More Tub Toys!

It's hard to find cool tub toys for Monster's age group. Plain and simple.

I really really enjoy the fun the Munchkin Squirters has brought to our half an hour a day ritual in the tub. Monster knows that it's almost bed time, so he really enjoys his splash time in the tub. And I love squirting water at Monster with the cute little squishy animals.

Alas, seeing the same old toys everyday gets tiresome, so when I was Christmas "window shopping" in our local big box store's baby aisle I came across a simple little toy (toys, rather). A bag full of foam letters and numbers! The packaging suggests 3+, and anyone who knows why I'm welcome to hear the reasoning! The foam is relatively hard, making it difficult for a baby to chew a piece off and choke. Maybe it's just the fact that it's unrealistic to expect your 8 month old to know how to count to 10 and say the alphabet?

Anyways, I bought the big bag of letters and numbers that day and brought them home. They are awesome! Just for the shear fact that when they're wet they stick to the sides of the tub and shower! Monster wont sit still in the bath, and part of the reason could be the colorful letters and numbers plastered all around him in his bath? I like them, because if he's reaching for the letters that means he is not reaching for the bath tub plug!

Not only are the cool right now, but they are a toy that can grow with Monster. As he started speaking more and more, we can teach letters, numbers and colors in the tub. As for right now, I do all the talking and he does all the chewing.

Here's Monster showing me his name.

Cute baby face in the tub!

Chewing on the blue number one!

Infant Bouncy Chair -- Help to Hazard

I married into a decent sized family who are all still very close. Most importantly, that means hand-me-downs are pretty easy to come by.

Amongst the hand-me-downs I received when Monster was born was a simple wire bouncy chair. My sister in law boasted that it was a godsend and for the last 5 months is certainly has been!

When I became a mother the only way that I could hang on to my sanity and independence was to do my hair and put on my face every single day. I feel good about myself starting my day if I feel like I look presentable. Somedays Monster wouldn't allow me to get to that comfortable point until well into the afternoon, but I made sure I got to it.

That's were the bouncy seat came to great use. It's been an almost permanent fixture on my bathroom counter since Monsters birth. Each day I would plunk him in it and start my personal morning routine while he supervised.

Recently though, Monster has surpassed the "Sitting up Unsupported" milestone and often uses his core muscles to lean forward in the bouncy seat to get a closer look at something on the floor or counter. Therefor my helpful morning tool has now become a deadly (maybe not deadly, but very painful) hazard for Monster.

Just like the infant carrier car seat, my trusty wire bouncy seat will now have to be retired to the storage area with the rest of the things Monster has prematurely outgrown. Not to mention that I will have to find some other way to occupy Monster each morning...

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Infant Oral Health

I will admit, before becoming pregnant I did not realize how important infant oral health actually is.
BC Interior Health suggests that parents use a damp cloth to clean their infants gums at least twice a day basically from birth onwards. I am orally obsessed, yes that sounds dirty (haha), I love brushing, flossing, rinsing, and going to the dentist. Even someone so obsessed with good oral hygiene couldn't imagine why a parent would have to be so concerned with an infants gums.

In the beginning I wasn't very diligent with cleaning Monsters gums because I barely had time to breathe between feedings, diaper changes and everything else that comes with caring for a newborn.

Now that Monster is older and likes to grab and hold things he's been practicing brushing his teeth with his infant gum cleaning brush thing. Every morning after breakfast Monster joins me in the bathroom while I fix my hair, brush my teeth and put on my face. He sits patiently, with a huge grin in his bouncy chair on the counter (or floor -- depending on how much he feels like leaning forward or to the side) next to me. I run the cold water over his gum brush and the hand it to him. Like the spoon he's actually got decent aim when it comes to putting things in his mouth.
When he gets the gum brush into his mouth he mimics the motions mommy is making with her hands and tooth brush. Since oral hygiene is so important to me I am ecstatic to see Monster learning enthusiastically the foundation of tooth and mouth care.