Baby proofing. My kid became mobile over that time period, so while it’s not a thing for baby, if you haven’t done it yet, now is the time to do it! Other than that, yeah, what the others said. My bassinet was only rated to 5 months so we switched to the cot around that age. It had two heights for the mattress, and we started it with the higher setting at 5 months, lowered it when he started standing & walking around 9+ months, and took the side off to turn it into a toddler bed when he started trying to climb out sometime after that (between 1y and 2 years?) There’s a lot of development that happens between 6 & 12 months!
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High chair
Barriers
Plug thingies
Bangy toys
A stroller for when you throw your back out
A high chair or floor feeding chair
Many small spoons for every bag you own
Applesauce
Rice cakes
Cheerios
Every form of caffeine
Canned beans
An instapot
Library card
High surfaces that your insanely tall toddler can’t reach
2t and 3t clothes
Don’t know about the crib, I only survive an hour at a time
Those full sleeve bibs
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God yes. I need more of these.
Related: painters tape to mark a ring 6” inside the edge of your tables so when your dad visits he will stop setting piping hot coffee in the Grab Zone.
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This is actually brilliant. I wish past me knew this, even without piping hot anything.
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Our baby recently turned 6 months and right now a place to sleep and high chair are the essentials. And toys, lots of toys with various textures, shapes, sounds, etc.
Highlighted on our to do list is ensuring that everything is appropriately bolted to the walls in preparation for the crawling and pulling up stage. We didn’t baby proof doors and drawers with our older child (but didn’t make good use of overhead cupboards) and I’m kind of hoping we can get away with that again. Our bathroom cabinet is key lockable already so between that and the kitchen overheads, hopefully we are ok. This kid might be very different, who knows 
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Oh I’m so glad you mentioned this! It’s time to anchor all your furniture, especially anything with drawers. We had ours all anchored right away because we live in earthquake country, but it’s really really important once kiddos start to get mobile because they’re likely to get into hijinx before we know about it.
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I have very sad work experience that makes me an outspoken advocate for bolting any furniture in rooms where kiddos will be unsupervised. Or not having climb-able furniture in those rooms.
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Anchoring is definitely a must. We didn’t baby proof any cabinets or any rooms, and we don’t have a climber but I absolutely couldn’t sleep if big furniture wasn’t strapped down just in case. It only takes once.
As for the bassinette…my 2.5 year old is still in the pack and play, and we will be going straight from that to a mattress on the floor, and then a real bed. When she was a little over a year old I purchased a memory foam mattress for $20 on amazon to make it more comfy. I’m quite happy with how it worked out, she’s still under the weight limit and hasn’t attempted escaping. YMMV on that though…I have friends who had to take their ninjas out of cribs at 10 months. A crib was just way too large for our tiny apartment. We’re going to attempt to do the same with kid #2 even though we have a lot more space now.
We did get a high chair, which I really like, but looking back, I could have done a table clamp chair or a baby booster and been just fine, and it would have taken up less space. Elle has a fantastic list there, I would add making sure you have lots of little containers (they don’t have to be special baby containers) for taking small amounts of food to daycare or on errands.
One favorite toy (not a must have, but so great!) of ours is a ybike. She uses it indoors, and started using it around 10 months with help, and still loves it now. It’s pretty small for a ride on toy and glides delightfully along hard surfaces. Ours was handed down to us, but I’ve seen them on marketplace for under $20.
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Thank you all for the tips. We’re just starting the process of finding a place, and to be honest I’m only barely aware of the different philosophies (Montessori vs Waldorf etc.). Our priorities are:
- Must be located between our house and work (about 7 miles away). This very much narrows down the number of daycares since we’re not in a very dense region of LA.
- Play-based; preferably with as much outdoor time as possible.
And I guess that’s it? I mean - I just want a safe place to leave my child, where he’ll be happy, but I don’t know what to look for to make that happen, especially with COVID I can’t see the staff interacting with children in person.
Prior to giving birth, I had reserved a spot at a daycare where all the staff seemed engaged with the babies, and the babies looked really happy. However, the infant room only goes to 18 months, and the toddler room at the same place I didn’t like so much. It seemed like a lot of toddlers in a small space, and they didn’t have much of an outdoor area (the equivalent of an driveway’s worth). In COVID-times, and with a toddler, I’ve ruled out that center.
I’m working up a list of questions to ask at each place we look at; I’m definitely taking in all the input here and I really appreciate it.
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I have a bit of familiarity with the montessori philosophy, although I’d say it’s pretty surface level. I do think their emphasis on giving kids responsibility is really useful and I follow some montessori accounts on FB. I know parents who have had kids on montessori schools with mixed reviews. I think it works really well for kids who are a good fit and can be hard for families if it’s not working exactly right.
Waldorf I have no experience with, but I hear a lot of people in my (Jewish) community express concern about its roots and a quick google brings up this: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/waldorf-schools-are-inherently-racist-cults-91193d1fbef6 and https://www.salon.com/2004/05/27/waldorf/ so for me it’s not something we’re going to explore much.
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I was a Montessori kid, and was pretty fascinated by the philosophy for a while. I’ve read a couple books. No means am I am expert, but I’m fairly familiar. I definitely agree with this assessment- for a kid who likes focused work and has a pretty good handle on self regulation, it can be a fantastic method. But it’s really not a good fit for some kids- from what I’ve seen if a kid seeks a really high degree of peer engagement, wants a lot of adult assistance, or is a very gross motor focused (aka GOGOGO) type kid, it’s not necessarily going to be the best fit. I know several more rambunctious kids that have been asked to leave Montessori preKs and delay a year. It seems as though those kids do a lot better in a Forest School/outdoor school type environment. Those are my two main options I’ll look for with Latte, pending her personality and needs at that age.
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Here are some random things I did not like about our daycare (before we quit altogether). Maybe these will generate some questions for you?
-the woman primarily in charge of the toddler room was a smoker. She smoked in her car on breaks/lunch and my kid always came home smelling like cigarettes. I don’t know if they can disallow that in your area, but it bothered me a lot. I mean, yay she was obviously getting held/hugs, and the lady was so wonderful, but…yuck.
-they did not change her diaper often enough. She had rashes almost constantly, and at home with us for a year, has not dealt with that at all.
-they had a tv and used it sometimes. I know this is probably a super snotty thing to say but I don’t mean it to. I just feel that if anyone is going to stick my kid in front of the tv to get a break, it’s going to be me, her parent. If you’re getting paid my actual hard earned money to watch my kid, then that shouldn’t be part of the deal.
-they didn’t have a refrigerator for lunches except for the infant room. That meant that even though the kid was still on breastmilk (toddler room started at 11 months), they wouldn’t keep it cold. We made do with lots of high quality ice packs, but it was annoying. Little kids need milk.
-the only way to see pics of your kid at school was via FB. We don’t put her face on FB (and didn’t give them permission to), so we didn’t get pictures. It’s a small annoyance maybe, but there are plenty of secure daycare apps these days, I wish they would have invested in one of those instead.
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The footrest/stability thing makes a lot of sense! He’s just under 4 months adjusted age, so not sitting upright for long periods yet, but I think by the time I investigate and obtain a high chair it will be time.
This is so, so sad to hear but left a big impression. Thank you to you everyone who said anchor anchor anchor. Very timely because in today’s news:
(I put him in this position but he stays there for about 10 seconds. Multiple times!)
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These are such great lists! Pipsqueak is just a little older than spore so this is all perfect timing.
I caved and bought a tripp trapp high chair a couple days ago… I figure it’s one of the only things we’ve gotten that’s high end/trendy/whatever and I’ve been lusting after it for a long time.
Question about anchoring things to the wall: are there any guidelines for height vs. width vs. weight? For example, we have a sideboard/credenza that’s much longer than it is tall and doesn’t really have any thing to pull-up on. Do we need to anchor it? We just moved (literally, I’m sitting on the floor surrounded by half unpacked boxes) so we put this off at the old place but pipsqueak is going to be mobile before I know it and I want to be ahead of the curve.
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I follow @safebeginnings on IG and she just answered a question about kallax and said she’d anchor an 8 cube one even if it’s horizontal bc it’s so heavy but she wouldn’t with the 4 cube one.
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Hm… night 1 in the crib and Baby Spore woke up crying at midnight because he’d gotten his arm stuck.
Also, I was eyeing the crib suspiciously because I realized that at a mighty 5’2" I might not be able to set him down in the lower mattress position.
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If the Tripp Trapp marketing is to be believed, you’ll use it for years and years in all the convertible positions and it will be worth it.
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I am 5’2.5" and I was able to place my kid to sleep in the lower position ever so carefully by putting his legs down first. But some cots/cribs will be easier than others. Also, at least for getting kid out again, they’re sitting and often pulling to stand at least when you drop the level, so they can meet you in the middle for that bit.
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I can’t. I can now because I have a toddler. But if I’m putting him to bed alone I usually don’t because I wake him up in the dropping process. And when he first started climbing and got moved to the lower position I couldn’t get him out and once or twice had to crawl in and get him because he was sobbing but not helping
ETA that our weirdo sleeps better if you drop him on his head than his legs if you can’t lay softly. I refused to do this until one year.
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We were gifted a graco high chair which is great in all other aspects except the foot support. I wish I had seen the Feeding Littles guide earlier. I did add a block but I think the issue is that the seat is too deep for his knees to bend properly.
I also realized after watching Feeding Littles that I often sit with a foot tucked under or propped up against my husband’s chair while eating because my feet also don’t reach the ground and I want that support. 
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