I have a love language and that love language is affection and gifts. I love giving gifts. I love spending the time selecting the perfect gift and the antipication of gifting said gift and watching the expression of the person whom I am gifting too. My best friend has talked for years about having kids and has always said that when it came time that he was going to go for twins. By going for I mean that my best friend would need a donor and a surrogate. Fast forward to now and I can finally announce that my best friend and his partner are having twins and they will be here in November.
could they be any cuter?!
To say I am excited, is an understatement. Sean and I have been talking about what to gift them for over a year. I understand a registry, I get the registry, but honestly considering our relationship, it felt so impersonal and unlike me. I admit that I am that person that likes to sway from a registry (don't @ me). My best friend much like myself is Disney obsessed and over the last several months has been asking how soon is too soon to bring a newborn to the parks. My response: "how soon do you want to be parent-shamed?" (IYKYK). Sean and I had already culminated a list of things we had wanted to get them and this question catapulted us into deciding that we were going to put together a collection of things that new parents always forget to get until they are situated at home along. In addtion to things they would need to survive a day in the parks with a newborn (he has asked me a thousand times over to go through my Disney baby bag with me). Would you expect anything less?!
I understand that a day in the parks is not for everyone, but I have said it before and I will reiterate it again that it can be done comfortably and without spending hours in the Baby Center (unless you really want too, which I understand because all-day #cartoonsandairconditioning). First things first, rather than putting all of their gifts in a 1,000 gift bags that they will never use, recycle, or throw away, I opted to buy them THIS tiered rolling cart, if you know me, you know my love of this cart as I have one literally in every room (as seen below) and my life is better for having them. It also resulted in being a really great two-fer in that it is something they could use daily and looked really cute holding all of their gifts. They laughed a lot when I wheeled it out.
The OG cart that started it all
The Travel Cart in EV's Room...It's like traveling pants, but with more storage.
Reachable snacks for the kiddos...my kids like loaves of bread for a snack...plain loaves...nothing on it ::sigh::
Cleaning supplies. The answer is no, my kids don't touch this stuff, they never have.
But the original (OG if you will) in our room is used for strictly for changing the babies diapers (the changing mat is next to it), holding all of their day to day essentials such as, hair brush, detangler, thermometers, lotions, etc. and the bottom holds their blankets. I know a lot of people love their changing area in their nursery and the idea of having a speciality dresser for it, but honestly being able to wheel this bad boy into any room made my life so much easier especially when I had two. This also allowed EV to help since it was easy for her to wheel around and bring to me. Post-partum mama sometimes didn't want to spend five minutes trying to hoist myself up from the comfy cushions on the floor.
Obviously you do not have to put it together and depending on the size of their car, you may not want to. However, they have an SUV and were already warned to have room in the trunk for our gift. I love buying baby clothes, but honestly it wasn't until after I had my own that I realized that unless you know the person REALLY well, clothes are REALLY subjective (no matter how darling and perfect for photos you think it is), so I strayed away from any baby clothes that were not Disney. Also, I knew how much baby clothes his mama was already buying (a woman after my buy all the baby clothes heart). I know I have mentioned this before but our mall has a Character Warehouse and for a small span of time, all the clothing was an additional 30% so I basically cleared them out of all the baby stuff they had lol. I wish I could have found more "pair" stuff for them, but they stuff I got them was adorable, so beggars can't be choosers in this scenario.
I know you are swooning over the baby Snow White dress...it gives me all the I want another baby feels...but also not really lol. Also, peep those Christmas baby Minnie ears that came as part of the set....
The Jungle Book jammies are awesome as they came in a pack of two, but they were from our Primark so unfortunately I cannot link them either.
Obviously when you are having Thanskgiving babies, you buy Christmas outfits LOL. This is actually really sweet because it came in a set with another onesie that is not really gender specific (the red one behind it) and I thought they could use it for boy babe.
I was able to snag two of the 'Take Me To The Mouse' onesies and THIS pair of newborn Minnie ears came which come in an array of colors. The quality is amazing, the price is decent and the headband piece is stretchy and soft so it won't bother your little one's noggin. EV used ears like this pretty much up until a year ago and some times she still wears them (but she also has a little peanut head).
I couldn't help myself with the cute baby DIsney outfits...or these sunnies that I also scooped up from Primark. I am kind of jealous they didn't come in my size.
I swear the rest is useful...
My best friend has been 'my person' for almost 20 years so it didn't really seem that excessive (who am I kidding?!) with what I got (I came up with ten other things once everything was presented in usual Dana style), but if anything, it will give you ideas on baby gifts or even just gifts for new parent(s) in the future or if you are a new parent yourself (or may need fillers for your own registery). I especialy like that many of the items are out of the box and may not be thought of as 'needs', but are.
Just to give you an idea of how excessive I was and how it all looked together....
A majority of what I got them was survival in Disney things, but I feel being new to parenting life, people sometimes forget to get the essentials just to survive the first week. I figured that people are going to buy them all the diapers and wipes they could ever need and if anything they can get same-day shipping for anything else. However, I ended up including a gigantic Seventh Generation fragrance free laundry detergent (I swear this is the best fragrance-free detergent on the market). His partner looked all wide-eyed and said "I never would have thought about fragrance-free, dye free anything...I just planned to use our Gain." sweet-sweet boy lol. I also got them extra-strength laundry Resolve spray and extra sheets, because extra sheets are not something you think of right away until the kiddos have an accident and your going "ohhhhh that's why people kept telling us to get extra sheets." Since I seemed to have quite the laundry theme going, I also purchased THESE mesh laundry bags which I have talked about countless times and just kind of walked them through how I do laundry with the kids clothes (I am boujee with laundry, but we know this). Is this something that they NEED, of course not but as they get cuter outfits are they going to be grateful to have these bags so that the clothing and colors stay nice?! Yessiree bob!
I bought them two baskets from the bullseye playground just for organization purposes and they look nice whether they stay in the cart or put on top of a dresser. One can never go wrong with baskets and I am definitely of the more baskets the better variety.
I am just realizing now that in the picture they look like two different shapes, but they didn't seem that way in person...
In one basket I filled all the goodies that they would need in their diaper bag for a day in Disney, or restaurant or an evening at a friends house who may not have kids of the same age. I swear by everything below and with everything pretty much found at Amazon, Target or in the Bullseye area, they make for great gift fillers without breaking the bank. You could even just fill a basket with the items below and maybe a small gift card and it would be a home run for any new parent.
THESE hooks for the stroller are self explainatory (we obvi didn't want to get them hooks that said MommyHook) and ours are ALWAYS in use. The tech storage box we use for all of our cords (fans, phone, kindles, etc) so that they are all in one place nicely which keeps us rummaging around and constantly pulling out the wrong cord. I absolutely adore the pouch (there were several color options and we figured this was the most general neutral and easy to clean), it is awesome and was brand new to the Bullseye area, so I got us one too. As you can see, you put the travel wipes (make sure they are the travel size...the ones above came from the travel section in Target and fit perfectly) on the one side where the opening for the wipes are and the other side of the pouch can be used for travel sanitizer and maybe travel diaper rash (we have our mini Aquaphor since we use it for everything including diaper rash). I love these pouches because you can easily grab it out of the diaper bag with a diaper and not have to worry about carting the whole bag into the bathroom. I cannot stand when either there is no hook in the stall OR in Disney when the diaper changer is outside of the bathrooms and its not big enough to set down the baby and the bag (the bag is NOT going on the floor, but thanks anyway), so this alleviates all that.
Yes! Those are dog poos bags and also yes, we do not have any animals, but I love these. Having this clipped in the bag or on the outside is perfect when at a friends house and you feel weird about disposing the diaper in their trashcan (no matter how much they say it is okay). The bags are scented, they easily pull out of the dispenser and you are not worried about offending anyone. Again, these can be found in the Bullseye Playground and are awesome baby shower gift fillers if you need one. The Munchkin brand also makes one, but it is obviously a smidge more expensive than $1 (however, their bags are REALLY sturdy and are Arm&Hammer scented so either one is a win).
We got them THESE formula canisters (they were informed that if they were planning full-day park days they would want two more). However many ounces the babes are eating gets measured out and then you fill each section with that many ounces. This truly was how we were able to survive full park days. It was easy to pop the top of the section, dump it into the baby bottle filled with water (they were pre-filled as we had three bottles on us thanks to our awesome baby bag) shake it up and serve. We also kept an extra water bottle in the bag (but you are in Disney and Dasani is available EVERYWHERE). We had the three bottles because our bag provides a space for them and it was just easier to not have to worry about cleaning a bottle throughly after every feeding (sometime we would just do a quick rinse, fill with water and clean really well when back toward the Baby Center or hotel). The bowl and spoon is always nice to have once solids are introduced. If they do not eat everything they can pack it in this bowl (the bowl suctions to the table with an attached spooon) and serve it to them later or as a snack (it is microwave safe so they can always use the microwave in the Baby Center if need be).
I was hoping they would have the nicer wet bags, but they never came out with them so I was just happy to get the one above for them (still really nice, but previous years the Bullseye had some really fun prints and the bags looked like cloth). They are perfect to throw in dirty clothes and can be wiped down after everything is removed. There has only been one time that the Commodore got car sick on some cheerios and we were about halfway to Orlando, so I was REALLY thankful for these wetbags We bought matching disposable swimmies since the boys have a pool at their house in O-town and since there hands will be full in the pool, we got them a cover for their phone so they can take pictures while in the water with them.
Water time bring us to the second basket....
These amazing bath duckies were really hard to score in the Bullseye section and because we had three sets, I filled the second basket with these duckies and baby bath supplies (lotion, hair shampoo, etc.). Again, just presenting a basket filled with baby bath goodies and a gift card is still a really cute personal gift.
Sean's absolute must have item of everything on this cart is THIS Dr. Brown's formula pitcher. My kids were never on breast milk and it is a 100% none of your business why. They are perfectly healthy and that is all that matters. Anyway, Sean swears by this pitcher. We would make the formula in this, there is a spinner that you pump up and down to mix everything together (Sean's instruction: 10 good pumps, but do not do it too fast since it will create bubbles lol) and you can just pop it into the fridge after.
We bought two (one for each babe) of THESE stroller clip-on fans which really need no introduction and are an absolute MUST for the parks and then the stick on table toppers (pack of two) for when they are in a restaurant or partaking in some Disney dining. Lets be honest, everything is going to end up on the floor anyway, but this will give them piece of mind in thinking that they at least are looking like they are doing something to curb it.
I NEVER travel without THESE packing cubes. I am able to pack so much more stuff than I normally would (for whatever reason) and I can separate certain things out (like shoes, jammies, bras and underwear, etc), so I am able to grab things out of our suitcase with ease.
In full-transparency, the grocery shopping cart cover although brand new was ours and never used (we had been gifted several) and the same with the sun-safety visor, but they are still great first parent items that you never think about, but are always nice to have.
And here is how everything looked when finally presented...
The boys loved everything and nothing made me more excited than giving them the gift that Sean and I spent the last year and a half toiling over to make sure that it had every item they could want for the parks (of course there is always going to be more) and more. They were so excited to get the explaination of everything and how everything is used and will benefit them when taking the babes out and about (most of which they had not thought about). They were mostly warmed at the time we took to gather everything. They have waited so long for this moment and with it being so close, it is that much more exciting to see how all of these things will play into their lives the way they played into ours or not at all. Because babies do and like what they want...plain and simple.
Is your love language gifts too?! Do you also have trouble deciding what to get friends from registeries?! Do you stick by the rules and only register for what they asked or go completely off the grid?! Dying to know if we are going to be best friends or not...
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