1. Philips multifunction food processor
Little Bear is already past the stage of eating purées, and she refuses anything soft and mushy. Even so, hillway bought this Philips multifunction food processor while thinking ahead to juice for the first child and baby food for the second. It comes with three containers in all.
The attachment we use most is the blender. It’s mainly for making apple juice for Little Bear. The matching strainer, though, doesn’t feel very practical, so when we filter juice we still end up using the sieve from the Midea soy milk maker. As for the grinder and chopper, they have been put away and have never been used even once.
2. Fisher Price portable small dining chair V8638
This chair was another thing hillway kept wanting to buy, but because I kept opposing it in the name of saving money, we dragged our feet for a long time before finally getting it.
Once it arrived, Little Bear didn’t react to it the way she once reacted to the potty. She found it novel enough to sit on it and happily played with the buckle while eating. The problem was that she refused to use the tray. Instead, she stretched her neck and leaned her arms forward to reach the food on the table, though the seat was too low for that to work well.
hillway even went to the trouble of stacking several thick cardboard boxes under the chair to raise the height. That solved the height issue, but after only a few days Little Bear would sit there for just a few minutes before complaining, “My butt hurts,” and demanding to be carried down. Later on, she stopped sitting in it altogether and switched to kneeling or standing instead. That felt unsafe, so the chair was folded up and moved into the storage room to “sleep.” hillway is still hoping the second baby will make it useful again.
3. THERMOS children’s stainless-steel straw insulated cup
This cup has no handle, so it’s a bit hard for Little Bear’s small hands to grip. Drinking from it isn’t very convenient, and opening and closing the lid is not easy either. In particular, putting the lid back on takes quite a lot of force.
As for how well it keeps things warm and for how long, we still haven’t really tested that.
4. little tikes rocking horse
This is one of Little Bear’s favorite toys. Every now and then she will climb on and rock for a while.
She rocks very hard. To get it moving, she throws her whole body and head backward to build momentum. At first I was a little nervous watching her and worried she might fall, but after a while I realized the concern was unnecessary: the backrest behind the rocking horse protects her well.
When she plays, she enthusiastically asks both me and hillway to sit on it and rock too. But because of that backrest, even if adults manage to squeeze themselves onto it, there’s basically no room left to make it move. It really is a toy for young children.
5. Happy Little World, Chick Jumping Fun
These were hillway’s second-birthday gifts for Little Bear. The Chick Jumping Fun toy was bought mainly to make up the order total. Its shape isn’t especially cute, and there isn’t much to do with it, so it was quickly set aside.
Happy Little World, on the other hand, has plenty of little activities, and Little Bear likes it a lot. After playing with it for a while, she discovered that whenever you switch it off, a female voice says, “Remember to put the toys away neatly, little one. Bye-bye!” She especially liked the sound of “bye-bye,” so she kept turning the button on and off just to hear it again and again.
hillway felt she wasn’t really old enough to understand how to play with it yet, so it was put away in storage to wait for another time.
6. Auldey Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf figures
These were also bought by hillway for Little Bear. The two Auldey toys are not very big and don’t have much play value either, but they weren’t exactly cheap.
What can be said for them is that the plastic quality is good. They feel thick and sturdy.
7. MOONY diapers, GOO.N diapers, Huggies pull-ups
When Little Bear was first born, we used green Pampers diapers. They absorbed well, but there was always a certain smell to them. Later we switched to imported Moony diapers. Around that time hillway also bought some domestic GOO.N diapers, and comparing the two, they are both soft and smooth, without the smell that Pampers had.
That said, they don’t absorb quite as quickly as Pampers. In terms of softness, Moony feels the best. The tape on the domestic GOO.N diapers is rather stiff, and sometimes it rubs against Little Bear’s waist.
Changing diapers has never been something Little Bear does politely. Sometimes she resists the change; other times, after washing her bottom, she runs around on the bed with no pants on at all. We worry about her getting cold or peeing on the bed, so changing her always takes a lot of talking and effort. Even when we try to fasten a diaper, she doesn’t want to lie flat and just rolls around.
That’s why I suggested that hillway buy some pull-ups. They’re easier to put on because you can just pull them up. The trade-off is that the absorbent area is smaller than a regular diaper, so we usually let her wear pull-ups during the day, while at night she still wears Moony diapers.
8. Nestlé Super Premium 3, Aptamil toddler formula 3
After giving Little Bear Friso for a while, hillway started giving her Nestlé Super Premium again. Later, after following a coworker’s order, he also bought 9 boxes of Aptamil toddler formula, though she hasn’t drunk any of it yet.
When it comes to buying food and clothing for Little Bear, we always feel that if we try to save money and choose something cheaper, it somehow feels like we’re shortchanging her. Usually we end up spending one or two more times afterward to make up for it.
9. HaowaWa wiggle car with music and quiet wheels
This was a gift shipped by Little Bear’s grandfather after ordering it online.
According to the product description, it can hold up to 220 jin and adults can ride it together with children. In principle the weight limit isn’t a problem, but adults have longer legs, so once you sit on it and try to move, there isn’t enough room to stretch out comfortably. After a short while your legs start to ache, so it’s really better suited to children.
The music only has a start button and no stop button. The only way to silence it is to wait until the song finishes. The car moves very fast, so a child should be supervised while playing, especially downhill, where speed and direction are harder to control and it’s easy for both child and car to tip over with a slight lean.
After several months of use, the steering wheel became loose and fell off. We couldn’t find the oddly shaped installation tool that came with it, and the seller on Tmall was unhelpful when asked about after-sales service and refused to send a replacement.
10. LAICA water filter jug
Even though we had a Midea water purifier installed when the new house was renovated, hillway still felt the water wasn’t clean enough. If he looked closely, he could always find tiny particles in it. Every time he made formula for Little Bear, he would shine a flashlight into the water and check it over and over before feeling at ease.
After a while, he ordered a LAICA filter jug online. After filtering, we really didn’t see any impurities anymore. The only thing to remember is that the filter cartridge needs to be replaced every two or three months for it to work well.
11. Thick foam interlocking floor mats
In summer we ended up buying five sets of these mats one after another. One set was laid on the bay window in the master bedroom, and the other four sets were spread across the floor of the children’s room.
12. Resin cartoon modular wardrobe
We used the corner space by the master bedroom bay window to place a modular resin wardrobe. It’s used for sorting Little Bear’s clothes and picture books.
13. Good Children, Good Habits and The Tales of Peter Rabbit
Good Children, Good Habits is divided into three parts: the wisdom volume, the heart volume, and the growth volume. It has a lot of pictures.
The Tales of Peter Rabbit is mostly text, so it’s still too hard for Little Bear to understand right now.
14. Small toys
Looking back, the toys hillway usually buys for Little Bear are the kind that cost dozens or even over a hundred yuan, while the toys I buy are usually around ten yuan each. Things like pretend cooking utensils, bead threading toys, a transformable colorful caterpillar, and a 100-piece Kaiye scene block set all fall into that category.
When Xiaomeigua went back to her hometown, she bought Little Bear a red Pleasant Goat umbrella, a pig roly-poly coin box, and a bunny sand-digging push cart.
When Little Bear was out shopping, she picked out a small motorcycle-shaped toy for herself and has been very attached to it ever since.
15. Clothes, shoes, hats, and socks
The sleeping bags we bought before were either getting too short or too thin, so hillway ordered an Ouyun natural cotton split-leg children’s sleeping bag for winter. Its filling is cotton, and it feels very soft and warm to the touch.
To get Little Bear ready for the cold winter back home, we bought ahead of time two balabala down jackets and one 361° girls’ down jacket, along with a flannel cape, wool pants, fleece-lined jeans, and more. hillway even bought a cotton coat for himself so he could wrap Little Bear up in it.
During this period we also added a bamboo charcoal baby mattress and two or three pairs of functional shoes.