal preference. I had a friend who just wiped up spit-up with blankets. We used bibs. We didn't really carry around burping cloths. Every now and then, they were handy, and it was nice to have them in the diaper bag.

Stocking up on diapers - I know far too many babies with allergies to certain diaper brands to recommend stocking up on diapers. Don't use your gazillion coupons to buy 20 boxes of Pampers diapers only to find that your baby's bum is on fire whenever you use them. Yikes! The supply of diaper coupons is not limited and you will get more.

4-6 months+ must-haves

Feeding Chair - Andy and I started with a high chair, but we have a small kitchen and it was kind of awkward feeding Bubbs while he wasn't at the table. We sold our high chair and bought a 3-in-one booster seat thing that you strap into chairs. Perfect for when we want to go outside and eat on the patio or go to a friend's house.

Spoons, sippy cups, plates, snack containers - for when they're eating finger foods (10 months+ :)

Night time diapers - We switched to these at night when Bubbs was about 14 months. We change his sheets way less often.

Crib and crib sheets - for sleepy babies :)

Meh for 4-6 months+

Baby puree blender - you don't need a baby bullet or anything special. You can use a blender and it works fine. (And actually, I'm pretty sure the baby bullet has been recalled for containing lead or something like that)

It's been a while, so I might be missing a thing or two, but this should be a pretty good start. Baby stuff is so expensive! Let me know if you have questions on recommendations. Andy and I played around a lot with the things in the stores to make sure we liked them. Nothing sucks worse than buying something expensive, only to realize that you hate it because it's hard to collapse/isn't portable/is the wrong height or what-have-you. This is how I ended up with 3 strollers and why I sold our high chair on craigslist.

Why salt dough ornaments are a tease (and other Christmas happenings)

Pinterest was going overboard with all of the cute salt dough recipes and ornaments on all kinds of pages (Holiday, Kids, DIY, EVERYWHERE!)

It was so easy, the pins promised. It was so cheap, the pins promised. It was so cute, the pins promised.

Bait taken.

Cheap? Sure, when you have most of the supplies on hand.
Cute? The jury's still out.
Easy? I almost abandoned this project three times. It was almost a pinterest fail.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients together.

Easy! Especially when Bubby is helping "cook."

Knead until a ball of dough forms. Bubby played with it for about two minutes before he got bored with dropping pieces of it onto the floor. (I must remember that he is only 15 months old, which means a two-minute attention span is actually an accomplishment.)

Save dough in container for about three days until you summon enough courage to press a toddler's foot into it.

Form two balls out of dough. Pick pieces of dog fur out of dough ball. Press flat.

Press screaming toddler's foot into flattened dough.

Repeat. Give toddler iPhone for two minutes as a thank you.

Poke holes in the top (mechanical pencils without the lead pushed out work nicely).

(There are no pictures of these processes)

Let dry.

For two weeks.

None of the sites I checked mentioned anything about taking two weeks to dry. I set them on a cooling rack. I set them on waxed paper. I flipped them over (and prayed that the footprint would be preserved). I contemplated baking them, but didn't really feel like running my oven at 175 degrees for over an hour for two piddly salt dough ornaments.

On the second day of the drying process, the footprint flattened out and I thought all was lost. However, DO NOT ABANDON HOPE! The footprint will flatten out and then the rest will flatten and you'll be okay.

I finally got around to painting them.

And the painting experience was horrible. Maybe I set my expectations too high. I'm used to painting things like canvas or paper or rocks. Things that are not highly water soluble.

I couldn't figure out why my paint wasn't sticking if I brushed over it more than twice and then I realized that the dough had become wet and softened and was getting all gummy again.

When you paint these buggers, make sure you glob on the paint and dab rather than swipe. Also, don't go over an area more than once.

It dried pretty quickly, and it's kind of a success. One definitely looks better than the other. I think they are very third-grade-holiday-craft-from-art-class-ish. But I like 'em!

String ribbon through the hole and hang on the tree. We aren't cutting a tree this year since we'll be out of town, but you can use your imagination.

We also took our family photo. I was tempted to make it all Pinterest-y, but that's not really our family. We aren't always coordinated and matchy. We aren't always smiley. Rufus jumped into and out of about six takes. Sparkles don't fly in the air around us. There is no bokeh. No cute chalkboard signs.

So this year, it's a good ol' selfie.

My favorites:

The one we are going with:

I CANNOT GET ENOUGH MONSTERS!

In my Monster Mash post, I claim that I am obsessed with monsters when it comes to babies. Further proof is below.

Andy and I had a little fun with Halloween this year. We kept it pretty simple and allowed ourselves (and Hayden) a few treats.

We had mummy-dogs and homemade mac'n'cheese for dinner.

(Our mummy is a little naked, but hey! a lot of that wrapping stuff disintegrates over the millennia)

I also combined a bunch of fruit cups in some leftover jello-shot plastic cups we had and made some candy corn fruit cups (pears on bottom, mandarin oranges (which are great sources of nutrition for babies!) in the middle, and pineapple on top).

(Adult version next year: add pineapple juice and vodka and soak overnight in the fridge. Do not confuse with the kiddo ones, although the baby will sleep VERY well if you do.)

 Dinner got the Hayden stamp of approval.

The monster costume we trapped him in did not.

At bedtime, we switched over to cowboy mode (that is, if cowboys wear puppy pajamas when they're on the trail (which they do.)).

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Monster Mash

When it comes to baby stuff, I love...love...monsters. The proof is in the pictures.

Hayden came home from the hospital in a monster outfit.

(Rawr!)

For his first Halloween, he was a monster.

(Hey....RAWR again!)

For his next Halloween, he will be a monster (new costume of course, already purchased thankyouverymuch). 

So of course his first birthday party was monster-themed. 

Initially, Andy and I wanted to keep Hayden's first b-day low-key...just the three of us going to the zoo or the library or something like that. It's not like babies remember their first birthday, right? 

Well, it just so happened that I had a slight Pinterest addiction (Andy would disagree with the "slight") over the summer and the more cute monster stuff I saw, the more I realized that I just had to have a monster-themed birthday party for Hayden. 

And poof! One guest list and about eight hours of crafting, cooking and baking later, Hayden (I mean, Mommy) had a monster birthday bash. I told myself we were celebrating the fact that Andy and I had made it through our first year as first time parents and we were both still alive and happily married. In my defense, I scaled Hayden's party wayyyyyy back from what I'd envisioned based on my Pinterest board, which included a cardboard cutout city as a cake-smashing venue and a building-shaped cake and Hayden dressed up like a monster and smashing the building-cake in the building-shaped box...you can see why Andy was worried when I first asked him about it. 

In case people forgot why they were at our house...

I cut up two different fruit salads - one had fruit cut up in itty bitty bites. One of the hardest things about going to parties with a toddler is trying to cut stuff up with those plastic forks and knives!

Monster cupcakes!

The balloons weren't supposed to be crooked, but I doubt Hayden noticed...

I was super-excited about my awesome monster rubber ducky find! We taped them to the tops of play-doh containers and wrapped the play-doh in green duct tape and drew monster faces on the duct tape.

Cute birthday onesies are all over etsy.com, but it is much more economical to buy white onesies from Target, some iron-on printable sheets from Jo-Anns, fire up the old GIMP skills and make your own. Cute babies are not for sale at any of those stores.

I found the fishbowl things at a thrift store and pretty much my favorite food thing we made was the Cheerios-cups-with-marshmallow-and-Craisins-eyes.

Hayden is fortunate enough to have a birthday in the beginning of September, when the weather is perfect for indoor/outdoor fun. We set up the water table and the kiddos loved it!

Hayden's smashing cake was a double-tier vanilla cake decorated with the grass-tip and with cake-pops for eyes.

Hayden was a little intimidated by the cake. He was also full of Cheerios and fruit.

He wasn't so keen on the overload of sugar. It did make me question for a moment his genetic make-up considering both his parents have fiendish sweet-tooths (or is it sweet-teeth?)

One of the birthday gifts was a wagon, which Hayden absolutely loved. He also loved being outside shirtless. He probably would have preferred to be full-nakey, but a momma's gotta draw the line somewhere.

Singing in the Rain

So this is shaping up to be the last semi-warm week of the year. It was my bright idea to take a walk this afternoon despite the menacing gray clouds.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Andy said.

He's my husband, so it's my right (and in my job description) to ignore about 50% of what he says. He returns the favor, so that's why it's a good partnership.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Are you coming with me?"

It's a football day, so the answer was no. Ten minutes later, Roody poody was hooked up to his leash and Hayden was strapped into his tank stroller. Let me digress here for a moment, only because it is (semi) relevant to a later part of the story. It's only partly relevant, but it is also a chance for me to brag about Andy's creative skills, so you're hearing about it.

I have a stroller problem. Three of them to be exact. One that is the all-in-one carseat-stroller contraption for bitty, bitty babies. One is a jogging stroller for all of the, um, jogging that I do. One is an umbrella stroller I am borrowing from a friend for when we want to go somewhere but don't feel like running over dogs, small children, and adult ankles in a crowd. The carseat stroller is nice because the expandable visor thing can move. If the sun is right in front of us, I can bump the visor all the way down so the sun isn't in Hayden's eyes. On the jogging stroller, the visor is securely and permanently attached to the top back part of the stroller. I justified keeping the carseat stroller because I liked the moveable visor. Andy fixed the problem by creating the tank stroller. He took the moving visor from the carseat stroller and attached it to the jogging stroller. When the sun is super crazy, Hayden goes into tank mode. We put the carseat visor all the way down, which leaves a gap at the top. Then we put the jogging stroller top down and the entire stroller is covered by one visor or the other. It's pretty fancy, even if the visors don't match.

So, I figured that if it started to sprinkle, Hayden could go into tank mode. No biggie.

We embarked on our walk, smiling and waving at neighbors we didn't know. I got to the point in the neighborhood where I could either turn left and go around the block and head home, or I could turn right and head past the newer houses, but would have to turn around when I wanted to go home.

The heather-gray clouds looked like they would hold off on spilling their guts for another hour or two, so I turned right.

I walked a good two blocks before the rain started to splat. Not the nice, friendly tinkle-sprinkle of light rain drops. These were the ones that make noise and make you blink when they land on your face because they're kinda heavy.

"Okay," I thought to myself. "This isn't too bad. I'll just turn around at the next street corner." I put Hayden's stroller in tank mode and trucked onward.

Then the splats turned into a straight-on downpour. I was drenched in 7.6 seconds flat. Rufus was in doggie panic mode and was trying to hide under the stroller. Hayden started screaming.

At the time, I was rather foolishly wearing flip flops. I tossed those bad boys in the little carrier under the stroller and ran barefoot back toward the house. I'm pretty sure I looked like a class-A idiot mother. We were the only ones outside on a walk-that-was-now-a-frantic-run. Poor Rufus was running like a rabid dog, zig-zagging across lawns, alternately trying to hide under trees and/or the stroller. Hayden was screaming in his Frankenstein stroller.

I had that terrible feeling like I wasn't just a half-mile from my house. I may as well have been trekking through a snake-infested jungle a thousand miles from home. That is the type of desperate "Oh shit"ness I was feeling.

At one point in the journey that seemed like a hundred miles back to my house, a nice lady let me cross the street without stopping to look both ways (I did look both ways, but didn't stop because the lady waved me through). She rolled down her window and shouted what I presumed was "Are you okay?" (It was a little hard to hear over the downpour and the screaming baby). I said I was fine and plastered a rain-soaked smile on my face.

I ran barefoot the whole way home, even though part of the sidewalk at one point was gravel from the construction. I didn't even feel it. Not quite the same as lifting a car off a kid, but definitely Momma-power!

Andy met me in the garage with a stack of towels. At some point in our journey, part of the tank-mode stroller collapsed and Hayden was soaked to the bone.

We made quite the pair. I am happy to report that Hayden seems untraumatized by the incident. He may end up peeing the bed tonight, but I doubt it's from our journey today. He is officially 13 months old!

(See, no tears. A little bit of fear in the eyes, maybe.)