Preschool Table Favorites

Here are some of our favorite items for Sammy to use while eating & drinking. No secret that I love baby gear, I have sussed out some things I love and I will share some of the brands that just didn't work out for us. 

Starting with plates. Most plates will work fine. I love the skip hop zoo line. (1)We have a few of these. You can't microwave them and I do handwash. They've held up for almost three years now and the colors look great. I think it helps with serving sizes and they are pretty durable. I haven't had many issues with it sliding around. I also really like the Tommee Tippee (6) line. These are great for travel and I never feel bad sticking one of these in the microwave. I tend to like the divided plates because Sammy is such a picky eater and often he'll really want a ton of ketchup and this way I can make it look like he has more than he actually does.

Sippy Cups and Drinking Cups were some of the most bought items in my home. Mostly because they get used all of the time. Sammy ended his love affair with the bottle at 12 months. My husband was determined he was getting his son off of the bottle before it became too difficult. Same with the pacifier. Tommee Tippee (3) has always been our first go to line. They are durable and tended to be leak proof for us. Sammy can throw a sippy. The seals were also pretty easy to clean. Now that Sammy is nearing four we use the coffee cup like version pictured. I didn't care too much for the straw model though because it was a bear to clean. The avent is pretty nice and I really like it. We use it for water on the go and is a nice trainer. (2)

The Ikea sippy cups are so loved they inspired this post. The are the Smaska line by Ikea (7) is a favorite of mine. They are not leak proof. We use them to sort of work towards completely regular glasses. We do sometimes use a small child size glass at dinner- but more often than not it is spilled. This is nice because Sammy can get a small serving of milk in the cup and we're talking more like 4 oz than 16 which the larger sippy cups can  hold. It is much easier to say drink your cup of milk and we're moving on to water. While I do believe dairy is a good part of our balanced diet, we try to consume whole foods and the vitamin D milk contains a good amount of calories. For a child that doesn't eat a balanced meal - that can be good and bad. I just don't want him drinking 16 oz of milk and there is no desire left for some veggies. 

Lastly silverware. Skip the skip hop brand. (hehe) We have never put them in the dishwasher and only use method detergent and the designs wipe right off. We have a LOT of this silverware because skip hop actually sent us replacements for the three sets we purchased and the replacements did the same thing. Now I just use them as travel silverware. I purchased the Ikea set (4) of silverware because I really wanted a set I could hang onto that would last. Sort of one day I will be a grandparent and hope to have little kiddos eating a meal at my house and having the honor of telling them that their dad used these when he was little. The plastic ones I used were totally not going to work for that purpose. These were very inexpensive and I plan to go back and maybe get a second set. The sugarbooger sets are pretty nice.(5) They have held up far better than any other plastic brand.  They look great and are a nice size. I really recommend them for day to day use.