Our Favorite Things: 8 month edition

Not much is changing in the way of favorite things these days, but here a few!

His Hands/Fingers

Well, actually.. anything really. He's always been putting things into his mouth for the longest time, but now he's teething.. so that means even more stuff is going in there! He is drooling like crazy. I give him teething rings from time to time, but he is WAY more interested in his hands.

Peter Rabbit Organic Baby Food

Caleb practically super fast crawls all the way over to me if I have one of these in my hands. He loves these! I offer it to him for lunch as well as dinner, and eats it right up. I'm not sure if it's just this particular brand, or if it's just the pouch that he likes. When I feed him with a spoon and jar of baby food, he doesn't get AS excited.. but still pretty excited of course, because he knows he's about to eat.. lol.

Pulling himself up on EVERYTHING

Caleb loves to climb, crawl, and just explore every single thing in sight! Sometimes I go around the house and chase him, and he crawls really fast. He giggles and loves every second of it. Just before I filmed this video of him, he held on to the sides of his play yard and went all the around it. 

Love,

Tiare

Our Favorite Things: 6 month edition

Now that Caleb is a little older, most of our favorite things consist of toys! (or at least they're toys to him)

iPhone 5

He loves it! Always trying to grab it. When he sees it laying on the bed or floor, he crawls to it. He likes to put it in his mouth, but we don't let him. Mike's is covered with an Otter Box case, so we let him play with that one. Supposedly unbreakable, lol. Child proof. 

XBOX Controller

I think he likes the green light that comes on whenever Mike is playing. He'll sit there & stare at it, wanting to grab it. I let him play with the extra one we have & he just bangs on it or puts it in his mouth.

Bumkins Bibs

I love these bibs. They fit perfectly & are super easy to clean. They're wide enough to cover his whole body. This is definitely my favorite for when I'm feeding him solids.

Bright Starts Bounce Baby

We like this because of all the different toys & he loves to stand. There's lots of lights & music, beads that spin, & things that make noise. His favorite is the mirror & the sunflower that spins around & makes a clicking sound. The seat spins around, so he can easily play with all of the toys.

Munchkin BPA Free Soft Tip Infant Spoons

I like these spoons because they're thin & lightweight, & fit easily into Caleb's mouth. He seems to just slurp the food off the spoon, lol.

Love,

Tiare

Our Favorite Things: 4 month edition

Caleb turned 4 months, 5 days ago! And yay, I remembered to do a favorites! 4 months into baby Caleb's little life, and we already have so many things that we cannot possibly live without. A few things have changed on our favorites list in comparison to the list at 2 months, but nothing major.

Here is what we are loving right now:

Caleb's Bernie

It's a bear head (so I thought it was, but after searching for a picture of it online, apparently it's a puppy, lol) on a soft blanket with silk trim, and it says "HUGS". My little sister's best friend's family gave it to him as a baby gift. We give it to him and he quickly wraps his arms around it and puts it in his mouth. He always smiles when we give it to him. He loves snuggling up with it. Oh, I named it Bernie because it was the first name that came to me that starts with a B :) ..but now that it's a puppy and not a bear.. we're still going to call it Bernie.

Books

This is one of the books that he likes. We've only bought 3 books for him so far, but he loves all of them. He loves looking at the pictures, especially in this book. He also loves Curious George and the Pizza Party. When I read it to him, he gets all excited and starts kicking and I feel like he's really engaged into all of the pictures and the story I'm reading (even though he can't understand what I'm saying.) The other book is DC Superheroes Storybook Collection. He likes that book too, but not as much as the other two. I think it's because the pictures aren't as bright and contrasting.

Standing

He seems to have a real interest in standing all the time (with our help of course). I can't wait to go back to Vegas because we have a hand me down baby gift waiting. It's one of those stationary jumpers. So hopefully since he loves standing so much, he'll love that and learn how to use the toys around it.

Fisher-Price Animal Krackers Fun Tub

When he was a newborn, his whole body fit into the sling. Now, his legs are hanging out and his feet are in the water.. lol. He just discovered splashing, so now he loves to kick and splash me and Mike as we're giving him a bath. The sling keeps him in a really good position for bathing. We don't have to hold him and bathe him. We love this tub and he really loves baths. This was a gift from my uncle Vincent. He gave us money as a baby gift and this was one of the things we purchased with it.

Love,

Tiare

Our Favorite Things: 2 month edition

So now that Caleb is a little older, a little wiser, he definitely has some favorite things. And Mommy has some favorite things too!

These are baby gear items that have worked well for us, and we couldn't live without them.

Fisher-Price Rain Forest Open-Top Cradle Swing

Caleb looooves this swing. The swinging helps him chill out and he loves to look at the toys above and listen to the music. When all else fails and Caleb is fussy, the swing will solve the problem 90% of the time. Oh, and I love that you could change the direction of the chair so that he could swing in different directions!

Boppy Pillow

This thing is awesome. Even Mike uses it when he feeds Caleb. It's perfect for setting Caleb up on the couch next to me to just hang out, and we also tried some tummy time on it when we first got it. I'm very happy with it, especially because I could still use it in different ways as Caleb gets older.

Eddie Bauer diaper bag

I love our diaper bag, it's awesome! Lots of pockets to fully organize everything and the straps are adjustable. Nice and big enough to fit everything. 

SwaddleMe

We used this as soon as he could fit into it without him drowning in it, lol. It's so easy to use and Caleb can't wiggle out of it because the velcro straps are so strong. This thing is awesome.

Aden & Anais SwaddlePlus Wraps

These are the best blankets ever. They're soft and lightweight. We also use these to swaddle and Caleb doesn't get sweaty. They're perfect to stick in the car as an extra blanket, or drape over the stroller to protect from sun (to provide shade). They're nice and huge for long and skinny babies like Caleb. Lol. They're just perfect. I love them so much. They're pretty awesome.

Graco Pack 'N Play with newborn napper & changing table attachment

Omg this thing is a lifesaver. Having a changing table right next to his bed is essential for me. The changing table holds babies up to 30 lbs, so it'll be around for a while! But then again, he's getting so long, his legs will be hanging off soon.. lol. The model that we have also has a napper feature for babies up to 15 lbs. After that, there's a bassinet feature underneath. Then after that, there's a play yard under that! It comes with a vibration feature, night light, music, & nature sounds as well. I seriously love this thing. He's still in the napper part of this thing, but he's getting long so we may have to put him in the bassinet part soon. This is where Caleb sleeps every night. 

MAM Pacifiers

We settled on this kind, because it was the brand that the hospital provided and Caleb seemed to like it. So if he likes them, I like them.

Those are some of our favorite things so far in Caleb's first 2 months of life. Hopefully I can remember to keep this up. Next edition at 4 months!

Love,

Tiare

Why are there so many bottles?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been obsessed with baby gear. I think I've settled on a stroller, a swing, an infant car seat, and have looked at lots of little things like swaddle wraps, pacifiers, and a baby bathtub.

But one item has continued to confuse me... the bottle.

There are so many options out. How do I know which ones work great? I want to do a combination of breastfeeding and bottle-feeding.

My main thing is that I want the most natural transition from breast to bottle. Since this will basically be like me being a first time mom, I'm pretty certain I'll have to experiment and find a routine and bottles that work best for me -- breastfeeding most of the time, but letting my husband do a late night feeding from the bottle so I can get some sleep. I also don't want to nurse in public too often, so we'll use bottles at a restaurant, store, etc.

There's Dr. Brown's... there are these Tommee Tippees that claim to be the most natural transition from breast to bottle... there's Eco-friendly options like Evenflo glass, and there's Avent.

Ahhhhhhh! That's only to name a few. I'm overwhelmed!

Love,
Tiare