As usual, some of these are more in the "need" category, while others are definitely more in the "want" category, and of course what works for us might not work for everyone. But, these are some of the things we've been loving over the last couple of months, and I know *I* love posts like these, so I hope you're enjoying them too and aren't super annoyed that I'm back with another one!
No sponsored links below - just good old fashioned links to products I love. I should also note that you can probably/maybe/definitely find a lot of these items cheaper at Walmart or Target, but the below links are all Amazon just because that's where I do the majority of my shopping. Definitely shop around and do some price checks if you end up buying any of this stuff!
Feeding
Disposable place mats. I may get a few eye rolls regarding these, but when you have a baby who a) likes to chew on the edge of restaurant tables and b) likes to feed herself pieces of food we put on the table in front of her but doesn't yet use an actual plate, these are actually really handy. I keep a pack of them in the diaper bag to use when we go out to eat and they work really well. I know there are lots of brands/styles of disposable place mats, but these were some of the least obnoxious looking ones I found. Imogen also likes to smack her hands on them over and over when we put them on a restaurant table and heck, it keeps her occupied, so...bonus.
Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cups. I'm sure you've seen these cups all over the internet, but they really are awesome. I really wanted to try and get Imogen used to drinking out of a regular cup as soon as possible rather than out of a cup with a spout, and these have been perfect for that. It's a little hard to explain how they work, but essentially there's a silicone "lid" that fits tightly enough that liquid doesn't spill out the top, but is loose enough that when a baby puts the cup to their mouth and sucks, they can get the water (or whatever) out. They're not completely spill-proof - if they hit the ground hard enough, a little water does splatter. But overall, they keep Imogen mostly dry while she's drinking - and she learned really quickly with these! It took a couple of weeks of offering her the cup on a regular basis for her to figure out that she needs to actually tip the cup up and can't just lean over it and suck on the edge, but once she figured that out, she's been good to go ever since. I even ordered a Hello Kitty one for the diaper bag (raise your hand if you're an '80s child and had HK stuff).
Munchkin 2-Piece Snack Catcher. Now that Imogen is needing snacks a lot more often, and really loves feeding herself, these snack cups have been really fun, and a great distraction when I need to get something done without her clinging to my leg or trying to bite my feet (what is that, anyway?). For the first couple of days, she thought it was a drinking cup and she just kept putting it to her mouth, but after a few times of me sitting down and doing it with her, she's finally figured out how to stick her hand in and pull out her puffs. It keeps her busy for a while, and if you have a baby, you know that even 5 minutes to unload the dishwasher is hard to come by sometimes.
Happy Baby rice cakes. All I can say about these is that Imogen actually eats the entire rice cake (and sometimes more than one). She's in a weird phase where she'll put just about any food in her mouth and chew it, but then she sticks her tongue out and wants to pull the food back out and squish it in her fingers. After extensive Googling I've determined it's a phase and it will pass and she will eventually eat enough solid food to be done with formula, but in the meantime, anything I can get her to actually swallow is a miracle. She actually swallows these. Enough said.
Clothing
The Kidizen app. If you're in the market for good, used baby clothes, then this is the app for you. I can't even put into words how much I love this app - it's basically like going to a consignment shop except you can sit on your couch with coffee and cookies and do all your shopping. It's for both buying and selling (I've even sold a few things myself!) and I've gotten some seriously good deals on clothes for Imogen, from brands I normally won't splurge on brand new.
I do have a referral link for the app so if you're interested in signing up, let me know and I'll send it to you (the link above isn't the referral link). My referral link will get you $5 off your first order! No strings attached, other than I also get a percentage of the purchase price but I wouldn't really consider that a string. If you sign up, you get a $5.00 credit and a whole month to browse and use it, and that's that.
Burt's Bees Organic Zip Front Hoodie. Sometimes this brand can be on the expensive side, but sometimes I find great deals on their clothes (their zip pajamas are awesome) and this hoodie is one of them. I was looking for a simple, neutral colored, lightweight, zip-up hooded sweatshirt for Imogen for the summer, and was having trouble finding one that wasn't terribly boyish until I came across this one. The peplum-esque bottom half makes it a little more girly than just a plain gray hoodie, and if you zoom in on the picture, it's got a really cute texture as well. I ordered her the 12 month size so it'll fit her (hopefully) all summer, and I would say it's true to size. If you, by chance, decide to buy the same hoodie, keep an eye on the price. At the time of this post, it's a $20 hoodie, but I only paid $12.75 for it a couple of weeks ago. Amazon and their weird price drops/increases, am I right?
Bathtime
Burt's Bees Baby Shampoo and Wash (original scent). I think I'm just a big Burt's Bees fan...between their clothing and bath/baby items, you really can't go wrong. I absolutely love the scent of this baby shampoo/wash, and they make a baby oil with the same scent and it is HEAVENLY. All I want to do is sit around and smell Imogen whenever I put it on her. It is funny, though - like Isaiah pointed out, we want our baby to smell like honey but she can't actually eat honey yet. Heh.
Boogie Wipes. For the longest time, I honestly thought that Boogie Wipes were a gimmick and basically a glorified baby wipe in a smaller package. NOT SO. I didn't realize it until a friend told me, but these actually have saline in them so they really help get those crusty boogers out and off of little noses. I normally don't like to spend extra money on very specific products (i.e. if a baby wipe can do the job, why buy both?) but these were a lifesaver the last time Imogen had a cold. She HATES her nose getting wiped, but these are a lot more gentle than a tissue or a baby wipe and the saline helps her nose not dry out so badly.
Gorilla Grip bath mat. I know there are a million bath mats out there and I'm sure the majority of them are equally good, but I ordered this one now that Imogen's using the regular bathtub and I've really been liking it. I didn't want one that looked too childish since we share the same bathroom, and I wanted one that was machine washable. This one fit the bill, and I love that it comes in a few different (adult-ish) colors. We put it in the tub for her baths, and then hang it to dry, roll it up, and stash it until her next bath rolls around. It's nice and long, too, so I can actually cover up the tub drain so she isn't constantly trying to pull out the hair trap. I ordered the color green, and it's a LOT brighter than it looks in the photo, but it's fine. It's a nice turquoise color that goes well with our mostly white and gray bathroom.
Diaper Time
Sposie Booster Pad Diaper Doublers. We don't change Imogen's diaper at night (unless she poops, of course) - we haven't for a long time. But with a bigger baby and bigger liquid intake comes larger amounts of pee, especially now that she drinks one of her biggest bottles of the day right before bed. We tried the usual trick of sizing up her diapers at night, but that wasn't cutting it - she was waking up with soaking wet pajamas every single morning. She's also an exclusive belly sleeper, so that doesn't help, either. I went on the hunt for a solution, and found these, and they've been amazing. We only use them at night, and they've basically stopped the soaking wet pajama problem. They're kind of funny because they look like the giant maxi pads you get at the hospital right after you have a baby, but hey, they work.
Extra large changing pad liners. In my 1-3 month recommendation post, I recommended these changing pad liners for saving your changing pad sheets from needing to be laundered five times a day. And they were great, I'd still recommend them - they're cheap and they work! However...they're small. Too small for my 9 month old, because they started bunching up underneath her any time she squirmed or kicked. So, I went on a quest for bigger changing pad liners and ended up with these, and we're loving them. They're big enough that they stay flat underneath her while I'm changing her diaper, and they've held up perfectly in the wash.
Playtime
VTech Baby Little SmartPhone. I recently went on a mission to find a few more interactive toys for Imogen, and since she has one or two other toys with buttons and lights and loves them, I wanted something similar. This little cell phone isn't very big, isn't crazy loud or obnoxious, and it's really cute with the puppy/kitty holograph on the front. The buttons teach both colors (only pink/purple/red, but still) and numbers, and there's an off button on the side which I REALLY like so if I don't want to listen to it for a while, I don't have to.
Touch and feel books. In the last few weeks, Imogen has gotten majorly into books with textures on the pages. She couldn't have cared less previously, so I don't know what switch was flipped, but all of a sudden she is all about anything furry, soft, bumpy or scratchy. We have several touch and feel books, but these are two of our favorites: Tickle, Tickle, Peter! and Pooh's Honey Trouble.
The First Years Stack Up Cups. Out of all the bazillions of toys we've managed to accumulate already over the last 9 months, these stack up cups remain one of the only toys that never really seems to bore her after a while. She loves it when we stack them so she can knock them down, she likes to "drink" out of them and smack them together to see what noises they make, we play games where we stick them on her feet (or head) and she has to pull them off, I put other, smaller toys inside of the bigger cups for her to try and get back out again...there are endless possibilities, really. I even just ordered a second set to keep upstairs in the bathtub because they're so inexpensive!
