Hellobee

The girls are now about 15 months old and the gear and products that we use with them are so different than they were a year ago. It really amazes me how much of the baby gear so quickly became absolutely useless – the swings, the rockers, the bouncers, the bottles – and the list goes on. Our spare bedroom is currently a messy repository of baby gadgets and gear that I keep hoping someone will need or want and take off my hands. Any expecting moms in Chicago out there reading this, please come take this stuff from me!

Looking at all of that now-useless stuff makes me think about the products that we are using now in the 1-year range. How much of it will be similarly cluttered in a room in just one year? Only time will tell, but I rounded up a list of my most-used products for one-year olds just for fun.

Play yard and other gates – With two toddlers on the move in a 3-story townhome, gates and other forms of containment are probably our most used item at the moment.

The girls go crazy for bubbles inside their play yard!

I really have a love/hate relationship with our play yard. We bought two sets of this one and I love its sturdiness and colorfulness. But I hate how difficult it is to pull the pieces apart and put together, and while I said I love its colors and that is true for the kids, I really hate how those same bright colors draw so much attention in my living room!

Straw cups – I mentioned before how quickly bottles became useless in our house, and they were promptly replaced by toddler sippy cups. We transitioned the girls straight to straw cups, and they now drink everything out of their Zoli Bot cups.

A milk break in front of the Chicago “bean”

We have three cups for each girl, and the big benefit of the cups over bottles is that they have far fewer pieces to wash (we were using Dr. Brown’s bottles) and they can be stored away in a cupboard much more easily than the bottles. This means that I have much-needed counter space back – hurray!

Walkers – Both girls are walking now (Lilly much more than Audrey) but they picked up walking a bit late and they still get a big kick out of confidence out of using their walkers. We have three walkers in our house and they currently are taking up all of the space that used to be allocated to the baby swing and bouncer. You win some, you lose some, right?

Lilly and Audrey with their lion walkers.

Stroller – Especially in the summer, the girls practically live in their stroller. Our nanny is fabulous about taking the girls around the city for zoo and museum visits, play dates, and music and story sessions. She couldn’t do this very easily without our stroller.

We have the Baby Jogger City Select stroller with a tandem design (I’d been warned clear of side-by-side strollers by other city-dwelling twin moms). It has held up very well and works great for our nanny on public transportation. She is by far the biggest user of our stroller with the girls and she gives it high marks.

A snack on the go

Now although I have that room full of baby gear that is now useless, some of those early pieces are still in frequent use in the Starfish household.

Boppy loungers – One of my favorite reconfigured baby items are the girls’ boppy loungers. These pillows were one of my most-used items in newborn feeding days, and today we use them as the girls “story pillows”. I set these on the floor on either side of me when it’s time for stories and I make a big deal out of how special it is to sit on their pillows for story time. The girls still climb all over them and only half pay attention to the stories, but I think they view sitting on their boppy pillows as a special treat.

Diaper pail – Oh my, how the diapers have become epic! When we unload our diaper pails these days, those bags go straight downstairs and directly into the dumpster because the smell is completely unbearable. I cannot imagine how bad my house would smell today without our diaper pails.

While I’m on the topic of diapers, we also use Triple Paste at least as much as we did in the early days, if not more. I recently invested in a huge tub of the stuff and can’t believe how quickly we run through it.

Pack ‘n Play – We’ve been traveling with the girls much more this summer than in their early days and we use pack ‘n plays as their travel cribs. These are probably used more for us now than they were in the baby days.

The girls nap in their pack ‘n plays on a family trip.

High chairs – We actually have two different sets of high chairs because our first set (Inglesina Fast Table Chair) is hard to clean given its cloth covering.

The girls have a low-mess meal in their Inglesina highchairs.

The girls are currently pretty sloppy eaters so we often feed them their messier meals in plastic Fisher Price booster chairs that can be easily wiped down. We use the other set for milk or dry snacks. I don’t see our use of highchairs declining too much in the coming year, and we’re also big users of drop cloth mats to catch some of the largest chunks of their floor food.

Messier meals are served in their Fisher Price booster seats!

What am I missing from my list? Any must-have products that would make my life with two crazy toddlers easier or more fun?