Monthy Milestone Stickers (Baba G through the year)

It took FOREVER for me to pull together all of these pictures in order to finally write about the very cool monthly milestone stickers we received as a shower gift before BG was born. And then wouldn't you know it, the company that makes the kind of stickers we have (Baby Cakes n Beyond) is pretty much impossible to find online, and therefore I can't really sing their praises.

So if you're interested in buying these stickers, I think you'll have to track them down through various eBay sellers or Etsy accounts (Google something like "baby month stickers"). There are a ton of different designs, they're just not altogether in any one spot that I can link to.

We had the dinosaur design, and here's the fun result of using all 12 stickers (alongside Mr. Fox, of course):

Not too sure about this big furry thing next to me... and you say we have to do this EVERY month?

(It's so weird for me to see him without any teeth now!)

Finally getting some meat on them bones.

Happy boy!

Nearly kicking Mr. Fox off the chair, but still happy!

Aerial view, still happy!

Stripping down in the heat of summer, but still happy...

... Suddenly not as happy, and realizing that Mr. Fox might not be totally trustworthy.

Starting to look pretty mature now...

In the midst of his Dominican Republic Flu recovery

It's Christmas Eve and he's in the spirit!

I'm gonna miss these pictures with you, Mr. Fox. It's been real.

The bottom line: Do you need stickers to do something like this? No. I have several friends who snapped pictures of their kids in a chair with a handwritten month-marker sign in the background. I feel like the key is having the kid in the same setting each time to really see how he or she is growing. I, however, am glad we received the stickers as a gift, because I'm not sure I would've been as motivated to take these shots otherwise! And now I'm so, so glad we have them.

By the time we got to the one-year mark, Baba G was onto the whole scheme and had ripped the sticker off within seconds. But the stickers served their purpose well for the biggest period of change and growth in his life, and for that I am grateful.

As I mentioned, I couldn't find this exact design or brand online, but if you're interested in similar stickers that go for about $10 (for 12), here are some on Etsy.

Cloud b Sleep Sheep

On the evening of January 28, at approximately 7:27 p.m. CT, my husband managed to tap out a short message to me on his Blackberry while attempting to rock Baba G to sleep.

Unfortunately for him, it was one of the rare occasions when I was actually relaxing and watching TV and not online in any way. So I didn't understand why he seemed so flustered once he'd put BG in his crib and returned upstairs.

Him: Why didn't you come down?

Me: What?

Him: I sent you that message about the noise—why didn't you come down?

Me: I have no idea what you're talking about, I wasn't on my laptop.

Him: Well there was this really strange sound, like a sick mouse or something, like something was moaning or wailing. And I couldn't figure out what it was...

Me: —Oh, so you wanted ME to come down and uncover this scary and sick creature that's possibly dying in our basement somewhere?

Him (starts laughing): ... but then when I put BG to sleep I realized it was that sheep thing. You had it on the "whale" setting.

It took a minute for me to process what he was saying, but then I started laughing, too. We always have white noise (in the form of a static-filled AM radio station) playing in BG's nursery, but we also have the Cloud b "On the Go" Sleep Sheep attached to his crib, and I often hit the "Waves" setting on it to, shall we say, further enhance our noise-muffling attempts. (We live in a very loud neighborhood, to put it mildly.) The Sleep Sheep is a soft little sheep (duh) that hangs onto a crib bar and emits one of four sounds for either 23 or 45 minutes in order to help your kid get to sleep.

That night I must have accidentally hit the "Whale" setting, and the gentle giants' eerie songs were apparently loud enough to scare the bejeezus out of my husband. [It's pretty hard to hear, but the 8-second mark on this video might help you get the idea.]

I was glad my husband solved the mystery, but then I was curious as to what exactly he'd written me. I just about doubled over when I turned on my phone and saw his urgent message:

"Weird noise downstairs ... come figure it out."

Who would've thought this little sheep could cause so much panic?

The bottom line: My friend CM used the Sleep Sheep for her son who's a year younger than Baba G and she highly recommended it. As I knew I was going to need all the help I could get with creating a peaceful atmosphere in BG's nursery, I was really happy when we received the Sleep Sheep as a gift after he was born. Because they mesh well with white noise, I prefer the Ocean Surf (waves) or Spring Showers (rain) settings, but I know other friends' kids have seemed to like the Whale Song and Gentle Stream options, too. And apparently their daddies are in on the situation and not mistaking the whales for ailing city critters.

Cloud b makes several different bedtime and sleep-related products, and I'll be reviewing at least one more of them (Twilight Turtle) in the future.

But back to the Sleep Sheep. It's certainly not a must-have product, but it does make for a great gift or a cute nursery accessory if you know you're going to need help blocking out noise. It costs around $25 on Amazon.

Oh, and as I was about to hit "Publish," I realized that I should probably clarify that we do NOT have any issues with mice or what have you in our condo. But when my husband and I first started dating in the late '90s, he DID have a lone mouse in his apartment, and it rattled him to the bone. He was totally freaked out (whereas I was like "Oh, cute mousey!!!!"). Clearly he is still suffering from the awful memories of how that little guy used to terrorize him.

Rich Frog Critter & Creature Slippers

As I'm still trying to pull together shots for the post about Baba G's monthly milestone pictures, I thought I'd write about these incredibly cute "Creature Feet" in the meantime. My cousin bought them for BG before he was born, and I've had them in his nursery as a decoration until he was big enough to wear them. And guess what? He's big enough now.

He didn't really know what to make of them at first.

Hmm.

 But then he got into it.

Wait, maybe I think these are funny.

I'll show you where the Wild Things are! ROOOAAR!

Believe it or not, he CAN walk in them, and it's pretty funny to watch. But he likes to play with them off of his feet as well.

You know it's hard out here for a monster.

The bottom line: There are a ton of adorable Critter and Creature Feet (in the form of slippers and baby booties) to choose from at the Rich Frog website. Some of them even come with books. And there are funny hats, too. I'm glad we got a pair as a gift or else I wouldn't have known about them (or the Rich Frog brand, which seems pretty cool). I think if Desmond is ever really into a certain animal (or monsters) when he gets a little older, I would buy another larger pair of slippers so that he could play pretend with them.

Most of the Creature Feet are $18.95. Don't go to the Rich Frog website if you don't want to spend any money, though, because they have a ton of really cute baby and toddler products — the slippers are just one category of goodies!

Squishables

I'm sure there are some people who read the title of this post and thought I was going to write about a type of snack product — something like Go-Gurt or one of the many kinds of toddler-friendly slurpy packs of pureed fruits and veggies.

But no, that's not what Squishables are. They're these:



I was so paranoid during my pregnancy that I didn't buy Baba G anything until I was nearly at full term. And then when I finally felt like everything was going to be OK, the Squishable Fox was the first thing I ordered. (Remember Baba G's real middle name is Fox!)

Only a few days old, and already subjected to silly pictures

These things are a big 15-inch-high ball of the softest, SOFTEST "fur" you will ever feel. I loved the fox so much that I bought his "micro" version as well:

The micros are 3 inches high and then there's also a "mini" version that's 7 inches high.

As you'll see in my next post, we used the Squishable Fox as a marker for each of Baba G's monthly milestones up until his 1-year birthday, which was last week.

Mr. Fox even played an integral role in BG's birthday party: he was the model for our cake!

For moi?

Fantastic Mr. Fox!

Hmm... INnnteresting...

The bottom line: Squishables are the coolest. I realize not everyone wants a huge furry ball sitting around their place, but if your kid likes soft things or stuffed animals in general, I encourage you to check out the dozens of different options — there's an octopus, a few kinds of dragons, cats, weird things I've never heard of — there's something for everyone.

Each design varies in price, but on average, the full-sized versions are $39, minis are $19 and micros are from $5-$9. Some kinds, like the octopus, even have a huge bean-bag version for around $142.

They seem to be adding new animals and various fantastical creatures all the time, too! Stay tuned for the monthly Baba G and Mr. Fox pics soon...

In Search Of: Baby-proofing Products that Work

Baba G is really enjoying all of the benefits that come with being able to walk. The biggest perk (for him) is that he's stable enough to reeeeaaaacccch for just about anything, and he takes great joy and pride in opening cabinets, drawers, our piano cover, the trash can ... you name it.

Benches are for suckers!

SuperBaby will now attempt to fly a few inches off the ground to open the door

Why'd someone throw out this perfectly good box?

We moved all of the dangerous stuff to our top cupboards before he was even born, but since he hasn't quite grasped the whole concept of getting your fingers out of the way when you slam something shut, we added some baby-proofing locks around the condo.

The problem is, the vast majority of what we bought — which is all from Safety 1st because that's the only brand any place near us in the city seems to carry — is really poor quality and immediately breaks, or doesn't work for our particular type of cabinets and drawers.

These stove knob covers (in picture below) have done their job, but BG immediately figured out that the folding cabinet door next to the oven can be opened. We haven't been able to find anything that works here (or for some of our other cabinets) because you need a wooden "lip" to drill a latch-holder into, and our shelving wasn't made that way. (Meaning, these things won't work.)

What's more, we bought a latch (once again from Safety 1st) that was supposed to keep your oven locked shut, and that crappy thing fell off within a few hours (it was supposed to stick on the side and latch over the door).

Nice try, Mom.

Gold Mine: the food pantry!

For our double-wide cabinets like the ones below under our sink, we use this contraption, which does the job, even though I ram my thighs into its prongs and curse approximately 10 times per day. (I have it unlocked in the picture below, you can see it hanging on the left door.)

Doorknob covers and the standard electrical-outlet plugs and covers have also worked just fine. But NONE of our drawers will work with the Safety 1st products.

So here's what I'm In Search Of: Products or general advice related to baby-proofing cabinets and drawers when the widely available items don't work. Has anyone out there tried one of the magnetic lock systems? I'm not entirely sure that would work with our cabinets or drawers, either, but I'd be curious to see if anyone else has found success using those.

In the meantime, Baba G The Condo Explorer is going to keep having fun!

Fun with Boxes and Packaging

I'm forcing myself to take a break from a huge freelance-writing project I've been working on to check in and share some pictures of the most ridiculous package I've ever received.

This package was ridiculous because it had enough filler material to protect a case of wine and/or a set of china, yet all that was in the humongous box was a 4-pack of onesies. 


I mean, seriously.


But Baba G certainly had fun playing with it all. Proof once more that kids would rather mess around with boxes than real toys.

A few days later, a bottle brush arrived from the same place (Buy Buy Baby). Its package was almost just as insane.



I don't get it. But at least BG had fun pushing that box all around the floor, too.

Bright Starts Elephant Snuggle & Teether

The older Baba G gets, the more, um, active he is when we take him out to a restaurant. If I didn't realize the need for quiet toys before, I do now.

On New Year's Eve we had the trusty Gund Worm (oops, Caterpillar) to fall back on:

Another great option is the Bright Starts Elephant Snuggle & Teether.

Here's what it looks like:

And here's a short video of BG playing with it on a car trip when he was nine months old. 

Shots of that same trip:


The elephant has that crinkly stuff in it that babies seem to love so much, and its feet are some sort of teething material. The fact that I don't really know what kind of material it is is part of the reason it took me a few extra days to write about this product.

FOR THE LIFE OF ME I cannot find any product material information for this damn elephant. It has been so frustrating and annoying. I'm trying to steer clear of toys with BPA and other bad stuff in them now that BG puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. And clearly something with the word "teether" in its product name is meant for babies' mouths.

I went on the Kids II web site (the parent company of Bright Starts) and the only way to contact them was to fill out a form with your mailing address and all of this information I didn't want them to have. There was no email address or phone number.

When I was on my search for information for this post, I came across this blog entry from 2008, and in the comments section a woman said that she contacted Kids II and they said: "All of our teething products are phthalate, PVC, BPA and Latex free."

Now, once again, that information is from 2008, and who knows if the commenter was even telling the truth, and if that really is the case, WHY IN THE HELL is this not stated upfront on the Kids II site or on any retailer's page? (Kids II doesn't sell any products through their site.)

It's not like I'm tossing out hand-me-down plastic toys we were given from friends or refusing to let BG play with things he gets as gifts that are clearly not BPA-free. But I am trying to make a point to understand what materials he's coming into contact with and have also let family members know that we are really trying to keep things as toxin-free as possible going forward. I just wish companies made it easier for us to know what's in their toys. (You'll see in upcoming posts that even totally eco-friendly brands seem to bury this kind of information — it's so bizarre.)

Mmm... BPA.  (I kid. I hope!)

The bottom line: Who knows whether or not the Bright Starts Elephant is actually BPA-free, but I'm going to hope that blog commenter was telling the truth about her communication with the company and then convince myself the product is safe because "teether" is in its name.

These guys go for about $17, and BG has enjoyed playing with his since the early days, so I consider that a great value. Except for the feet, it's really soft and floppy. I thought he'd grow tired of it by now, but it's still our go-to toy for car rides and is also usually on hand for restaurant visits.