I have a lot of friends and family who are having babies this year. Some are first-timers, some are experienced parents. Babies mean baby showers and baby gifts, and that's gotten me thinking about which items were truly useful and which were...well...not.

So here's my list of favorite, useful things. You may not agree, but this is my blog, not yours, so feel free to post your own on your blog!

• Kiddopotamus Swaddle Me Infant Wrap. We probably had four of these. They're super-easy to use, are available in a variety of colors and in fleece and cotton and made swaddling quick and easy.
  
• Bouncy Seat. There are lots of options out there. We had the low-end version and it was so useful during those first few months. It's lightweight, easy to move one-handed and can go anywhere - in the bathroom while you shower, in the kitchen while you cook, in the living room while you fold laundry. Ours vibrated and Zach would zonk out in no time. The swing is useful, but the bouncy seat can't be beat because of how portable it is.
  
• Gowns. I thought gowns were less cute than the adorable sleepers, but during the first few weeks, gowns made life much easier (especially at night) because it was no problem to get in there for diaper changes. No snaps to snap incorrectly when you're sleep deprived and can't even think straight. Just slide it up, change the diaper, slide it down and poof! You're done! My experience is that the Carters brand has nicer fabrics than the Gerber ones or other brands.
  
• Infant Tylenol or Motrin. Get it in the house, along with some Pedialyte, before you actually need it. Trust me, you don't want to have to take a vomiting or diarrhea-ing baby to the store to get it!
  
• Steam Sterilizer. So quick and easy to sterilize bottles, pacifiers and toys.
• Carters Easy-Fit Jersey Crib Sheet. I liked the Carters sheets best - they were the softest and didn't shrink like some of the other brands (Circo, Koala Baby) after repeated washings.
• The Baby Book by William Sears et al. This is a good all-around book for the first 2 years of life. Written by a pediatrician and his RN wife who've had a passel of their own kids, it's easy to use. There were some sections, like co-sleeping and some other things that we weren't really into, but as our Baby Care Basics class instructor said "take what you want to use from it, and ignore what you don't." There's a good section on breastfeeding, common childhood illnesses, developmental milestones, bonding with your baby... I definitely recommend it.
• Pack N Play. This is another item where there are lots of options, from the scaled-down budget version to the lots-more-expensive deluxe version, but really, any option will work. We have a scaled-down one, and I've never regretted getting one without a million bells and whistles. Zach slept in his pack n play in our room for the first three months. We could get to him much more quickly and I felt better having him close at hand. Once he was larger and sleeping in his crib, we used the pack n play as a play area in the living room. It's always good to have a safe place to put them when you have to run to the bathroom! The pack n play has also been Zach's travel bed when we've been in hotels or staying with friends. It breaks down to a very reasonable size and can be easily checked on airlines.
• Travel System. Now, I use the term "travel system" loosely. What I really mean is a car seat that snaps into a base in your car and can also snap into a stroller. We actually bought our Graco car seat and stroller separately, but most of Graco's car seats will work with their strollers, so if you don't want to get the "travel system," you can get the pieces separately and they should work together if they're from the same manufacturer. It was great to be able to get Zach out of the car, but keep him in his car seat and pop him into his stroller or the grocery cart without having to wake him up, unhook him, take him out, etc. The best part was that Bryan bought a spare base for his truck and then I could drop Zach at daycare, leave the car seat and then Bryan could pick him up and snap the car seat into his base. Choose your own brand and model, but I do recommend going into the store and playing with them so you can decide which strollers drive, fold and lift best for your needs.
• Exergen Temporal Artery Thermometer. I just got this today, and I love it already. These days they don't want you to take temperatures rectally unless specifically told to do so. The ear thermometers tend to be inaccurate and armpit temperatures are hard for us, since Zach doesn't like having his arm held down. This takes a few seconds, involves sliding the thermometer across the forehead and is about as accurate as a rectal temperature when done correctly. Read the instructions folks, and follow them, or you're going to find it doesn't work well.

Finally, one last item that's definitely not an essential, but is something I absolutely love, and would have loved to have when I was a kid.

• Custom Funky Plate from EM Tanner Designs. I saw these on Jon & Kate Plus 8 and I thought it was the coolest thing. Even though Zach's not quite ready for them, he has two, one that says "Zach" and one that says "Zachary." The best part is, even if your child has an unusual name, it's not a problem since it's custom made. I remember trying to find "Gina" on pencils or mugs or whatever as a child and having a tough time. No problem now! EM Tanner also does custom t-shirts, lunchboxes, etc so you can really have some fun!

Not much new to report here. I have my 12 millionth cold of the season, and Zach's fighting something as well. We've had a lot of rain, which we desperately need, but five years in San Diego has spoiled me and I'm bitter about having to drag out my gore-tex.

Since I don't have a lot to write about, I'm just going to post a couple of You Tube videos for your viewing pleasure.

Zach has picked up a silly habit. One day when I coughed, I covered my mouth as usual and when I was done coughing, he grabbed his nose and fake coughed. Since then, if you cough in front of him, there's a decent chance he'll follow it with his "coughing" trick.

Zach got a duck from my parents for his first birthday and we've just started letting him walk it by himself, now that he's a confident walker (and runner).

And finally, Zach the big boy at the playground:

Yeah, I know it's been a while. Part of it was that I was sick, then I was sick again, then Zach was sick. We're both healthy again at the moment (knock on wood). I've also been crazy busy with work. We're moving to a new building in late April/early May and there's been a lot to work on, from making sure the audiology rooms are being built according to plan (walls, electric, plumbing) and providing input on design, furniture needs, etc. I've also been busy seeing patients (what a concept) and getting the hearing aid program going. Things are moving along nicely, but it's very time consuming.

Zach's developing in leaps and bounds. The new phrase we hear about a hundred times a day is "uh-oh," which replaced "dog." I still don't get "mommy," Bryan occasionally gets "da-da," but the kid can say "dog" and "uh-oh" very clearly. We're lucky because he also says "yes," "juice" and "yuck." The dreaded "no" has not appeared yet, and I'm not complaining! He runs, he jumps, he climbs, he loves the slide at the playground and he spins around in circles in the living room until he gets dizzy and staggers over for a hug.

My other source of time suckage has been facebook. I like the convenience of being able to dash off a one to three line status update, and to a certain degree, that's "replaced" my blogging. Yeah, it's lazy, I know, and I know not everyone is on facebook. I've found it to be a great way to keep up with my friends, and I've even reconnected with people from high school and even elementary school!

Well, I'll try to be better about blogging. We'll hope no one else gets sick, work probably won't settle down until June (after the move) and I'll try to think of interesting things to talk about.

(PS - Karen, I think you need to start a blog of your own!)

...just not today. I've been super busy with work and family, so I just haven't had the time to blog. Hopefully I'll get a little time soon!

Just a quick update, because I just realized I haven't updated in a week and a half.

I have another cold. So does Zach. I'm not sure if we're picking stuff up from daycare or my job, but the whole sick thing is getting old quick. I don't have time to be sick.

Despite the never-ending colds, I wrapped up my Christmas shopping. Of course, then I had to wrap so we can ship to Minnesota, New Jersey and Seattle. Last weekend was spent making rum balls and boxing up the gifts so we can get them sent to their various destinations. Oh yeah, and I wrote the holiday newsletter, had copies made, stuffed envelopes and got them ready to mail. Gah! No wonder I haven't had time to blog!

Work has been keeping me busy, too. I've been getting things lined up for the new hearing aid program we're launching in January and doing some organizing in the clinic in addition to seeing patients. It's going well, but there's still a lot to do.

It's been cold here, down in the low 30s at night and in the 50s and 60s during the day. I really resent having to wear a jacket - five years in San Diego spoiled me, since jackets were rare. Sweatshirts or sweaters yes, but jackets...not usually unless it was raining.

In my few minutes of free time, I've been watching the Wild's erratic play and lurking around on Facebook, catching up with old acquaintances.

And now, I'm entertaining thoughts of NyQuil and a comfy bed, so off I go!

(set it to the tune of "Jingle Bells," and there you go!)

Bryan was home for Wednesday and Thanksgiving, but the duty schedule had him back at the station for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Now that we're a day away from December, I feel like I need to kick it into high gear. All of our family is spread across the country, which means we need to shop, wrap and ship in plenty of time for packages to get to their destination. As you might imagine, the new job takes up a fair bit of my time, and shopping with a toddler takes...oh...about ten times as long as shopping alone.

Despite a cold and 100+ degree fever, Zach and I headed out in the afternoon on friday and got quite a bit accomplished. None of the shopping we were planning to do involved the early morning doorbusters, so we were able to hit the stores after things had calmed down a bit. We also went out Saturday morning, but weren't quite as successful. This morning, a tip that a store was going to have a hard-to-find item had Zach and I out the door at 7:15. We were able to get the item, which is a huge thing to cross off our list. Unfortunately, my shopping karma seems to be petering out...several of our stops today yielded no luck.

In addition to the shopping, I've been working on wrapping, but I have to do that after Zach goes down for a nap or goes to bed because he's not very patient about watching me do something he can't participate in.

I think it's going to be a hectic few weeks until Christmas.

Bryan had quite the eventful weekend himself. On Friday, he saved someone's life. Here's what he said about it: "A man was out walking, and he fell off a rock into the 55 degree water. He was struggling and fighting the large swells (waves) for about 20 minutes by the time we got there. He was too close to the rocks for us to do a normal along side recovery, so we had to put our surface swimmer in the water to recover him. We got him onboard and did basic first aid (treating for hypothermia, he was really cold and tired), brought him back to the pier where EMS was waiting for him." Pretty exciting stuff, and I'm sure it was a great feeling to save someone's life. I'm sure he'll post in more detail on his own blog.

(for JENNY)

Yeah, okay, so I'm a slacker. But this time I have a good excuse. I started the new job this past week, and that's pretty much consumed my life, or at least the parts of my life that aren't already consumed with being a wife and mom.

The two weeks before I started were full of prep work - assembling a new work wardrobe, prepping Zach for preschool, working on developing a business plan and brushing up on audiology stuff specific to my new position. Oh yeah, and caring for a baby, a husband, a dog and a house. Also, the battery on my car died (yeah, the car is a whopping three years old. VW uses the crappiest factory batteries I've ever seen, and I feel justified in saying that since this is my second Passat and I had the same issue with my last Passat) and I had to get a pedicure. Priorities, you know.

I'm trying to get my feet under me, learning the ins and outs of this particular practice and the things that are specific to the way they do things. Audiology is fundamentally the same wherever you practice, but there are always aspects that vary from place to place. To add to the challenge, both of the other audiologists in the practice have either been out or working a very limited schedule due to medical reasons, so I've had to fend for myself in terms of learning the equipment and workflows.

Zach is adjusting to preschool. We really like his teacher, so that helps. I can feel a little better about leaving him with her than I did with the teachers in his San Diego daycare. He's done some lovely art projects, and I'm sure it's good for him to get to play with some peers and learn to sit with the other kids for lunch and snack. I imagine that trying to get 6-8 twelve to eighteen month olds to sit at a table and eat snack is like trying to herd cats, but somehow they do it. He really melts down when I drop him off in the morning, though, and that's hard. On the plus side, he does a lot of his pooping while he's there, and I don't really miss having to do all the poop diapers!

We're headed to San Francisco to try to get some Christmas shopping done this weekend, so that'll be fun. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week, and I'm really wishing that we were closer to Seattle so we could invite ourselves to my parents' house for dinner. Somehow my turkey never turns out as good as my mom's. I've got to crack the whip on Christmas shopping if I'm going to get everything purchased, wrapped and shipped in time, and with work taking up three days a week, I have to make more efficient use of my non-work time.

I can't promise when the next update will be, it may depend on how quickly things settle down at work!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Because Bryan was at the station with duty on the actual day, we dressed Zach up yesterday for a photo op. Zach's too little for trick or treating this year, but he did wear his monster costume for a little while today. I tucked him into bed at 7, and the trick or treaters didn't arrive until shortly after that.

I was taken aback by one of the kids - I hand out handfuls of candy, not a piece or two, and I had one kid, probably about 10, actually say "Gimme more."

Huh?!

If I'd done that, my parent would have made me apologize immediately and trick or treating would have been done for the night. But the parent just stood there, like I was the one who should be embarrassed for not forking out massive amounts of candy in the first place. I was so shocked I said "I'll give you a couple more pieces, but I need some for the other trick or treaters." At least his friend politely asked "Could I have more, too, please?"

Unbelievable.

When I tucked Zach in, I left a bowl of candy on the stoop with a sign that said "Putting the baby to bed - please help yourself. Happy Halloween!" Zach was beat after taking a minimal nap today, so he was zonked pretty much immediately. I heard what sounded like teenagers come to the door, and when I went to retrieve my bowl, it was almost emptied. I didn't hear any other kids at the door, and I wasn't in with Zach for more than 5-7 minutes. Can't say I'm super surprised, but still. It kinda ruins your faith in the next generation, you know?

Oh well, one more year down, and Bryan will have a big bag of leftover candy to take to the station next week.

We got Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from Netflix on Wednesday. We watched it last night and it was absolutely awful. As in, I'm shocked-Harrison-Ford-agreed-to-do-it-awful. The stunt doubles were laughable and it just seemed obvious that as much as I like Harrison Ford, he's getting a little long in the tooth to be playing an action hero. I'm glad we didn't see it in the theater and actually pay the money for it.

Don't waste your time.