Top 10 - Toddler/Preschooler Gear

10. Klean Kanteen with sport cap. The Nugget has had this water bottle since he was about a year old, and I forsee him being able to use it through grade school, because it's not a baby cup. It is indestructible and easy to wash with a bottle brush or in the dishwasher. Store it upright in your diaper bag because it's not leakproof. You can buy a sippy adapter that works with an Avent spout.

9. Inchbug orbit labels. These silicone labels are debossed with your child's name and stretch to fit around bottles and sippy cups. Really great for daycare and playdates, where 2 children might have the same sippy. The silicone also helps young toddlers get a better grip on their cups. Unlike a sticky label, you can pull these off so you can hand that baby bottle down to a little sibling and big kid can move the label to a water bottle.

8. Mabel's Labels. Our preschool requires that each item the child wears/brings to school be labeled. Art supplies, clothes, shoes, outerwear, toiletries, etc. It's really hard and time consuming to hand label with a Sharpie, and sometimes the tags are so tiny that it's physically impossible to get initials on them. Other times, I've found the marker bleeds and you can't read the letters anyway. Or you find out there's another kid with the same initials. We've tested Mabel's Labels and they really stay stuck. Even the clothing labels stay on through many laundry cycles, and the shoe labels stay nicer than the shoes themselves. The only tag that didn't work was on Giraffe, because the Nugget actively picked away at it, trying to restore his friend to her unmarked glory. (Luckily, everyone knows Giraffe and Nugget go together now, so no worries there.)

7. Hanna Andersson Swedish moccasins. The Nugget has really sensitive feet and hates going barefoot. We have hardwood floors, so his slippers need to keep his feet warm in the winter and have nonslip soles. We've tried many brands, but the Nugget loves these the best. They stay on his feet, are warm enough without making him sweat, and have thin soles that let him feel the ground without twisting an ankle. He even likes to wear them to bed, so they must be super comfy. I love their price tag ($12 at the outlet) and the fact that you can toss them in the washer (a must for potty learning).

6. Mrs. Meyer's room freshener. As Bill Cosby said, "God has now put odor in the poo-poo." Many conventional air fresheners are in an aerosol and/or have a lot of nasty chemicals in them - not exactly what you want a child to be inhaling. The Mrs. Meyers formula is a spritz bottle made with essential oils, and the price is right.

5. Travel potty. I've reviewed this before but it had to make the cut. My mom friends saw us pull it out, and everyone wanted one! It folds up into a little briefcase, and takes any gallon size zip bag. We have used it in lieu of scary public restrooms and on roadtrips when there is no pit stop in sight. I carry it to the parks in the summer because you never know if the bathrooms will be locked of if your newly potty-trained kidlet will be able to hold it for a half-mile walk from the playground to the restroom (Whoever designed these parks has not had to shepherd a full-bladdered tot with short legs 800 meters to a toilet. Seriously, I'd put one within spitting distance from the slide. You've got about T-45 seconds from the announcement that pee-pee is coming.) It holds up to 70 pounds, though an older kid will have to do some maneuvering to sit comfortably.

4. Medicine Safe. The Nugget is tall for his age, and now that he can use a stool, there is no such thing as out of reach. I feel so much better knowing that our meds are locked up tight in this box, which takes an adult-sized hand, dexterity, and strength to open (yet is still doable when you're suffering from a migraine). It comes in 2 sizes, and there is another safe available for cleaning supplies.

3. Kneeling pad. I don't know why it took me so long to buy one, but my knees are so much happier when I'm bathing the Nugget now.

2. Peltor headphones. The Nugget has a holy fear of public restrooms. The hand dryers, the auto flush, and the strangers talking and flushing just add up to a sensory nightmare for him. Grammy saved the day with these headphones that she'd originally bought for parades and fireworks. We keep them in the diaper bag now, and with his Peltors on, the Nugget is confidently conquering his fear and now wants to explore every public restroom he finds. He also uses them when the dog goes ballistic for the mailman, and they can be used for dress up too (air traffic controller, pilot).

1. Laptop lunch bento set. I scored one at a secondhand sale. Don't bother buying the insulated lunchbag that goes with it, it fits perfectly into most rectangular soft-sided bags. It is four containers in one that keeps a kids' lunch neat (no smashed sandwiches), allows you to pack a waste-free lunch, and it's very compact. If I tried to stack four separate lidded containers, it would never fit into the Nugget's lunchbox, but this does the trick.

P.S. Nugget here. Mommy forgot Twilight Turtle, and that turtle is my favorite. You can pick the color (I always pick purple, because that purple is my favorite). She likes that it has batteries instead of a plug (not sure why she doesn't like me experimenting with those plugs and shiny lightbulbs, they are really fun) and that I haven't figured out how to take the batteries out (yet). I like that he shines stars and a moon on my ceiling, and he watches me go to the potty in the morning. He doesn't open his eyes though, because he's sleeping. Why? There's a ladybug too, but I don't have that ladybug, I have that turtle.