10 Things for a Toddler Mom

I guess Johnny's only officially been a toddler for, what? Two months? Despite the short time frame, I already have a list of items that I find invaluable as the mother of a mobile child. They are (in order from least to most important):

10. An easy-to-lug-around diaper bag - I use a backpack. When you're carrying a screaming toddler away from the park, the last thing you want to do is juggle him and your diaper bag. My backpack stays in place on my back with little effort. LOVE.

9. Leap Frog's Scout toy - Johnny freaking loves this thing. It goes in his crib now and plays ten minutes of bedtime music when he gets ready to go to bed. If he's not quite tired enough to fall asleep or if he wakes up early in the morning, he'll sit and play with Scout until he gets sleepy and passes out. This was a gift from Grandpa and Grams Mitchell and it has been AWESOME.

8. Super Baby Foods book - This book became my bible when Johnny started on solids. It was great because it had a list of foods to try at each month of age (should be approved by your pediatrician, of course), an index of how to cook various foods, snack and recipe ideas. Now that Johnny's getting a little picky about foods, I can just open up this book, find a recipe to try and see how it goes. Everything in here is natural and pretty easy to make and I could not live without it.

7. Vita-Mix blender - I use it twice a day. That's how much I enjoy it. Seriously, getting Johnny his necessary servings of fruits and veggies has been made so much easier by this fabulous invention.

6. Munchkin snack catchers - Johnny figured out how to use his before he was one year old and it made traveling in the car and walking around the grocery store so much easier.

5. A car seat with cup holders - This is not something I was looking for in a car seat until my mom pointed one out at Babies R' Us and mentioned that it would be great for a toddler. At the time I didn't understand the value of cup holders since I had a 7-month-old who couldn't hold much in one hand or the other. Now, however, I find them exceedingly convenient. Sippy cups, snack holders, toys, etc all go in the cup holders and they turn a trip to the grocery store into a delightful 10 minutes of solace since Johnny has something to do.

4. Magnetic tot locks - After Johnny figured out our original locking mechanisms, we had to find an alternative for the cupboards in our bathroom. We keep things like medicine, mouthwash, hydrogen peroxide, and nail polish in there and have no (convenient) way to store these things out of Johnny's reach. Enter the Tot Lock by Safety 1st. Now, no one can get into our bathroom cabinets unless you have the magnetic Tot Lock key in your possession. Granted, they were a little difficult to install, but totally worth it.

3. Playtex sippy cups with straws - When we started the whole sippy cup thing, Johnny could not get the hang of the ones with the spouts. I kept having to tip them up for him so that the liquid would flow into the spout and he could suck it out. Plus, he would get frustrated because the flow was really slow through the spout. These ones with the straw AND the handles? Are perfect. Except when he turns them upside down and shakes them to empty the contents on the floor. But that's not the sippy cup's fault.

2. Ziploc storage containers - I have a zillion of the small cup-sized ones because they are *perfect* for packing a toddler-sized serving of a snack. Plus, since they are so small, several of them can fit easily into my backpack (I mentioned that Johnny's getting a little picky, right?) and take up very little room in my pantry/refrigerator.  

1. Baby gates - And I mean the kind with a gate in the barrier. We have three (one at the top of the stairs, one at the bottom of the stairs, and one between the kitchen and the formal dining room) and I go through them a million times a day. If I had to step over each one (especially since I'm pregnant) I think I would have broken my neck by now.

Just the things I get a lot of use out of on a daily basis... even though I've only had a walking child for a few months.