Reminiscing...

Happy 8 month Birthday, my sweet baby boy!!

Today Nic, Kaden and I helped my friend Shea with the beginning stages of her baby registry. It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were doing the same thing! Helping Shea today reminded me of a funny story from back then (well... not funny back then... frustrating actually. But funny now). First of all, registering is not fun. It is overwhelming and frustrating. When we registered for our wedding, we got into a huge fight and left the store with nothing scanned. Since we knew we had a bad experience with our wedding registry, we decided to take it slow, promise to not get frustrated with each other and do some research on products before going. Done and done. We got there, signed up and started scanning away. Nic and I agree on most styles and since we knew we were having a boy, this was pretty easy.... until we got to the stroller section. Nic and I have a fairly contemporary sense of style so we knew we wanted a fairly contemporary looking stroller. We fell in love with the Maxi-Cosi which was the only one in the store that had the look and safety features we wanted. Since we are practical, we decided to test it out... drive it around, take it apart, fold it up, click in the carrier- all the things we were going to need to do. An hour later we couldn't be more frustrated with the stroller! To make things worse, a pregnant couple started looking a strollers and pointed to ours saying they liked how it looked. A minute into watching us struggle, the husband says, "let's not get that one... those people can't work it." Needless to say, we put the stroller back and left the store.

We ended up getting the stroller and practicing for several weeks. I think you have to in order to really get the hang of it. At least that's what I tell Nic to make us feel better!

After 2 1/2 hours at Babies R Us, Shea has all the basics down! It's truly a process which takes a lot of research and patience.

A year after registering, here is a list of things I couldn't have done without...

• Our infant bath.... built in thermometer, water that constantly flows through... who could ask for more?!


• Baby Bjorn. I can't tell you how many nights we put it on and walked around the house until Kaden stopped crying


• Our glider/recliner. Nic slept in it for two weeks straight. I have the best husband in the world, by the way


• Swaddle blankets. I never thought we would stop swaddling Kaden. After he broke out of the Kiddapotamus ones, we used the miracle blanket, and can I just say... Miracle...


• The Jumparoo. That kid can jump!