Like all moms with young kids, I have purchased a LOT of baby products over the past few years, and in many cases I’ve purchased more than one of something because I didn’t like the first one. I’m always appreciative of my friends who share their product recommendations with me, so I thought I would share some of my “favorite” baby things, many of which I’ve only recently discovered. Some of them are more expensive than their counterparts and some are not. These are just the things that I would definitely buy again.

Baby Bjorn Travel Crib – I know, I know, it’s expensive. But I cannot say enough times how much better this thing is than the Pack ‘n Play. The Pack ‘n Play is heavy and awkward, and when we first had Harper we ended up buying 3 extras to keep at grandparents’ houses so that we wouldn’t have to tote ours around. Instead of wasting all that money I should have just bought this thing in the first place. It only weighs TEN POUNDS and it is so easy to use! Roman sleeps like a champ in it and it’s small enough that we can put it in our checked luggage on an airplane.

Phil and Ted Me Too Seat – this is a no brainer. It folds completely flat and can fit in a diaper bag. Roman sat in it starting at 5 and a half months and Harper still sits in it. It washes easily and is a really great space-saving alternative to a booster seat or a high chair.

Beco Baby Carrier – I have to thank Jenn for turning me on to this carrier. This was the third baby carrier that I purchased for Roman and the only one that I can use without severe back pain. It is expensive, but I can’t imagine using anything else for subsequent babies. It is pain-free, versatile, and compact. This website has an excellent comparison of baby carriers, and explains exactly why I hate the Baby Bjorn!

Inchbug BumpyName Labels – My friend Bern told me about these and I love them. They are thick bands that fit around all bottles and sippy cups and have your kid’s name engraved in them. I have a set for each of the kids and we use them every day. A lot of our friends use the same bottles and sippy cups that we do, and it’s hard for the kids to remember which one is theirs. Sure, you could just write their names on the bottom, but these things are cheap, dishwasher safe, won’t rub off and make it really easy for the kids to identify which cup is theirs.

Sippy Grips – These are great for car seats and strollers. We tether the kids cups to the seat straps and voila, they can’t throw them on the ground! When I first bought them, Harper would throw her cup and then “fish” it back. She thought it was the greatest game ever.

Kaboost – You have to admit, this thing is pretty awesome. We recently got it for Harper because she wants to sit in a “big chair” like Mommy and Daddy. This boosts her right up to the table so she doesn’t have to sit on her knees to reach her food.

Diapees and Wipees – This is a “why didn’t I think of that?” product. It’s a great little bag for storing diapers and wipes so that you can literally turn anything into a diaper bag (or just carry it on its own). Sure, you could just use a ziploc bag, but at $14 I think these are much cuter

Radio Flyer Excursion Wagon – We use this almost every day. It has two seats with seatbelts (absolutely necessary) and big fat wheels that are great on all sorts of terrains. The kids love to take it on walks because they can play with each other while I’m pulling them, but we also use it for trips to the Zoo and anything else that involves Harper getting in and out to see things. We’ve even had situations where we lay the seat backs flat and let one of the kids nap in it. Oh, and did I mention it has cup holders? It’s awesome.

This morning I unloaded the dishwasher and found four sippy-cups but only two sippy-cup lids. I remembered that on Saturday when we were grilling outside, Portman had given Harper two sippy-cups to play with in the pool. I called Portman into the kitchen to explain the situation and the following transpired:

Portman: “Harper, where did you put the tops to your cups?” (showing her the cups in question)

Harper: With no hesitation, runs over to the kitchen trash can and says “they in there.” She then proceeds to lift the lid and start rooting through the trash.

Portman didn’t doubt her for a second, but unfortunately we had grilled fish on Saturday and that trash went out two days ago. Being the wonderful Dad that he is, he went out to the trash can (that had been baking in the 90-degree heat all weekend), found the bag with the fish and rooted through it to search for the sippy-cup lids. Of course the lids were in there – miss smarty pants remembered two days later that she threw away the lids to her cups!

Roman turned 9 months old this week and rung in his big birthday with yet another cold. I am not kidding, the poor guy has basically been sick since Thanksgiving. I sincerely hope this is the end of it! We had his 9 month checkup on Tuesday and he weighed in at 21 pounds 15 ounces (73rd percentile) and is 29 inches long (76th percentile). I suspect that he is actually taller than that, but he was wiggling a lot and they had a hard time measuring him. I thought he weighed a lot more (we were at Urgent Care last weekend and they said he was almost 23 pounds), but I can’t question a naked baby on a digital scale!

At 9 months he is really getting to be fun. He is constantly racing after his sister – I’ve never seen a baby crawl that fast! He is pulling up on everything and starting to cruise a bit, although he prefers to just crawl around and climb on Harper. He makes lots of noises but the only recognizable one is “dada.” He’s a great eater and eats mostly finger foods now, with a special preference for pesto noodles and Cheerios.

The good news is that he seems to have turned the corner in sleep habits. He is not the good sleeper that his sister was, which I think is partially our fault for travelling so much with him. I’m actually glad that we’re home now for a while – our next trip isn’t until the end of May when we leave for Europe. We’ve been home from Maine for almost two weeks and I’ve been concentrating on his sleep schedule. He is taking two solid naps a day, falls asleep on his own, and is in his crib from 7pm to about 7am. He still wakes up at least once most nights, but he’s better about falling back asleep after a small bottle. Occasionally we get lucky and he sleeps through the night. He has become really attached to his “mimi” (little lamb blanket) just like Harper, which thrills me because now he has a favorite comfort toy that he associates with sleep.

The only downside to having a 9 month old and a 2 year old in the Spring is that playing outside has new challenges. Since he isn’t walking yet, he crawls around the patio or the playground and is constantly eating leaves and dirt. I gave up on keeping him clean, and now I just try to keep him from eating anything dangerous! I’m very excited for him to start walking this summer – it will make our outside adventures much easier!

Harper continues to be more and more fun. Last weekend Portman took her to Toys R Us and invested in an inflatable pool. She spent all afternoon on Saturday in her bathing suit, despite the water being really cold!

We’ve recently discovered that the kids are excellent travelers in the car, so we decided to take a week-long road trip to New England to really test their stamina. We started off the trip with a long drive to Boston. The kids were amazing and at one point were actually holding hands and laughing at each other! I credit the generous amount of snacks and movies that we brought along, but they are also just great kids

We arrived at Aunt Annie and Aunt Sarah’s house around 4 pm and had a great visit with them. The last time we were in Boston we were not even engaged yet, so it was really nice to be back. After a late dinner downtown, we had our first ever night with all 4 of us in one hotel room. We requested a handicapped room and parked Harper’s crib in the extra-large bathroom. It worked out really well and she slept in until 8:30 despite her brother’s efforts to wake her up.

We spent the morning at the Boston Childrens’ Museum, then headed over to Boston Common to meet Annie for a little lunch and duck-feeding. Harper and Roman both loved the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues in the Public Garden, and Harper spent about an hour feeding them mulch! Just before dinner we piled back into the car and drove up to Kennebunkport, Maine where we met Dave, Jenn, Katelyn, and the twins. That made 5 kids in diapers… whew!

We had a loud, crazy, and very fun week in Maine. Harper and Katelyn were joined at the hip and kept us busy keeping them out of trouble. I won’t say the highlight, but definitely the most memorable event of the trip was our attempt to go out to dinner which ended when Katelyn spilled a large clam chowder directly into Jenn’s purse, and only moments later Roman pulled my clam chowder into his lap! 

We celebrated my birthday on Thursday and Portman gave me a new camera lens. I broke it in on the beach (with about 700 photos), and I have to say I took some pretty great pictures! Here’s a sampling:

Harper said “That horsie lost its peoples.”

It’s Cherry Blossom time in DC… our favorite time of year! The week before last was the “peak bloom,” so we convinced Portman to take off work a little early and we trekked down to the National Mall for a picnic dinner. Our visit to the trees coincided with Aunt Jenn’s 30th (gasp!) birthday, so we had a beautiful birthday picnic next to the Tidal Basin. Harper and Katelyn were in rare form and kicked off dinner with a boisterous round of “cheers!” with their cans of Pellegrino. After being force-fed their dinners, they escaped the picnic blanket and entertained everyone with a very loud choral concert. They were apparently trying to match each others’ tones and volume, which meant they just got louder and louder. I’m not sure all of the other picnickers enjoyed it as much as we did! Roman perfected his scavenger skills and spent the evening crawling around the picnic blanket eating anything he could get his hands on.

“Ta-da! We’re at the WW2 Memorial!”

Cheers, hugs, and lots of singing:

Mmm, food:

  And finally, the gorgeous blooms:

Claudia (our housekeeper): “Harper, are you using the potty?”

Harper: “Yeah… it’s really hard.”

Me (on the phone): “I think he’s from Turkey.”

Harper: “Oh my gosh! I see a Turkey!”

Harper (splashing in a puddle): “Oh my gosh! It’s bubbles!”

Harper (eating a grilled cheese): “Mmm, that’s fantastic!”

Harper was standing in the flower bed reaching up to ring a wind chime.

Me: “Harper, please get out of the mulch.”

Harper: “But I just ding-ing!”

Roman tipped over his cup of Pirate’s Booty.

Harper: “Oh no, Roman! You making a mess!”

Harper hands me a wooden slice of turkey from her velcro sandwich.

Harper: “…and here’s your pickle.”

Me: “Mmm thanks, a pickle!” (put it up to my lips and pretend to eat)

Harper: “No, eat it wif your mouf.”

Waking up from her nap, she stands up in her crib and starts jumping and shouting: “Hooray! We did it, we did it, we did it!” (she learned this from Pooh’s Heffalump Movie)

Harper tooted on my lap while reading a story and started giggling and declared: “Farts are funny!”

After months (years) of plumbing issues that were getting progressively worse, we decided to completely remodel both of our bathrooms. How bad were the plumbing issues? Well, if you wanted to flush the master bath toilet, first you had to turn the water completely off at the back of the toilet, then turn it on and let the tank fill, and then you could flush once. Yes, you had to do this for every flush. Other issues included: tile peeling off the walls, sinks that wouldn’t turn completely off, and water stains mysteriously appearing on our living room ceiling. Needless to say, it was time for a change.

I love home improvements, but this project was way beyond my time and patience capabilities, especially with the kids at home. So instead of doing work myself, I’ve been playing General Contractor and coordinating all the work. I’ve had a lot of fun designing the tile and shopping for materials, but I am definitely ready for it to be finished. As cute as the protective paper runner looks on our stairs, I want my house back!

The kids’ bath is pretty much finished – there are a few pieces of tile that haven’t come in yet and the fan needs to be installed, but other than that it’s done. The kids’ don’t seem to care that they have a new bath, but Portman and I love it! There are lots more pictures on Smugmug. Of course I forgot to take a photo of the kids’ bath completely gutted, but it was stripped down to the frame, so you can picture it.

Kids’ bath before (straight from the ‘70’s):

Kids’ bath after:

The master is a work in progress. Here’s what it looks like right now:

Hopefully by Easter we won’t be showering with Elmo any longer!