Finkle Finkle

So if you want to hear the cutest sound in the world, listen to Emmy's rendition of "Finkle, Finkle, Little Star". Sorry I don't have video to go along with the audio. Trust me, she was smiling and completely into the performance.

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keeping it up

Back in January my favorite mom blogger, Elizabeth Ivie, wrote what might be her last(?) blog post. I used to read her posts every day. I adored her and her son and her experiences made me feel better about my own and her struggles made me want to cheer for her and her success made me proud. When she stopped blogging, I felt a little betrayed. I know, it's selfish, but I was mad that she was shutting out everyone who had supported her. I actually thought that I knew her and could stay in her life through the internet. But facebook, blogging, twitter - whatever - it's not friendship when you are just reading or watching from a computer screen. Likes and comments don't count as conversation. She is living her life and she still has her friends. 
When I started my new job I got too busy to take the time to write posts, collect and format pictures, and definitely not time to design something new. It's more than the new job though. Emmy is getting older and she is even more involved in our lives. We spend our evenings cooking together, talking about our days, coloring and cuddling on the couch. She gets most of our attention and after she goes to bed, Joe and I try to give each other some attention. Or, we cherish some alone time (for me - A BOOK!).
Things are so good but sometimes I worry that I'm going to forget too much. Sometimes the only way I can find my memories is by seeing them in a picture or reading about them in a post. So, I want to keep this blog up and take a little bit better care of it. I have no idea who is reading this (if anyone is reading this!) but if nothing else, I'll have a small piece of our lives out there... maybe even forever preserved in some format and at some point Emmy will be able to read this and watch herself grow up in a way that most people never can.

big changes

Very few people grow up and become the person they imagined as a child.  I certainly didn't become a veterinarian and according to MASH - I should be living in a mansion with 3 kids by now. But, in the ways that really count I am being the me I always wanted to be. 
I have the sweetest husband and the most affectionate daughter. I have a nice house and a funny dog and most of the time I am laughing and just enjoying everything I am so lucky to have. I have a supportive family and coworkers that are my very best friends. Everything is so good right now. But even if everything you have is great, you always have to keep your head up and your eyes open to the future. 
A good friend of mine started working for a really great company almost a year ago. She has loved her job and gets to travel to some of my favorite cities around the world for work and the company is entirely future-oriented with a bunch of young, smart and hard-working employees. A few weeks ago she told me that they were hiring. No matter how much I loved my job (and I did) I had to go check it out. And the job was perfect for me, I wanted it so much more than I thought I would and I took the offer.
I pick on my sister for hating change. But change really is hard. When you know you have something good it's hard to go for something better, there is just so much fear about the unknown. I wrote letters to my coworkers to tell them how I felt about them and I cried because I realized how much I loved them. My boss was kind enough to leave the door open for me to return but I knew I had to look at the future without keeping a foot in the past.  Today I am rounding out the end of my second week on my new job and so far, I love it. I somehow managed to get a job doing my favorite parts of my old job but for a global company with excuses to speak to and work with people in South America, Canada, and (my personal favorite) England daily. I am always nervous to mix work with blogging but I am so happy with my decision and I wanted to share that. 

Now.. back to blogging about my Emmy and her rapid changing into little kidness!  I am completely obsessed with her cute personality lately. She is talking so much more and her favorite phrases are:
"hold you" (when she wants us to hold her)  "hug you" (the tightest, longest hugs ever)  "i yuv you, momma" (at random times) "tank you, momma" (if I do ANYTHING for her - even a hug) "okaaayyyyy" (in agreement to us) "No Ruru! share!" (when she offers him some food and he takes all of it) "my turn" (mostly to Rufus when playing fetch) "daddys funny" (when Joe makes voices) "all betta" (when any of her problems are fixed)
She only wants to wear princess dresses to bed and her princess heels all day. Actually, it's a fight to get her to wear anything else at all. She is obsessed with Frozen and loves to perform the songs and knows most of the words and has little motions and dance moves for us! I think I just smile all the time around her, she rarely gets bad and even when she does and we scold her, she just smiles and says, "Okayyyyyy" and stops. How can you stay mad at that?
We never do. Here's to another great weekend!

spring beach trip

It's a family tradition to head down to 30A for a week in the spring. We try to avoid spring breakers but this year with calendar conflicts and baby due dates, we headed down to Seaside, FL in the thick of spring break but got lucky with amazing weather and only a slightly higher volume of hormonal teenagers.
I have started and stopped typing this post so many times. Mostly because the business of getting back to work and the daily routine keeps "distracting" me from my blog. Plus, it's hard for me to put into words how completely fun and relaxing this vacation was. Emmy was so good the whole entire trip. I don't know if that really speaks volumes about our parenting skills. It really speaks to what having a whole village of adults to entertain a toddler can do. Emmy barely whined and she was off for a ride in Elvira (the golf cart) or off on a bike ride, walking to the beach or pool or picked up and fed chips. My niece, Hannah, is an excellent little crawler but she hardly got the chance because we all loved picking her up for the big, silly grin we got as a reward. I was fine with the spoiling, what is vacation if not a chance to spend time with your favorite people and spoil the shit out of them?
We spent almost all day, every day at the beach. The sun felt amazing, tingly and refreshing with only a few clouds and the cool breeze helped everyone forget about the consequences of long term sun exposure. Everyone laughed while I covered myself and Emmy with SPF 75. I was the only one laughing the next day.  

When everyone tired of snacking on chips, we headed up to Bud & Alley's for lunch. We sat on a covered patio that looked down on the beach. It was almost chilly with the sun shaded and the breeze coming through but it made my skin feel sort of alive. I think that's why I love the beach in the spring time so much. After a long, cold winter, it feels good to let air touch your skin again before it gets too hot and humid. 

We cooked most of our dinners at home but decided to head out to the Red Bar for dinner one night to keep the tradition going from last year. 

The wait for a table was almost an hour which is basically FOREVER when you have a hungry toddler. The 7 adult to 2 baby ratio came in handy again. When we were taken to our seats, I almost wanted to scream. They put us right next to the front door where people were standing and dancing in front of the band. It was so loud and crowded that my claustrophobia started to kick in and I wanted to walk out immediately (my mom says I don't actually have claustrophobia but just a very human aversion to being suffocated or squished). I'm glad that no one else listened to my complaints because once we were seated (and I had a glass of wine) we actually enjoyed the loud noises and crowds. Our kids could holler, dance and sing and everyone thought they were just as cute as could be. 

Alex and Joe get along so well. Pretty much all the in-laws and siblings went to college together so we all became friends and hung out together from a young age. That makes vacationing so easy, we can go out together or separate into smaller groups without any concern. Plus, I like to think that we are all pretty cool and fun so how could you not have a good time?

A sweet lady walked up to Katy to tell her how wonderful it was to see 3 generations of women who look so much alike all together. Katy didn't explain that my mom is technically her stepmother - they look more alike than me anyway! The funny thing is that I took a bunch of pics and the one that mom said, "oh, this one is great!" actually had only 20% of Katy's face and even that part was an indecipherable blur. Some generations get all the attention....

Our days were so full. I had no idea my kid had so much energy. She would just go, go, go with us and we were so proud of her attitude. I kept saying "go with the flow" because that's what Joe always does and Emmy had inherited that but it was work for me to relax and not plan things or to worry about her nap schedule or meals. It was good for her and good for me to just let life happen and enjoy every minute. 

Emmy rocked the ocean. She took turns approaching adults saying, "Come on, Coco!" or "Come on, Awex" to get someone to hold her hand while she stood at the edge of the ocean, laughing wildly and kicking her feet up in the air every time a wave washed over her legs. 

Emmy's communication just exploded this week. She would repeat almost anything we said, recite everyone's names, her ABC's, she counted everything and she mimicked our mannerisms so well. She just seemed so grown up. Alex pulled out a kite and we said, "Emmy, do you want to hold the kite?" and she just screamed "KITE!!" and ran to it, holding the string and her arms up like she had done it a million times. She must have picked it up from one of the other families on a previous day but we were all in awe of her "realness". 
I often go back and forth over the benefits of being a SAHM vs a working mom but I can honestly say that I could be with her all day, every day and not get bored. She is amazingly sweet and funny. Her expressions literally make my heart feel bigger and going back to work this week after so much time together has made me miss her even more.
I guess the only solution is more vacation, am I right?  

Baby Shower for Eli

Last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Seven of Courtney's closest friends and I co-hosted a shower for my sister's first child, Eli, at my house. The next day Joe hosted a shower for one of his best friends who is getting married in a few weeks. Our house was rearranged, cleaned, styled, and rearranged all over again but it was worth it. 

 I am now sitting with my family in a beautiful home in Seaside, FL watching the rain beat down and flood the streets but knowing that I have help keeping the baby entertained and all I have to do is sit here and take the time to just relax.  What better time to catch up on my blog!?

Planning this shower was so fun. I asked Courtney for color and style inspiration and I got with the girls about food and themes and we chose to go with mint, light blue, gold and silver. The invitation I chose explicitly said this would be a brunch so we could budget off less expensive breakfast foods and have a little champagne without any guilt! 

I wanted to make sure the decorations would look good in a boy's room but also wanted the shower to be visually pleasing for all of the ladies in attendance! 

After the shower was done, I wished I could have gone back in time and save myself a lot of trouble with redundant trips to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, bakeries and 3 grocery stores but all the work and errand-running was worth it to see all of the different projects come together so cohesively. 

Some of my favorite crafty things that also had a big 'bang for your buck' was painting paper letters , mason jars and plastic animals gold. I used Martha Stewart's gold metallic paint (only at Michaels or maybe Home Depot but NOT Hobby Lobby). I used gold glitter paper from Paper Source ($4 for a huge sheet!) and flowers from Whole Foods. I had Joe drill holes in the animals to make little signs for the food but that may have been a little overzealous since everyone pretty much knew what they were getting. 

This shower was also the first time I've ever had every.single.person RSVP. Regrets and confirmation poured in almost every day and I had an exact count of guests which basically never happens, even in the south where etiquette and manners are essential parts of lady training! 

This was about the best picture we could muster with Emmy refusing to stand or let me hold in her a more appropriate way. At this point I really didn't care much. Everyone had such a great time and Courtney got so much of what she needed for Eli so the shower was a definitive success. 
There were also 2 Etsy finds that I didn't manage to get pictures but I received loads of compliments on so I've uploaded small thumbnails of their products to hopefully encourage other people to use these sellers as well.  Guests placed gold thumbprints as little "fireflies" with the names underneath.  Print found here. 

For the front door, I chose this monogrammed wooden cross. There is a sweet inscription around the edges with Eli's initials and it came in much larger than I had expected for the price so I was very pleasantly surprised! You may want to scoop one up if you're in the market, $35 is such a great deal! Cross found here.   

the toddler room

As soon as I found out I was pregnant with a girl I started planning her room. 

I knew I wanted her to have a place that encouraged imagination, creativity and playfulness.  I wanted space for reading and I knew it should be girly but not too delicate. In some ways, I wanted to pour all my inner child into my daughter's room. A place I secretly wanted our whole house to be but the grown-up side of me just won't allow (and well, the husband won't allow either).

Unfortunately, reality set in and the cost having a baby, with all of the items we needed and wanted and daycare, and hospital bills, etc., we had to put the nursery dreams on hold.  I chose bright colors for her crib bedding and then decided to wait and see who my daughter was and what her personality was like before designing her whole room. I'm glad I did this because although Emmy loves all things girly and pink, she loves reading more than I could have hoped and she loves music and bright colors and making HUGE messes. 

I have also spent hours and hours going through pinterest and blogger websites looking for fun and creative ideas to decorate a whimsical and modern nursery that also has to work on a tight budget. As soon as I saw this rug from Ikea on Candy Kirby Design's instagram feed, I knew I had to have it. I mixed it with one of Emmy's favorite books, "The Cat at Night" would be my inspiration for her room. I love the way bright colors contrast with black and white. I also really, really wanted this crib sheet. But it just doesn't make sense now that Emmy is nearing the end of her crib days. I'm eyeing the blanket now, with hopes of matching it with a stark white bed and bright pillows.

I purchased almost everything for Emmy's room at Ikea and Paper Source. Birmingham doesn't have an Ikea and Joe and I didn't want to spent a whole weekend traveling to Atlanta so I've spent months tracking craigslist and online trading sites looking for Ikea's expedit. Then, I read that it was going to be discontinued and I panicked. Thanks to one of those trading sites, I found a service called The Wishing Truck. Two local college students travel to Atlanta's Ikea every other weekend and bring back your Ikea goods. They charge a fee but in our case, it was less than a tank of gas and some of their proceeds go to charity so we figured it was a win-win-win. 

All of the frames are Ikea Ribba, the shelves are Expedit and the rug is Lappljung Ruta. The total cost for 5 frames, 2 picture ledges, the shelving units and rug came to $196 including tax. How can you beat that?! The ombre and flower prints are wrapping paper from Paper Source and the donuts print is from their annual calendar which is currently 75% off! I also picked out some greeting cards designed by my favorite, Rifle Paper Co. and printed my alphabet printable which you can have as a free download here.  I have found so many fun prints that I want to use so I'll probably be switching out her pictures regularly. 

The only real "splurge" was the tassel garland. The colors were too perfect and it added so much whimsy to the room. I am so proud of Emmy's room and more importantly, Emmy loves it. She can easily get to all of her books and toys and she loves to dance on her rug. I think this room will have lots of space for her to grow up.  Joe likes it too, his first comment was "why don't you do something like this for my man cave?" which, of course, sounds like an invitation to do more shopping!