2011 Buyer's Guide: Baby Products (according to Meg)

So, there are only like 476,823 different baby products out there (okay, that's probably being conservative).  Some of them are phenomenally ingenious and/or useful, while others are a total waste of money.  (There is always the third category of things that depend on the baby/family, but we won't address those here.)  Here's my top list of world's best baby products.

Soothie pacifiers.  Aubrey came home with one of these from the hospital.  We switched for a brief time to another style/brand, but when she started teething, this was her preference because of the all-rubber design.  One of her favorite things to do is turn it around in odd positions and chew on all sides of it. 

Newborn gowns.  So nice not to have to fuss with any snaps for those middle-of-the-night diaper changes during those first few sleep-depraved weeks.  And they're just comfy.  However, when the legs start to become more active, the gown must be abandoned; otherwise, the feet wind up near the neck hole.

Zip-up sleep-n-play.  After the time of the gown has come to an end, these are perfect.  There are no snaps for little toes to get caught between, and ultimately bust out of.  (I can't tell you how many times my girl has had one leg hanging out of her jammies.)

To wrap up the sleepwear section: the Sleep Sack.  Goofy sounding, but a great product.  After the skill of rolling has been acquired, gone is the hope of keeping the little one under any sort of cover or blanket.  This is the solution, especially if you keep a cold house at night, as we do.

The Boppy.  Genius.  For a breastfeeding mom, it's an arm-saver.  For baby, it's a support system from newborn to sitter. 

Jogging stroller.  Specifically, with a switchable front wheel (changes from swivel to fixed).  The three-wheel (swivel) design is SO easy to maneuver.  The bicycle-style tires make for a very smooth ride.  The fixed wheel is awesome for actual jogging.

Mum-Mum rice crackers.  There are other baby finger food products that we have enjoyed, but none as much as these.  Aubrey can eat them totally independently, which she loves, and the texture is perfect and dissolves quickly.






That concludes today's installment of the 2011 buyer's guide according to Meg.  More favorites will be brought to your attention in the future :)

A New Spin on Vacations

So Rob and I are big fans of getting out of town when possible and visiting fun locations, even if we've been there several times before.  Other than Christmas with family, last week was our first vacation as a family of three.  We traveled to one of our favorite destinations: Savannah.  Savannah is where we stayed for our honeymoon, and we have been back once or twice a year ever since.  We have some favorite spots to visit, and we really enjoy exploring to find new spots.  But vacations are different with a baby.  Still fun, but different.  Most of our "exploring" had to be planned out (i.e. explore on the internet and then visit a decided upon location), and EVERYTHING we did revolved around nap times.  In fact, most meals were spent bouncing a fussy baby because we had stretched our time a bit too far.  And then there's the issue of sharing a room with our daughter which we have not done for the past four months.  Luckily, two big things worked in our favor: we were able to have a suite at the hotel, which meant we could put Aubrey down in one room for bed or naps, and we still had another room where we could hang out without having to be super quiet; and the other big plus was that Grandma came along.  This afforded Aubrey adequate "Grandma time" and us several much needed date nights.

Right around vacation time, Aubrey had started a really cute "inchworm" style crawl.

(The Inchworm being mischievous at the hotel.)

Since coming home, she has really perfect the actual on-all-fours style.  I knew she really had it when she zoned in on the floor-length curtains.  I could see it in her eyes: the curtains were her goal.  The next thing I knew, she took off across the room to get them.  Today it was the phone charger that had been left out.  I was in the kitchen putting groceries away.  I knew something was up when everything got really quiet (no battery operated toy noises).  I looked up and again, she had successfully reached her off-limits goal. Our living room is now adorned with the oh so attractive free-standing baby gate to put a division between small exploring hands and the tempting cable box / dvd buttons.  This is such a fun stage of development, but man oh man have the dynamics of our house changed!  I will say, I think crawling is at least giving her a good workout.  She has been exhausted this week!  Most days we're doing three naps and bedtime as early as 7:00 sometimes!

Our other major development has been the leap into finger foods.  Bananas, baby puffs, turkey meatloaf, and pears have been our items of exploration thus far.  My daughter certainly loves food, although she comes by it quite naturally.  I'm excited for Aubrey to be reaching a place where she can start eating some of the same foods that we eat.  I'm a fan of family dinners.  

I can't believe how much has changed in the last two months.  I can't even fathom how much more everything is about to change, as well.