One of my favorite blogs regularly posts things that she loves and that make their lives easier with her kids. I always look forward to reading these posts…even when all I had were our dogs and cats! I may not keep up with it but thought I’d try to do something similar!

You all know about our fingernail/fingerchoppingoffphopia so mittens at our house are a must! The problem is that not only does little missy have cankles she also has nice chubby wrists and those mittens you get at places like Tar-jay just don’t cut it….or, I guess that they do, and that is the problem. They cut into her poor little wrists! Speaking of the blog I mentioned above, I discovered these through her and purchased these Satsuma mittens on Amazon.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our activity gym. We actually have two, one upstairs and downstairs. These are an absolute must! We do tummy time, brain time, all sorts’a time on this thing!

We love our art cards. We received a couple of sets as gifts and I ordered the metal mobile to hang above her changing table that will hold them once we get that part of her nursery finished. They are all black and white and when she sees them she is in awe. Her eyes get really big and bright.

This next one gives kuddos to Daddy. This was all him. He wanted this diaper backpack. Mama wanted a fancy schmancy mucho expensive one. We both got our own. Mine is heavy and bulky. It didn’t make this list. Enough said. (hint…sneak peek to baby girl’s nursery!)

Okay, this thing is not nearly as fancy as the next I will discuss but it IS magic at supper time. About 75% of the time it allows us to eat supper together! I believe it came from Shopko. Warning, it goes super fast even on the low speed, almost alarmingly so….perhaps this is why it works….

This is a two-fer! Baby girl loves her Mamaroo! This thing is the cadillac of swings. We love that it plugs in to the wall (yay for no batteries!). It has so many options: tree swing, wave, rock-a-bye, car ride, kangaroo-this doesn’t even touch on the different sounds. All of the motions go five different speeds. The car ride is hilarious. Going really slow reminds me of driving around the block while going fast is like driving on the interstate. Three things I will say about the Mamaroo. First, get the mamaroo, not the rockaroo. Yes, it costs more but it also does more. Second, I wish the little mobile thing above moves…hint hint to 4moms. And finally, save your money on the newborn insert. That is the colorful thing she is lying on. You have to buy it separate and I think you can save some dollas’ and accomplish the same thing by rolling receiving blankets up beside her.

The second thing in this picture is the receiving blanket she is wrapped in. We have all sorts of fancy blankies but our go-to blankets day-in and day-out are these that were hand-made by Nana. We first got two that were this size from a friend the night Lainey was born. They were hand-me-downs that her Grandmother had made for her children. They are simple. Made from flannel and huge. Aden & Anais make blankets similar in size but you just can’t get them quite as tight….although we do love our Aden & Anais blankies, too…. At any rate, when Nana was here visiting she made us a bunch more and we lurve them!

This may be silly but praise the Lord for this and for dishwashers!

Again, another silly one….this was a request from Daddy when Lainey came home! We love Scentsy’s newborn nursery and even now this is what our home smells like!

Plugs. Thats what we call ’em. My brother told me we couldn’t have too many. He and Auntie proved that by buying Miss Lainey bunches while they were visiting. Missy seems to have taken a liking to the Mam plugs.

This picture is just for fun….and to make sure you are paying attention.

Lainey loves bath time. Absolutely loves it. If she is a crab apple there are usually four things we can try. A bath, let her stand, put her in her straight-jacket or show her the Things That Are Awesome poster. We try to do a bath every night. We don’t necessarily wash to help avoid drying her skin out. We just let her sit in the warm water and she can’t get enough of it! Her bath seat is the best, it sits in two positions and I got it off of Zulily (which is quickly becoming a very bad habit!) but can also be found here.

Again, a two ‘fer. We love white noise at our house. Adam and I sleep with the loudest box fan we can find. This little sound machine was a steal! We got it at Wee Cycle, the used kids store in Kearney but can be found new here.

The second thing on here is what we lovingly refer to as potty pads. They are water-proof and we have them in several places in the house where we change Lainey’s diaper most frequently. We try to give her tushy quite a bit of air-time. These particular ones were Zulily finds but we also have these.

(Oh! And, another nursery sneak peek!)

Our most favoritest burp rags in the whole wide world are from Aden and Anais. These things will absorb like no other. They also have these little bitty snaps on the corners so you can use them as bibs when they get older….We got ours from a baby boutique but I’d recommend you get the less expensive version at Tar-jay (although now that I look closer I can’t tell if those come with the snaps or not so it may be worth the splurge to go with the other!).

We discovered that our Things That Are Awesome poster settles Miss Lainey by coincidence. I supposed it is all the black and white detail. Whatever, not going to argue. We’ll take it all day long if she wants to stare at it, fine by us!

Okay, last but not least. We were a little uncomfortable using these at first. For about the first 5 weeks or so we used the flannel blankies at night and just did a nice tight swaddle with two different blankies. We received a bunch of these baby straight-jackets, though so were definitely curious. Oncewefiguredouthowtousethem they were great! And, she really seems to like them. We joke how they keep “that mean little girl” from hitting her. “That mean little girl” also steals her plug sometimes. Such a meanie. Once her arms aren’t as flail-y I suppose we’ll think about trying something else….