My Top 10 Baby Item Picks

Having had a baby for a year now I feel like I have a much better understanding of what kids actually need/don't need!  It is really hard registering for baby showers when really you have NO idea what you actually need or what you really could do without.  I have a number of friends and family members that are pregnant (or will be soon!), and many have asked me what I think they should get.  Well here are my top ten:

1.  Video baby monitor:  We have the Summer Infant brand one, from Target.  I really like it, no complaints.  I've also heard good things about the Motorola brand ones.  The older Briana gets, the more handy this thing is! 

2.  Interactive Bouncer:  By interactive I mean one that has lights and sounds, the works!  We have the Fisher Price rainforest bouncer, but I'm sure there are a million out there.  We used it often times for meal time! 

3.  Immersion hand blender:  If you plan to make your own baby food (which you should; its easy, cheaper, and good for baby!) an immersion blender is the easiest way to do it.  I speak from experience, I had a Baby Bullet and it worked terrible. Bonus: this isn't just for baby food, make yourself a milk shake!

4.  Chicco travel system: We have been SO happy with both the car seat and stroller.  The stroller is huge and takes up the entire trunk of your car, but we still use it tons.  We did have to buy an extra base so we could have one for each car.  The car seat is easy to use; easy to tighten and loosen.  Also......get a good convertible carseat.  We rocked the infant car seat until she was 10mon old, and when I was looking into buying the next one I read a TON of reviews.  We ended up getting a Britax one, and have loved it! Bottom line is don't go with the cheapo car seat, they are more difficult to use and not as comfortable for baby. 

5. Box Fan:  Yep, you heard me right.  A plain ol' box fan you used while living in the college dorms.  They are the best for white noise, they sell fancy shmancy white noise machines but this works great.  This way you don't have to tip-toe around during nap time or ignore phone calls because you are afraid to wake baby up!  And research shows that by putting a fan in the room to circulate the air lowers the risk of SIDS significantly. 

6.  Play mat:  Babies struggle with entertaining themselves....especially from the ages of 4mon-7mon.  A play mat with hanging toys, lights, and music is the perfect way to entertain them for like almost 10minutes!  You can get a LOT done in 10min :) 

7.  Swing:  And not just a boring one, one with multiple positions that can swing side to side.  Briana lived in the swing for the first 3 months, and then continued to nap in it until she was almost 6 months old!  The only reason I got rid of it was because we were selling our house and I was trying to de-clutter.  I would tuck a blanket around her in the swing and out she'd go! I would recommend getting one with an AC adapter, the one we have only uses D batteries.

8.  Carrier:  We have used the carrier way more than I thought we would, and I really imagine using it a lot more for any other babies we may have some day.  After reading a ton of reviews I decided to go with the Beco, mainly for the option of facing forward.  This carrier is great on my back (most of the babies weight is on your hips), I am able to wear it for extended periods of time no problem.  I am not sure how it works with little babies, she was 7mon old when we got this one.  But we used Baby Bjorn tons before we got this one as well (it just wasn't as nice on my weak, old, nurses back). 

9.  Exersaucer:  Once they are able to crawl/walk this is the only way to contain them safely!  I am so sick of ours sitting in the living room, but I use it almost every day while I shower.  Briana is just about done with it though (cries the second I put her in, but usually is ok with her movie on for 15min).  But if you need to go do something and can't worry about baby getting into something this is great!  We started using this at 4mon old, babies like to be upright and looking around, so this was perfect early on.  I didn't include a link to this one because we have an older version (shout out to garage sales!), but really any will get the job done!

10. Boppy Pillow:  Especially for breastfeeding, new babies are floppy and hard to coordinate getting them on the boob!  The boppy pillow is perfect for supporting baby while you are trying to figure out your shirt, nursing bra, lanolin ointment, and breastpad.  We also used it to put her in on the couch (GASP!  Yes...she napped in the boppy on the couch) and when she woke up at 5am we put the boppy pillow between our heads in bed and put her there to buy a few more hours of sleep. 

Well I obviously could keep adding things to this list we have found very helpful this past year, but I'd say this is a good representation of what we used the most!  Feel free to add comments of other things you felt like you could not have survived without that first year.  And anything we should absolutely have going into year 2.......

Mr. and Mrs. Bryant & Kaitlin DeKruyter!!!!

This weekend we celebrated Bryant and Kaitlin's wedding!  

Such a beautiful couple!

It was such an amazing day, I want to go back and do it again! I was a bridesmaid, Alec was an usher, and Brie was the flower girl!  It was a very busy weekend, but so much fun!  They had both the wedding and reception at Blythefield Country Club near Rockford.  When they told me this past spring they wanted to do the wedding outside in October, I definitely was UNSURE!  But, oh my stars, it was they most perfect day ever!  It was absolutely beautiful, they are going to have amazing pictures! 

We just love Kaitlin so much, she is great for Bryant and the perfect addition to the DeKruyter family.  She brings style and fashion (which our family severely lacks) and she has an amazing artistic side (she was an art major at Calvin!).  Bryant is just starting his 2nd year at Calvin Seminary and Kaitlin currently works for the EGR library. 

My mom made Briana's flower girl dress.  She doesn't have it on in this picture, but the florist made her an absolutely adorable head dress, she wore it down the ailse but we had a hard time keeping it on her for pictures.  Actually.....I honestly don't think we got a single great picture of her all day :( .  Oh well, what can you do with a 1yr old that is sick. 

The girls wore ivory dresses, with navy blue wraps, we had orange accidents in the flowers as well.  The boys wore navy checkered shirts, dark orange bow ties (REAL bow ties, there was a lot of research and youtube watching to figure out how to tie them!), and grey pants.  It came together amazingly I thought, so fall looking!

(my Mom made her own dress as well!)

Alec and I did the 'shoe game' with Bryant and Kaitlin, where you ask them different questions and they have to answer either Bryant or Kaitlin to them by holding up the appropriate shoe.  It was so fun and pretty hilarious!  There were many they agreed on (some the 'right' shoe went up a little TOO fast!) and still a bunch they disagreed on :).  Ah, the beauty of marriage! 

Thankfully many of the DeLange family was invited, they were able to help with Brie a bunch.  Brie didn't stay long, she was there for the ceremony and pictures afterwards.  Then we had a babysitter come and pick her up and take her back to our house. 

We even got Grandma on the dance floor! 

It was a fun night, we are so excited that at least for the next 2yrs Bry and Kaitlin will be near us and we will be able to see them lots! 

One Year Pictures

Yesterday my mother-in-law, Elaine, came over to take some one year pictures of little Brie.  Despite Brie  having croup, she did amazing!  Usually getting her to smile is not an easy task, but she was full of smiles and willing to do whatever we wanted.  It was easy to get hundreds (yes, hundreds) of pictures of her!  Here are a few that she edited already:

Between all the new DeLange family pictures I have, Bryant and Kaitlin's wedding, and now these I have some major work to do updating all my frames!  We have almost no pictures on the walls still, so now is the perfect time to get everything up!

DeLange Family Pictures

I know I say this like every other post, but I am so incredibly grateful that my mother-in-law is an amazing photographer!  We decided it had been way too long since our last family picture.  The whole family is 26 people (soon to be 27 in December!), that is a lot of people to coordinate schedules with.  Especially since so many of us are medial and work weekends and odd hours!  The pictures turned out incredible though!  I am very excited to get prints made to hang on our still empty walls!

Brie's Birthday

Brie's big day was a smashing success. She celebrated by having a great morning nap (2hrs!!), daddy took a half day, pizza for lunch, smushing a cupcake, and having a huge family party for dinner. 

We had both the DeKruyter and DeLange family over for dinner Friday night. So you know, just a small family party of 35 people :). It went great and we had so much fun!  She got some amazing gifts from all her loving aunties, uncles, cuzzies, grandpas, grandmas, and even great grandparents!

Alec and I decided to have her do her 'smash cake' for lunch when it was just the 3 of us.  I just knew she wouldn't do it with 35 people watching her.  It was good we did it with just us, she poked at the cupcake for a few minutes and then dove into it head first!  And LOVED it!  We had to spend a lot of time afterwards washing off the hot pink frosting! 

Here is her cake smash:

Here are some pictures from her party:

We can hardly believe all the changes she has made in the past year!

She got a shopping cart from my parents!

12 Months Old

*** sorry for the delay on this post. Having some serious computer problems****

It has officially been one year!  Sometimes I look back and wonder where in the world this last year has gone, and at the same time it feels like Briana has been apart of our lives forever!  She is growing up so fast.

One year ago....

This is on our way out the door to the hospital (4am) after my water broke in the night.  I am not looking to pleased here, pretty nervous and the contractions were starting to get painful!

Then just a mere 12hrs (sure didn't seem that long though...) after arriving to the hospital our baby girl was born!  I have been thinking back to that time recently, and it is amazing what you forget (or maybe block out?!).  I remember all the nurses in labor and delievery saying, "Oh, you will forget about all this pain and all the unpleasant stuff.  You will just remember your beautiful baby!"  Well, a year later and I find that partly true, I sure do remember pushing for almost 2hrs and not exactly enjoying it!  Totally worth it though :)

And now here we are with our big one year old.  She is such a little busy body.  She loves to crawl around, open drawers and empty them, also loves to empty any bag, box, or bin that she comes across.  We are constantly finding her with stuff we have to take away.  She is a little magnet for things she is not supposed to be playing with!  Some of Brie's favorite things to do are: walk behind toys she can push, play in the DVD drawers, ride in the stroller, play in the dog bed, make the 'woof' sound, and shake her head no.  She is just every where though, oh my word!  Still no walking or standing on her own; but she is able to push things and walk behind and hold our hands and walk.  I don't think it will be long before she is on her own, her biggest hurdle is the fact she is a big fat chicken and has no interest in walking!  She is too nervous to move around on her own.  

We are getting 1 year pictures taken October 14, so many more to come!!!!

Up until about 2 weeks ago she was nursing 4x/day and eating 3 meals a day.  But just recently we cut out the 2 day time feeding and she is having a bottle with half formula half cow milk. She wouldn't take straight cow milk so we are easing into it. Food is a struggle, she is very picky and does not like to try anything new.  One day she will eat something, and the next day she won't!  You should see my kitchen at every meal, I usually end up with 4 different things on the counters trying to get her to eat something besides her few favorites.  Her favorite foods include: bananas, yogurt, any type of bread, grapes, and pasta.  Not a lot of variety....there are other foods she will sometimes eat, but just depends on her mood.  Oddly, she eats food from Alec WAY better than from me. Any food she doesn't want gets thrown off her high chair tray (which Josie just loves!) and she shakes her head no, and even will screech sometimes.  We just keep trying different stuff!

Brie is still taking 2 naps a day (usually around 10a and 3p, give or take an hour), she sleeps for just over an hour usually.  I would love longer naps, but oh well.  Maybe when we move to one nap she will (I'm sure crossing my fingers and hoping and praying!).  She goes to bed between 7-8pm every night. Lately she has been waking up around 6:15am every morning, it is killing me!  WAY too early, especially since I will be starting my new job in a couple weeks working the pm shift.  That will only give me about 5hrs of sleep! We will have to just see how it goes, thankfully I am only part time and don't have to go in very often.  We have tried a later bed time, but she still wakes up the same time and is just a crab during the day.  

She isn't really saying any words (probably going to get yelled at by the pediatrician when we go in!).  Sometimes it sounds like she is trying to copy a word we just said, but she does say mama and dada.  And of course she knows 'woof'.  She does a lot of pointing, which is very cute! She chatters a lot and knows how to make vroom vroom noises when she pushes her truck (yes, she has a truck :)).  She loves to be loud (wonder where she gets that from...), if other people are having a conversation that does not include her she just screams until we pay attention to her.  Oh boy!  

It is so fun to teach her stuff.  Some stuff she picks up on so fast, like I taught her to feed her baby doll a bottle and she remembers that!  She sometimes will give hugs, she just leans in on your shoulder.  And her kisses are open mouth kisses!  She doesn't let us miss any of her needs.  If she is tired she lays on the floor and cries, if she wants food she pulls on her high chair, if she is mad she screams and throws stuff....definitely makes her needs known!

Alec and I feel so blessed to be Briana's parents, we love watching her grow and develop and become her own person.  We love her so much and are just trying to enjoy each stage she goes through!!