Looks like I haven't shared Mia's favorite things in months and months! (In case you missed it, our favorites for newborns, at six months, and at nine months. The smock bibs are my #1 overall pick though!) I, like every parent, bought approximately 1 million unnecessary items at the beginning of the pandemic hoping to keep Mia occupied, and of course her favorite activity is still taking all of our DVDs out of the cabinet. But, we do have a few new favorites I wanted to share.
Climbing Triangle - I saw these on Instagram last year and thought, well that looks fun but not like something we have space for. But as I'm preparing for #pandemicwinter, I thought having something Mia could climb on indoors would be really nice to have for burning off energy and getting out her need to climb. I love this thing so far. We got the triangle with the slide/rockwall combo, which I like now but assume I will love once Mia figures out how to get onto the slide by herself. The only note I'd give is to just get the natural finish, and the white finish has already started to chip a little on the slide from flipping it over.
Angelina Ballerina - Mia is obsessed with this book, we read it at least 10x a day. The story is about a little mouse who wants to be a ballerina. The book is so well done, the little illustrations are really cute and detailed. I remember reading the rest of the series that was written in the '80s and it turns out they're out of print! So I ended up finding a set on eBay to keep the love going (I found another set available here). I plan to give them to Mia one at a time as gifts over the next couple of years.
Soccer Ball and Net - When we first started thinking about outdoor toys for our roof deck, every idea I had seemed like a bad idea on a fourth floor deck. I just had images of baseballs and basketballs flying off the roof and hitting passers by. A slide Mia could climb on also seemed like an exceedingly bad idea if it meant she could then climb up onto the waist-high wall. So a soccer ball and net it was! She figured out almost right away how to kick the ball, and even if she isn't kicking loves putting the ball in the net and cheering.
Lovevery Toddler Kits - We received the baby kits as a gift when Mia was born, and I loved them. They are boxes filled with "Montessori" style toys, meaning they are mostly wood or natural materials, don't make noises or have flashing lights, and encourage babies to play in multiple ways to build creativity. There were always a few "filler" items in the boxes I didn't feel were necessary, but then all of Mia's absolute favorite toys came from the boxes too. The toddler kits, however, are a whole different ball game. Every item that comes out of them has been high quality and fun! If there's any problem, it's that we have too many toys now!
Water Wow Books - I want to get Mia into coloring, but she is so dang messy with everything that I don't always want to go through the effort of pulling everything out and cleaning it up just for five minutes of fun. These books are great for mess-free painting at home or on the go. You just fill up the little "pen" with water, and they paint on the blank pages to reveal color. They dry blank again so you can use them over and over!
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Okay, so Mia is not nine months anymore, but when I wrote this she was so I'm counting it!
I also shared my favorites for the newborn stage and at six months (look how little that squish was!) and still love and use everything that works for her at this stage (you know, so no more swaddles or Dock-a-Tot). I do have to note that I got a full refund on that Skip Hop Activity Center (from Skip Hop even though I bought on Amazon!) because some of the attachment toys won't stay attached. We still use it every day though, so I can't really complain.
At nine months, Mia started get into a sitting position by herself, and then crawling and then pulling up all within a few days, and is now wreaking havoc on our living room. She's also now eating mostly finger foods, but still will go for pouches and purees if we give them to her. Here are a few of our favorite things right now:
Oxo Tot Travel Spoon - This thing is so clutch for feeding Mia when we're out and about. Sure, it's just a spoon in a case, but it means you always have a clean spoon with you when you're feeding on the go, and don't have to waste plastic bags to put your spoons in. We bring this to grandparents' houses too, who don't have tiny spoons on hand.
Baby Buddy Secure-a-Toy - Mia is in the "accidentally on purpose" dropping things phase, and while I try to be chill about her toys landing on the floor, I'm decidedly not chill. These little straps can connect just about any toy to just about any surface, like her stroller, car seat, high chairs, shopping carts, etc.
Taggies Crinkle Toy - Mia has loved anything that makes noise since she was large enough to express an opinion, and she also likes the tag best on basically any toy we give her. I mentioned these loves to a coworker, and she suggested Taggies, which are toys covered in tags. We keep this in the car to keep her occupied, and she'll just go back and forth sticking all of the tags in her mouth.
Wegreeco Long Sleeve Bib - Talk about a Type A mom's dream! This bib is waterproof and basically completely covers her clothes so there's no mess at meal time (well, until she discovers rubbing food in her hair). I've tried a few of this type of bib, and this is the only one that fully covers her neck (some of the others are too big there), has velcro that always stays closed, and is actually waterproof.
Playpen - If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen this playpen all over my stories. I was worried about babyproofing our condo because everything is decidedly not babyproof (why did we decide to buy all furniture with sharp corners and wrought iron legs?!) and decided a playpen was the solution. But not just any playpen, I wanted a really big one, something that could give Mia space to play and hopefully enough space that she would actually stay in the playpen. Well this little baby does the trick - it's roughly the dimensions of a queen mattress! It is from China and I was a little iffy about the materials, so I put this playmat in it (almost a perfect fit!). I also added a Queen mattress pad underneath to cushion it when Mia tips over. Long story short, while Mia is actually in there alone right now happily playing with her blocks set, she usually requires a mommy or a daddy to join her in the playpen. We are much happier to do so now that it's comfy - you can usually find me laying down in there with a pillow and blanket on a weekend morning!
If I Were A Bunny Book - I love everything that JellyCat makes (their stuffed animals so soft!) and we have a few of these "If I Were A" books, and the bunny one is definitely the best! It's full of textures, and Mia especially loves scratching the little bunny paws. She will turn through the pages of this book over and over.
Lovevery Block Set - Mia got this as a Christmas gift, and I had to include it here because it's already a love!! The set includes a bunch of blocks that fit into a little box of course, but the blocks can also turn the box into a car or a wagon, there is a shape sorter, and there are little people for building and playing house. Like other Lovevery products there are instructions on different ways to use the blocks at each stage, and we keep joking that we are currently at Stage Zero because Mia mostly just wants to eat them. I love how well designed these are though and can tell we will be playing with them for years to come.
Retractable Baby Gate - Our house is all stairs. Like really, if you stand in our foyer you can see four different staircases. I was initially freaked about this, until I realized I just needed to block Mia's access to the foyer and we'd be safe. That entryway is a little wonky though, really wide and not straight, so I wasn't sure how to block it effectively. With a retractable gate, we can easily pull it across the space, and then it retracts to take up basically no space if we need it to. Mia hasn't tested the strength of it yet, but I've rammed into it a few times and am impressed so far - we just bought another to put downstairs.
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It feels like FOREVER since I posted about our newborn baby favorites. Oh remember when I could just leave Mia in the Dock-a-Tot for hours at a time?! Of course she's much more fun now, and actually playing and grabbing and laughing. There's just a little less downtime for mama ;)
Some of those favorites are actually still the same - those changing pad liners are still saving my life (and changing table... and car seat...) on the daily. I'm also still trying to squish Mia into her Magnetic Me onesie because not having to worry about snaps or zippers is the best :)
Our Favorite Baby Gear at Six Months
Now that we're past that newborn baby stage, here are a few of our favorites:
Sophie La Girafe - Okay, so I thought this thing was the most overrated and overpriced baby item of all time. I mean, really, what's the deal?! Um, turns out the deal is Mia LOVES this thing. Like, can't get enough. She's always making out with little Sophie, or hugging her, or chomping on her feet. We think she must be fun because she's got so many places to hold and she's soft and easy to chomp on. Just remember not to put her in the dishwasher or the bathtub!
IKEA High Chair(also available here, but try to buy from IKEA directly if you can as it's much cheaper) - We initially only registered for a travel high chair that could attach to our counter. I figured, why buy one more thing when we definitely needed the travel chair? Plus we live in the city, so the less stuff, the better. But, it turns out our travel chair is made of fabric and within three days of using it Mia started wiping out her mouth on the arms when she didn't like something. Yuck! I did not want to have to wash this thing all the time, so I started looking for alternatives. The IKEA high chair is a cult favorite for a reason. It's really easy to clean, it's easy to assemble (and travels really easily too if that's your thing!), it doesn't take up much space, and it's a streamlined modern design. Oh, and did I mention it's only $20?! Nuts, right? It is pretty bare bones and I'm unsure how it will work when Mia gets bigger, but for now (and for $20) it's definitely doing the trick. If your baby needs a footrest, I've heard a good hack is to put an exercise band around the legs! I did buy this little insert cushion too since Mia is still so little.
Gathre Mat(ABC version is currently sold out, but they do frequent restocks so check back soon!) - Instagram hit me HARD with ads for Gathre (I think because I was looking at Crystalin's?). I initially got a big leather blanket in the maxi size for going to the park - it's great because you can put it down on wet grass or sand and not get wet yourself, plus any spills (ahem: or baby accidents) just wipe right off. And it's big enough that I can fully lay down without having to touch any grass (does grass make anyone else itchy?). Pro tip though - don't get the double-sided version unless you're cool with your mat being twice the weight and size! Definitely not something I thought about ;) But anyway, after loving the big size I decided to go for a smaller one that would be easier to fold up and carry with us for spontaneous play moments outside or on our deck. We also brought it with for our trip to Wisconsin and it was great because it took up zero space in our bags. Now that we're eating solids, I have it on the floor under the high chair so I can just take it outside and shake it off or give it a quick wipe after meals.
Lovevery Play Gym and Kits (play gym also available here) - Jeff's stepmom signed us up for the Lovevery box subscription and got us the play gym, and I am so in love. The play gym is great because it's not ugly like so many play gyms so I don't mind having it in the living room, and it has a bunch of different sections to keep Mia's short attention span in check. We use it multiple times a day. The kits come every other month and are full of little toys made out of mainly wood and fabric that are designed for each developmental stage. At first, I was like, what is this box of crap? Because one of the boxes was literally just little rings and crinkle paper and random noisemakers (like a little cage with a jingle bell inside?). But now I am a total convert. Mia loves everything, they are by far her favorite toys (besides Sophie of course). Weirdly all of the other kids in our family (who are ages 10mos - 4 years) all loved the toys too! They're also like Montessori toys, teaching your kid how to learn and play. They also don't make crazy noises and sound effects so they won't drive you crazy. I also love the boxes because we get new toys every month and I don't have to think about it. I think I've literally bought one other toy for Mia so far. I think we're signed up for boxes just through the first year, but I'm definitely signing us up for the toddler boxes too!
Munchkin Formula Dispensers - When we started supplementing with formula, I initially was at a loss as to how to travel with it. Do I bring the giant formula container? Do I put measure the formula into a ziplock? Do I pre-measure into bottles and then guess at how much extra water to put in to account for the extra mass of the formula? Well I saw a mom using these containers instead and I literally hopped on Amazon immediately and ordered some. The bigger container has three sections that each hold enough formula for an 8 oz bottle, and the smaller container can hold one serving for an 8 oz bottle. They are perfect for sticking in the diaper bag. The reviews also say that parents who feed formula in the middle of the night like to pre-measure formula into them so their tired brains don't have to figure it out at three am. These little guys are game changers for sure.
Oh, BTW, while we're talking about it, we're using the Kirkland formula. Our pediatrician said that all formula is basically the same ingredients whether you go for name brand or generic, but this kind is sweetened without corn syrup (which weirdly is in a lot of formulas!) so it is our go-to. Much cheaper if you buy directly from Costco!
OXO Tot Glass Food Storage Containers - Is it dumb that I have two food storage items in this lineup? We started on solids a couple of weeks ago, and I'm making my own food so far. I love that these little containers have ounce measurements on them so I can keep track of how much Mia is eating. They also freeze nicely and can go in the dishwasher. I also chose them because they're glass, so I don't have to worry about gross plastic chemicals seeping into Mia's food.
SkipHop Activity Center - This was my one Prime Day purchase this year (can you tell I'm getting old?!) and I'm so happy with it so far. Mia is just figuring out how to spin herself around in it and how to play the little piano. She's literally sat in this for an hour straight. Worth every penny. Plus, it's cute ;)
Love To Dream Transition Swaddle Bag - At around 4 months we had to transition out of the swaddle because Mia started trying to roll over, so I ordered one of these. It lets you transition your baby's arms out of the saddle one at a time, which makes it easier on the baby. We did three nights with one arm in, and then dropped the second no problem. If I had to do it again, I would have just bought the transition bag when Mia needed to move up a size, because she was in the medium swaddle with her arms in for about three weeks before I had to switch into the transition bags. We are still using the transition bags now for naps at daycare and at night, although she's about to outsize them.
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