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Meaningful Additions to the Nursery

May 17, 2013 in Jack, Nursery with 2 Comments

I’ve hardly changed anything in Jack’s nursery since he was born last summer. I’ve tweaked my organizational strategy a few times and added a soft fabric cover to the changing pad, but overall the room that I put together while pregnant has worked really well for us. Lately, though, I’ve brought in a few sweet and sentimental touches from friends and family that make it just that much more awesome. First up: these two items that my friend Cassie gave me a looooong time ago. Like when Jack was a newborn, I think. I just never got around to hanging them up! The J is a vintage find and the drawing was done by a kid with autism that Cassie knows (he is into animals and art and enjoys creating stuff like this for people). The letter J was originally black, but I painted it using some random paint from my stash.

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I was not really digging the black frame I got at the Dollar General, so I painted it gray (again, just using paint I already had) before hanging it alongside the other items already clustered together on that wall. I used command strips to mount the J. I really love the way it looks!

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Moving on, this adorable wooden airplane is from my friend Jane and her son Ollie. Jane lives in my neighborhood and is new to town (her husband is working on his PhD at LSU). They are going home to Portland for the summer, so she dropped this off as an early birthday gift to Jack before leaving town! So sweet!

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It fits right in with the vintage wooden toys I got at an estate sale, and the third new addition that I wanted to show y’all–the children’s rocker from Nick’s mom. I think she said it was hers when she was a child. Now that Jack is crawling, he makes a beeline for this spot whenever we’re in his room. He loves playing with the wooden toys and gets a kick out of pushing the chair to make it rock. Someday he’ll be old enough to sit in it and maybe then I can pop a basket of books nearby.

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It’s so sweet to have these little meaningful touches in the room, especially since none of them are so precious or fragile that Jack can’t enjoy them. It still totally feels like a little boy’s room. I can’t wait to see how the space continues to evolve as he gets older and puts his own mark on things.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We’ve got a pretty low key few days planned, which will be soooo nice as we gear up for a busy summer. Hopefully the sun stays out so we can enjoy some time outdoors!

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How to Score Free Babysitting

May 3, 2013 in How To, Jack, On a Personal Note... with 4 Comments

Eating out is not nearly as fun as it used to be. Turns out dining with a baby is a whole lot of work. I’d rather just stay home. Unless, of course, we go without him! That’s something we’d never done until last night. People are always offering to babysit left and right, but I’m pretty sure what they mean is that they want to play with him when what I really need is for someone to sit on the sofa while he sleeps. So I turned to facebook to see if I could recruit any volunteers!

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Within an hour I had not one, but TWO nights of free babysitting lined up! Brandi is a single girl with no cable in her condo, and Turena is a mom of two kids under two years and just wants to sit in a room by herself that she doesn’t feel obligated to clean. Nick and I had set a goal to minimize meals out for the month of May, but we cashed in our rewards points from our debit cards and got $77–enough for two modest nights out. I’m on day two of swigging pepto to combat some sort of stomach bug I must’ve caught, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying my steak dinner last night (bonus: my digestive situation felt too delicate to eat more than half, so I’ll have leftovers for lunch!). My parents are hosting their annual crawfish boil tomorrow so I sure hope I’m feeling better by then! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and if you’re not in crawfish country hopefully your weather will at least be warm enough for you to enjoy the great outdoors a bit.

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Ten Months Old

May 1, 2013 in Jack, On a Personal Note... with 1 Comment

It’s so cliche and I know I probably say it every month, but geez louise how is my baby almost a year old already?

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Jack has never been the most ambitious of babies. He took his time learning to roll over, sit unassisted, and he doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to crawl (which is a-okay with me), but lately he’s pretty insistent on being on his belly whenever possible. I lay him on his back and he flips right over. He can pivot all around in circles and even scootch backwards a little, though I think the latter is more a side effect of pushing up on his arms and sliding rather than an intentional mode of transportation. This morning Nick sat him in the crib for a moment and when he came back Jack was standing! Time to lower the mattress, I suppose, though I’m not too alarmed because he has yet to pull himself into a sitting position on his own. It’s so fun to watch all these big motor skills unfold, and I’m a big believer that they should be allowed to develop naturally instead of taught or encouraged by parents. He has two teeth on the bottom and two coming in up top, has been sleeping through the night for a month or two, and eats a LOT. Last week we went to lunch with several other moms and babies and he ate another baby’s cheerios, the sliced avocado I ordered for him, a couple of my sweet potato fries, the last little bit of my hamburger, and two of the other babies’ leftover avocado! I don’t know where he puts all that food because there’s not a fat roll to be found on him. Maybe he’s got a tapeworm, haha. Just kidding. I know where it all goes because I change his diapers and they are disgusting. Yay cloth diapers!

This is a really sweet age in that he’s old enough to sit up, play, eat, etc., but he’s not yet mobile enough to be into everything. I’m definitely savoring every moment. The days are long but the years are short.

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It’s My Party

April 26, 2013 in Jack with 2 Comments

Let’s be honest. First birthday parties are not about the babies. They’re about the parents. It’s a chance for the parents to say, “We’ve successfully cared for this tiny tyrant for an entire year, cheers to seventeen more!” I told myself that I couldn’t start planning Jack’s first birthday party until I submitted my LCSW application–I completed my practice hours over a year ago but had never gotten around to applying for the exam! Well a few weeks ago I finally got the last of my paperwork together and Jack and I drove across town to deliver it by hand to the state social work board. Then I went home and promptly began pinteresting party ideas! Here’s what I’m envisioning:

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Sources from top to bottom: swoon events, dreamlite photography, go graham go, moulage collection, sweet treats boutique

I love the idea of cupcakes. It’s good portion control for tummies big and small and Jack can have one of his very own without requiring a dedicated “smash cake.” My sister is an excellent baker and agreed to try her hand at this healthier recipe (bonus: it looks delicious!). I’m really not into anything “themed,” so I think I’ll stick to simple decor. If I can get myself organized enough to order prints I’d love to have a bunch of photos clipped to a clothesline showing Jack from in utero to today. I will definitely take advantage of this free printable to add a little flair to the cupcake of honor, especially since it ties into the colors I’m liking (blue, yellow, and green, the same colors I used in Jack’s nursery and in more muted shades throughout the rest of the house). And I could totally try my hand at some pretty lettering on a chalkboard to memorialize some of Jack’s stats (or outsource it to my friend Cassie, who is really good at that sort of thing). As for food, I’m thinking simple summer fare like sandwiches, potato salad, hummus, guacamole, fruit kabobs, and a cheese tray. We’ll probably just invite immediate family and close friends, and celebrate with extended family a week later when we see them for the Fourth of July.

Happy Friday, y’all! It’s a beautiful day in Baton Rouge and Jack and I are planning on making the most of it! I hope you do too!

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