advice from the vast experience of a one-year mom

Baby girl is thiiiiis close to walking on her own. The baby stage is nearly over! We've had so much fun getting to know this feisty little toddler. Here's a look back at some of my most-used baby items. Hope this helps all you future mamas and papas out there!

1. We are HUGE fans of the Gerber Graduates Rest Easy Spoons. They're shaped more like spatulas, and they have a nice, flat edge, perfect for wiping food off your baby's face. Zach calls it "shaving". ; ) Plus, they have a built in spoon rest so the mouth end doesn't sit on the counter if you have to lay it down for a sec.

2. Our very, very best purchase (well, registry choice) was the Munchkin Nursery Projector & Sound System. She never took a pacifier and never got attached to a blankie or stuffed animal, so this is her comfort item. Anywhere the sound machine is can be home to her. It's crazy, even now, when I'm putting her to bed we'll close the door, turn off the lights, and as soon as I turn on her sound machine she immediately relaxes and lays her head on my shoulder. It's Pavlov's dog at this point, and I am totally okay with that. I am starting to turn the volume down so we can eventually wean her off of it. I don't want her to be the wierdo who shows up to college with her sound machine. ; )

3. She loved to be swaddled, and these little SwaddleMe pods were great. Next time I'll get a few more since she pooped through these on a nightly basis at the beginning. I was not very happy with this kind which were supposed to be for newborns. You couldn't make it any tighter, and she would always wiggle her hands out the top.

4. Bourdreaux's Butt Paste. The hype is real. This stuff is magic.

5. Saline nose drops. She only got two little half-colds all year, but each time these drops worked really well for her. It's scary putting your little one to bed in their own room when their nose is all stuffy. A combination of saline drops, a good humidifier, and a bulb syringe helped clear her out and keep her breathing comfortably all night.

6. I highly recommend having some sort of jumper. We borrowed this Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo, and Jaina loved it. I liked that it functioned as both a jumper and an exersaucer, so we didn't need both. Baby toys are such an assault on the eyes, so I vowed to only ever have one out at a time. Remember this video of Jaina jumping her heart out? She was a big fan.

7. One of my biggest pieces of advice is to put down that frilly dress (or that little man vest) and buy a bunch of sleepers instead. Babies don't go to work or school. Chances are, if you're a stay-at-home-mom, you're not going much of anywhere. There is no need to dress your baby in real clothes every day. I ended up just changing her into a different sleeper every 24 hours. They're cute and cuddly, and you don't have to worry about keeping socks on in the winter. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of fun dressing her up when it's time to go out. I'm just saying you'll get a lot more use out of your sleepers.

8. Ikea's Antilop Highchair = the cheapest highchair in the world! At just $25 with the tray it's a no-brainer. It's not an assault on the eyes, and it's easy to wipe down a bajillion times a day. Also, the legs click off pretty easily so it's not bad to take on vacation and such.

9. The play gym. I was so positive that this was a superfluous item that I refused to register for it. I was gonna set out my grandma's quilt, give her some toys, and she was gonna be just fine. Well, within a few months I was wishing for something, anything, to dangle toys right in her reach so I could wash a dish or put some clothes in the dryer. Zach even set a chair over top of our daughter with some toys hooked to the crossbars for a while (do NOT try this in a home full of other kiddos!). We finally gave in and got one very similar to this Infantino Twist and Fold Activity Gym. It folds up small to take to grandma's, and if you throw a towel over it it's great for shade outside.

10. Bumbos are cute cause you can make your three-month-old sit up in them, but it actually saved us a lot of money cause we were able to use it as her feeding chair for quite a while (instead of an expensive highchair). Again, it wipes down easily and transports well.

11. Finally, SAVE THE BULB SYRINGE FROM THE HOSPITAL. They're the best.

I have a whole separate list of my favorite nursing gear AND a list of my most-used baby Pinterest projects. Tune in next week for those.

None of these companies are sponsoring me in in any way. This is just me dishin' to my girls.