Lily's Transformed Crib

She’s yet to see it as she’s been at grandmas for the past few days, but tonight will be her first night in it.

I fully expect her to be up all night un-organizing her room. She usually takes over an hour to go to sleep in her crib as she’s up jumping and playing. Now that she has the whole room, I think she’ll be up all night!

Goodbye crib. Hello toddler bed. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily loves to swing, so we looked at getting her a swing for the back yard. We went back and forth on the decision until we found the one we wanted on the clearance shelf at Target. It was such a good deal that we couldn’t pass it up.

Lily and her swing.

A few days later we were out for a walk and came across a garage sale that had a trike and a slide, two other items that we knew Lily would love. They are priced anywhere from $50 to $120 each new so we hadn’t been convinced to buy them. But when we got both for $10, it was a done deal.

Yea! A Slide!

Lily's new trike.

Lily has always loved being outside and going to the park, but now that she can just go out the back door and go for a swing or down the slide, she loves it even more.

Spoiling Lily and getting great deals. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The truth is, it’s not just a box, it’s whatever your imagination can think up.

I know that when we get a delivery from diapers.com, Lily gets excited for the box. She’s not too concerned with what’s in it unless it’s her.

Lily in a box.

One box can provide endless hours of entertainment and joy as it’s more than just a box. Much much more.

So what do you think? If it’s not a box, what is it?

Use your imagination, it’s not just a box. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Do you have a humidifier in your kids room? When is the last time you cleaned it?

If you’re anything like us, it’s probably not been cleaned in a long time. And that’s not good.

Lily’s humidifier was a year old and I don’t think we ever cleaned it. We only use it in the winter and never thought twice about it. Turns out, it was supposed to be cleaned weekly. Weekly!

We ended up turning it off until we could get her a new one. Just turning it off seemed to make her sleep better. I could have been coincidence, but then again, you never know. It could have been blowing bad stuff into the air too.

If you have a humidifier, then I’d say check the instructions to see how often it should be cleaned. Then clean it or turn it off.

Do humidifiers cause our kids to get sick? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We’ll Lily has completed her first round of medications. She had to take both eye drops and liquid meds and she did pretty well.

With the eye drops the trick was to turn her head to the left try to put them in the corner of her left eye, right by the tear duct. Once in, turn her head to the right and they’d slide right in. Then do the same for the other side.

This works really well except when your kid doesn’t want to be sitting there. Then it’s best to bribe them.

I’d give Lily the bottle of eye drops and she’d play with it for a few minutes. Then I’d take off the cap and give it to her while I put the drops in her eyes. It made it easier, but still not easy. However every little bit helps.

With the liquid medicine that had to be taken orally, she actually didn’t mind the taste, but she never remembered that. It was a struggle to get the first drop in, but after that, she was happy to eat the rest.

Again, bribing works well. Lily could have a few yogurt drops or some juice if she’d take the medication.

Also, Target has great syringes and bottle system that works really slick. I don’t know what other pharmacies do, but Target makes it easy to dispense, measure and give the meds.

No one said that giving medication to a little one would be easy, and it usually isn’t. But its learning a few tricks here and there that can make it easier on everyone.

Tips to giving medicine to your little ones. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

It all started because he said he had some on his shirt and it snowballed from there.

We talked about kinds of butt paste, diaper rash, how horrible it is, crying babies, pooping and all that fun stuff.

It’s amazing how much you learn after a year with a baby. I can now hold conversations on all sorts of baby topics!

Did I just have a conversation at work about butt paste? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We’ve had it for a few weeks now and it’s working out quite nice. Lily can run around in it and doesn’t have to worry about falling flat on her face like with regular SleepSacks. When it’s time for bed, I pull her little feet out of the feet holes and she’s in a SleepSack. Her feet stay nice and warm too, just like they should.

When we bought her SleepSack with feet, we did buy it a little to big. It’ll work for years to come, but right now there are a few issues with length. Nothing Lily can’t overcome though.

If you like the warmth of a SleepSack, yet hate that your little one can’t run around with it on, check out the new versions with feet. They’re a nice addition to the SleepSack family.

Testing out SleepSacks with feet. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

That’s why we put a gate around our Christmas tree. We purchased a North States Superyard XT Gate Play Yard and wrapped it around the tree. It fits nicely and helps keep little ones from running into it.

However, it doesn’t stop little hands from reaching out and grabbing ornaments that are at her height. So each time she grabs something, I put it back on the tree, further up.

The gate also helps deter the cats. Not as much as Lily, but any little bit helps as we don’t need any more cats sleeping in the Christmas tree or knocking it over.

This is actually our second Superyard Gate. We have another one that use to be a play pen but now spans the front of my desk and across the bottom of the stairs so someone can’t get into trouble.

If you’re looking to keep your little one out of the Christmas tree, check out the Superyard Gate. Maybe it’ll work as good for you as it does us.

Protecting the Christmas tree from Lily & the cats originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

If you haven’t decided on a Halloween costume for your baby yet, check out some of these unique and fun ideas!

A pea pod for your little sweet pea.

If you’re little one is a little bit more sassy, than punch it up a notch with a chili pepper costume!

Don’t want to go healthy? Then how about pizza!

What about a super hero? Like Batman! Or Batwoman.

And don’t forget Robin. Everyone needs a side kick. Ohh maybe that could be Dad.

You can never go wrong on Halloween being a cute cow.

Or a dinosaur. Raawwwrrr

Anyone fancy a mermaid?

Have your baby rock out this halloween as Elvis!

Most babies aren’t that slow after a few months, so this could be a speedy snail.

Mmmm a Hershey’s Kiss

Be different. Be Yoda!

Scooby-Doo, where are you?

This would be perfect if you got Dad dressed up as Shaggy!

Put your little stinker in a skunk outfit and then you won’t have to worry about them filling their pants as it’ll be part of the costume!

Maybe your little peanut should be a peanut for Halloween.

Look! It’s Superman! Or Superbaby.

Ok, I think dressing up your baby in an air freshener costume would be hilarious!

What Halloween costume are you picking? Or what has your little one dressed up in the past? I’m sure we’ll need some good ideas for next Halloween.

17 Unique and Fun Baby Halloween Costumes originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Baby Toothbrush

Lily is now getting her teeth brushed once a day and she love it.

Brushing our teeth has been integrated into our bedtime routine so that she gets use to having to do it.

Each night, after our nighttime bottle, we run over to the bathroom, get our toothbrush, and clean off our teeth. Lily knows exactly what’s going on and races to the bathroom every night. She’s sooo excited.

We first started out with a big plastic baby toothbrush, and then moved to a much smaller finger brush. The downside is that I have to stick my finger in her mouth, but after Dad gets bit once or twice, Dad learns how to do it.

Pretty soon we’ll move to twice a day brushings and I think it’ll be easy as she already loves to get her teeth brushed.

I never really thought about brushing a baby’s teeth before, but I sure don’t want her taking after me in the cavity department. Teach them young!

This is the way we brush our teeth. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Amazon Delivery

Lily loves when things come from Amazon. The boxes are extremely fun to climb in and out of and they usually come with paper packing inside!

Never mind the toys that may be in there too, we’re mainly just interested in the box.

The best things come from Amazon. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I don't have a drinking problem.

Once Lily turned one, the transition was on from bottles to sippy cups and from formula to whole milk. It took a couple of weeks, but she’s successfully transitioned.

The biggest thing to remember is to go slow. We fist started introducing sippy cups instead of bottles before we started transitioning milk.

We’d give Lily one for a snack every now and then so that she’d get use to sippy cups. She also got water or juice in them so, by the time we wanted to transition to milk, the cup wasn’t too big of an issue.

The biggest thing with sippy cups is that every cup is different. Some cups Lily likes, some she’s not so fond of. We have 6 different kinds of sippy cups and pretty much know now which ones she can drink out of easier than others. If we pick the wrong cup, Lily may not drink it at all, or not drink as much as we think she should. She is getting better about taking any cup though.

When transitioning milk, we started off by mixing formula in with the milk. Now the formula has to be liquid. Don’t try to mix powder into milk as that won’t work well.

We started with by mixing in 1/2 a cup for a few days, then 1/2 a bottle and so on. Increasing the amount of milk every few days and decreasing the amount of formula.

At first Lily didn’t like the milk, but it grew on her and after a couple of weeks, she had no issues with just milk. Now she just drinks it, no questions asked.

The transition from bottle to sippy cup and from formula to milk wasn’t that hard. It’s all about taking it slow and realizing that the first few encounters with milk probably won’t be the best, but eventually they learn to like it.

Successfully transitioned from formula to whole milk and bottles to sippy cups. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily has recently found the joy of toilet paper.

It’s soft, it’s within reaching range, easy to grab, and it just keeps coming the more and more we pull.

Needless to say, all toilet paper has been removed from the holder and is up high where little hand’s can’t get.

I sometimes wish that I enjoyed the simple things in life like this!!

The joy of toilet paper. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I joke that Lily has mosquitopox. The red bumps make me think of chickenpox, but lucky for us, they’re not.

We’ve tried getting a clip-on Off proctor but that didn’t do much good. Now we are trying kids mosquito spray and seeing if that helps. We put it on the stroller and on Lily in hopes of keeping those darn mosquitoes away.

It’ll be nice come fall when the mosquitoes die off, but for now, the battle is on and I’m determined to win.

Dear mosquitoes, stop biting my baby girl. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

SPÖKA Night Light

Then, months later, we were at Ikea looking around and came across the SPÖKA night light.

I’m not sure what kind of animal, or whatever, it is, but the glow lights up the entire room and it even changes colors!

It’ll cycle through many colors, gently fading in and out. You can even set it so that it only shows one color if you’d like.

It’s small, made out of some sort of soft rubbery material, and has a rechargeable battery inside so that if the power went out it’d keep on shining.

I’m pretty impressed with the SPÖKA night light and I’m really glad we picked it up on a whim.

I’d highly recommend one if you need a nigh light for your baby, or just a cool light for yourself.

Lily has the coolest Ikea SPÖKA night light. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Not a Car Seat

Over the weekend we installed our second, non-infant, car seat. Lily is finally outgrowing her first one and so we’ve got a big new fancy one. I swear it’s more comfortable than the rest of the seats in the car.

Anyway, installing car seats is a pain. But I realized that instead of just pushing down on the car seat with your hand, like the instructions say, if you actually put your shoulder against the car seat and put your weight into it, it you can push it down much farther, and do a better job of securing it into place.

Still, I worry that it’s not installed as good as it should be, but I’m at a loss of how to get it any tighter. It’s not going anywhere, but I worry any way as they say most car seats are not installed correctly.

Either way, now we have to figure out how to get her in and out in the car as it seems like a tight fit. I like the idea of not having to lug the carrier around, but then again, that means I’m now the carrier!

We also have to figure out how to get mom to see her. In the last car seat, we had mirrors setup so that mom could see Lily at all times. This seat is to big and mom can’t see Lily, but Lily can see the cars behind her!

Ahh the fun of car seats.

When installing a car seat, put your shoulder into it. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

However, the two on the top have gap between them and I was wondering if this was normal.

Did your baby have gaps in their top teeth?

Do all babies have gaps in their top teeth? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

This news was of particular concern to us as we use the Dry Max diapers and don’t want our baby to have to go though this. In fact, a few weeks ago, her butt would be very red after coming home from daycare. However, at daycare she uses Target diapers, not the Pampers, and after a few hours at home, her butt would clear up.

The good news here is that we are not having any issues with Pampers Dry Max, but that didn’t stop us from picking up some other diapers just in case.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is also looking into the claims, so they’ll let us know if there is any truth to these rumors or not.

The funny thing is that Pampers is blaming it all on Facebook and social media. I guess being connected can be a bad thing.

Pampers Dry Max creating rashes and chemical burns? Not for us. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You want something small and easy to use as you’ll be taking lots of photos. You’ll want to be able to carry it around in your pocket, pull it out quickly and take a picture of most everything.

Plus, with digital camera, you can take LOTS of photos and then only print out the ones you want. Or take photos of random moments in hopes of getting that perfect shot. I can’t tell you how many bad pictures I have, but I have three times as many great ones!

What we usually do is import all our photos into iPhoto and then select the ones we want printed out, put them on a USB flash drive and take them to Target to print out. Messing with a photo printer is not high on my list of things to worry about. Instead let Target, Wal-Mart or another store do the printing.

It’s also nice if your digital camera can do video so you can record events as they happen. It may not be as good of quality as a regular video camera, but the small size and portability make up for it. Plus the video in most digital cameras are getting much better.

So when you’re out buying a crib, car seat, diapers, clothes and tons of other baby stuff, don’t forget a good digital camera. Those pictures will be around long after the everything else and will be one thing that you’ll cherish the most.

Every parent needs a good digital camera. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily In Her Bumbo

When we had Lily, a Bumbo was on our list of things we wanted, but didn’t need right away. So when it came time for Lily to start learning to sit up, we didn’t have one.

We tried to get her to learn how to sit up by holding her, and were having OK success. We then remember a friend had a Bumbo and we were able to borrow it, however, we hardly used it.

Turns out, that our practice was all Lily needed. By the time we got the Bumbo, she was already sitting up pretty well and sitting in the Bumbo was not something she had much interest in. It was confining and although she didn’t mind it she didn’t really like it.

Come to find out, that our friends little girl pretty much hated it and they didn’t really use it either.

Bumbos are a good idea, but they aren’t really needed. Learning to sit up is just like learning everything else with a baby, it comes from time and practice.

Personally I’d say save the $35 dollars and skip the Bumbo.

The Bumbo Is Overrated originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com