DIY RIBBON TOY

The little one is a curious bee!  She is putting every single thing in her mouth! She especially loves exposed tags and hanging strings.  She will stop at anything to put them in her mouth --- the sofa's tag, my lounge shorts strings, her burp cloth's tag... to redirect her attention, I decided to make a tug toy.  I found one from Imagination tree and made a version of my own.

DIY OBJECT PERMANENCE BOX

 For the longest time, I've been wanting to buy the object permanence box... but I could not justify the $25 price tag.  I just felt it was too much for a toy I was not sure the LO will play with.  So, I decided to make one instead. All you need is a box and a ball.  This is a box from Ikea.  Any rectangular box with a lid will be perfect.

STORING BABY CLOTHES

The LO is now 9 months! How time flies... Today, I organized her old clothes to put in storage.  This is an underbed storage box where I put her clothes as she outgrows them.  Not exactly organized.

  

DIY PHOTO CARD

My cousin recently had his birthday and I wanted the LO to greet him.  My cousin loves to go to the gym so I drew a muscle man on a poster board and had the LO hold it aka "eat" and "crumple" it.

BABY'S FIRST PLANE RIDE

The LO just went on her first airplane ride! Actually, she traveled 2 times in a consecutive weekend.  It was not bad as I thought it would be.  Prior to traveling, I worried as to what to do at the airport and on the plane being that I've been to a lot of plane rides and I know that baby and airplanes do not go together.  I "googled" for information on what to expect when traveling with a baby but all I got was what to pack for a baby.  So, here is a run down of 5 things you should know when traveling by plane with a baby. Hope it helps! 

WHAT TO PACK FOR THE BABY

The LO just had her first family vacation.  We visited her uncle, aunt and cousins in Arizona.  It was a week of firsts -- first airplane ride, first swim and first trip to the shopping outlet.  It was also a first for my husband and myself to travel with an infant and did we screw up!

I'm not going to lie, but I may have over packed for the LO. I think 1/3 of our checked in luggage was her clothes alone and she only got to use half of it.  I also brought a lot of just "in case" clothes that were not even weather appropriate.  And don't get me started with the burp clothes!  As a general rule I think, it is better to have packed more than she needed.  But nevertheless, it is a lesson learned -- pack what is just needed.

TOYS FOR 6-12 MONTHS

After weeks of research, I have narrowed my list for the ideal Montessori toys for the LO.  The LO is now 6.5 months old.  She is at the "I want to eat everything" stage and "I'm a wiggly worm" stage.  I had to take these two factors into consideration with my choice of toys. 

HOW TO ORGANIZE SMALL TOYS

For Christmas, I got my nephew a Snap Circuit Jr.  It is a pretty cool toy that lets the little one conduct electricity based experiments.  It is recommended by The National Parenting Center-Seal of Approval, Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products and Dr. Toy Best Educational Products.  Really amazing toy for only $25.  The thing about this toy is that each piece is labeled and each piece is equally important than the other piece.  Translation: You can't lose a piece. Initially, we put the little pieces in a bin, but that didn't work since it meant picking out each piece manually to see the label and it was a bit much of work.