My Mom Life: Top Used Baby Shower Gifts

When your baby shower finally rolls around, you expect to get items off your registry. In the real world you get a handful of things off the registry and a ton of clothes, diapers, and other random things. Here are my top baby shower gifts that I've used the most. Hopefully it will give you an idea for an upcoming shower you are attending, or something you could use as a new mom.
I told myself I wasn't going to do a pacifier, and here I am with a kid addicted to this Wubba Nub. This has come in handy to soothe Amelia, and help her soothe herself. It stays in her mouth better and is way easier to find without my glasses on in the middle of the night. Now that she is getting older, I've noticed her using the pacifier less and mostly playing with the animal. We are hunting down an elephant one now, in the event we loose this one.

The sleep sheep is one item we did register for. My daughter loves the ocean sound, and goes right to sleep in her car seat. We have the travel and the regular sized one, and use both.

We did not register for this projecting night light/ sound machine, but we use this every night. We actually have 2 because I broke the 1st one trying to travel with it. Amelia loved the projections, especially the moon and stars. This machine also makes the ocean sound (along with many others), and has a timer.

This has been her favorite toy. Someone told me that babies can see black and white better when they are new. Not sure if that's true, but she interacts with this toy and not many of the others. My husband named it Tree Trunks (like from Adventure Time).

If you don't get anything else, you need a Boppy pillow. This is a life saver, especially if you're breastfeeding, but works great for bottle feeding too. Amelia liked to sleep on this in our laps when she was little bitty, now she likes to sit in it. I would recommend buying extra covers.

I am using this baby monitor right now. We had no idea what to go with and I just picked one at random, but this one works well for us. I know there are all sorts of high tech ones out these days, but I'm tired and busy and who has time for figuring out crazy stuff when you may only have an hour or two to get things done?!

What are your top baby shower gifts?

DIY: A Cute Baby Shower Thank You

 

I  was looking for a simple, cheap, and cute thank you for the girls at work who were throwing me a baby shower. I wanted something useful/yummy that they could take home with them. I usually bake cookies, but lately I've been really short on time, and who doesn't like chocolate?! I saw this idea over at The New Domestic. Their version is kinda fancier, but I like my simple version using things I had on hand. I used things I already had on hand and only had to buy the chocolate bars. Look through your supplies and be creative!

Supplies:

• scrapbook paper (fabric would be cute too)


• clear tape (you could try glue, but I didn't want to wait for it to dry)


• marker (stickers would be cute)


• paper doilies (you could also use ribbon, yarn, washi tape, stickers...)


• something to cut with


• chocolate bars wrapped in foil and removable label (these were actually very hard to find. but most specialty chocolates are still wrapped in foil)

Step 1: Get your chocolate naked!

Be very careful removing the label, mine was glued to the foil a bit.

Step 2: Measuring

Flip your scrapbook paper over so you don't mark on the pretty side. Use one of the chocolate labels and just trace around or make marks for cutting.

Step 3: Cutting

I have this nifty little paper cutter from when I made our wedding invites, but a ruler and scissors works (or just trace and cut free hand on the line).

Step 4: Tape and Fold

Lay your chocolate face down on your scrapbook paper, fold an edge over and tape somewhere near the center on the back. Pull the paper tight to get a crisp edge and tape the other side down.

To get a crisp edge, run your fingers down the sides and crease the paper with the edge of the chocolate (just like wrapping a present).

Step 5: Decorate

Using these little paper doilies, I measure where the best spot would be to write.

I just used my sharpie and wrote a quick thanks in the center.

Next, I just taped the edges on the back.

And voila! All finished!

That's What She Said Sunday

Another week has come and gone, and WHERE DID OCTOBER GO?!

This month has been crazy busy for my little family. Today is my LAST baby shower, and I couldn't be more thrilled. As much as I love presents and cupcakes, it can be a little overwhelming. Not to mention the hand cramps from writing thank you notes. (I'm in desperate need of stamps!)

Between work, baby showers, baby classes, fixing up the nursery, and being a tired pregnant lady, we haven't had time to do all the fun fall things we like to do. We still haven't bought a pumpkin (let alone carved one), gone to the corn maze, bought Halloween candy, or got around to planning our little Halloween party (lets not even talk about costumes). Again, it's a little sad and stressful, but Clint put it into perspective last night by saying next year we will get to experience all those fun things with Amelia (and won't she be cute!).

So here's to one more round of cupcakes and thank you's! Tomorrow I hope to post a little DIY for a simple thank you, so stay tuned.