Baby Must Haves: 7 Months

Month 7 has been absolutely awesome, especially with the holidays (which I hope to recap this week). Ellie now says "dada" and best of all she's crawling! Christmas eve morning she just started doing it and I couldn't have been more proud. I am so grateful that I had the day off and was there to witness this milestone. In the weeks before, she really didn't show any interest in crawling and could get across the room scooting on her butt. Then a few days before Christmas she would get on her hands and knees a lot and we knew it would be any day that it would just click for her and she'd be on the move. Time to baby proof! Oh, and yes, I totally realize I should have done this already. What are some baby proofing items you recommend? We need to put up a gate around our TV, but what would be the best one?

Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack & Roll Cups: These bowls are so much fun! They stack onto each, can snap to each other as they stack, snap into balls, and Ellie loves to knock them over. They're pretty versatile and an absolute must-have. Our daycare provider gave them to Ellie as a Christmas present, and she knew what a gem she was giving!

Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack: Ellie loves this classic toy, but hasn't quite figured out how to stack the rings just yet. She just loves to take the rings off and her favorite part of the toy is the yellow stick. She loves dragging that as she crawls and biting the top. I'm sure she'll be stacking those rings in no time though.

Bright Starts Having A Ball Count 'n Roll Buggie: This little bug is so cute! It sings songs, moves all around on the hard floor, and spins the balls and shoots them out. Ellie is mesmerized by it. She loves the balls and the tunes.

Vtech Move and Crawl Ball: Just after Thanksgiving, my sister gave Ellie this ball as an early Christmas gift and she really enjoys playing with it. It sings a lot of songs, lights up, and rolls away from her, encouraging her to crawl. It has a few tunes it plays, and "teases" them to come get it.

The First Years Infant to Toddler Deluxe Reclining Feeding Seat: I should have included this with the 6 month must-haves, but I forgot to. This feeding chair has been great for our apartment, I like that it's versatile with different reclining positions and heights and that it converts to a booster seat. It's also made eating dinner as a family so much better. When we ate dinner, Matt and I would often have to take turns eating because she would get so fussy sitting on the ground by herself, she wanted to know what was going on above her. Now, we can sit her there when she's not eating to join us at the table.

MAM Baby Pacifiers: Praise the Lord, my baby will finally take a pacifier. She is such a comfort nurser I would beg her to take a paci and she just refused. She takes one now and it has made getting her to sleep and comforting her so much easier on me (and my nipples). She just started taking one a few weeks ago out of the blue and transitioned from 0 months to 6+ months without problems. I hope she outgrows it naturally and I was kind of worried about her taking to one so late, but it made life so much easier.