Favorite Baby Items: 6 Months Old

And just like that, we have a 7 month old! [I'm a little late with this blog post - we finally moved into our new house this past weekend - so things have been so busy with the move!] Time is absolutely flying by and we're trying to soak up every single second of it with our sweet boy. This past month he starting eating oatmeal and fruit and veggie purees! With this new stage, here are a few things that we loved having for this past month's new adventure while he was 6 months old:


Chicco Polly High Chair - We love this high chair for a few reasons - we first wanted something that was sturdy enough but also something that could fold up easily for storage, that wasn't too bulky. Bennett loves to sit in it - either eating, or if we're eating, he'll sit in it with a few toys on the tray and he's completely occupied. We registered for the gray color (Papyrus) because we wanted something gender neutral to use in the future.

OXO Tot Roll Up Bib - Easy to wipe and clean bibs are key! My first choice are the Pottery Barn Cambria Bibs; but - I just looked on their website and they are no longer selling them (thank goodness we received a few as gifts during our showers - they're awesome!) Our second favorite would be the OXO brand - they're silicone and easy to clean. Also - the neck has wide velcro, which  makes it easy to adjust/size for your baby's neck (small and large all the way up to when your child is a toddler)! It also has a little lip at the bottom so that it catches anything you or your baby drops in the process.



Bumbo Multi-Seat - This chair is great because it comes with the insert for when your baby is small (Bennett started being able to sit in it on his own at 6 months), and you're able to take the insert out to use as a booster seat, when your child is a toddler. It's been great for when we need to feed him at someone else's house, when we have traveled for vacation, or if we're eating dinner at a restaurant. My parents were recently in town to help us with our move, and we took this seat to the restaurant - it was great for feeding him while we were waiting on our food :) It's also small enough so that it's easy to haul and doesn't take up a lot of space.



OXO Tot Feeding Spoons - I love these because they're softer. When feeding and wiping the excess food off of his face, it's gentle enough so that it doesn't scrape up his face or turn his face red. Recently, he started reaching for the spoon himself and now sticks it in his own mouth.




Munchkin Love-A-Bowls Set - I love these bowls - they are the perfect size, they come with lids and they are inexpensive! They are an add-on item through Amazon (because they're cheaper) - so I added these on to a regular order and was extremely pleased when they arrived. We ordered our second set a few weeks ago are very happy with them!



Gerber Organic Whole Grain Oatmeal - Our little guy started eating this oatmeal once a day, and is now having it twice a day - once in the morning with fruit purees and once in the evening with vegetable purees. When speaking with his doctor, I wanted to make sure that we were feeding him something that was more than just a filler and had actual nutritional value - so we opted for this Whole Grain Oatmeal instead of rice cereal, and it's been great. They are sold at your usual stores - Wegmans, Target, Giant - but Babies R Us often runs online sales, and last time I placed this order, I was able to get 5 containers for just $8 - so I'd recommend keeping an eye out for pricing :)

 We're looking forward to what this next month brings us! :)

Summertime Grilled Chicken & Veggie Bowls

This is one of my favorite summer go-to dinner dishes! It's so easy (and so delicious) - and it's full of healthy ingredients! We always make about 4 chicken breasts when we make this meal - it leaves us with plenty of leftovers for lunches for the remainder of the week :) If you know me, I'm not a huge leftover fan; however - I took these leftovers for lunch twice the week we had these, and they were just as great as they were on the day we grilled them! I will definitely be using this recipe for future lunch ideas when doing our meal preps for the work week.

Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts (4)
- McCormick Marinade Packet (optional)
- Bell Peppers
- Onion
- Italian Salad Dressing
- Brown Rice

Tools
- Grill basket (if you don't have one, use tin foil!)

Before grilling, I love to marinate our chicken. I enjoy using the McCormick Marinade Packets (so good!) and they are always on sale (you can usually get them for B1GO or when they are individually on sale, you can grab them for 99 cents each - sometimes less). Our new favorite flavor for their marinade packets is Smoky Applewood. I typically marinate our chicken overnight for the best flavor.

Next, simply slice your peppers and onion. I usually use 4 bell peppers. Fun fact - I recently read an article that reported that red, yellow and orange bell peppers have substantially more vitamins than green peppers do.

Once your ingredients are prepped, you're ready to grill! For the veggies, we usually mix them all together in a grill basket and add a few drizzles of Italian Salad Dressing on top. Since I already packed the majority of our kitchen for our move (and accidentally packed both of our grill baskets) - I simply made two pockets from tinfoil, and placed the peppers/onion/Italian salad dressing mixture in them to grill. It worked just as well!

Once your chicken and veggies are on the grill - I typically start the rice and it's usually done at the same time the chicken and veggies finish on the grill. This time, I added steamed broccoli to our veggie mix and it was delicious! I usually drizzle a little more Italian Salad Dressing on my bowl when it's all done.

That's it! It truly is so easy, and so delicious! Can't wait to share more of my favorite summer recipes once things with our move slow down - we're almost there!! :)

Favorite Baby Items: 5 Months Old (Beach Edition)

And just like that.... we have a six month old! Time is absolutely flying by and we have been busier than ever! (Hence, the lack of blog posts) :)

In addition to everything taking place in our lives this past month, we also went to the beach for a week long vacation. This post will outline a few items that we loved having with us at the beach for our five month old!

Outdoor Blanket - This blanket was amazing for the beach. It folds up into a little bag for easy carrying, and it's easy to throw in the washing machine when you're done! We received this as a present from my work shower, and it was truly a life saver to have. We have lots of pictures of Bennett lounging and sleeping in the shade on this blanket.




Battery-Operated Fan - I thought of this last minute before leaving for the beach.. thank goodness for free and quick shipping via Amazon Prime! :) This fan was great to have on the beach (and it's extremely slim so it fit well and easily into our big beach bag). It takes 6 D batteries, and we used it all day long on the beach for a week, and it's still kicking! Our friends borrowed this fan for their beach trip this week, so I'm anxious to see how long it'll last on one set of batteries. Regardless, it was nice to have a constant breeze for Bennett while on the beach and by the pool. Also, we didn't need it for this - but if you did, it comes with a cord as well, so if your room was a little warm in your beach house, it could serve as an indoor fan as well.

Rash Guards - We were lucky enough to receive a few new rash guards as gifts for showers, but also lots of swim hand-me-downs from cousins (thank you Ali/Brady and Sus/Ethan)! One piece of advice I have on rash guards for summer time: go one size up for your little guy/girl. The true size that they're in will probably be a little too snug for comfort (mixed with the warm weather, you'll have an overheated baby in no time). We went with the size 9 month rash guards (he's currently in 6 month tops) and they worked perfectly for Bennett. This little pineapple rash guard with the matching pineapple trunks were my favorite! :) Don't forget a beach hat for their little heads!



Honest Company & Babyganics Sunscreens - We loved both brands. There are so many different brands of sunscreen out there for babies (so it can definitely be overwhelming when trying to choose the best one for your little guy/girl), but these two came highly recommended from friends.  Both are tear-free, mineral-based and worked great for Bennett.




Beach Umbrella - We liked having an umbrella for shade for Bennett. We often sat under there with him too while he napped, but we brought two down to the beach with us (one for us, one for him), to make sure that he had enough space in the shade to nap and play while being completely covered. You can never be too careful having them in the shade, completely lathered up in lotion and covered in hats/rash-guards/suits! :)

Side note: We made the mistake one day on the beach of letting Bennett nap without his hat on, thinking that it may be too hot for him. He was completely under the shade, wearing his bathing suit and rash guard, while also lathered in sunscreen - but we didn't take into account that the sun could/would reflect off the sand and onto Bennett's face while he slept. While the sun was never shining on him, he did manage to get a little sunburn on his face, without being directly exposed to the sunlight. Lesson learned - always nap with a hat and reapply sunscreen even when your little guy has been napping in 100% shade for 2+ hours. We definitely won't be making that mistake again and were much more careful for the rest of our trip :)

It made it easy also traveling with Bennett's teething toys mentioned in last month's blog post - if they were to drop in the sand, they were so easy to quickly rinse off and give back to him :)

There were a million other items we brought for Bennett for the week - but these were the most beach-specific ones I'd recommend looking into if you plan on taking a trip to the beach soon with your little one! I'm sure this list will be much larger later this summer for another beach trip with a mobile baby - lots of toys and additional things to keep him occupied when he's able to move around! :)

Favorite Baby Items: 4 Months Old

And just like that, our little man is 5 months old! 

Here are some of our favorite items from 
this past month (in no particular order):



Fisher Price 4-in-1 Step 'n Play Piano - This has been Bennett's favorite this past month. Now that he's sitting up (not quite on his own yet - but amazing head control) - he loves sitting in this piano and playing while interacting with all of the lights, music and different pieces that he can move around. The videos that we have of him in this, he's sporting the biggest smile on his face. The thing that first drew me to this piano was the fact that it can be used in 4 different stages, while Bennett is growing. Stage 1: The removable soft keyboard mat is great for tummy time. Bennett loved looking at the bright colors. (When the mat is on the bottom of the piano, it plays music when Bennett steps on each key). Stage 2: The baby is able to spin 360 degrees while in the middle section to access all sides of the entertainment system. Stage 3: The sliding seat encourages first steps as baby walks back and forth between the two main sections of the piano. Stage 4: Once your child is standing and walking on their own, you can remove the seat and they'll be able to move freely while playing!

Infantino Flip Advanced 4-in-1 Carrier - This carrier was actually recommended to me by a friend that had used it with her babies! This too has 4 different ways to use the carrier for different stages. 1)Facing-in narrow seat for newborns, 2)Facing-in wide seat for older babies, 3)Facing-out narrow seat for babies with head control, 4)Back carry wide seat for older babies & toddlers. I was a little skeptical because it was much cheaper than other carriers that we were looking at - but I would without-a-doubt make this purchase again! Now that Bennett has great head and core control, it's so easy to wear him (at this stage, I prefer wearing him in the front, with him facing out) when running into a store, and he loves watching everything! We too used this often when he was a newborn and in his first few months while taking Tucker for walks. Overall, a great buy! :)



Elephant Baby Teether - This wasn't the exact brand that we have, but it looks exactly like this elephant. I found these on the discount site, www.jane.com for $2.99 each while I was pregnant. I love that they're so easy for Bennett to hold, and they're safe for him to chew on. Another plus - his little soft elephant that he loves to play with (previously mentioned here) has a built-in pacifier strap and these elephants attach so well through the little heart hole. We have one in teal, baby blue and mint! 

Sophie the Giraffe - We received these as gifts for shower presents and the hype is true - these giraffes are great! For some reason, babies are obsessed! Bennett has been teething for a couple of months now, and we recently just introduced him to these. He loves that he can fit the whole smaller Sophie in his mouth and can easily hold on to her, and he also loves that he can hold the larger Sophie and nibble on her when he wants to. The larger one is also easier to find and grab while he's in the car seat, which is extremely helpful!


If you missed our first few months of favorite items - 
be sure to look back at previous posts - so many great items!! :)

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Hard Boiled Eggs - Seems like something that would be so simple, right? There are millions of different instructions out there on how to make the perfect hard boiled egg, and when you find the right one - you stick with it and swear by it! Besides, no one likes a mediocre hard boiled egg - right? :)

I not only want to share this one with you (because it works and is my favorite thus far) but another reason I post so  many recipes on my blog (besides the obvious reason to share them with all of you) is to keep an electronic cook book of my own, so that I can easily come back to my blog, use the search function and easily find a recipe that I've already posted about, to quickly make again. Side note - for this recipe/set of instructions especially, Eric will thank me for finally writing it down somewhere so that I don't have to ask him for it each time I want to make hard boiled eggs. Eric - you're welcome, ha!

So - here goes the instructions for the perfect hard boiled egg :)

Instructions:

1 - Place 10-12 eggs in the bottom of a pot, so that they're all sitting on the bottom and not on top of eachother.

2 - Cover the eggs with water so that the water line is approximately a half inch over the tops of the eggs.

3 - On your stovetop, bring your water to a boil. Once your water starts boiling and bubbling, remove the pot from it's current burner and move to another burner.

4 - Place a lid on your pot and set your new burner on it's lowest heat setting for 20 minutes.

5 - After 20 minutes, remove the eggs from the pot and place in a strainer - run under cold water for a minute or so to cool them off.

That's it! :) I love using hard boiled eggs for salads, and Eric likes having them on hand for a quick and easy snack. Another tip to make your life easier when it's time to actually enjoy your eggs, is to remove the shell of the egg once you're done cooking them, so that you don't have to spend time doing that later. I like getting that part out of the way from the get-go :)

Also - for those of you that love hard boiled eggs, my Dad makes the BEST deviled eggs - I'll have to see if I can squeeze the recipe out of him for a future post :)