MY TOP 5 BABY ESSENTIALS: (10-12 MONTHS)
I cannot believe that I am writing this right now – Julia is officially, a ONE year old! a Toddler! What?! How does the first year go by SO fast? I feel like she has been developing rapidly in the past few months and blossoming from my sweet little baby into my full blown, still sweet, but also very adventuous, toddler! I struggled a bit to put together 5 essentials for these past three months because really I’ve found that the most important thing about this age is the ability to explore. Letting her roam other parts of the house, letting her try new things and bringing her to new places she hasnt been before. She recently went to the zoo for the second time and even though its only been 3 months since her last zoo visit, she was so much more interactive this time! She loves the aquarium portion, and immitating the squaks of the exotic birds. I’ve got to say – as crazy as it can be at times, I think this is my favorite age so far! But less blabbering, here are my 10-12 month essentials!
Walker
Around 10 months we got Julia her first baby walker. It took her a bit to try it but once she did she was off to the races. I feel like these give kids a good head start at the concept of walking, and though if its not in your budget (although they are relatively cheap) I dont think its COMPLETELY necessary, I do think it helped and she had a lot of fun with it. A friend of ours also got her a walker, the Minnie Mouse one pictured above and I ended up preferring this one because of the way it is designed. The Fisher Price walker is designed in a way that if your kiddo put a little too much force when pulling up with it, it slides forward too quickly. The more level/less slanted placement of the Minnie Mouse one made it easier for her to pull up and walk with it.
Snack Cup
Julia is currently eating 3 meals a day and a couple snacks. If we are on the go, or had an early lunch sometimes I like to give her some puffs to hold her over until dinner. This snack container is super helpful in that, she can slider her cute little baby hand in it to get some out, without being able to topple it over and spill it every where. She was thrilled when I first handed it to her, even more so when she realized there were snacks inside! Its like the baby version of those dog kong toys. Dog raising and baby raising.. eerily similar, I’m telling you! 😉
Suction Plate
I’m trying to get Julia to move from eating her food right off her high chair to eating it off a plate, to eventually learning to us silverware. I saw these suction plates at Target and decided to give them a go. I really like these plates and how they are divided into three sections, and I think Julia likes that too as she’s not the biggest fan of her food touching and likes to focus on one section at a time. I will say though, the suction capabilities of this particular plate are mediocre. She has successfully pulled it off of her high chair so its something I keep an eye on, and make sure I catch her and stop her from trying to pull it up. There are other brands though, so eventually if it becomes a problem I might try a different variation of this idea.
Interactive / Problem Solving Toys
At Julia’s last neurology appointment, her doctor suggested getting her into some puzzle type toys and in general I’ve been finding that at this age any sort of problem solving toys are great for little minds. Here is one of Julia’s favorites:
Laugh and Learn First Words Smart Puppy
Meal Planning
My last essential isnt really essential for everyone, but its very helpful for me. As a stay at home mom, and even when I was working, I’ve never really been a lunch person. But with a child who needs to eat three meals a day I realized that now I really have to plan for this. Julia isnt horribly picky, or super open to everything. She’s pretty average in her food preferences. Now that she’s weaning off of formula I’ve been trying to be a little more intentional about making sure she gets all her food groups each day. I dont plan anything fancy but I try to have 3 of her favorite lunch meals and all the ingrediants necessary for them on hand always. Julia loves peanut butter sandwiches as well as hummus sandwiches. She also loves blueberries (I buy a big bulk bag of the Wymans brand frozen and defrost them for a little bit before lunch) and brocolli (I get the easy steaming bags) is hands down her favorite vegetable at the moment. She also really loves shredded mozzerlla cheese. Lunch time is really the only meal I have to really plan out throughout the week as she eats the same dinner as us and she’s not much of a breakfast girl so usually whatever I give her is mostly going to end up on the floor so I dont over stress about it.
That wraps up my 10-12 month essentials! I’ll see how things go over the next few months and maybe I’ll have a 15-18 month list as my next one. We’ll see! Thanks again for checking out this post and please feel free to browse around my blog for more posts on motherhood, and life in general!