{Monthly Baby Update} 10 Months

Checking herself out in the mirror
Weight: 22.5 lbs.
Height: TBD
Clothing Size: This baby is all legs! If she's wearing Carter's, she's in 18 months. If she's in Baby Gap or Old Navy, she's in 12-18 months. Luckily the weather is getting warmer, so pants aren't a necessity. That way, I can still get her into 12 month clothing.  
Diaper Size: Size 4 diapers now!
Feeding: Half-way through the month, I decided to get all crazy and give her Stage 3 baby food (in the jar). She did OK with it, but didn't love it. I think I freaked her out because after a few days of that, she stopped eating baby food. Like, wouldn't touch it. Ever. Over the past couple of weeks, she's back to eating her Stage 2 baby food, but that was a nightmare. In all seriousness though, I need to get her off of baby food relatively soon but I don't want to go through that all over again. She's still eating her trail mix (Cheerios, yogurt drops & blueberry Puffs), yogurt, and a little bit of scrambled eggs and pancakes.  We've been noticing that she's not interested in her small, 4 oz. bottle that she usually has with her baby food, so we've dropped it. I'm trying to work with her on taking a sippy cup of water instead, but she's not into that either. (Seeing a theme here?) So now we're down to roughly 30 oz. of formula per day.
Milestones: Baby is crawling! Whoop! The night before Mother's Day, Baby K finally decided to get moving. She maneuvered her way to a toy in the middle of the living room. Freaked out. Then cried while crawling to Daddy. It's wasn't pretty, but she did it! A little while later, we tried it again upstairs and she was much happier. Now she crawls all over the place. And then as soon as she crawled, she started kneeling. 

Baby K knows where her belly button, head and (sometimes) ear is. I don't know how we did it, but it's pretty amazing. 

This is what you get when you ask her where her head is.  Baby Girl is babbling up a storm! Most of the time it's "vo vo vo", but sometimes when she's really tired, it sounds like she's saying"god, god, god". So weird. But cute. And just as of recent, she's also started saying "mama". Melts my heart. 

Loves: We bought her a Fisher Price activity table right after Christmas and she was interested, but not really. Once she's started crawling, she's become obsessed with it. The usual drill is, crawl to the activity table, kneel, squeal with laughter as it plays music, sit, chase Jack around the ottoman, go right back to the table, kneel, squeal with laughter as it plays music and so forth and so on.   She also loves batting and hitting things away (which is mom's current hate). We're working on teaching her "no" (which I'm sure will be her current hate, shortly).    Hates: Men. She clings to me like a spider monkey when a man comes near her. Even her Grandfather's.  Looking forward to: Summer weather so we can get her in a pool! And now that we know that we're having her party at our house, we're going to be in full-on party planning mode soon.                                                            

{Adventures In} DIY Fabric Garland {tutorial}

Otherwise known as, That Shi*t Fray. (See what I did there?)  Anywho, everyone familiar with these gorgeous fabric banners? 

source Ok good. They are super simple to make - it just takes some time. And a whole lot of patience. As you all know, I am planning my best friend's purple ombre' bridal shower (which is in 3 weeks...eeek!). One of the design elements that I desperately wanted was a fabric garland, like the one above. The perfect place for this beauty will be in front of the fireplace. Only problem is, my friend's fireplace is MASSIVE. Like 6 1/2 feet of marble, MASSIVE. So, in order for the garland to not be completely eaten up by this fireplace, it needs to be massive as well.  Items Needed: Fabric. I bought 3 different colors of fabric, 2 yards each. I thought I was over-buying at the time. Ha. Twine. It depends on how you want to display the garland. I chose a thicker twine knowing that my garland would be heavy. You can use a thinner twine or a 1 inch thick piece of left over fabric.  Self-healing mat. Rotary cutter. These are nice to haves. You can certainly just cut 2 inch strips with scissors.  Step 1: Cut strips. The mantel alone is 22 inches tall, so I wanted my strips to be close to that. I cut my strips to be 18 inches long, but remember the fabric comes folded over in half, so your strips will be 36 inches, total. Be prepared for the strips to fray (more on that later).

Step 2: Assemble.  Place strip of fabric behind twine with the folded over part of the fabric at the top.

Take the bottom of the 2 strips and pull them above the twine (this will create a loop), through the top of the strip and back down again. 

Pull tight.

  Voila!! Lather, rinse, repeat. Like a billion times.  So after a couple hours spent, I figured I was done. Or so I thought. Remember how I mentioned that the fabric will fray? (You can actually start to see it fray in the picture above.) Imagine that X's 100. (In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of it, but I was too concerned with getting rid of the fray, I forgot. #blogfail) So I took the scissors and cut each piece of fray. On Every. Single. Piece. Of. Fabric. It took twice as long to cut the fray off as it was to actually make the thing. Had I bought better quality fabric, this may not have happened, I'm not sure. Just be prepared. So, do you want to see the final product? 

and a close up. 

Still some fray, but not NEARLY as bad 

I love how it turned out. Baby K will definitely have one on her 1st birthday, just not 7 feet long. :)

{Adventures In} Party Planning

Baby K turns one in 2.5 months. Ummmm, what?! Where did the past year go?  I've just started been pinning for months gathering inspiration for her birthday party. Since we've decided that the party will be at our house (and it's the size of a shoe box), we're limited on how crazy I can get with the decorations. So the plan is to pick the types of decorations that will make the most impact.  I am going back and forth with what I want her party to look like. Pink ombre', pink and white polka dots, shabby chic - the options are endless. While I haven't made up my mind on what direction I want to go, I have figured out what types of decorations will be making an appearance.  

high chair garland - chalkboard poster - fabric garland - ombre smash cake - photo display - invitation
Garland affixed to a vintage high chair - My husband and I found a vintage high chair at the flea market a couple months ago in a dirty white color. So I'm going to spruce it up by painting in a pink (I think) and affixing a fabric garland to the front of it. 
Chalkboard party poster - How amazing would it be to document your child's milestones every year on their birthday by using this adorable chalkboard party poster? There are a couple different options on Etsy - one is a pdf made to look like chalkboard art (totally reasonable and won't smudge) and the second is an actual chalkboard (expensive and could get ruined). We'll be going with the less expensive, pdf version.
Massive fabric garland - So I just made one of these for my friend's bridal shower and it's safe to say that Baby K's fabric garland will not be so massive. Instead it will be moderately massive. This banner will likely be above the food display and will match the banner on her high chair. 
Smash cake - Every baby needs a smash cake. Now to decide if a bakery will do it, or if I will. 
Photos of her first year displayed - I take a million pictures, so it will be nice to for your guests (and you) to reminisce and see where the past year has gone. Seriously, where did my baby go? 
Blow up balloon invitation - I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was so festive and fun for her first birthday. Your guests are instructed to blow up the balloon and the invitation is written on it. So fun! I'm really going to try to swing this (because it's not cheap, people), and I'll tell you how to do it in a later post. 

{Monthly Baby Update} 9 months

FYI: It's completely useless to put on the monthly sticker. She eats it within 30 seconds.
Weight: Just at 22 lbs. (90th percentile)
Height: 29 1/4 inches (95th percentile)
Clothing Size: This child is ginormous. In shirts, she is ranges from 12-18 months (depending on the brand) and in pants,  she is definitely 12-18 months. She'll be in 24 months before too long, I fear.   Diaper Size: Just graduated from Size 3 to Size 4 this week!
Feeding: Still on the same feeding schedule, however I am working on getting her to eat true "solids". Unfortunately, it's not going well. Turns out she has a sensitive gag reflex and when something other than baby food hits her tongue, she gags and proceeds to projectile vomit. (Apparently she get this from her dad). So when I do give her solids, I have to do a song and dance (literally) to distract her. Feeding time is fun. 
Milestones: Soooooo close to crawling. She's figured out how to sit up from a crawling position, so that's all she wants to do now. She's also thinks is great when she sits up in her crib after I've put her down for a nap or to go to sleep. She claps and laughs when she does it. I just watch her on the monitor and laugh. She eventually puts herself to sleep. 
Loves: The book "Good Night Moon". Laughing at daddy. Obsessed with Jack's tail. Her toy remote control. Touching index fingers (see below).

ET phone home.

Hates: When you touch her face or picking her nose which is terrible because picking her nose is probably my favorite thing to do. Weird mom obsessions. Men. All men. (Except my husband). 
Looking forward to: Getting rid of her cramped infant carrier and getting into her new, spacious convertible car seat. (Although I will miss the convenience of taking her in and out of the car if she is sleeping.) Actually starting the DIY stuff for her birthday party. I love a good project. :)

{Adventures In} Car Seats

Buying a convertible car seat is no joke, people. I NEVER thought that so much would go into it. For real. Let me take you on our car seat journey. 

Britax
After doing some research via Amazon reviews and going to Babies R Us and speaking with someone there, we first went with the Britax Pavillion. The main reason we went with Britax is because they are the #1 car seat manufacturer out there. Tried and tested, the best. So how can someone not like the best? The main reason was the tethering system. Britax STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that you tether the car seat to an anchor in the floor by the rails of the passenger seat. That's great. If I had an anchor point there. Since I don't have one there, I'm forced to tether via Australian method which looks something like this:

Baby K is over 22 lbs. and growing. How in the world am I supposed to lift her up over the safety belt EVERY time I take her in and out of her car seat? Oh you don't have to lift her up, you say? Just undo the safety belt EVERY time you take her in and out. Ya, that sounds a lot better. {Insert sarcastic undertone} If you have your car seat installed this way, God bless you. I could not do that.  So your second option is just not to tether at all. This worries me. I know a TON of people do that and when you walk into Buy Buy Baby, they will tell you the same thing. However, if the manufacturer STRONGLY RECOMMENDS it,  and they are a leader in the industry, you should probably do it. I couldn't live with myself if I did get into an accident and something happened to Baby K because I didn't tether.  Lastly, a lot of the reviews of this car seat mentioned that it's not great for tall babies. With Baby K in the 95th percentile for height, this is a huge issue for us. So we reluctantly moved on. 

Chicco

Next up is Chicco's first attempt at a convertible car seat, the Nextfit. Not only does this seat look great, it also does not require tethering. Chicco actually says in the manual, DO NOT TETHER. SCORE! This particular style is exclusive to Buy Buy Baby, so we waited until it came in stock roughly a couple weeks after we returned our Britax. We drove the 45 miles, picked it up, drove the 45 miles back, got it home, put it in the car and it worked perfectly! No tethering needed, level as can be, just perfect. That is until we put Baby K in it to test it out. The safety harness was too tight up top (near her chest) and too loose in her midsection. We confirmed that we weren't the only people in America having this issue by reading some reviews online and as much as it pains me to say it, we returned it. This totally sucked because I REALLY liked this car seat.  

Peg Perego

So we made the 45 mile trek back to Buy Buy Baby to return it and instantly fell in love with the Peg Perego Viaggio. Of course, we would like one of the more expensive car seats that is the only one that is excluded from their 20% off coupon. As such is my life. Anyway, the car seat is gorgeous, made really well and gets great reviews from the parents with the tall kids, so we bought it. We take it home, Baby K is super comfortable in it. Not too tight or too loose, it's great. We get it in the car and it's not level. Not even close. WTF!!!!! We looked online for some help and what do people usually do to level out their car seats? Pool noodles or towels.

I'm sorry, but the safety of my child's head is being impacted by a pool noodle? This is not right. This can't be right. Oh but it is. So my husband makes the 45 mile trek back to return it. While he was doing that, I said to myself, this can't be that hard. We have two options - Either we don't tether or we put a pool noodle down to level the seat.   To make this long story short we ended up going with the Peg Perego and will use a towel instead of a pool noodle. (A towel makes it seem better for some reason). The fact that there is plenty of room for her little legs to grow and I don't have the guilt looming over my head about the tethering issue are the reasons why we chose the Peg Perego. Once we get it in and live with it for a while, I'll be sure to do a review.  So after all was said and done, what were the 2 biggest pieces of information that I absorbed through the process? Britax is pronounced, Bry-Tax. Chicco is pronounced Key-ko. Who knew. 

{Monthly Baby Update} 8 months (A little late)

So. Many. Rolls. Weight: 21 lbs.
Height: TBD
Clothing Size: I just bought 4 sleepers that are 12-18 months. She's too big for them. What. The. Crap!  
Diaper Size: Still in Size 3 diapers. We still have a few small packs of diapers left, so we're going through them and moving on to Size 4 soon!
Feeding: Feeding schedule/amount is still the same. However, she tried Cheerio's this month and loves them. She also loves yogurt. Cottage cheese, not so much. I would love for her to eat more "real food", however she's just not into it yet. 
Milestones: It's official, she can say dada. Still no mama. Another cool thing is that we can ask her to find mama, dada, and Jack and she will look at the appropriate person. Also, she can clap on command. Adorable. We're working on getting her to crawl, but she's not there yet. She's great at going backward, but not forward. Since Baby K is so tall, we need to get a new car seat. Here we are testing some out at Babies R Us lately.   

Baby for sale. Kidding. Just checking out some car seats.

Loves: Being on her stomach! Finally! She actually loves rolling from her back to her stomach and then to her back again. Playing with Jack (obsessed), standing on my lap (against my lefts), and taking rings off the yellow stick/holder (we're working on putting them back on).     Hates: When mom and dad leave the room. More me, than my husband. Major separation anxiety going on. 
Adventures: Baby was a huge hit at Easter. Since we went to my in-law's and my aunt's house, she needed multiple outfits (naturally). Top left is the sleeper she woke up in. Bottom left is the outfit that she wore at my in-law's. And the right is the outfit she wore at my aunt's house. Even though it was a long day, she was a trooper!

Looking forward to: Getting our new car seat and figuring out where we are going to have her 1st Birthday party! (I can't believe it's that time already).

{Adventures In} My Gallery Wall

My husband and I moved into our home mid-June and by early July, our gallery wall was up. When I get a bug up my butt, things happen. And quickly. My initial plan was to pick up random frames and wall decor and create our own wall. I figured that it would be pretty easy considering we used to spend A LOT of time at flea markets and antique stores. After a few trips, I realized that creating your own gallery wall is time consuming and can be expensive. So where do I go when I want to save some time? Etsy. If you search "gallery wall", you will find TONS of vendors with all sorts of color schemes. I went vintage, French. Once we got the frames and wall decor in the mail, my husband was overwhelmed. He's a perfectionist and he thought that putting these frames up would be a nightmare. Don't get me wrong, it's a pain, but it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. 

Step 1: Figure out what you want the layout to look like on the wall by placing everything out on the floor and arranging. (Jack decided to get right in the middle of things, as he always does.) 

Step 2: Take paper and make custom cut-outs of each piece of wall art. Place on wall. I just taped them, but I've seen on Pinterest where people actually nail into the wall at this point. 

Step 3: Nail into wall and place frames/decor appropriately. Fairly simple. It took just an evening.

THIS is how our gallery wall has looked for 2 1/2 years. No pictures. People thought we were nuts to have a frames without pictures. Obviously they don't read home decor blogs very often. ;)

AND THIS is what it looks like now. Complete with pictures!

Most of the pictures are professional ones from our engagement session or our wedding, but a few are ones that I have taken of Baby K over the past 9 months. I actually did the chalkboard art and am surprised at how it doesn't look like a total shit-show good it looks! I really love how it turned out and best part is that we can change out the pictures as our family memories grow. It's ever evolving!

{Adventures In} Gallery Wall Lovin'

top left - top right - bottom left - bottom right

Wall

This is, quite possibly, my biggest gallery wall crush of all time. 
It's no secret that I love me a gallery wall. With the advent of Pinterest, everyone can now show off their gorgeous creations and inspire millions. The first project my husband and I did after purchasing our house was put together a gallery at the top of our staircase. After almost 3 years, it's finally complete. (The great thing about a gallery wall is that it's ever changing and is never really done.) But mine is done...for now. 

{Adventures In} Bridal Shower Planning

So I'm knee-deep in planning my best friend's bridal shower. We decided on a purple ombre' themed brunch for 50 people. Yes, I said 50 people. In a month. Cray. I'm desperately putting the decor details for the shower together now, but luckily we were smart and have been working on the menu for some time now. It will include:

Beverages: Your standard drinks, such as lemon water, coffee, juices and, wait for it... a mimosa bar. Juices to add to the champagne include orange, peach, pomegranate and strawberry. It's going to be ridic. 

Dishes: Mini pancake kabobs (see below), roasted potatoes, quiche, sausage, shrimp, bagels, fruit, and a yogurt station.  

Desserts: A variety of muffins, donuts, chocolate covered strawberries, cupcakes, mini fruit tarts.

I really wanted to be over the top with the ombre' theme, but with 50 attendees, it just wasn't in the budget. So, I'm planning on adding pops of ombre' where I can through flowers, fabric garland, straws, and in the food. I can't wait to share pictures and maybe a few tutorials. But in the meantime, here is a little inspiration (a la' Pinterest, of course) of what I hope the bridal shower will look like.  

Top Left - Top Middle - Top Right - Bottom Left - Bottom Middle - Bottom Right