I shared some of our favorite things for baby months 0-4 and I just went back to read it and it seems like an eternity ago. I’m in part writing this as a way to document this part of our lives for memory sake but also sharing in case anyone else is looking for some new things for their baby.
This activity center looks great in your living room but can be moved anywhere easily. For us it essentially replaced her baby bjorn bouncer because she learned how to unhook the baby bjorn bouncer too soon and we had to retire it (I may or may not have caught her upside down!). We took this activity center outside too after work while hanging out grilling on the deck or “puppy watching” with dad out in the front porch.
Before Lily was on the move we bought the month 4-5 Lovevery play kit and we used every single toy in this kit multiple times a day. She was fascinated with the colors and the ways things moved and sounded. I think it also helped encourage her to build her muscles. We still played with some of this at nine months, and at ten months the body parts book is a staple. Retrospectively Lily is 10 months and I skipped the kit for months 7-10 and I probably should have just got them - Lily had most of the exact same stuff at daycare though so that's the reason I skipped it. It's super educational and if you aren't in daycare I highly recommend just looking at the kits even to copy them if you don't want to purchase.
The classic overpriced teething giraffe also is a favorite for her . It’s aesthetically pleasing but the giraffe ears also reach far back into their gum line. Sophie always accompanied us to dinners at restaurants too for a quick toy to mess with. At 10 months she is still entertained by this little giraffe.
This piano we detached from the original gym . She loved listening to the songs, but also banging her hands on the keys as she got older (we still used it at 9 months even ).
Jake would tell you he hates this high chair five point harness because he hates strapping them all , but I think it’s beautiful to look at and easy to wipe clean. We started Lily on solids at four months after she started reaching at our food. We fed her mostly nut butters to help prevent a nut allergy with her eczema, but now at 9 months she refuses foods if we have even microscopic amounts of nut butters in them! Otherwise she eats anything else! We did a mix of baby led weaning and purées for meals 4-6 months but now at nine months she’s pretty much all solids no purées.
This isn't a toy, but is a necessity for us. I recommend at least two, but I just bought our third. They are the only bibs she hasn't been able to rip off during meals.
We still love our Babybjorn carrier. We use it all the time for quick walks outside and to the grocery store. I think it’s helped her pay more attention on walks to people and animals. In fact her first “real” word (used intentionally without babbling) was “puhpuh” and I think having her out of the stroller interacting with us and the puppies on walks played a big role in the development of her obsession with dogs.
Lily started pulling up on things by month seven, thanks to the encouragement of her new friends at daycare. She was climbing things in our house, and so I bought the Nugget for her to continue to explore her climbing obsession. She definitely used it for pulling up, scooting, and climbing it to get on the couch for window access and “puhpuh” watching. This toy is probably for older kids but Lily uses it everyday and I’m glad we got it out early. We have it in Pebble color so it’s not terrible to look at in our living room. Around this age she also stopped using the activity center as she became more mobile and didn't want to be contained. (Currently at 10 months old she still climbs the Nugget and we use it as a block for our fireplace). There are people obsessed with the Nugget by the way, like a cult for parents. There are endless ways to build this or play, and people get two or more to build even more things as kids age.
Seeing Lily kiss her stuffed animals goodnight is a highlight of my evenings. She’s the sweetest to them and they get more kisses than mom and dad. This age I started catching her laying on them cuddling up and it melts me. I will admit her Tempurpedic bear is pretty nice to lay on :).
Only more recently has she been more interested in stacking cups but it’s so good for her brain to learn to stack them and see them nested inside of each other. Typically she chewed on them at this age but she does enjoy wrecking the towers that I built too,
She started her interest in activity cubes around 8.5 months. Pushing the buttons and playing with the knobs is also a fun activity for her to do in the kitchen while we are making dinner. This one has the most annoying songs but Lily likes playing them. There are a few more aesthetically pleasing options out there, but I linked the one she has.
Books
She is big on reading “buh” (books). We still read Barney’s Nursery Rhymes (always), but Lift the flap books are a huge hit as well as touch and feel. She loves to kiss the book characters too!! These are the nonegotiable ones that must read at bedtime (we let her pick her books!) and then I’ve been rotating a few seasonal ones.
For Lift the Flaps: Dear Zoo and Where's Spot
DOGS - the most amazing touch and feel if your little is obsessed with "puhpuh"s like Lily
As she started to pull up and glide on our furniture I realized socks without grips and footie pajams were dangerous on our wood floors. These amazon ones are our go tos. The colors are fun but Jake and I both agree all solids are much easier for matching!
This month Lily has really enjoyed hearing songs and listening to music. This hippo piano with flying birds is amazing because there's different keyboard settings for piano noise (marimba, tweets, etc) and there's silly noises too. There's also a button that makes songs with every button you push so you sound like a pianist even hitting random buttons. She also has a new musical kitchen that she's been enjoying dancing too and exploring. The kitchen has so many different ways to explore she is still working on figuring it out!
Stuffed animals
The obsession for stuffed animals grew this past month. Not only has she been reaching out at stores to hug and kiss them, but her collection has grown. The cutest of her collection is from Mon Ami (Princess Bun Bun and Collette) . Her Aunt Kris recently gifted her a sweet Cuddle+Kind elephant too.
Santa brought her a perfect sized baby doll that she can carry around. It's adorable, small and light enough that she can take it places and rock it. One of the sweetest moments I've seen is her rocking that baby and patting it.
Lily has a healthy obsession with looking at photos of herself and our family. So when Santa brought her this board book with photos of her family and their names, she was in love. We spent a lot of time kissing her family members (especially Andrew and Nate) and giggling at seeing our family in a book. I love this book as an educational toy (spelling too as she gets older) but it's an adorable keepsake as well. This company is the only place I can see online that offers this type of thing as a board book, and she for sure would rip and crinkle pages.
Stacking blocks and Spinning Gears
Auntie Anna gave Lily these spinning gears and I must say they are relaxing for adults too. We have been playing with them every day and I've already seen how Lily has advanced her skills and can now place them on herself. If you need to gift a baby something or just looking for another toy that is fun - these gears are great! We go over our colors with them too. Her next milestone also includes stacking blocks, we play with our stacking cups still but she really enjoys clicking blocks together (does this every day) and I work with her to learn to stack them too.
Books
We are still very interested in lift the flap books, and mildly less so with touch and feel. Her favorite books are still from Rod Campbell: Dear Zoo, Dear Santa, Oh Dear! . Lately making a big nightly appearance is 100 First Words. I feel like I'm doing flashcards with her but she really enjoys this book and has so much satisfaction when she can point out the "duck" "ball" "sheep" and a few other items she can't say, but can find.
Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider and Brown Bear are books she constantly brings to us. She loves the animal noises with those too. It's been so fun watching her surprise us with new animal noises she decides to say (bah!, ssss!, ooh ooh ah ah!). We have to still stick with board books, she loves to crinkle paper too much.