Dakota's First Christmas and Toy Review

Dakota's first Christmas was a blast! She handled unwrapping presents like a pro once we got the unwrapping started for her. She even wanted to play with her toys over the wrapping paper and boxes (some of the time lol)

We went to my parents' house for Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, Jonathan, Dakota and I exchanged gifts and the rest of Christmas Day was spent with Jonathan's family. We had such a great time watching her figure out how to open gifts and visiting with everyone. I couldn't imagine feeling more blessed and happy to have the family we have that cares so much for our daughter. I do not have all of our pictures so I am only adding a few from what I do have.

Above are three of the toys Dakota got for Christmas. The playskool Poppin Park Elefun Busy Ball Popper is a lot of fun. She figured out quickly how to turn the toy on which causes the toy to gently shoot out the balls. I like it because it encourages crawling and it also plays music. The only downside of this toy is we have one inside dog and he thinks the balls are for him to chase so he likes to run after them or tries to steal them out of the toy.

The Musical Lion Walker is also a lot of fun. Right now Dakota is more interested in the toys on the front than pushing it to walk with but since she still doesn't have great balance, it works out. The downside for this toy is it can move faster than she can so it is easy for her to stumble or fall right now.

The Winfun Letter Train and Piano Activity Table is her absolute favorite toy. She will stand, dance and play with this toy constantly. It teaches colors, letters and music. The downside of this toy is it is if she tries to pull up on it a certain way it will fall on her. Not every time, it does have a pretty sturdy balance with the four legs but it has happened a few times. The upside is, the legs do come off easily so until your child is more stable on their own feet, you have that option.




The Fisher-Price Roller Blocks Play Wall is another fun toy. It is sturdy enough for her to pull up on when she wants to put the blocks into the ramps. You can stack and roll the blocks. She likes for me to stack them and her to knock them down. This toy also plays music. I have not found a downside to this toy so far.
 

Above are a few other Christmas toys that Dakota really enjoys playing with.




The Little Tikes 4 in 1 Ride On we have not gotten to use yet. However, it looks like it will be so much fun once we do!

We enjoyed an amazing First Christmas with Dakota. It is funny how much fun you have as a parent! If you have an questions about the toys I have listed or would like more recommendations please feel free to email me. All of the toys should be played with under close eye of an adult. Several of them can cause injury if the child is left unattended. I encourage you to read all warning labels from any items you choose to purchase for your child.

Coming back from being M.I.A.

I have been completely slacking on my blog posting as you may have already noticed. It has been weeks since I have posted anything new and even longer since I have written anything new. Where have I been? I basically checked out from the world for a few weeks. It has just been an insane time of year for me. It started when I had the mastitis that you already read about. I was down a good week with that and still feeling bad the week after when I went back to work.

The next week was the week of Christmas. I hadn't done any shopping because I had been sick so I was busy with getting things handled for Christmas. Then all of the Christmas festivities at the end of that week, running around to see both of our families a few times. I went back to the doctor because I was (and still am) feeling tired and dizzy. They tested me to see if I had a thyroid problem, luckily that was all clear but the question remains, why do I still feel like this?

The week of New Years, Dakota caught her first viral infection. She had a fever from Friday night through Thursday morning with a runny nose and cough. We went to the doctor twice. Since they couldn't pin point what it was that was causing her to be sick, they couldn't give any antibiotics so we had to let it run it's course. Which sucked.

This past week I was back at work. Trying to get back into the swing of things on around 4 hours of sleep a night since Dakota decided it would be fun to stay up two or more hours in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the past couple of nights she has either slept through the night or gotten up to take a bottle and gone back to sleep. Hopefully we can keep that pattern going.

To top it all off, I have been searching for weeks to find a new place to either rent or to buy. We love our rental now but it just isn't big enough.

I will be getting back on track with posting. It helps if I schedule the posts the week ahead so I am going to start doing that! Wednesday's post I plan to write about our Christmas and the gifts Dakota was given along with a short review of the toys.