Hey hey!
Since we've been all about sleep lately, I thought I'd throw up our favorite bedtime books for babies and toddlers. These are the ones that we've read almost nightly with both kids, and are mostly about bedtime or are on the quieter side.
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Oh hey, Monday.
Will is going through a very funny picky eating stage (it is not funny, I have zero time for it), and we're patiently waiting it out because what else can we do. Commence beatings?
...You buy pouches! Obviously.
We are in the thick of baby feeding! It's so much fun. I realize not everyone gives a hoot about baby food, but I've all of a sudden been inundated with targeted baby food ads for some company that charges OVER FOUR DOLLARS for a jar of baby food.
No, just no. I buy a good amount of baby food to supplement what I make for Will, but I do find that making it myself is cheap and takes hardly any time at all with the tiniest bit of planning. I also don't use recipes because HE'S A BABY but I want him to BE AN ADULT at some point, so I puree regular food with enough water to make it a puree and that is literally the recipe.
You're welcome.
...I feel like I say this about all baby gear that we like, but this is DEFINITELY my favorite thing. Maybe because it's a product for grownups too! Finally.
When I had Will, I knew I was going to need some kind of new diaper bag situation. Beck has all but gotten to the point where she requires very little out in public (can drink and eat without kid stuff at a restaurant, doesn't often get super dirty, etc), but I knew that having a new baby would bring new things to haul around that I'd completely forgotten about.
...I. Love. Baby. Gear.
Here's why: There's a LOT to not know about parenting, so finding something that can make the all-the-time tasks a bit easier, cuter, or tidier gives a great sense of "I've got this" to something that we mostly do not got. It's ok, though! Babies are very forgiving, and gear is here to help.
.......almost four months, but that will include a regression and it'll be terrible and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The topic of sleep is always so fraught with...everything...I guess, when it comes to babies. Babies don't sleep like adults do, but they somehow sleep a lot. Babies don't know how to sleep on their own, but it's dangerous for them to sleep with you (according to some). Lack of sleep is used as a literal form of torture, so the parents dealing with this generally don't deal all that well.
...FIRST AND FOREMOST we heart Dockatot for real no sponsorship just love them a lot.
When I had Beck and was up all night obsessively looking at baby gear, I came across a minimalist nursery gear list with some thoughts on new parents, and an economist had labeled us (at the time) Motivated Overspenders. I think about that all the time, and really believe it's true. Something that might help our kid sleep better? I'll take two, whether it works or not, no matter the cost.
Now that we're on Kid 2, though, I've pared down the things we need and revised some "this is dumb" and "must have no matter what" categories. I'm working on a list of things that we still love/are over/have recently started using with Will, so stand by for that!
.......because that's what my whole life is about. 
Don't get me wrong, Jay and I never hate getting nice things for ourselves, but I never can gather enough ~caring~ to do adult gift guides besides house/kitchen stuff. Our interests kind of drive our gift desires, anyway, so if I were to make an adult gift guide it would pretty much be the entire list from the Kitchen Gift Guide plus a few golf things for Jay and free babysitting.
Someone come babysit twice a week for free, please. ...
Two years and two months, but the doctor is two months behind and so are we, and that's fine, right? 
So! Beck had her two year appointment FINALLY yesterday, which resulted in good scores all over except in the "sitting still for shots" category, where she grabbed the needle (yes, I was holding her, tightly) and scratched it against herself. Baby's first accidental needle stick, I couldn't be more proud. She looked all kinds of baffled and then the nurse put the bubble machine on, and through just the most pitiful tears Beck was all "BUBBLES! Thank you for the bubbles!" So she survived, is my point. And yes, we still believe very strongly in vaccinating, which I assume is why Beck tried to do it herself. Because it's worth it.
Vaccine opinions aside, Beck has gained good weight, knows a gazillion words, and loves going to the doctor even though she doesn't actually like the doctor to touch her. She DOES like telling him how to spell her name and repeating his name back to him over.and.over.and.over, so all was well. It's so different once kids hit two, there are new growth charts and new things to look for and new foods to consider, it's so much fun and nostalgic all at the same time.
We've evolved in our gear a little bit too, mainly to the tune of every spare floor space being taken up by some kind of toddler item. We have very few rooms where kid stuff isn't present, which is just fine with me. I'm not trying to pretend like Beck only lives in one room any more than Jay and I do, and it means she's entertained in lots of spaces.
Here are some of our favorite things!
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Toddler favorites, really, but I can't bring myself to type that. 
But! As you know if you've ever talked to me for five seconds, I'm still one million percent obsessed with baby gear. When we think about having a second kid I'm disappointed that 1. we already have everything we need and 2. we didn't "need" nearly as much as people said we did, obviously. Beck is nearing a year and a half, which I just can't believe, and here are some of our current favorites and things we use all the time.
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Tis the season! 
Well, you've probably done all of the shopping in the world that you need to do, and THAT'S GREAT FOR YOU. I, on the other hand, have barely started. I've gotten gifts for most of my friends and our adopt-a-kid gifts are due Thursday, THEN I'll move on to our families. It's just how the year has gone.
But! My favorite people to buy for are babies, hands down. I'm fully obsessed with baby gear and like having a few different-but-practical ideas for kids + parents. Christmas is a perfect time for a few overpriced gems, so spoil away! PS some of these links are Amazon Affiliate links, which means I get like $1 of whatever you buy if you use the link down there, so that's nice. ...
In honor of Beck's 6 month birthday tomorrow, we're talking about her this week!
As opposed to every other week, where we also talk about her. It just feels right.
Baby gear might very well be my current favorite topic. It's all so shiny and new and exciting and useful and useless and there. is. just. so. much. of. it. I have to remind myself LOTS that African woman do not have a gazillion bouncy things or rattly things or colorful things to engage their children, they just treat them like humans and they fare pretty well. I TRY to remind myself that, at least. We were hugely lucky to get lots of hand-me-downs, so only a few of the things below are things we've actually purchased. But, without further ado, here's what we love and use a ton!
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OK SO. 
If you've hung out with me for more than 5 seconds since I had Beck or, frankly, for months before I had her, you probably have some inkling of how obsessed I am with baby products. Some hugely useful, some just super cute, some cool as all get-out. I spent a ton of sleepless nights while pregnant researching all kinds of stuff, and our MO when registering was 1. get as much used stuff as we could, 2. save receipts for returns/exchanges, and 3. mid-range stuff that was really well-reviewed was our preference for new stuff.
Before we start, on registries: We registered at Target, Amazon, and BuyBuyBaby. This was for a few reasons. Target is everywhere and everyone loves it, PLUS if we got anything that we really didn't like or couldn't use we could use the return store credit for regular stuff like toilet paper, which is kind of a nice baby gift. Amazon has a great welcome-to-your-registry box that I really wanted AND a good completion discount, but we got exactly zero presents from that registry. I can use the completion discount for up to a year, though, so at any moment I could add a bunch of older-baby stuff and order it for Beck. BuyBuyBaby was a no-brainer when I found out that you can use Bed Bath & Beyond coupons there. They also have a great welcome bag (so does Target!) and the store is just SO nice. They always have tons of stock in the store and the employees generally know what they're talking about. BBB is far and away my favorite place to shop for baby stuff, and don't even get me STARTED on how much better it is than Baby's R Us BUT I think that might be a local thing, our Toys R Us and Babies R Us are in one big store and the employees are useless and it's just really awful, but that might not be the same everywhere, in fairness to the company.
Onto products!
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