If I could do it again...

On one of my many trips from Marion to Fort Wayne I starting thinking about all the things I wish I would have known to buy or not to buy prior to having kids. So for those who are pregnant or someday going to have babies learn from my experience!

• Buy a quality and often time more expensive thermometer. When you know your child has a fever and it is reading 96.8, you know it isn't working right! ugh!!
  


• Do not buy water toys that spray water. for one it always ends up on you and not in the bath tub, and secondly I am never able to dry them out and they start creating their own wildlife!
  


• Buy bottles and sippy cups that have the least parts needed to work properly!! B/c the many parts seem to find the lost socks in the house and hide out together, mocking us as we search endlessly for them!
  


• Always have diapers and wipes in several different rooms, especially if you have multiple kids. It seems that Haylee always needs a diaper change when Sophie is sleeping.

• Convince your husband that he is the best person to clip baby's finger nails! I almost always draw blood, and those type of cuts bleed forever and you can't keep a band aid on. That way if he draws blood you can blame him! Oh the horror!
  


• Hang a calendar that you can use to note funny things that happened or accomplishments the kids did. (Ok, so I haven't really done this one, but a friend of mine's wife does it and I think it is a great idea)
  


• If not nursing make the bottle with formula and room temperature water, that way the baby can take a bottle anywhere without warming it up! Haylee was that way and it was great, Sophie was nursed for 8 months, so giving her a cool bottle makes her act like I'm trying to kill her! Oh drama!
  


• Always have a supply of Sleep aids and ear plugs, for the nights that your baby needs to just cry through it. It's amazing that just a hint of a baby's cry can wake a mother out of a dead sleep!
  


• And on that note of not sleeping always have a supply of your favorite caffeinated beverage, mine being Coke!! Love it!!!
  


• Find the least annoying children's shows and make that your child's favorite!! Mine are Spout Kids (PBS) and Dora. Least favorite is Wow Wow Wubbzy--just the name makes me want to pull my hair out; and my husband's is Caillou, though he has a particular pet name for Caillou I'm trying to encourage him to not say it in front of Haylee.
  


• Be watchful of the way you talk to your toddler, b/c they will at some point start mirroring you. i.e. Haylee is in the hallway sitting next to her baby, saying loudly in a stern voice, "no baby, no, don't do that!" Ryan and i look at each other and ask, "do we sound like that?"
  


• Don't worry about tantrums in public, in most cases other parents have sympathy and for those who vow to never let their kids act like that, just wait!!!
  


• Limit the amount of toys that have a lot of parts!! B/c they NEVER stay where they are suppose to stay!!
  


• Switch toys out. Keep some toys in a tub in storage and the others upstairs with the kids. Then switch them out occasionally. When there is a surplus rid yourself of some of them! They become so overwhelming so fast!
  


• Make thank you cards from pictures of your children using the gift or with a personal sign saying thank you!! (I used that idea for Haylee's 1st birthday thank you notes!)

• Have a full supply of Tylenol and Motrin on hand, b/c you always need it when you are running low. With that also have a pack of Pediasure, again always need it when you don't have it!


• Force your children to wear hats from the birth that way they get used to all the beautiful, yet maybe uncomfortable things we make them wear later!!