I am in the midst of a spring cleaning/organizing frenzy, including packing up some of Colin’s outgrown outfits, toys and bottles.  Yes, the little man is ready to move on to sippy cups.  Hot damn, whose kid is this and why is he growing so quick?  Before I had kids, I remember thinking, “this kid isn’t older than that? I coulda sworn he was older!”.  But this kid is growing at warp speed. In fact, today at the eye doctor, I had a witness account of him saying “hi” back to me.  It’s possible he was babbling, but they were pretty impressed that he mimicked me pretty perfectly.  I still maintain my son is speaking fluent english. Take that, mompetitors.

So in honor of the despot growing up, I’ve got a little list for those of you with kids. I call it “Despot Approved”. For this edition, I’m focusing on pre-crawling Cols, because life was simpler then.

THE Pacifier.

Not just *a* pacifier, this is THE pacifier.  The Gumdrop pacifier.  True story- we got one of these at the hospital and I worked up the nerve to ask for a backup while we were there.  And we actually kept the extra hidden away just in case because we could not find this particular model sold anywhere. And it worked for us for the first five months of Colin’s life. When we moved to Boston, imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered our local Shaw’s carries them.  Sweet relief, since Colin won’t take any other brand of pacifier.  Not even the cute ones. Sad face.

For Christmas, we gave him a “Wubbanub” which is a little stuffed animal attached to a soothie (same nipple as the Gumdrop).  He loves it, and I love it because when he was small, we could lay it on him and it would keep it in place (someone had a hard time learning how to keep it in his mouth).  Now that he’s older, he likes to hold onto it himself and put it in his mouth or, more often than not, throw it on the ground.  Which brings me to….

Pacifier Wipes

I had these on my registry and received not a little ribbing about it from my parents. “Pacifier wipes? A fool is born every day”.  But we use these non-stop these days.  Did I mention Colin likes to throw things?  We also used them when we brought the little guy home from the hospital because we were sure he would die from germs.  That was when we asked people to use Purell when they touched him.  Ha.

Green to Grow Bottles

I’ll confess: we bought these ‘cuz they looked good.  But they are the bomb.  They have held up really well- much better than the other bottles we bought- ThinkBaby, which have completely taken a beating- we can’t even read the numbers on the sides of the bottles anymore.  Green to Grow are green, BPA free, pthalate free, blah blah free. Whatever. They are cute and the best part?  You can use them as a system- as Colin grows, we are able to convert these to sippy cups- they sell handles and silicone sippy nipples for the bottles you already own. Genius I tell ya.

Fisher Price Rock n Play

Like most infants these days it seems, the despot had a bit of an acid reflux issue when he was born.  He wasn’t able to fall asleep laying down- it was just too painful I guess. The pediatrician suggested we buy a sleep incliner. So we did. And he slid down it every night and would cry bloody murder when he was flat on his back again. So we resorted to him sleeping in his vibrating chair.  But that is apparently frowned upon.  So again, I hit the old internets and came across everyone talking about colicky babies falling asleep in this “RnP” as they called it.  We finally decided to bite the bullet and throw another $40 at the problem.  Best $40 ever spent. It is essentially the same as a co-sleeper, but super cheap. And totally portable. We used it all over the house- perfect for the despot to watch me while I made dinner, take naps, and yes, sleep through the night. God Bless you Fisher Price.

Fisher Price Glow and Soothe Seahorse

We got the same Sleep Sheep everyone else has.  And it worked. Sometimes. I kept reading online about this Seahorse that was a miracle worker. So I finally bought it for Christmas for a 3 month old despot. And I wish I had it for the first week he was home. That thing really did work. It glows and plays music- you can control the volume and length of time as well. Much cheaper than the Sleep Sheep and works even better.

Mahattan Toy Winkel

This was probably the first official toy Colin played with.  I say probably because I am the bad mom who forgets to fill out her only child’s baby book with essential information like that. Anyway! This toy came attached as a “bow” on a present from one of my bosses.  And it is the best toy ever- part teether, part motor skills practice, part rattle, it was the first thing Cols could wrap his small, yet adorably chubby fingers around. And once he could grab it, he swiftly shoved that thing into his mouth.  Hated “actual” teethers, loved this toy.  Hated rattles, loved this toy. So there ya have it.

It’s just a list- it’s not the ten commandments. One thing I’ve learned along the way? Not everything works for every baby. I wish! They may not work for you, but they worked for Colin. Much like everything with parenthood, ya gotta keep trying till you figure out what works!