When Mike and I found we were expecting, we were over the moon excited! We had been trying to conceive for over a year. We had taken many pregnancy tests that all came back negative, so when I took what felt like the millionth preggo test one early morning in October and it said 'PREGNANT' I was SHOCKED! Mike was making breakfast and looked up at me as I stood in the kitchen next to him saying "I can't find the 'not'!" It took him a second to realize what I was talking about when he saw the test in my hand. We couldn't believe it. We felt so blessed that we were actually pregnant and scared to death at the same time knowing we were going to be parents.
In the last several months we have LOVED finding items for Baby B. We have read a lot about different products on everything from diapers to furniture and everything in-between. We have spent many hours strolling through baby stores and investigating the array of baby products. The one comment I did make to Mike early on was, "I don't want a ton of baby toys because they usually would rather play with a water bottle." Since then, I have fallen head over heels for some adorable baby toys and I am perfectly fine eating my words today. Now, this isn't to say I love all baby toys because many of them I find completely ridiculous and impractical, but I thought I would share with you how I shop for Baby B's toys.
1. Sensory
Look for toys that will help the baby learn/enhance their senses. Different textures are so IMPORTANT for babies. Everyday they are taking in new things through touch, sound, taste, smell and sight. If every toy bought is super smooth, what's the fun in that? Find toys that have bumps, ridges, bright colors, patterns, sounds, etc, but always make sure it's made for a baby.
Look for toys that will help the baby learn/enhance their senses. Different textures are so IMPORTANT for babies. Everyday they are taking in new things through touch, sound, taste, smell and sight. If every toy bought is super smooth, what's the fun in that? Find toys that have bumps, ridges, bright colors, patterns, sounds, etc, but always make sure it's made for a baby.
2. Material
This closely relates to the senses. Not every toy needs to be made from plastic! Introduce the baby to fabric, ribbon and wood. There are so many fantastic toys out there not made of plastic, sometimes you just need to look in the right places.
This closely relates to the senses. Not every toy needs to be made from plastic! Introduce the baby to fabric, ribbon and wood. There are so many fantastic toys out there not made of plastic, sometimes you just need to look in the right places.
3. Functionality
Always ask what the point of the toy is. Is the toy simply to keep the baby 'entertained' for 10 minutes or is the toy going spark the imagination in your baby so they can learn how to manipulate it in different ways? I love finding toys that I know will help a baby learn (educational) and teach them to have an imagination (creativity).
Always ask what the point of the toy is. Is the toy simply to keep the baby 'entertained' for 10 minutes or is the toy going spark the imagination in your baby so they can learn how to manipulate it in different ways? I love finding toys that I know will help a baby learn (educational) and teach them to have an imagination (creativity).
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I really dislike toys with lots of buttons and are shaped like electronics, because I believe they need to learn to be creative with materials. If they don't learn how to play pretend or use their imagination they may always expect that everything can be taught or done with the push of a button. To me that sounds BORING! So many school-age kids would rather sit inside playing video games instead of going outside to play. Many people wonder why and it's probably because....they don't know how! By constantly putting technology in front of a child, whether it be a cell phone, iPad, T.V., video games, whatever....you're helping them lose their sense of play and imagination.
Now I'm not saying technology is bad by any means, I love my iPhone and obviously my computer because I am writing on here to all of you; I do think it's important they learn how to use a computer, but limit the time, don't let that be their only toy or their 'go to' toy. Teach the child how to use their imagination, because seeing a child with no imagination is very sad. Sorry...end rant!
Okay, onto more fun toys! Here are some of our favorites we've found, no we have not purchased all of these, but these are some great toys for infants as they grow.
Zolo by Kushies Fuzzi Lovebug
I love Zolo by Kushies, especially this little Fuzzi Lovebug! He has 6 legs just like an insect, he's textured with fuzzy fabric, cotton and ribbon, he's also VERY brightly colored and includes black and white for infants!
Super Yummy Teether by Discovery Toys
A good friend of mine gave this to me as a gift and swears by it! This teether has 5 different textured knobs and is very easy for baby to hold and turn. It also has a sweet vanilla scent!
Zolo by Kushies Beanstax
These cuties can be stacked and tossed. They again are brightly colored, made from multiple materials and inspire little ones to use their imagination! Can you tell ILOVE Zolo by Kushies?!?!
Wood Teether Giraffe by littlesaplingtoys on Etsy
These adorable wood teethers come in all shapes including States! They are made from Hard Rock Maple which is a non-splintering wood. It is also naturally anti-bacterial, non-allergenic and non toxic!
Imaginarium Sensory Balls
These are great for size, texture, color, rolling and easy to hold. Toddlers love feeling the different bumps on the inflatable, brightly colored balls.
Skip Hop Treetop Friends Ball Trio
These super cute, colorful birds are easy to grab, squeeze and roll! They're squishy and soft...perfect for baby!
Water Blocks Water Blocks by Plan ToysI am in LOVE with water blocks! Of course these are better suited for children a little bit older, but these are so much fun to play with! These blocks are not only great for stacking, building and balancing, but when you put two different primary colors together they create a new secondary color....great for color recognition!
Measure Up! Cups from Discovery Toys
These are great for growing with baby! They can be used with water (sand, soil, snow for when baby gets older!!!) to learn about volume, they can stack, they can also be used with play dough!
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Lastly, one of my favorite toys to make with children that they absolutely LOVE are Discovery/Sensory Bottles. These are so easy to make and you can fill them with practically anything!
Here's a few links to some fantastic and creative ideas for sensory bottles.
Preschool Play
Childcare Lounge
Teachers.Net
Angel Fire
Sensory Bottles
Preschool Play
Childcare Lounge
Teachers.Net
Angel Fire
Sensory Bottles
Here's how to make some of my favorite Discovery Bottles
(REMEMBER...GREAT FOR BABIES, TODDLERS and OLDER CHILDREN!)
For ALL Discovery Bottles, begin with an empty clear plastic bottle with the label removed.
Once finished filling your bottle, use a hot glue gun to glue the cap back on the bottle or you can use clear packaging tape. Twist it like you normally would, let it cool and double check to make sure it's sealed so it won't leak. You can cover the cap with fabric or tie ribbon around the top.
(Be sure everything is glued/sealed so nothing falls off and becomes a choking hazard)
Ocean Wave
Fill half the bottle with water and put a drop of blue food coloring. Fill one quarter of the bottle with baby oil. Drop in a few small plastic ocean animals or small seashells and seal the lid with hot glue or you can use packaging tape. Let them shake up the bottle and see the oil and water mix and then separate.
I first tried using beach themed sequins, but they were too light and didn't work! I also would NOT recommend putting glitter in this bottle because it gets stuck to the sides and it's not as pretty.
Fill half the bottle with water and put a drop of blue food coloring. Fill one quarter of the bottle with baby oil. Drop in a few small plastic ocean animals or small seashells and seal the lid with hot glue or you can use packaging tape. Let them shake up the bottle and see the oil and water mix and then separate.
I first tried using beach themed sequins, but they were too light and didn't work! I also would NOT recommend putting glitter in this bottle because it gets stuck to the sides and it's not as pretty.
Glitter
I LOVE THIS ONE!!! Fill bottle with desired amount of glitter (you can use glitter strands too). Fill with water. Color the water with food coloring if you wish. Seal cap with hot glue or tape. Shake and watch the glitter swirl!
Pipe Cleaners
NO WATER NEEDED! Cut up different colored pipe cleaners. Seal the cap with hot glue or tape. For infants and toddlers they can shake the bottle and observe the different colors. For older children use magnetic wands to draw the pipe cleaners up the side of the bottle.
Scented Flower
NO WATER NEEDED! Simply place a silk flower inside bottle and put a few drops of artificial flower fragrance oil. Puncture a few holes in the top of the cap. Seal the bottle and cap with hot glue and/or tape. I love using different scents. You could have a set of discovery bottles that focus entirely on smells.
Sound Bottle
NO WATER NEEDED! Put beans, popcorn kernels, pasta and rice in different bottles.
Rain Bottle
NO WATER NEEDED! Fill bottle with toothpicks and make sure they scatter the bottle. Add rice. Seal the bottle and cap with hot glue. Flip the bottle over to hear the rice move through the toothpicks to make the sound of rain.
***You can find all sorts of foil confetti, glitter and trinkets at party stores ***
(Factory Card Outlet, Party City, Five Below, Nobbies (Oriental Trading), Michaels, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby)
NO WATER NEEDED! Put beans, popcorn kernels, pasta and rice in different bottles.
Rain Bottle
NO WATER NEEDED! Fill bottle with toothpicks and make sure they scatter the bottle. Add rice. Seal the bottle and cap with hot glue. Flip the bottle over to hear the rice move through the toothpicks to make the sound of rain.
***You can find all sorts of foil confetti, glitter and trinkets at party stores ***
(Factory Card Outlet, Party City, Five Below, Nobbies (Oriental Trading), Michaels, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby)
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We hope you take some time and make a few of these with your children. I'm sure they will absolutely love them! If you have questions feel free to leave a comment and I will answer you the best I can!
We have been busy, busy, busy, trying to get this nursery done! We still have small details that need to be addressed (of course there always is), but we're almost there! I thought I would share some of the pictures at the half way point. Bear with me, it has definitely been a work in progress!
The Room
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to give Baby B his/her own room and I am SO thankful we did! There was absolutely NO WAY we could have done what we really wanted to do in our room. We took over my mom's sewing room, and let me tell you...there was four generations of fabric in there! I'm sure you can imagine that it literally took us a full week to go through all of it, but after sending 12 bags to donations and about 7 to trash we finally got it organized into labeled bins :0)
Before & After!
Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the room before we started, but the pic on the left is after we got the fabric out, but then needed to tackle everything else inside. Just imagine, there were 6 pieces of furniture inside. Enough said.
We removed wall paper and brown carpet that had been up/installed since my parents built this house....31 years ago!
So now that the room has been cleaned out, has fresh paint and new carpet (we are also going to install a ceiling fan/light---we'll see if that actually gets done before Baby B's arrival) it is finally ready to put the baby furniture inside. I am so excited.
The Furniture
We have had a little bit of bad timing or luck, call it whatever you will, on some of the pieces we wanted to put in Baby B's room. I am convinced that whenever I post something that we plan on getting for the baby whether it's on here, FB, Pinterest, etc it's out of stock or has officially been discontinued. This happened with our glider, stroller and I thought our hardware, but thank goodness I was wrong. I can't do anything but laugh about it. I guess there are a lot of people out there with the same great taste! :0)
Let's begin with the glider...We LOVE the style of the Luca glider but there was no way we could justify spending $1000 just for the glider. It is out of our price range. So we decided on the Lacey Klaussner glider at Babies R Us for $399 and the ottoman for $199. A bit more practical. Well a few weeks ago, we went to order it and it has been discontinued and all models are sold out practically everywhere! In our city we have only one BRU so we looked into surrounding cities or cities that we have family in....no such luck. We immediately started searching for a similar glider and had to up our budget based on it. We have now bought the Babyletto Nara glider for $699 (which if you look for it now, is back ordered sometime between June-August at most stores). We did decide to hold off on the ottoman for a few months. Our glider arrived today, whew! However I am still a little disappointed that we didn't get the one we originally wanted. I really liked the straight lines more than the curvy, but I have to say I do love the Nara glider...it is very comfy and I can't wait to use it with Little Baby B!!!!
The one we originally wanted: Lacey Klaussner Glider & Ottoman
The one we bought: Babyletto Nara Glider in Slate with Ecru Piping
Now for the dresser...the dresser was a steal to find in my parents barn. It did need TLC. When we brought it up to the garage the drawers were falling apart, there was no bottom and the spindle feet were either somewhat chopped off or a little chewed on. So gross. We sanded the whole dresser down, used wood filler for the splits and chews and also replaced all the feet with new spindles. Here's a few pictures so far.
Beginning
Middle
New spindles for the feet!
New spindles for the feet!
Along with the nightstand, we sanded this little baby down. This took a little effort because the more difficult pieces had to be done by hand...which is not fun. It also has this cute little drawer that was lined with ugly red felt, I ripped it out and replaced it with a bold pattern paper. We were originally going to paint this white as well, but Mike thought we were going to have too much white going on in the room. So to be a little more creative we're painting it a similar color as the hardware that's being used on the main dresser. I say similar because although we chose the blue colored hardware over the green, the blue still has green in it and we are using more blues than greens. I can't wait to share the final pictures with all of you!!!
Beginning
Middle
Fabric
Mike and I agreed pretty early on that since we were not going to find out Baby B's gender that we would try and keep everything as neutral as possible, hence going forth with a white and gray color palette with accents of blues and pinks. We have definitely added some shades of blue (more aqua) to the room knowing it could go either way. I did share a few different fabrics that we chose for the baby that are being made into blankets and/or changing pad covers. I ordered all my fabric online from a few different places and they were a little more expensive than your average cotton that can be found at a Hancock Fabrics or JoAnn's Fabric store. Since the fabrics we chose were a little more expensive I was not about to just cut into them without making what I call a 'Mock Up.' For me to make a 'mock up' I actually did go to JoAnn's and bought cotton at about $3 per yard. I did this so I could play with my patterns and if I needed to take more fabric in or whatever I didn't feel bad screwing up the practice one. I did this for practically everything: changing pad cover, fitted sheet, and our blankets. Here's are the 'mock up' or practice pieces.
Fitted Sheet...I LOVE how our fitted sheets turned out! Mike thinks maybe I should open a shop up on Etsy...maybe! We'll see!
Changing Pad Cover...Pretty much exactly like the fitted sheet except for the dimensions.
This adorable flannel blanket was made by my mom. She makes these for everyone she knows that has a baby. Usually she will have some boy and girl ones made and then once the baby arrives, she embroiders them with the baby's name and birth date. She wanted to have one ready for us so I picked this as my 'boy' blanket. We typically use basic receiving blankets and put them together to made one double thick blanket. This blanket was made with Carter's receiving blankets. It came with three prints: elephants, polka dots and stripes. I have always loved these because they keep your little babe warm and they are awesome for baby to lay on/play on.
Flannel Blanket
This adorable flannel blanket was made by my mom. She makes these for everyone she knows that has a baby. Usually she will have some boy and girl ones made and then once the baby arrives, she embroiders them with the baby's name and birth date. She wanted to have one ready for us so I picked this as my 'boy' blanket. We typically use basic receiving blankets and put them together to made one double thick blanket. This blanket was made with Carter's receiving blankets. It came with three prints: elephants, polka dots and stripes. I have always loved these because they keep your little babe warm and they are awesome for baby to lay on/play on.
Needless to say, we've been making these blankets for a very long time and don't need a 'mock up' blanket. I am making a cotton/minky blanket for Baby B and I am making a 'mock up' one of those.
Here's a panel blanket that I made for a very good friend of mine who is also expecting in just a couple weeks. She and her husband are having a boy and have decorated their nursery with the monkey/jungle theme. I came across this flannel panel a few months ago and had to snatch it up for her!
Like I've mentioned before, I'm fabric obsessed! I just have to have Mike keep me in check so I don't get too out of control.
Here's a panel blanket that I made for a very good friend of mine who is also expecting in just a couple weeks. She and her husband are having a boy and have decorated their nursery with the monkey/jungle theme. I came across this flannel panel a few months ago and had to snatch it up for her!
Other Decor
In the last several months Mike and I have purchased a few other small pieces to help with organization. We've bought baskets, a container for toys and blankets, etc. I've also found some Google images that I really liked and I'm printing them to be framed. I've also designed some of my own prints using PhotoShop and I will also frame a couple of our maternity pictures that we had my dad take for us. We will share those soon with you too!
As for baby toys and books, well I'm working on a post all about great baby toys that Mike and I have found and love! I hope to post that within the next couple of days. Books...oh my goodness we have been receiving some awesome books from the book exchange that we participated in. We are so thankful to those that have followed through and have blessed our baby in that way. Baby B has a great little library started already! I can't wait to share the final photos with everyone.
Our little babe has continued to kick and punch a lot. Just the other night I had a little hand squished hand on my hip and a little foot up in my ribs, I joked to Mike that the baby was trying to do the 'star' yoga pose. We are getting SO close, I can't believe we only have 3 to 4 weeks (give or take) left until we get to finally meet our little one!
