Time Flies.

Labor and delivery was such a blur. There are so many new, monumental and life changing things happening so fast that it’s hard to recall everything with certain clarity. There are only a few sharp details that stick out in my mind.

I remember waking up and not being sure if my pains were really labor. I also remember not being able to breathe by the time we were taking our icy car ride to the hospital and saying “I’M SURE I’M SURE I’M SURE!”

I remember being admitted and walking into my room. It’s such an emotional thing to see the tiny little bed in the corner. It’s an awe inspiring thing to think, that is where my baby will lay. This baby that I’ve carried for nine long months that I’ve never met.

It seems like just yesterday I saw my baby’s cute little pink face for the first time. It’s cliché, but I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen.



When they took her from me, Ryan stood by her the entire time she got checked out and held her tiny hand. As soon as I started to talk, she snapped her head my way. She knew her mama.

I remember being excitedly nervous to take her home. We gingerly snapped her into her car seat that seemed to engulf her. Ryan drove all of about fourteen miles an hour on the way home.



Even though it seems like she has been a part of our family forever, I cannot believe six months has already passed. So much changes in that span of time- I can barely remember the tiny newborn baby we first brought home. They are such blank slates, ready to blossom into their own little being.

In the last half year, Charlotte has gone from a small, sleepy bundle…



…to a lively little thing with such a personality.



She’s moving like crazy. She’s been rolling like a champ since three months and has been army crawling since just past five. She is on a mission to get mobile. We’ve had to baby proof a little early on for our mischievous little thing… one of her favorite things to go after seems to be electrical cords. Yikes. This one’s gonna give us a run for our money.

Another thing she loves to go after is our dog, Lola. Charlotte is enthralled by dogs, big and small. She loves nothing more than getting a sloppy, wet doggie kiss right on the face. She will diligently inch across the room to get to Lola to pat and pet her.

Charlotte is a joyful little girl and loves to smile. I could cajole a purposeful smile when she was only a few weeks old. She loves to laugh too- and no one can make her laugh harder than her daddy. Charlotte has started to get her bottom two teeth the last few days. Ryan says he is going to miss her gummy grin.

It’s amazing to see her start to recognize people, too. My favorite part of the day during the week is when Ryan gets home from work. I love looking at Charlotte and watching her eyes when she realizes daddy is home. You can literally see the second when it clicks and the excitement starts to flicker. She loves when daddy plays toys with her after work. She likes to touch his scratchy beard, too.

Charlotte has frequent play dates with her friend, Nathan, who is only a handful of days older. He is a cutie and is growing so fast just like Charlotte.



Nathan’s mom Sara and I decided to have a little six month birthday celebration. Time passes so quickly- why not?

We got together (daddies too!) and had a delish dinner of hamburgers, potato packets, fresh fruit and sweet corn. Sara had gotten a mix of boy and girl party décor, princesses and cars, along with Elmo birthday hats.

Here are the party hat adorned kiddos, a little bewildered at what was going on.



I cannot believe they left the hats on!

I was pretty excited about the cake I made…





…but I was bummed about the big chocolaty mess in the middle. It was originally supposed to look like this...



...but the “6 mos” melted within minutes of leaving for Sara & David’s. Ya win some ya lose some!

After dinner, I took a few pictures of the kids playing toys in the backyard. They are super blurry and not great quality (I’m definitely not ready to shoot full on manual, case and point) but just seeing them interact was priceless. How special is it that they can say they’ve known each other almost forever? It was really nice to celebrate such a fleeting moment.











I always knew I wanted to be a mother, but I never anticipated just how much I would enjoy it. Seeing how quickly my little girl is growing has definitely made me see the appeal of having more than one kid. I cannot imagine only going through these stages once. Funny how I never thought that during the third trimester, or post-partum recovery. Thank you ubiquitous mommy amnesia for giving me my rose colored glasses back.

more peas pwease!

The first time I bought Charlotte baby food was an exciting experience. I looked at all the colorful glass jars on the shelf at the store picking and choosing all the things that might taste good to her. Carrots? Check. Bananas? Check. Sweet Potatoes? Check. Turkey Dinner? Blech, okay, not turkey dinner...there is something disturbing about pureed meat... but you get the idea. It was a novelty.

Looking at each individual jar only being seventy some odd cents didn't seem that bad. I usually can come up with more than that just by digging at the bottom of my purse for rogue coins that escaped my wallet. I guess I didn't stop and do the math to realize that she'd be eating three jars a day. And man, we'd have to feed her like, everyday. Not just when it was fun to watch her smear apples in her hair. That's a lot of rogue coins to find.

I planned on making some baby food before Charlotte was even born, if anything just for the nutritional benefits. I guess jars are heated to some ridiculously high temperature in the canning and preserving process and a lot of vitamins and minerals are lost. I also like to cook, and was hoping I could come up with some good concoctions that might be a little more adventurous than what you see at the store. (How come there is never any avocado baby food?)Lately I've also been motivated to get on the homemade baby food train to ease the hurt on my wallet.

Today I boiled some peas and gave them a spin through our food processor with a little of the cooking water. I spooned the pea puree into washed baby food jars and stuck all but one in the freezer. I gave the reserved jar to my little taste tester.



She was pleased. She was kind of fascinated with the texture too, since it wasn't completely smooth. She took it upon herself to grab the spoon and mash her hands all over the tray when she got bored of eating.

That's okay, I could never get mad at this face.



Charlotte deemed the peas a success, so I am going to try and make time to cook up baby food more often. I need to put aside a whole day to make several batches of different things so my kitchen doesn't look like this just for cooking up one measly bag of peas.



I think I only paid a couple dollars for my bag of peas, and I was able to make 11 servings. I have been paying $.77 per jar, so this will save me almost seven bucks. According to my math, my savings should be able to translate quite quickly to purchasing Charlotte the mini Ugg boots I've been eyeing. You know, the necessities.

I heart Photoshop.

Well, my bathroom still isn't all the way done...
...but I've been messing around with Photoshop in the mean time. I was seriously intimidated when I opened this program up for the first time, but I've been learning how to use it little by little.

Using this tutorial and this tutorial, I shot and edited these pictures today:

Original Picture 1


Edited Picture 1


Original Picture 2


Edited Picture 2


Soo.. her eyes look a little creepy in the first edited pic, but I still haven't learned how to dial down some of the effects. These pictures were shot inside, shockingly enough (I suck at inside pictures) on my couch that was draped with a black sheet. I tried a pink sheet, but it looked ridiculous when I tried to even out the background, kind of like she was glowing off it like a little baby Jesus. Yikes.

I live in a disaster.

We moved at the beginning of July, and I still can barely walk through our new place. My grandparents used to live here, so we are actually living with two sets of belongings since we are still weeding through their things. Not. Fun.

We also need to redecorate every single room. So far, the only space we have really started on is the kitchen, and it's definitely a work in progress (picture all new paint & some accessories, but no cupboard doors. Ryan, seriously, paint the cupboard doors already).

Since the chaos is driving me nuts, I've decided to start redecorating our main bathroom this weekend since it's the only other room we've successfully emptied. This bath will be used by guests, but will primarily be Charlotte's, so I want it to be sophisticated but still a little fun.

This is what I'm working with right now. Shoot me.



My inspiration are these two paintings I scored at an art fair.



Hello, I'm 26 and I love mermaids.

I'm going to paint the trim and vanity white and the walls this gorgeous color:



I have a problem with the color turquoise, it's kind of an obsession.

I'm ripping that weird cabinet/mirror off the wall and replacing it with a light fixture that I kind of think looks nautical, and this old Ikea mirror I have floating around. I'm not sure if the Ikea mirror will work, but I'm going to give it a whirl.



For the vanity, I have a capiz soap dispenser I got eons ago at Target. I don't have a picture, because I have no idea which random pile of boxes it's in, but it is similar to this style:



I will post pictures when I finish, whenever that may be. I would like to get it all done this weekend, but I have a history of unrealistic time lines. I totally thought we were going to finish our kitchen in one weekend. Here we are a month later, and it's still not done. The cupboard doors, Ryan. The cupboard doors. I know you're reading this.