Movin' on Up.....

When I was expecting, I never knew how resourceful blog world would be for me when looking for the latest and greatest items for my baby.....blue eye bride quite often gives reviews of items and she is amazing in and out of blog world! she is so honest and I love her views on motherhood and she really is as sweet as she seems in real life as she does on her blog!....I was (and still am) so thankful for all of the honest mamas our there who just tell it like it is and give great (and sometimes not so great) reviews for items. Especially as a new mom everything is so overwhelming and you just feel like you're treading water sometimes trying to sift through all of the "stuff" you need! As we are (QUICKLY) approaching the Bug's first birthday, I just breathe a heavy sigh that we made it through our first year! With one bout of RSV, one cold, and despite our two top teeth coming in, we have been sleeping through the night since 2 1/2 months, I think that this year has been insanely calm....I praise God every day for our beautiful and healthy baby girl! After 12 days in the NICU when she was born, I just begged for mercy every day to get me through those hours. We only had 12 days of misery and I do not know how some of the mamas out there have done it for months on end. My heart just cries for them. But, we are so thankful that we have had no ill effects and our precious angel is just thriving and growing by the minute!
Here are some of the items that are getting us through the days right now......

the old trusty Nuk pacifier This sucker (no pun intended) has been around for years and it was our go to paci for the Bug. She was really not a big fan for a while, which was okay with us, I just thought that I wasn't going to have a paci-obsessed baby. But around 7 months she just picked that paci up, popped it in and it hasn't left our side yet. The paci clip is the greatest invention hands down, and we do not go anywhere without it! For the teething, I learned in INCREDIBLE tip from a blog mama to dip them in water and then freeze them....I wish I could remember who's blog it was that I saw that on because I could kiss you. It has saved our lives. We always have a few in the freezer to pop in when she's in pain....the orajel only goes so far!

the sassy seat/johnny jump up

We decided to go with the Sassy Seat as opposed to a stationary jumperoo because I was so tired of stumping my toe on all of the baby items....Georgia loves her seat and it buys some really good time, especially in the mornings. We can put her in the bathroom with us while we are trying to get ready and she is happy as a clam.

Fisher Price musical table

Raymond's coworker suggested this item to us and it is the absolute best thing in the world! We were quickly running out of items that Georgia was interested in and this is wonderful because the legs easily pop off so you can lay the top of the table flat on the ground for babies who are not yet standing, you can prop it up on two legs for sitting babies to play with or you can have it on all fours for children who are standing/walking. I think that we have a climber on our hands so at times I have caught her trying to climb on top of her table....Lord help us all.....it's a wonderful toy and the music is just precious that it plays.

(AMEN for) Gerber Puffs

I will stick the Bug in her high chair in front of the tv with some puffs when I am trying to clean up after her meals and this buys me 5 minutes of silence and I can trust that she is safely eating. These have also tremendously helped her develop the skills to pick items up and put them in her mouth. Her coordination has really come along these past few months and these are especially my go to item when in public and she's getting antsy....guaranteed to buy you a few moments of silence.....

Nuk sippy cups

I have spent I don't know how much money on different sippy cups. I was that mom trying to provide "variety" I guess. Now I have heard several different schools of thought on the sippy cup in introducing it too early, not putting anything but juice in there, and so on....BUT you do have to find what works for your child and I am a firm believer in that. I guess I am just old school in that we all grew up fine, our parents all grew up fine and I am just now OCD about alot of the information out there. I do believe there is such a thing as too much internet education. However, I started introducing the cup around 7 months. It started with me holding it for her and she would slightly drink out of it. I tried several different cups and this is the one she responded best to. I am not sure why, but I just kept working with this one. Every day we would give it to her and I never really allowed her to "play" with it- I had heard some moms saying their kids just thought it was a toy. If it was out, she was drinking out of it. I think this helped her establish what it's intention was. Slowly but surely, she started grabbing for it herself and before long, she was holding like a 1st place trophy. She is so proud of her sippy cup and loves that thing more than life itself. As a mama, this makes me so happy. She, to this day, will not hold her own bottle, so the selfish, need 5 minutes to go to the bathroom part in me came out and thought of putting her formula in the cup. BAM!!!!! Free at last thank goodness I am free at last!! Georgia now takes all but one of her bottles in a sippy cup and takes her juice in the cup as well. I am ecstatic because as the big 0-1 birthday approaches, I was having anxiety about weaning her off the bottle....well my friends, we are almost home free.....

Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat

There are many parts to Georgia growing up that excite me but there are parts that are sad to me as well. As happy as I am she's taking a sippy cup, I will most definitely cry the day that I pack up all of her bottles. It's just that closing of one stage of her life and moving to the next that is so emotional for me. The same with her car seat. We have been looking for some time now and when we were looking for her infant car seat, we toyed with the Convertibles vs the Infant Carriers. I decided to go with the Bertini for her infant car seat and stroller system. We have LOVED LOVED LOVED that system!! I get so many compliments on it and our sweet friends Megahn and Blake are expecting their sweet baby Anna Heath in a few weeks and they also went with that one. Now we've had the joy of picking out her next ride and we have decided to go with the Britax marathon....I am SO excited for her to sport around town in this. It's an incredible car seat and Britax is a great brand. I think we've found a winner!!!

There are so many emotions as I remember back to being pregnant and scouring for hours at babies r us, online, through magazines, talking to friends and fretting about finding the PERFECT items for our baby girl. That all seems so long ago and I still pinch myself every day at the thought of a whole year passing by as a mom. I am so looking forward to my first Mother's Day!!! We did celebrate last year since I was pregnant but I am super excited to have the Bug here now to join in on the festivities.....maybe that KS agenda will appear?? I have a few other items that I am hoping for so keep your fingers crossed that Georgia has told Daddy all of Mama's wish list items.....