A Few of Olivia’s Favorite Things

These are a few of her favorite things…are you singing The Sound of Music yet? 😉 I recently realized that Coming Up Roses has been LACKING in kid content lately – and for that, to my fellow mamas, I’m so sorry! Since being pregnant, I had always actively + intentionally tried to NOT turn CUR away from its roots and not become “just another mom blog.” But in doing so, I ended up having, like, NO baby or kid content around these rosy parts. Ha!

So, especially with Liv’s second birthday being right around the corner (how? HOW?!), I figured it’d be fitting to share what have been her favorite things so far in life. We had a “no screen time” rule in our house for quite awhile but started with the 3 minute shorts of Minnie’s Bow Toons on weekends, which she’s always loved. Now we’ve added in some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as a treat and I try to let her see some Sesame Street on the reg since she’s SO INTO it now, but her attention span with TV/movies is just not there and after maybe 10-15 minutes max, she wants to get back to her books. HA!

A Few of Olivia's Favorite Things (Favorite toys, books etc for 12-24 months) on Coming Up Roses

1.) Musical books It’s no surprise to anyone who knows her how much this girl loveloveloves BOOKS, bless her heart. FIRST thing out of bed in the morning is “Ree! Ree!” and she wants to dive into storytime. She ALSO is obsessed with music (bless), so I just about lost my mind when I found these on Amazon. They’ve got a little touch sensor on each page where little fingers can touch to play a song, and everything is classical music – so you’re helping their little brains, too. 🙂 We have two already and I’m gifting her the Nutcracker one for the holidays this year!

2.) Magnadoodle A MUST HAVE. I had one of these when I was a kid – did you? Essentially, there’s a plastic pen attached to a board by a string, and it uses magnetics to let you draw with these little pixels on the board in a totally mess-free, transportable way. Perfect for the car, or for teaching letters or numbers and coloring without worrying about finding marker on a wall later. 😉 As seen in Cool Sh*t I Lovelovelove!

3.) Coloring In putting this blog post together, Katie was helping me grab links from the internet and was CONFUSED why I had these containers for “photos” listed here. So I just about blew her mind when I said they’re actually the BEST for holding crayons or markers! Perfect size, and makes for easy transport.

4.) Crocs + Baby Water shoes I always swore off Crocs until I saw BABY Crocs – good Lord, those things are cute. And turns out, they’re like the PERFECT shoe for running around in warmer weather especially, because if they get dirty, muddy or wet – clean up is a breeze. Liv has had a pair for her past two shoes sizes already!

Then these baby water shoes were a find right before our family beach trip this year, and they were a HIT. Not only for the ocean and running around on hot sand, but also just running around outside the kiddy pool etc to keep tiny feet protected!

COOL SH*T I LOVELOVELOVE - Monthly Favorites, July 2020 - Featuring matching tie dye set on sale, Wackee Six game, apple chips, clean sunscreen, biker shorts + MORE

5.) Elastic heart sunglasses For the longest time I couldn’t find good baby sunnies that actually stayed put and that Liv didn’t want to rip off the second they were on – until these. The elastic is comfortable + easy; she has two pairs and has NO problem wearing them!

OCEAN CITY, NEW JERSEY Family Vacation - iPhone Photo Diary Recap + Recommendations on Coming Up Roses

6.) Finger puppets (Minnie, Rudolph) – This started off with me just GEEKING out after finding a set of finger puppets with all of the beloved Rudolph characters on arandom Burlington run. Then, I ended up finding all of Minnie and the gang, so these are just fun little things for playtime.

7.) Retro Minnie puppet – Our neighbors’ girls have “outgrown” Minnie (um, how??? I’m still obsessed with her LOL) so they so kindly passed along this big retro Minnie puppet that Liv just about lost her MIND over in their garage while playing one day. Ha! It’s nearly the size of her, so she found it and held her by the neck around the culdesac for an entire afternoon. It ended up coming home with her, so she was delighted.

8.) The BEST squishy stuffed animals – I’ve raved about these COUNTLESS times already and I won’t be stopping anytime soon!!! These are the BEST stuffed animals, hands down. Our collection started with the little pink bunny as a gift, and the purple hippo came next at Liv’s first birthday. Then I searched high and low on the internet to find a brand name or SOMETHING that would show more in the line or something, because Bunny and Hippo were *clearly* favorites. Turns out, I found this brand on Amazon and ended up getting Otter and Giraffe (we’re so original with names, I know 😉 ). And then the bigger mint walrus was a Target find around Valentine’s Day, but he feels the same as the others so he fits right in! They’re different because they’re SO DANG SQUISHY SOFT – there’s actually some spandex in them, so they’re not a rigid or hard plush. They’re SO squishable which has been so great as Liv became a toddler with, you know, toddler tempers. 😉 If she just needs to squeeze something SO HARD and get out some steam, these guys take the brunt of it – they’re great huggers. 🙂 And Liv has also taken naps where she just gives one a big bear hug and falls asleep right on him like that – it’s adorable.

I gift ALL of my pregnant girlfriends one of these guys, because they’re just the best that I’ve ever come across – seriously!

A Few of Olivia's Favorite Things (Favorite toys, books etc for 12-24 months) on Coming Up Roses

9.) Musical fish – This was a random find at Burlington (that I’ve since found elsewhere on the internet, bless up) that was SUCH a winner. It’s adorable because it plays GREAT catchy tunes, but it has other modes that allow for learning letters, numbers, colors and shapes (not ALL, but enough for this age!). Then it also acts like a little DJ pad because you can let it vibe on a beat and then press the buttons to create songs that build off of each other, which is SO COOL. It’s a jam.

10.) Baby Einstein musical handheld toy – This has long been one of Liv’s faves. It plays classical tunes and lights up, and she’s had it since she was a baby and STILL enjoys it to this day. I didn’t know one could get down to Mozart, but lo, one can.

11.) Colored Squeeze & Stack stacking blocks – These are a more recent find courtesy of my mama – they’re PERFECT for gross motor skill development, cognitive learning – basically all the things kids are doing right about now. They’re squeezable, stackable, and come in different colors with each block size having a different thing on it, ranging from numbers to shapes and animals! This has been a GREAT tool for having pretty comprehensive learning during playtime, which is always a win.

12.) Diversity dollies – GREAT little Amazon find to start teaching the beauty + importance of diversity from as early an age as humanly possible! They’re soft little dollies that come in the basket together, and their clothes are interchangeable with one another (they’re just Velcro attached at the shoulders!). this Sesame Street oneALSO, I’ll be sharing a whole other post entirely with Liv’s favorite books since she’s SUCH a reader, but is INCREDIBLE. 100% recommend as a must for all parents – it’s adorable, kids lovelovelove it, and it also has BEAUTIFUL messaging on diversity and celebrating what makes us each unique!

A Few of Olivia's Favorite Things (Favorite toys, books etc for 12-24 months) on Coming Up Roses

Stay tuned for more favorite things soon!