Regifting

During our pregnancy we received many baby gifts from our friends, family, and coworkers. Many people gave us items that their children (and grandchildren) had outgrown, such as, strollers, cribs, clothes, and toys. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such generous people.Matt's co-worker, Melissa Corbett gave him a bag of her daughter Ashley's favorite things. Among the items in her "bag of tricks" was ALEX Match and Stack boxes, Munchkin Fresh Food Feeders, and a Baby's First Sounds Baby Einstein DVD. These three items have quickly become Tanner and Abigail's favorites too!
One rainy day this spring I decided to get out some new toys for Tanner and Abigail to play with. I was getting a little tired of the toys they had been playing with since the very beginning so I assumed they would enjoy something new to play with. I got out the stacking boxes that Melissa gave us and began building towers. Since only Abigail was crawling at that time, she quickly crawled across the room and knocked every tower down. This became an enjoyable activity for the whole family. Tanner and Abigail got so much joy out of watching the boxes tumble to the ground and we loved to watch them smile and hear them laugh out loud every time a tower would crumble. Lately Tanner has taken to putting smaller toys inside the larger boxes and shaking them. When we put them down to play after breakfast before their morning nap the boxes are one of the first things that they crawl toward to play with.When we first introduced "solid" foods to Tanner and Abigail we used the mesh feeders a lot. I put frozen applesauce in them for an after dinner desert and frozen grapes to help soothe their sore teething gums. The mesh bags keep large chunks inside while the juice and flavor comes out. My friend Chelsea told me she put ice cubes in hers for her son Nico while we was teething. My sister's daughter Emily used hers to enjoy some veggies while we were at The Boondocks restaurant in Fort Fairfield.When Tanner and Abigail were still very young and not able to roll over or crawl we discovered the magical powers of Baby Einstein. I believe I was the first one to put the disc into the DVD player when I wanted to take a shower one morning while Matt was at work. Tanner and Abigail were laying on their back on their play mat and I pressed play. The second the music began playing and colorful images danced across the screen they were hooked...it was like baby porn! The video only lasted 30 minutes which was just enough time for a shower, to bring in and fold laundry, or fix and eat a quick lunch. We tried not to use it more than once a day and some days we didn't use it at all. After about a week Matt suggested that we use it during dinnertime so we could actually sit down and eat a hot meal without having to hold/entertain a baby...what a genius! The only issue we had with this DVD was that Tanner and Abigail would cry every time Twinkle Twinkle Little Star played. It happened three or four times throughout the video each time in a different language but with the same end result. We have since been given two other Baby Einstein DVDs to add tour collection: Baby MacDonald and Baby Mozart. We rarely use them now since Tanner and Abigail can crawl and won't stay in one place, but they were MAGIC back in the beginning.

Looking back now I really appreciate the thought that Melissa put into her gifts for Tanner and Abigail. She gave them items that her daughter loved not just some random toy that caught her eye in the store. I have followed in her footsteps and have begun regifting our favorites to others. This past weekend Tanner and Abigail gave their friends Nadia and Grace their own set of ALEX Match and Stack boxes. Last week they gave Eamonn a set of rattles identical to the ones they played with as infants and Phineas some Chuck trucks like the ones they love pushing around the living room floor. Many people believe that regifting is rude, but I say regifting in this way is a wise and wonderful gesture!