Favorites for the 6 to 12 month old!
Your baby is 6 months old. Yeah, Mom! Chances are your baby is sleeping through the night. From 6 months to their first birthday, babies will reach many milestones including eating ‘solid’ food, babbling and even starting to say a few words, sitting up, crawling, cruising, and maybe even walking. Phew! That is a lot! Fortunately, many great items are available to help make the next 6 months a great ride for you and your baby.
Here are a few of my favorite ‘must-have’ items for Sweet Pea when she was in the 6 month to 1 year phase of life:
Baby Mum Mums. Baby Mum Mums are organic rice biscuits that are great for a few very important reasons. When your baby starts wanting ‘real’ food—and by real I mean something other than breast milk or formula—Mum Mums are a great snack. The dissolve quickly in your baby’s mouth so there is no risk or choking. They are fantastic for when your baby is teething and cranky. They come prepackaged so it is easy to pop a few in your diaper bag for an ‘on-the-go’ snack option, and did I mention that they are organic?
A mirror. Really, any mirror will be great. There are tons of options. The point is, your baby will love looking at that very interesting and hopelessly cute, ‘Baby from the other universe.’ With Sweet Pea, the allure of the mirror was so great, that anytime she was crying, all we had to do was bring her face-to-face with ‘other baby’ and 90% of the time she immediately stopped crying.
Organic, squeezable food. Ok, I know that I should really be telling you all to get a blender and make all your baby food. I never did that. I really did not have the time. That is fine though because there are some really fantastic organic (yes, organic) brands of squeezable baby food on the market. My favorite brand is Earth’s Best Organic. We started Sweet Pea out with First Bananas and quickly moved up to the more refined flavor combinations like apple/peach/oatmeal, or Pumpkin/Spinach. If Earth’s Best brand was my favorite, it was followed closely by Ella’s Kitchen Organic (did you catch that big ‘organic’ in there?). Especially as Sweet Pea moved from the totally pureed baby food to the last stage before the full-on table food immersion, Ella’s brand offered some really great flavors. Sweet Pea’s favorites included Cheesy Potatoes, and Chicken Casserole. Yummy!
Fisher-Price Go Baby Go Poppity-Pop Musical Dino. If I had to pick one toy that topped the list as Sweet Pea’s favorite, it would have to be this one. She was absolutely fascinated with the balls, and spent many hours learning cause and effect as a baby scientist. It comes with a few balls, but Sweet Pea threw all kind of things in there just to see them pop. Even now that she is 2 years old, if she sees this toy, she wants to play with it.
VTech Sit-to Stand Learning Walker. By the time your baby is able to stand up and cruise, they are going to want to move out! Enter this great little walker. Cruising babies love to push things. Even now, Sweet Pea loves to push strollers, shopping carts, ball poppers. This walker is very stable and the extra musical options on the front mean it is great for babies who are just learning to sit as well. Sweet Pea’s favorite feature was definitely the phone. It is no surprise that she was an early talker.
A Standing Table. I don’t have a brand recommendation for this item because I got Sweet Pea’s for about $5 at a garage sale. She loved it though. It really promoted her leg strength and also reinforced cause and effect since there were so many buttons to push and sounds to hear.
Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster Seat. Who needs a real high chair when you can snag this little beauty for a fraction of the cost? I love this seat and we are still using it as a booster seat for Sweet Pea. The price is fantastic of course (I think it runs on average $25-$26) but the size is what makes it amazing. The seat fits on any kitchen or folding chair you have. But wait, there’s more. This seat is super easy to pack up and carry with you… anywhere! It takes about 10 second to fold up. We have taken it to restaurants, parks, packed it for road trips. Why buy the expensive and bulky high chair? This works great!
Ball pit. I love this toy. You can’t really buy a ball pit (wait, you probably can.. you can buy anything nowadays. Ha!), but it is super easy to create one. We got a ton of balls at a garage sale for maybe $10, and we bought the cheapest, smallest swimming pool for about $8. So, less than $20 and you have a great, active, sensory experience for your soon-to-be toddler. Because the balls are squishy, your baby can feel safe to fall, explore, crawl, and climb. Plus, there are a ton of balls. Throwing practice!
A sensory bin. Again, this is something you will probably want to just make yourself. I made a great one for Sweet Pea using a plastic storage container and a bag of jasmine rice from Costco. Then I put all kinds of plastic animals and sand toys (scoops, rakes, etc…) in there. We kept the bin outside for almost a year before we had to clean the rice out and Sweet Pea had a blast with it, even in the winter months.
Scarves. Sweet Pea loved scarves. We played ‘peek-a-boo,’ danced with them, and just had a blast. It was great that they were sheer enough that Sweet Pea could still see me, but opaque enough that it gave her the illusion of hiding. Great fun!
So, those are just a few of my favorite items for the 6 to 12 month old baby.
What were yours?
Thanks for reading!
Sara
