What helped us (9-12 months)

I feel like this age period (9-12 months) was the hardest to decide what helped us the most. Most of the stuff has already been written about before on the blog, but I was able to narrow down these items. 

Also, at this point, we really had our schedule and routine down, making our days much easier than they once were. Naps have been more predictable and eating solids finally clicked, so most of these items are just toys that she enjoyed and kept her occupied for the longest periods of time...

Scout- Mia got the LeapFrog My Pal Scout for Christmas. It can be customized and it says her name. She LOVES that Scout says her name. Her eyes lit up the first time he said "Hello Mia!" He also sings songs that are customized to her and she will push the button that makes the songs play and just dance and dance along with him singing. 

Indestructible books- Mia also got some indestructible books for Christmas. These books have been great to really let her discover books on her own terms...like a baby. She was interested in books, but she was destroying them. She would chew, taste and eat them. She was slowly eating her way through her library, so these indestructible books really came in the nick of time. 

She is able to read these books the way she wants to...with her mouth. So I will let her "read" one of the indestructible books while I read her another. If I am able to get the indestructible book from her long enough, we will read that one as well. Since the indestructible book is waterproof, it is a great bath time book as well! 

NOT an indestructible book

Infantino Soothing LullaBuddy- This little lamb was a hand me down from Mia's older cousins. We are still having issues with Mia and her car seat, especially at night. So we have used this lamb to help calm Mia down, since the lamb's belly lights up while it plays lullabies. 

Do your babies hate their car seat? Any suggestions to help soothe Mia/make car rides less painful? 

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Sippy cups (lack of)- We have tried A LOT of sippy cups, but Mia just will not drink from them. She prefers drinking from our cups, but she makes a huge mess. The sippy cup that I really had high hopes for was the WOW cup, but Mia couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe now that Mia is older, she will be able to drink from this cup. However, the sippy cups that seem to work best for Mia are the sippy cups that have straws. 

She really prefers the seasonal Target straw sippy cups, similar to this one. They currently have some really cute Spring sippy cups, so I got her a bunny and baby chick sippy cup for Easter. They are definitely not spill-proof, but at least she drinks from them!   

Do you guys have a go-to sippy cup, I feel like I have a drawer full of them! 

Shampoo rinse cup- This cup has made bath time so much easier! I bought it from Buy Buy Baby (it was cheaper there compared to Amazon). Mia does not like holding her head back to rinse and washing her hair would always end in tears. With this cup, she keeps playing and doesn't even realize I'm washing her hair. Anything to make bath time more efficient is a win in my book! 

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I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week and is ready for Easter! We have been "hunting" Easter eggs at our house all week (read: Mia has been going around collecting and gnawing on Easter eggs).