10 Favorites

In celebration of Miss Olive being 10 months old, I put together my list of the 10 things that made my life SO much easier/generally nicer since she arrived. In no particular order here it goes …

• Camera – OK, so this didn’t necessarily make my life easier, but it did make me feel like a not-crappy mommy. The camera I had crapped out a couple months after Olivia’s birth – major downgrade. I got a Sony Cyber Shot, which I love because it snaps photos quickly so I don’t miss a precious moment.

• Rocker/recliner and handmade blanket – This is two-fer. I picked the rocker/recliner for Olive’s room a couple months before she was born. I wanted something cushy enough I could sleep in on a rough night but not so overwhelming that I felt like I was getting eaten alive. It has been the perfect place to nurse. Combine the comfy chair with the cozy handmade blanket from friend Julie Liss-Katz (we’ve used it every single day since we came home from the hospital), and you’ve got the perfect mommy-baby snuggle spot.

• JingleBird, JingleFly – Since she was born, Olive has loved gentle jingle noises. She’s never been so much about rattles of the new vibrating toys. Just soft chimes/jingles. She had a baby doll with a jingle in it, and soon after I found a bird and butterfly – Bright Stars Chime Along Friends – that could be linked onto her pumpkin seat. She liked the jingle and loved that she could chew on them to her heart’s content. They have made car rides so much more pleasant than they could have otherwise been.

• Binkies – I opted for the stylish MAM pacifiers. They’re all cute as far as binkies go, but I like that there are glow-in-the-dark options. When the little one wakes up at night and hasn’t already found her own bink, I don’t have to wait for my eyes to adjust to her dimly-lit room to find it. Wonderful.

• Nursing pads – I tried a wide variety. Most either feel like cardboard and/or don’t stay put. I’ve stuck with nursing and pumping this long, and figure I might as well go for the one year mark at this point. To have pads in your bra every day for more than a year, they need to be not only useful, but also comfortable. I only use Lansinoh Ultra Soft Nursing Pads with TWO sticky pieces. Maybe I'm less coordinated than others, but really, I need all the extra hold I can get.

• Nick Jr. – Aside from paying for our normal cable package, this was nothing extra, but it has at times saved my sanity. The Ladybug is a dance machine. She loves when anyone counts things. She’s big on clapping and singing. Her fav shows are by far Yo Gabba, Gabba (orange track suit anyone?) and Jack’s Big Music Show (created for Noggin – sadly there are no new episodes, but it’s cute). Some back-ups that keep her attention at very least long enough for a Mommy bathroom break – Team Umizoomi (a math-focused cartoon) and Dora the Explorer (Fantastico!).

• Mums – My adult mind instantly associates these with flattened packing peanuts. They kind of look like mini foam surfboards. Baby Mum-Mum crackers were the first non-pureed, non-goopy thing Miss Olive had to eat. She loved holding them herself – you could just see how proud she was. Now, even though her food options have greatly expanded, she still gets so excited she almost jumps out of her highchair every time she sees me pull a pack out of the cabinet. The Ladybug will eat any flavor, but her most favorite is banana.

• Fav board books – We read these every morning. Goodnight Moon is classic, and yes, we really read it when Olive wakes up. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of my favorites as a child. And, Baby Beluga is one of a few books created out of Raffi songs. For anyone who doesn’t know Raffi because you missed that era, check him out on iTunes or Amazon. Your children will thank you for finding his fun-filled songs and books. Love it.

• Huggies baby wipe boxes – OK, so baby wipes have their time and place, but we became collectors of the variety of character-covered boxes of Huggies baby wipes. Princesses, Finding Nemo, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, and on and on. Miss Olive has always been extremely squirmy. The characters on these boxes kept her complete and total attention, making diaper changes much, much easier. 

• Tommee Tippee sippee cups – I didn’t like many of the sippee cups because I didn’t want Olivia to learn to bite on the spout to get her drink rather than learning to suck on it. Many of the ones she couldn’t bite were too difficult for her to use when she was just learning. Or, they were far from spill-free. After compiling a mountain of sippee cup rejects, I stumbled on the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Li’l Sippee cups. Miss Olive started with this cup, which still has a silicone spout with no valve, making it easy to use. But, she couldn’t make it work by biting it, and she didn’t get soaked while trying to drink. It was a great learning tool, from which she quickly moved on to super spill-proof, valved cups with no trouble at all.

My 10-month-old Miss Olive enjoying some time outside today.