parenting update

so, motherhood hasn't been so bad lately. now that baby is getting a little older, things are much easier right now. i'm sure once she starts wanting to be more independent, she'll be more difficult to deal with. she's been walking for about a month and getting better at it every day. people say that once your kid starts walking, watch out... i've found that life is so much easier now that she can walk. her sleeping at night is much better too. i think the last hurdle we need to get over is the weaning off the breast. i never in a million years thought i'd breastfeed past 9 months, yet here i am at 12 1/2 months still breastfeeding with no end in sight. i laugh in disgust when i hear of moms that still breastfeed at 2 years old... i can only hope that i won't be one of them. the problem is that baby doesn't drink cows milk and she's been trained to fall asleep via nursing. she's perfected that skill and i don't want to screw things up, but at the same time, i'd like to stop nursing soon. all these paths of least resistance are great at the time, but when you want to do something the right way, you're just making things harder for yourself in the long run.

was going to list all the stuff baby got for her birthday, but there's just way too much stuff. instead, i'm going to list my latest purchases for baby over the last couple weeks.

from lester harry's by tartine et chocolat $98:

also from lester harrys by tartine et chocolat $128.

also from lester harry's by lili gaufrette $88:

from mulberry road by pink chicken $64:

corolle baby doll, mealtime set and bag of accessories:

happyland toy set (vet):

i guess i'll stop here.. there is quite a lot more stuff i bought... don't want to scare anyone.

Pic only post of baby's party

baby's birthday party was today. a few more preparation pics:

Appliqued bibs in elephant print fabric:

Bibs wrapped up in tissue to look like candy:

The felt party hats made into a cone:

Now the party pics:

I made the little banner out of wrapping paper:

Candy bar

The party hats doing their job:

These flowers were left over from a previous event. They were gorgeous. Cherry blossoms, mini calla lilies and orchids.

Personalized favor bags. They contained the elephant, bib and a bottle of bubbles.

crafty

just wanted to post a couple things that i've made for the party...

for the party favors, i made little stuffed elephants. they're about 6 inches tall, 7.5 inches wide:

there are ears on both sides...they flap and are not appliqued

i also made felt party hats... i don't have a picture of the hat made into the cone shape, but you see it better flat anyway. gonna use these as the base for the balloon centerpieces for the table:

need to figure out how to weigh it down..the balloons are going to come through the top. one thing i have to mention about this little project...it pretty much cost nothing because all the supplies i had left over from last fall's halloween costume project.

i get immense joy out of getting ideas for making stuff and then actually making it... as much fun as i had with all these little projects, i'm kind of feeling a little nervous about having all this stuff i made at the party because not very many people are 'crafty' or even think about crafting. when baby went to the halloween party with her home made owl costume that i basically cut felt pieces out and used glue to put it together, people treated me like i just invented the wheel.

some other things i made for the party: a paper bunting that says happy birthday brooke and little tissue paper pom poms. not sure what i'm going to do with the poms yet, but it'll be nice to have on hand.

i never

Before baby came along and even before I even thought about having my own kids, I was utterly repulsed by baby toys with their bulky plastic and gaudy colors. Little did I know that there's nothing worse than a bored kid. Not that kids need ugly bulky plastic toys to keep them entertained and happy, but they sure help. I've been able to keep these items to a minimum so far, however, I just had a weakness thinking about how much baby would absolutely love this new purchase:

From ewonderworld.com 200 plastic balls to go in this ball pit play tent.

Ask me 11 months ago if I would ever consider owning such a contraption and I would say HELL NO! But what sold me on it is that the little tent folds down flat to an 18" circle. The balls will be a problem to "store away" but worst case scenario, I can always sell this once baby tires of it.

We're definitely going to run out of room for her stuff pretty soon because my next purchase is going to be a play kitchen set... Probably for Christmas...

brief update

so, baby is turning a year old in a few weeks. it's been quite a year with lots of ups and downs...lots of downs actually... but i have to admit that it's getting a little easier now that baby is getting older. she's sleeping a little better at night and during the day, she can play by herself for 20 minute chunks of time.

at 11 months old, she's still exclusively breast fed, doesn't really like sold foods, is almost walking, generally happy, likes anything electronic with buttons, weighs 20.5 lbs, doesn't sleep in her crib, loves music, loves books, tv, swinging at the park, has 9 teeth, feeds her babydoll a bottle...

in celebration of this epic year, we're throwing a big party at the mandarin oriental. the theme is going to be pink elephants. i sewed little stuffed elephants for the party favors... and on spreadshirt.com, i designed these little totes to put the elephants in:

this party is honestly going to be over the top. the cake is going to be made by the same baker that made our wedding cake. it's going to be 2 tiers and this approximately how it's going to look: instead of the elephants on the top tier, they're going to circle the bottom tier and on the front of the top tier will be a swag shaped banner that says happy birthday "baby".

i got these thank you cards (except i changed the font to match the elephant's ear):

and i got these stickers that say, "thanks for coming to my party" which i'm going to put on goodie boxes that people can bring home a slice of cake or something from the dessert bar:

i also got another set of stickers that say "Let's have fun... Baby's turning one" (which was the wording used on her invitation) to put on the bags for the candy bar. the candy bar will feature all sorts of pink candies.

we'll have entertainment for the babies...a singing duo from baby wiggle. and a bazillion balloons.

i actually bought baby's dress back in early february when we were in palm beach. there's this exquisite children's clothing boutique called spring flowers.. they have a website springflowerschildren.com, but the dress i bought is not in it. it's a pink and grey cherry blossom print with smocking and flutter sleeves. totally precious. hopefully she'll be walking in 3 weeks so she won't be dragging her dress all over the floor.

we've invited roughly around 45 adults and 18 children. so far, 30 adults and 13 children are definitely coming. we've got 6 more adults and 3 kids on the maybe list. the whole reason this party ended up becoming such a big deal is because we wanted to invite a good number of people, but then thinking about getting them all into our apartment seemed very unappealing. it's not that we don't have the room...we just didn't want to have to deal with it... so, we thought gee...why don't we have it somewhere else... and then well, if we have it somewhere else, it'd be ridiculous to rent out a room for just 15 people...so to make it worthwhile, why don't we just go all out. so here we are. of course baby's not going to have a single clue what all the hubbub's about..nor is she even going to know it's her birthday. but, i've thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of planning the party and all the details. it's a totally selfish and extravagant pleasure. oh well! if we don't mind spending the money, then what the heck. all in, i think we'll end up spending around $3500 for everything. that sounds like a lot, but we're getting a lot...i like the fact that we're serving excellent food...in real dishes and not pink paper plates and using real silverware and not plastic... and i don't have to worry about a single thing. i don't have to worry about having enough food...whether it's going to taste good...and i don't have to worry about cleaning up... or spills on the couch or on our rugs... i just get to do all the fun stuff i like doing and then all i have to do is show up.

i'll continue to post more about the party as it comes along.

long time no post

someone pointed out that i've been mia for quite some time... i haven't had the dire need to get stuff off my chest, so i haven't been motivated to write. until i have something worthwhile to write about, i'll just continue to post recent purchases.

since baby has been sick for over a week and just starting to get better, i was able to leave her at home and go on a little shopping excursion today.

this is what i got:

from anthropologie:

i also got a grey cardigan but it wasn't on the website

some previous and notable purchases include:

from calypso

These AG white jeans and this tunic but in pink

for baby, i got these from petit bateau

from robeez:

some random stuff just to have...for emergency birthday presents etc...

by North American Bear a little bear and a little bag

by Sevi:

Vacationing with a baby sucks.

So, we've decided to spend a week in sunny Florida prior to the sister-in-law's wedding. It was our first plane trip with the baby and luckily, it was fairly painless on the way down. One thing that being here has really pointed out is: there is no such thing as a vacation no matter where you go as long as you have a baby. The first night we were here, we had no choice but to go to bed when she did. That meant turning off the TV and the lights at 8:30 and lying in bed staring at the ceiling until we finally passed out. The next day, we had some errands to do during the day. Husband's sister was arriving that day and was able to get a room next door to ours. We brought our video baby monitor and set it up so at least we didn't have to go to bed when the sun was still up, however, I had to stay in while husband and the rest of the family went out to dinner. I got to eat dinner at 10pm when they got back to the hotel.

The sun finally came out on day 3 and all the girls got their suits on and lounged by the pool. I've been holed up in the hotel room for the afternoon while baby naps. I almost feel like I might as well have just stayed home because there is little to no opportunity to actually relax or recreate at all. Husband is not doing anything either. We're both just kind of looking out the window until baby wakes up. I'm wondering if this is normal. If so, at least we're not abnormal, but boy does being a parent suck sometimes.