Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens...

These are a few of our favorite things:

Jack in the Moby on the exercise ball

Jack and Daddy on the big ball

Moby Wrap:  Jack likes to be held as often as possible and he really likes to be held while you are standing up.  This can become tiring and really limits what you can do.  The Moby is basically a giant piece of fabric that I wrap around myself in a strategic manner in order to hold Jack while freeing up my hands.  Dave doesn't like to wear the Moby, he has a different carrier that works better for him and Jack.

Exercise Ball:  No, we aren't working on Jack's core yet.  We sit on the ball and bounce or roll while holding Jack and it completely calms him down.  It's actually quite amazing.  We got the idea for the exercise ball from my friend Marisa's mom.  She had some in her house when we went up to Virginia and we got one for our house as soon as we got home.  Thanks, Mary!

Play Mat:  Jack gets a little "activity time" after his feedings and this is his number one activity choice.  We attempt tummy time on this, but Jack usually rolls over after about 30 seconds on his tummy.  It's plays music, lights up and is completely washable.

Baby Jogger City Select Stroller:  This is a pretty awesome stroller.  It will grow with our family and turn into a double stroller if we have another child soonish.  There are sixteen different configurations that it can do.  Currently, we have the carseat attachment configuration, but in a few months we can change that to the "big kid" seat.  When we have another kid, we can have the carseat attachment and the big kid seat at the same time!

Mobile:  Jack is fascinated by his mobile.  It spins, lights up and plays music (or it can spin and play music or it can just play music).  He will lay there and stare at it for 15 minutes.  The coolest thing about this mobile is that it has a remote control with it so if it goes off and we want to turn it back on and not have Jack see us, we can just stick our hand in the door and turn it back on.  Or if we are ready for it to go off, we can turn it off with the remote, too.

Video Monitor:  We thought a video monitor was silly until Jack starting fussing so much while he was in his crib.  Now, all we have to do it look on the monitor to see what's going on and if we need to go in the room.  We can also talk into the handset in attempts to calm Jack.  It also came with two cameras so we can set one up in our guest room to keep an eye on our company with another child and monitor both kids with the same handset.

Seahorse:  Jack is not a fan of riding in the car.  This is not only unpleasant for Jack, but also for whoever is chauffeuring him around.  The seahorse seems to calm him some and therefore has become everyone's best friend.

Sound Machine:  We have been using this since the first night Jack was home.  It travels with us and is on during naps and at night.  It helps to drown out the noise that the dogs make running around the house and helps to keep Jack asleep. It has several sounds; white noise, heartbeat, running water, music, but Jack likes the heartbeat sound the best.  We are pretty sure that sound is what it sounded like when he was taking up residence in the womb.

Wubbanub: Jack often finds a pacifier soothing but is unable to keep it in his mouth consistently and God forbid it falls out when he really wants it in his mouth.  The Wubbanub helps to keep the paci in his mouth because of the little bit of added weight that it has.  He is also able hold onto the giraffe easier than just the plain paci.

These are some of the things that we have found to be really helpful.  I'll be doing another post of some of the things that we weren't as impressed with.