I haven't written about our
Bluum box subscription yet even though we've had it for several months now. Bluum is a monthly subscription box of age specific items for your baby (and they usually include one goodie for mom as well). Remember when I talked about
my shopping ban and said I was an emotional shopper? One of the things I did when I first came back to work and was doing a lot of online shopping to cope was order a subscription to Bluum for Oliver. There are similar programs out there - such as Citrus Lane or Stork Stack - but I read some pretty decent reviews of Bluum, so I chose to subscribe to it. And then the first few months of receiving it I actually regretted it a bit. I wasn't all that impressed with the goodies they sent, several times there were clothing items that came and were too small for Oliver to even use once. Often times the items would be questionable to his age - I was curious if they really paid attention at all. The boxes were nothing like I had seen online. But I was paid up for at least six months worth, so I figured I'd just wait it out until it finished and wouldn't renew it. I didn't feel like blogging about it since I was so unimpressed. But then last month's was a bit better - we got the
Spuni spoon I mentioned earlier this week and also Oliver's favorite teething toy to date. Then finally, this month's was awesome, I feel like it was finally blog worthy as I'm pretty impressed with it! So, here is our Bluum box for Oliver's 8th month!
When you open up the box there's a card that reminds you what month it is, talks about their referral program and explains what is inside.
The first item for this month is this bunny finger puppet from Apple Park. It's all organic and super soft and cute. We love singing the song "Little Bunny Foo Foo" with Oliver, so now we can use this instead of our fingers when we do the motions!
The next item I was super excited to see. This stuffed elephant from Fiesta Toys is so soft and cuddly and almost like a pillow. I love the plaid inside of his ears too! If you pull his tail it plays lullabies. Oliver loves elephants so I think this will be a fun new friend for him.
I was just saying earlier this week that Oliver is very entertained by my bracelets - this one by Chewbeads is perfect - it's meant for teething babies to be able to chew on! I have a teething necklace I wear for him too, so I will happily wear this as well to give him something to gnaw on besides my fingers! It's a great shade of blue too and adjustable, which I appreciate since I have tiny wrists (I know, first world problems right?)
I am very curious about how this next thing will work - by Green Sprouts, these are Compressed Wipes that apparently you add water to and they work like regular baby wipes. They take up less room in a diaper bag or purse and are better for the environment as they are made of plant material. I will say this - since Ollie has started on solids,
erhm, cleaning him up at a diaper change isn't always as easy these days, so I'm a little skeptical of these, but I will give them a try!
This next item is the only one I will likely not use. It's a Pacifier Clip from Bumkins. As much as we tried early on, we just couldn't get Oliver to take a pacifier. He has a Wubbanub (stuffed toy attached to a Gumdrop style pacifier) that he chews on and plays with and adores, but he really doesn't do pacifiers otherwise, so we have no need for a clip that will keep one from getting lost! I know a few other friends with kids who do love their pacifiers though, so I'm sure one of them could possibly use this and I'm happy to share!
So there you have it! This month's box has kind of restored my faith in the Bluum program - we started getting boxes at month 3, so this should be our last one unless I renew the subscription. I may give it another go or I might look into Citrus Lane instead. Or I may just scrap it all together and just keep scouring garage sales and consignment sales for fun goodies! At any rate, it is always fun to get things in the mail and it was fun giving this a try and we have enjoyed a good number of the items, so even though a few of the earlier boxes were disappointing, I'm still glad I did this - good old mommy guilt making me buy things after going back to work last February I guess!
And speaking of mommy guilt, we'll be leaving Oliver for his first overnight this weekend. This mama is excited for the event that she is going to, but very, very sad to leave her baby behind for the first time! I know he will be well cared for by someone who loves him (Nate's parents) but that doesn't make it any easier! Here's hoping I can actually take advantage of a full night's sleep instead of fretting about him the entire time (I'm likely going to be doing the latter). Have a great weekend everyone!
