Baby Must Haves: Month Eleven

Eleven months have come and gone since Robby joined our little family. It has gone by in the blink of an eye. He is the busiest, smartest, sweetest, most loving baby I know. I am going to tell him that and kiss him and hug him every.single.day. until I'm dead. Or can no longer speak. Or he gets married or something and moves away from me. NOOOOOOOO!

Here are the things we can't live without lately! There were lots of things to choose from this month but these are our true baby must haves.

Hape Pound & Tap Bench - Robby LOVES this toy. His KK got it for him for Christmas and he has played with it every day since then! His favorite part is the hammer. He carries that hammer around all day long pounding on stuff. Luckily, it is very lightweight, therefore minimally destructive. ;) Robby is generally destructive so this is good. To date, he has broken five items so far in our home. What's crazy is three of the items were crystal pieces. My vacuum is my new best friend. I guess you live and learn? No more nice things within a ten-foot radius of him. If you like this toy but want something a little more simple, R also LOVES his Melissa & Doug Pound-A-Peg toy.

Fisher-Price Musical Croc Block Wagon - This little number keeps Robby busy for what seems like hours to me. Which is actually somewhere near 20 minutes. It has cute little blocks that make noise when you shake them and a little handle that he can drag it around with. Disclaimer: There is a musical feature. However, it can be turned off for those times when you need your sanity and cannot possibly listen to another children's jingle. Which for me, is all most of the the time. I love music though. Just not the jingles from toys all day long, ya know?

Boogie Wipes - We seem to have had a runny/stuffy nose since October. JOY. A series of colds/allergies/teething are to blame. Poor R. We tried putting him on Zyrtec every night but I didn't really see a huge difference so we stopped giving it. I'm going to ask his doc at his 12-month appointment what he thinks about all this snot. I think it's gross. And sad. These little Boogie Wipes help so much though. They are soothing and keep his tiny baby nose from getting so chapped and red since I am CONSTANTLY wiping it. And the best thing is, they are like booger magnets! Somehow, the little boogies just come right out and stick to them. If you need some boogies wiped, I'm your gal and these are your wipes.

Nuby No Spill Flip-it Cup - We have had the hardest time finding a "sippy" cup that R will drink out of. I think I tried literally every brand and type there is. Straw cups are favored over the traditional hard-spout sippy these days so we tried straw cups first. He totally didn't get it. Then we tried the traditional hard spouts. He'd take a sip here or there if I held it in his mouth, but wouldn't do it himself. Then I tried these Nuby straw cups and he loves them! The straw is flexible and soft, similar to the nipple on a bottle, which helped. I think in a few months we will try to move to one with a more structured straw. He only drinks water or a little juice out of them right now. We are still on bottles for his formula. Oh sad day when the baba has to go. You should see R's face when he sees me carrying a bottle his way. It is one of pure delight. It'll be hard to take that away from him. Tear. But I'll just remember that I can do anything with the power of prayer. And wine.

That's a wrap for our must haves.

Robby Update:

My baby is eleven months old today. I have so many emotions about this. I now have a complete understanding of how fast our little lives go by, and how short my time with him really is. OK, now I'm crying. Help!!!!

Robby is loving cheese, cheerios, and any carb you put in front of him. We are not really a veggie lover yet. R is the SWEETEST, yet roughest creature. He throws himself around and literally rolls over other children. He doesn't know his size yet. Or the concept of personal space. Playdate, anyone?

He weighs somewhere around 24 pounds, wears 18-month size clothing, and my wrists are killing from carrying him. However...he took his first few steps this week! He will only do about 3 steps and then fall over so we are working on getting our balance. His favorite book is Goodnight Moon and he enjoys being read to. He digs music, animals, and wrestling - he could so win an Olympic medal in wrestling right now. Is wrestling a winter Olympic sport? Those mom commercials for the Olympics have me envisioning Robby on the podium 16 years from now. Have you seen those commercials??? Tears every.single.time.

Not much else going on around the Lombardi casa - I'm getting a few fun things together for Robby's big one-year birthday, but I won't be sharing them until after the par-tay. I can tell you that my fingers are throbbing from a little craft I started yesterday. Pinterest, you are the best and worst thing that ever happened to me. OK, off for advil and maybe a little vino.

Nighty-night and Happy February 9!

P.S. - February 9 means it is close to Valentine's Day. And if you still need some personalized gift tags or cards for your littles, I added some super cute items on Etsy!