Home Tour: Adalyn's Nursery

A while back I showed you several ideas for Addie's big girl room when that day comes, but I never showed you her current nursery.  These pictures were taken before her arrival.  You'll notice in one picture is our hospital gear packed and ready whenever she decided to come.

Nursery Items
Bananafish Lily Curtain Panel $44.99
Glider - Craigslist find for $75
Changing Table, Dresser, Crib - gift from both of our parents
3 Cherry Blossom Art $19.99
Party Poms $20
DREAM canvas - Homegoods find for $15
White Shelf Organizers $18.99
ClosetMaid Cubeicals $5.99 in Purple and Fuschia
Stick Lamp $20
Bananafish Lily Damask Sheet $18.99
KNUBBIG Table lamp - $9.99

-stephanie

Freedom Style: Toddler Boy

Earlier this morning I showed you my toddler girl outfits and yesterday I showed you an outfit for yourself.  Now I'm showing you my thoughts on the toddler boy outfit for your 4th of July celebrations.  Now, I have to admit, boys aren't as fun to shop for as a girl in my opinion so it was a bit more difficult for me to find options I liked but here's what I came up with.

Short Sleeve Pique Polo Shirt

Plaid Pocket Shorts

Striped Straw Fedora

Retro Sunglasses

Solid Heel Flip Flops

Property of 94 USA Old Navy Shirt

Belted Cargo Shorts

You'll notice a lot of these options are from Old Navy.  I wasn't paid for this post in any way.  I just really love ON and I think they have really great prices especially for a messy toddler!

-stephanie

Freedom Style: Toddler Girl

Yesterday I showed you a few options for your 4th of July celebrations but what about your sparkler of a toddler girl?  Here are two looks you can have for your weekend parties by keeping the same accessories.

Star Print Ruffled One Shoulder Romper

Embellished Star Sunglasses

Little Sparkler Tee

4th of July Shorts

Solid Gray Flip Flops

Be sure to stop by this afternoon for my toddler boy picks!

-stephanie

Freedom Style

Independence Day is just a week away and you'll remember by this post, it means a lot to our family that we celebrate properly.  So I've been thinking up what I want to wear while watching the largest fireworks display in the midwest.  Here's what I came up with.

1 - American Flag Tank 

2 - D&G Aviator Aviato Sunglasses

3 - FULL TILT 7 piece pyramid bangles

4 - Levi's 501 Worn Roll Shorts

5 - Toms Canvas Class Espadrilles

6 - Lucky Brand Sunset Junction Crossbody

What are your 4th of July plans?  Any fun outfits already picked out.

-stephanie

Letter to My Pre Baby Self

Dear Stephanie,

Before you have a baby, you should plan to do several things:

1.  Travel.  There are so many places in the world to go and you should take advantage of that now.  Once you have a baby, you won't want to leave them for an 8 hour work day, much less a week in a different country.  It's also much easier to travel without a child.

2.  Enjoy your evenings out.  Stay out as late as you can, drink as much as you want (responsibly).  Once you have a baby, those nights are much less frequent and not as carefree. Enjoy your time without worrying about what time you have to be back.

3.  Enjoy your friends.  If your friend is truly a friend, they'll make time for you and you'll make time for them.  Once you have children, there will be times when you'll have to cancel on them last minute but they'll understand.  

More than anything, enjoy your freedom.  When the day comes that you have responsibility in a baby, your freedom to do what you want, when you want flies right out of the window and you sometimes forget to enjoy the small moments of freedom.  Don't.  Enjoy the freedom now!

-stephanie

Adalyn Month Seventeen

Late with your update though not nearly as late as your sixteen month update.  This month has been an exciting month of changes and new developments that we're really excited to watch.

Stats:  You're still hanging out right around 24 pounds.  We tried to measure your height but you just wouldn't stand still.  We think you're about 29 inches tall.  Still not quite to the 18 month clothes and are still wearing the 12 month clothes rather nicely.  Your shoe size is still a 4.  I'm hoping your feet grow slowly because shoes are not cheap!

Sleep Schedule:  Just like every other month this really varies.  For weeks you were consistently waking up and would not go back to sleep.  I'd come in and rock you for 5-10 minutes, you'd fall asleep snoring in my arms.  Very slowly I would stop rocking, stand up, and inch by inch lower you very slowly into your crib.  As soon as your body touched the mattress you were wide awake and crying.  Thankfully, you seem to have turned a corner as the past week you've made it successfully through the night.  You go to sleep around 8-8:30 and wake up around 6:30-7.  You're still taking one nap a day which last about 2 hours, sometimes longer.

Foods:  Same as previous months, though I did manage to sneak in some ground turkey which was hidden in a sloppy joe sandwich.  Your mama is tricky!  You did have a few firsts on the food front.  Your first taste of sweet peppers at a graduation party.  You loved them which surprises your dada and me as we both can't stand the taste of them.  You also tried edamame for the first time and shockingly we found another winner!  You also had sauerkraut at the local Creekside Jazz & Blues festival, we couldn't stop you from eating that!  Still drinking about 14 ounces of milk from a sippy cup.

Firsts:  Besides the new foods you tried I mentioned above, you also went on your first beach vacation.  Your first touch, and taste, of sand.  Your first time playing in the water and feeling the sand being drug back to the ocean as you stood at the shore line.  Your first park ride at the Creekside Jazz & Blues festival.  You loved it.  Your mama was terrified you would scream the entire time.  Your daddy had you spinning so fast in that little strawberry!

Favorite Toys:  Still books, you're really starting to love your baby dolls and try to feed them out of your sippy.  You love your pool!

You seem to have changed a lot this month.  I'm starting to notice that you try to make different sounds you hadn't before been making.  I think you're really trying to learn how to talk this month and I would imagine we'll start hearing some words in the next month or so.  As I mentioned before you're starting to play with your dolls like you're their mama and I can't wait to get you a baby doll stroller and fun accessories for you to play with. We can't wait to see how you change next month!

-stephanie

A Smile is the Prettiest Thing You Can Wear

When Adalyn smiles at me, I smile right back.  How can you not smile at an innocent child smiling up at you as if they're having the time of their lives.  For some children, they will never have the opportunity to do something as simple as smile.  Did you know that every three minutes a child is born with a cleft and is often unable to eat, speak, socialize and even smile?  This is where you come in with the help of Operation Smile and CampusBookRentals.  Want to know the connection?  Operation Smile is an international children's medical charity that helps children's smiles, forever changing their lives.  Companies like CampusBookRentals donate money to Operation Smile each time a book is sold.   

See how Operation Smile helped these twins.

So how do you help?  Easy, you rent your textbooks from CampusBookRentals.  This compensation book would have cost me $166 to purchase but you could rent it from CampusBookRentals for only $51 for the semester.  Best part?  There are flexible renting periods, you can highlight directly in the textbook, and it's free shipping both ways.  Hello?!  Where was CampusBookRentals when I was in college?  Even if you're not in school, pass along the information to your friends and family.  To read more about how you can help save a smile and rent your textbooks cheaply, check out CampusBookRentals.

-stephanie

Wordless Wednesday: Dinnertime

Addie loves her some black bean soup. So much that she tried to lick it off her face because I wasn't fast enough.

-stephanie

Dear Adalyn...

This weeks Toddle Along Tuesday is a letter to your child in the future.  Make sure to link up or read other great letters here.

Dear Adalyn,

This is your mama.  You're still my little bean though you've grown into a young woman.  It's hard to believe the days of you not sleeping through the night have turned into you sleeping until noon.  Your temper tantrums and meltdowns we experienced when you were a little one we have continued to experience at the lovely age of 16.  We watched you grow while still in the womb and I still have the stretch marks to prove it.  

I want you to know a few things:

Follow your dreams.  It will take a lot of hard work and determination, you will stumble along the way and reach several hurdles that will be tough to battle through.  You'll be so proud of your blood, sweat and tears in the end.

Settle for no one.  This applies to your friends as well as the men you date and the one you'll some day marry.  Your friends will be with you when times are tough and in moments of celebration.  Make sure they are the people you want to see in these moments.  Make sure the man you choose to marry is a man that treats your mother like gold, who respects me as much as he worships the ground you walk on.  He should be a man who will defend you and your children to anyone.

Enjoy your youth for as long as you can.  The real world can be fun but it can be scary and challenging.  There's no rush to grow up.  Wait, let me clarify that.  When you're 21 years old you should have a job and understand the value of time and money but please don't rush into buying a house, moving in with a boy or marrying anyone too young.  You have plenty of time to do these monumental things when you're a bit older.

So much has changed but so much has remained the same.  You are part of me.  I will never forget when you would sit on my lap and run your fingers through my hair because it soothed you, or the first time you actually hugged me with your arms squeezing tightly around my neck, or the first time you said mama.  I love you today just as much as I loved you the moment I first heard your cries in that operating room.  I will love you this much for every day of my life.

Love,
Mama

Don't forget to link up or read other fabulous, tear jerking letters at Growing Up Geeky.

-stephanie

What I'm Wearing

Another post that I know some of you love about what I'm wearing.



Shirt - similar
Skirt - Shabby Apple canvas bow skirt
Shoes - Rampage black pumps
Accessories - Citizen watch, chunky necklace (purchased at Target 2 years ago, though I cannot find a picture online - similar to Erickson Beamon line)

Excuse my orange looking tan, I'm not actually that shade of orange, terrible lighting in the house.  And also excuse the fact that my husband does not know what "Please capture from head to toe".  Well I guess he captured one.  You can see he has a history of cutting off my feet in pictures here.

-stephanie

Home Tour: Our Bedroom

Today's stop on the home tour is our bedroom.  Last week I showed you our tiny kitchen.  This week I get to show you one of the rooms in our house I'm most excited about though it could continue to see some improvements.

Here's our huge king sized bed.  I say huge because it sits about 3 1/2 feet off the floor.  This was a pain to get in and out of while pregnant!

The yellow chevron and blue flower pillows are just about my favorite things in the room.  The pictures above the bed are from IKEA.

Here's a hot from my side of the room.  I'm literally standing in our closet to attempt to capture this.

My side table includes the side lamp, a jewlery box from Etsy, some B&BW sleep lotion and pillow mist as well as a gorgeous hydrangea from our garden.

My hydrangeas!

The husbands boring side of the bed.  No description needed here.

This is the view I see most and hate most in our room.  That huge tv is obnoxious and the wires drive me insane.  I can't wait until we get a flat screen and hide those cords!

I need to add a few more pictures and get ride of that ugly tv that I've knocked my head on multiple times in the middle of the night, other than that I'm pretty happy with the room.

-stephanie

Easy Peasy Caprese Salad

Yesterday I showed you what I do when Adalyn goes to sleep for the night but I thought you'd like to have the recipe for the Caprese.



Fresh Mozzarella
Tomatoes - Roma is probably the best but I only had cherry
Basil
Salt
Balsamic Vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cut your mozzarella to match the size of your tomatoes.  Chop up your fresh basil and add to the tomato & mozzarella.  Sprinkle some salt, drizzle some balsamic vinegar and evoo and enjoy!

-stephanie

Wordless Wednesday: When the Child is Sleeping

This is what I'm doing when Adalyn is sleeping.



Grab a glass of wine, make a plate of caprese salad and enjoy some quality tv (The Bachelorette) time.

-stephanie

Adalyn Month Sixteen

I'm late again with your update but better late than never right?  I was supposed to post this prior to vacation but it was a bit chaotic trying to get everything organized for vacation.

Stats:  You're hovering in right around 24 pounds.  I don't think you've grown much taller as you're still in some of your twelve month clothes though you are approaching the eighteen month mark in clothing.  Your shoe size is still sitting at about a 3.5 though we did have to buy a new pair of size 4 sandals for vacations.

Sleep Schedule:  Your sleep schedule at night begins at 7:30 or 8 depending on your mood.  You get a bath every other night then we read to you and give you a sippy of milk for the evening.  You are usually in bed by 8 or 8:30 and you put yourself down usually after 5 minutes of crying.  You typically sleep straight through and wake around 6:30.  Ocassionally your sleep is interrupted by what I suspect are those terrible teeth causing your crankiness. On those nights I try to soothe you back to sleep in just a few short minutes.  Your still at one nap schedule, usually going to sleep at noon and you're sleeping 2 hours or more.



Foods:  Again, your eating everything but still remain rather picky when it comes to meats.  We found out on Cinco de Mayo that you love salsa as long as it isn't too spicy!  You drink approximately 14 ounces of milk a day from your sippy.  Finally no more bottles!

Firsts:  The biggest first for you was your first wedding.  Not only was it your first wedding you attended but you also got to attend as a flower girl.  Another first for the month!

Favorite Toys:  Books still remain your favorite "toy".  We have a couple water toys (pool, sprinkler, etc) that you really love to play in on a hot day.

Another month has past.  I cannot believe you're nearly 18 months old.  How time flys!

-stephanie