May 9, 2019
1 Comment

Happy Birthday To Us!

We officially have a 2 year old!! It’s been a whirlwind birthday in between two trips out of town so I still have a ton of packing up to do for the next trip in two days but I wanted to share a few snaps from the special day we got to share with my Mom and Dad who were still in town from going to the beach with us last week. I haven’t been able to be with them on my birthday in a while so that felt super special to get to do. Since Lola and I share a birthday my Mom and I both wished each other a “happy birthing day” and we did a pancake brunch just for Lola and a late night pizza just for me with a cake for both of us in between. This girl loves her silly faces and thankfully Pops and Nana love to jump right in! So cute. We had a few friends over to see my parents while they were still in town that day so we did the whole cake thing with them but I think next year I’ll finally do the whole “real” party thing for Lola and I’m positive she’ll be super into it by then. Every day with that Baby is an adventure and I did cry a little the night before her birthday as I put her to sleep. The days are long but the years are short you guys, treasure all the little moments you can…

xo. Laura

P.S. Her little red outfit is June and January BTW, it’s so cute!

April 24, 2019
2 Comments

Whatever Lola Wants…

Man, what a teenage toddler, amiright? I did her hair like that to keep it out of her face while we did something messy but it just looked like a mini Gwen Stefani style from the 90’s so I kept it in all day because I loved it so much…

-Got this amazing invention after learning about it on a sleep podcast and I can’t wait to try it on vacation to see if it helps her sleep better and gives us the chance to still be awake in the room after she goes to bed as needed—genius!

-We’ve been using this toddler alarm clock lately to try and keep her quit in her crib in the morning for longer and it’s a little hard to tell right now but I think she’s starting to understand and she really likes to see the bunny go to sleep when she does. She may be a bit young for a ready-to-wake type clock but I know some babies totally get it this young and if not we’ll just keep trying it until it eventually clicks!

-Ordered these slip on shoes this week—it can be so hard to wrestle toddler feet into shoes so slip-ons can be very useful when when they fit right! I bought the biggest size of these this week and they juuuust fit so I had to return them as she’ll probably grow out of them in the next two weeks. SO CUTE THOUGH!

-I love a baby in a jean jacket so I decided to try this for summer—how long do you think I can keep it white though?? I’m going to try!!

-Love this little 70’s looking romper!

-I’ve noticed that it’s good to have an “other” to blame things on (like saying that “the bunny says it’s not time to get up yet” on her toddler clock) so I bought this cute timer to use for time outs or for how long her bath time should be etc. and I think it helps give her a marker to wait for rather than an seemingly arbitrary word from me. I will say that the ring on this timer is pretty loud though so I stuffed a rag into the back of it and I don’t put it right next to her or she will jump!

-GAHH! This swimsuit and rashguard!

Heading out on a beach trip this next week and I can’t wait to soak up some sun and dig in the sand with Lola—she LOVES being outside so I think she’ll be in heaven on the beach!

xo. Laura
P.S. that dress is June and January above and the sunnies are Oui Fresh!

April 22, 2019
2 Comments

Doing Easter The “Right” Way This Year!

So it’s been a while since we did Easter Sunday the “right” way…for me, Easter has always been a holiday with a big spiritual significance, but in addition to that it’s always been a big family day. Growing up we would go to my Grandparents house for a huge Easter brunch with lots of family stopping by and even when I went to college and beyond I always set up a big brunch with all my other friends who were far away from their families too. Since we moved to Nashville though Easter kind of turned into a loner holiday for me where I would be lucky if Todd was home for it and not touring and I just didn’t have other friends that were around for the holiday without their families nearby too so we kind of kept spending it by ourselves which made me kind of sad. I remember one year Todd was touring and they had a day off on Easter and went to someone’s house to have a big meal together (and even had an egg hunt) and I just about cried on the phone with him as I could hear all the fun in the background and I was sitting in the house alone. It just felt so wrong.

So anyways, this year I was so happy that a few of our non-related family (a.k.a. friends) were in town and could come hang out on one of the prettiest Easter Sundays I can remember and do a little egg hunt with us in our backyard after church and drink mimosas and eat candy out of our kid’s baskets—it was lovely. Of course it’s always extra work on a holiday weekend to clean and cook and host but it’s worth it to just be with people that mean a lot to you and it was Lola’s first egg hunt so I was pumped to get to do that with her too! She would have probably been fine stopping at the first egg to just eat the candy inside, but she eventually got the hang of looking for more in the yard…

I always want to eat kielbasa sausage and plain (pastel colored!) M&Ms on Easter since that was my main jam at the kid’s table way back when and I’ve never had kielbasa sausage anywhere but my Grandma’s house so it tastes like home to me once a year. Hope you were with people that love you this past Easter and I’m still trying to soak in all the renewed life and hope that the holiday brings to me…

xo. Laura

April 15, 2019
9 Comments

The Two Year Sleep Regression I Didn’t Know Was Happening

Ok, I’ve had two pretty good nights of sleep in a row which is a HUGE deal based on the past few weeks we’ve had. I thought it was just teething pain to blame for Lola’s early risings for a few nights but then we added in some extra middle-of-the-night wake-ups and difficulty falling asleep and I began to question what was happening. Then things got newborn-level extreme with Lola waking up after only being asleep for 2-3 hours at night and she would be up for 90 minutes or so, just totally awake, until I could get her back to bed only to wake up 3 more times before getting up for the day at the jolly old hour of 5:15. After that we had a night or two of her getting up almost every hour on the hour so I ended up sleeping on the floor next to her bed because it was too tiring to walk her back to bed each time she came into our room and I could just tell her from the floor to get back in bed and lay down again.

We tried the easiest to understand ok-to-wake clock I could find for a week, and while she thought the bunny on the clock was cute, she definitely wasn’t getting the concept of staying in bed just because the bunny was in bed. Like, did not care about that bunny and his sleeping schedule. Combine that all with being already exhausted at the end of each day from Lola’s extreme fussiness/clinginess/tantrums and it was a recipe for feeling completely insane and that kind of “drunk” tired that I used to feel back in the thick of the newborn days. I had to take Lola to an appointment after one of the worst nights she had and I told Todd I had to take a nap before leaving because I didn’t feel like I could safely drive her there myself. Now I realize that while I thought her extreme fussy behavior during the day was teething-related (and she is pushing through two molars right now so that’s why I assumed that) I now realize that it was probably mostly due to getting such poor broken sleep at night (and her short day naps) so she was feeling just as crazy and cranky as I was except that she was allowed to let it all out in public. Anyways, after a complete meltdown with 90 minutes of ugly crying one night after she finally fell asleep I started looking up some podcasts and blogs about what might be going on and that’s when I found out there’s such a thing as a 2 year sleep regression and ever single thing we were experiencing, they were describing! Lola’s done a lot of things a little early so going through it at 23 months isn’t that surprising for her but I just didn’t even know it was a thing to be prepared for so I had no idea why our life was completely upside down or what was happening.

At the same time based on reading more about it I think the fact that we had moved Lola to a toddler bed a month before was really making things worse for this regression. We made the switch because of my low back issues making it hard for me to get her in and out of such a low mattress in a crib (low so that she couldn’t climb out) and it went really well for a month…until she finally realized she could get out whenever she wanted. I think it just hadn’t crossed her mind before that! While I know that a lot of kids do super well moving to toddler beds early, we’ve just had weeks of struggling to keep her in the bed and all the taking her back in over and over, the ok-to-wake clocks, and other tricks just weren’t doing anything. The last night we spent over an hour taking her back again and again and I finally just came to the conclusion she wasn’t ready for all that freedom yet. It’s too temping for her little brain to stay in as she desperately wants to be out where we are. She wasn’t grasping the clock idea and I know for sure a sticker chart wouldn’t make sense to her yet either (although I do plan to try that clock again later—I think it’s so easy for little kids to understand with the pictures rather than just a color signaling when to get up and it cam highly recommended from a friend too).

Anyway, we decided to put the crib side back on (she had a convertible crib with a toddler rail like you see above so it was pretty easy to switch back) and I think we are just going to keep her in that until she’s closer to 3 or until I see other signs that she would be ready to handle all that freedom better. We are definitely not out of the sleep regression yet (but ohhhh man do I hope we are like 90% of the way through!) but it feels better to know why it’s happening and that it won’t last forever even though it feels like it. Just wanted to give you other moms a few months behind us a clue to what may be in store for you in case you didn’t know and for those of you currently going though it now hang in there. I’ve definitely hit my quotient for crying a few times over after she’s in bed and I do think it helps to just let it allllll out every so often or you feel like you will literally explode if you try and keep it in. Now, I’m off to get what sleep I can!

xo. Laura

March 26, 2019
Leave a comment

Whatever Lola Wants…

How cute is that little bunny above? She loves hopping around the house lately so I thought some clip-on bunny ears and tail would be fun and I guess they are just in time for Easter too! Here’s what else I’ve got my eye on this month…

Planning a beach trip this spring (YAYAAHH!) and I can’t decide between this and this suit for Lola!

She would love this little doggy shirt. She loves alllll things dogs right now…

I have this awesome gadget on my wishlist to use with Lola as we explore the outside world—how cool is that?!

Realized this week she’s starting to grow out of her only jean jacket and I love the lighter wash of this one.

Definitely planning on making a few outfits from this pattern for summer! I guess I should get started soon, huh?!

Cute sun hats are hard to find for kids, but I actually think this one is really cute (oooh, or this one!).

We don’t have any long sleeve shirts that fit over Lola’s belly anymore so a multi-pack like this would be great (and it’s organic cotton too).

Like all kids, Lola is obsessed with phones but since we try to do as little screen time as possible I thought one of these would be great for her phone calls instead—it even has pushable buttons! I’ve given her calculators to play with and she she immediately holds it up to her ear and starts to “call” someone…haha!

WHY U SOLD OUT IN OUR SIZE??

Oh yeah, I definitely see one of these in our future to stop the trail of snacks all over the house!

With Spring finally in the air I can feel the end of winter fully in sight and we are about to be knee-deep in yard work and all things dirt and flowers…can’t wait to plant something with our little helper— she’s always happy to help dig!

xo. Laura