My Favorite "Mom" Essentials.

Every Mom has an arsenal of items she can't live without. Ricky is nearly 7 months old and I think I can finally say there are a handful of things that are imperative to our daily activities.

First and foremost - our interlocking foam floor tiles. They are all over the playroom floor (which is hardwood underneath.) They serve several purposes, the most important being they save my kiddo's head. The also make it easier for me to sit on the floor and play with him without my butt going numb or making my knees pop when I get up. They even keep the hardwoods underneath dry and overall, they just look fun. It's nice to have more color in my beige playroom. I searched and searched for a good price on these, since I knew I was going to need to cover over 150 sq ft, I wanted the best price. The first time I heard his head plop on the floor, I knew they were worth every penny.

My next favorite thing is our Nuby Sippy Cups. They have silicone tops similar to that of a bottle. This makes it so much easier for Ricky to begin the transition from bottle to sippy cup. The big handles make it easy for his little handes to hold on to - you try wrangling this cup away from my boy's deathgrip! I can also easily see how much liquid is in the cup. The only improvement I would recommend is including some measuring lines on the outside of the cup, for those of us who are anal and still measuring our kids intake of fluids at over 6 mos of age. I would have to say, this is the sippy cup for beginners.

Our latest new food is a rice cracker from Whole Foods called Baby Mum Mums. Ricky LOVES his Mum Mums. Sounds like num nums doesn't it? That's slang for boobs in case you didn't know. It is a cracker that turns to mush once it's wet. Yeah yeah, Gerber has those little bite size flavored mushy bits for kids but they are full of not-good-for-you stuff and these really just taste better. They are pretty big crackers, big enough for him to hold on to and as he bites into it, there is a nice satisfying crunch. We are still figuring out what to do with the cracker once we have this mushy bit in our mouth, but until then we just spit it out and proceed to take another loud, crunchy bite. We have one every night after dinner. It's like dessert.

We could never make it through bedtime without our Soothe & Glow Seahorse from Fisher Price. Rick and I joke that Ricky is being raised by a toy when it comes to this guy. We put him down in the crib and he instinctively rolls onto his side and lays his arm across his little buddy and continues to snuggle for a good while. It has a glowing tummy and plays soft songs to lull him to sleep. It is also way easier on the batteries than the Ocean Wonders Aquarium (which is definitely cool) It is without a doubt the best $12 I have spent to date. I will have to get a picture of it someday when he is napping in his crib and not in his swing.

The strangest thing that Ricky has come to love is a piece of edging from the foam floor tiles. As a matter of fact, he just rolled across the playroom to get it and is banging it on the floor as I type. It is just a 24" long piece of foam, about 2" wide with a puzzle edge on one side. He chews on it, swings it around, he and Rick have even had sword fights with them. I guess sometimes it's the simplest things. A friend told me her son's favorite toy is a water bottle filled with dry beans or rocks or something like that.

Ricky continues to grow and do all sorts of cool things. His second toofer has broken through and is working it's way in. Rick is upstairs right now lowering the crib because it is just a matter of a couple weeks before he is pushing himself up to a sitting position and pulling himself up on the side of the crib. He is reaching for each of us at various times. Just today I had walked down to the laundry room. When Ricky saw his Daddy he definitely tried to leap from me to him. The other day he even kinda sorta waved bye to me when I dropped him off at daycare. Not sure if it was a genuine wave or him hitting the window of the storm door, but I'll take what I can get.