Tweet

When we were first invited to Andrew’s mom’s wedding reception in Orlando 3 months ago, our first thought was “Oh, we’d love to, but there is no way we can drive all the way to Orlando with Lexi”. That was a bummer, but it beat the prospect of a screaming baby in the car for 4 hours. As the time went on, though, and Lexi was getting more and more manageable at 4 months on, I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we’d be able to make that trip. We knew her problem was the carseat and we put all our hopes into the new roomy convertible car seat from Maxi Cosi. As I wrote before, the car seat worked out fabulously. The screaming fits ended as soon as we swapped our infant seat for this new cool (as in temperature-wise) and big Pria 70. So we tentatively told my MIL that it was looking like we could actually make it.

We were both super super super excited. Before Lexi, we’d take frequent trips to Orlando to just have dinner or walk around the parks, or see friends, as well as drive to Miami and other cities of interest in Florida. It’s what we did for fun. With Alexis being a very particular baby, especially in the first 4 months, and hating the car seat, we’ve put it all on hold, but we both couldn’t wait until we would go these places with our daughter.

Each one of us had our own concerns having never traveled with an infant. I was concerned about how she’d do in the car, how she’d fall asleep there, whether I’d be able to keep her entertained for the whole 4 hours. Andrew was really worried about what we’d do in the hotel, considering that at that time Alexis would only fall asleep while being rocked. But we went for it, figuring we’d play things by ear and do what we had to do.

With it being our first overnight trip and hotel stay, we packed everything imaginable, and his mom promised us a portable foldable rocker (which worked out FABULOUSLY, btw).

So after a pretty uneventful and totally manageable drive to Orlando where I completely went through my whole repertoire of songs, books and games, we checked into the hotel and brought in a million of our bags. It was time to put Lexi down for a nap, if we had any prayer of her surviving the reception that started at 6-7pm.

After doing her nap routine and some nursing, I handed her over to Andrew to rock, while I prepared our clothes for the reception. Of course, like expected, she was more interested in the room and all the new fun things to look at, rather than sleep which is what she desperately needed. The blackout blinds didn’t help, because they still left a bit of light for her to stare at.  He had to go into the bathroom to completely block out the light for our curious little baby girl.

In the meantime, I discovered the biggest fail of the trip ( cuz there’s always gotta be one): out of all the *crap* we brought with us, Andrew somehow left the bag with MY clothes at home. I am talking: all my clothes, reception dress and shoes – everything! The only thing I had was what I was wearing, which was yoga leggings and an organic Whole Foods tee. LOL.

I was at a loss. We didn’t have time to drive to the mall or a store, I didn’t have much hope for the hotel’s touristy shops, but I figured I’d go check them out, anyways. As I was walking through the expansive and magnificent Gaylord Palms, I suddenly remembered grabbing my new Hollister dress out of the dryer and throwing it in the trunk of the car, thinking  I might  get a chance to wear it the next day.

OMG! I couldn’t believe my luck! I ran to the car and sure enough, the dress was there! Granted, it wasn’t the dress I expected to wear, but it still worked for a laid back reception better than yoga pants.

{I have to admit that I have really enjoyed the challenges that having a new baby has thrown into our life, because we were way too used to being relaxed and laid back, never rushing anywhere, just the two of us for many years. This, the excitement, the lack of time, is so much more interesting to deal with. We were getting really boring there for a while before Lexi came along and flipped our lives upside down.  Now, I cannot help it but smile thinking about all the little “screw ups” we’ve had at every turn, as we learn to deal with our “new situation” }

Tweet

I wanted to write a quick post about a few books that I’ve discovered lately that I am really digging.

EVERYTHING VEGAN

Our friends Teagan and Scott who visited us for my birthday brought along the most amazing Vegan Cookbook I’ve seen. I am not a fan of cookbooks, I find that I do not have time for them. I always just put things together on my own, coming up with recipes depending on what ingredients we have at home. This, however, was the first cookbook that made me want to run out to the grocery store and buy a ton of random ingredients for their recipes. I love the photography in it, the diversity of recipes and they taste great. It’s a great book for non vegans as well, since all the recipes are incredibly healthy and tasty.

THE CHINA STUDY

I’ve been meaning to read this book for 2 years now. According to half of my friends the book MADE THEM GO VEGAN. Since I was already a convert (though I am not 100% vegan right now, I eat fish), I didn’t get around to reading it until now, since it was a birthday present from the aforementioned Teagan and Scott.  The full name of the book is “The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health” and it’s a true eye opener.

DOODLES: A REALLY GIANT COLORING AND DOODLING BOOK

I found this book on Amazon while browsing fun and unconventional baby books for Lexi. I loved the concept of it so much that even though it’s for older kids, I just had to buy it. My friend Leeka’s daughter who was 6 was the lucky recipient of the book and I adored helping her with it. To be completely honest, if I had a bit more time, I’d totally get one for myself to encourage creativity, because creativity in one field usually spills over to another. It’s a VERY THICK book with fun creative activities on each page. Unlike other coloring or doodling books, this one has prompts as to what to do while leaving the details to the imagination. For example, one of my favorite pages had a crying boy and a laughing girl on each page, and the activity was to draw each kid’s parents next to them.  Something like that will occupy a kid for hours. I cannot wait until Lexi is old enough to do these kind of fun activities.

THE GAME OF FINGER WORMS BOOK

One of my readers, Lena Marie, who I thank very much, sent me a link to a book by the same author and while browsing all his books, I discovered this fabulous creation. Alexis LOOOOOVES it! And when I say she loves it, I mean she laughs the whole time I am reading it to her. You draw a face  on your index fingers and read the book with your finger worms crawling through the holes in the book. I can see this book lasting all the way through toddlerhood. I definitely recommend it to anyone with kids.

GOOD NIGHTS: The Happy Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed (and a Peaceful Night’s Sleep!) 

I just started reading this book, so I cannot write a full review, but I am loving it and couldn’t wait to share. For anyone who is co-sleeping, planning on co-sleeping, struggling NOT co-sleeping or expecting a baby, this is a MUST read. It talks about benefits, it talks about dangers and how to safely co-sleep, it gives great tips. I have not gotten to this chapter but according to our raving reviews, supposedly there’s even a plan on how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Though, as you know, I am not a fan or any sort of training when it comes to small babies, I am curious to read what they propose. Also, what I like about it is how laid back the book is. Nothing is set in stone, everything is a suggestion presented in the nicest way possible.

{Obviously, this photo isn’t an example of safe co-sleeping. Lexi was napping and I was laying next to her awake.}

BABY HEARTS: A Guide to Giving Your Child an Emotional Head Start

This is my favorite book of the quarter! I love love love love love love it! I was afraid it’d be very simple based on the cover and the name, but it goes into a lot of detail and is backed up by scientific facts and studies. I am literally in the process of devouring all the information it has and am sure that it will be my emotional parenting bible for years to come. I cannot wait to read Baby Minds, as well. I would suggest that if it’s something that appeals to you, you start reading as soon as possible, because as I am reading it, I keep thinking about how I wish I had read it before Lexi was born or at least in the first month, to just be a more knowledgeable parent from the start.

Oh and one more thing: I know a lot of people will appreciate how “nicely” it is written. I don’t usually have a problem with books that take a harsh approach because I can look past that and still pick and choose what I, personally, would like to do. But if you get easily offended by a book’s tone, this one is not going to give you any problems.

BABY LED WEANING COOKBOOK

 This isn’t really a FIND, per se, because anyone doing BLW who is a frequent Amazon shopper has seen it. I bought it along with the main Baby Led Weaning book. While currently we are still doing very simple BLW, because Alexis hasn’t fully gotten the hang of chewing, I have already bookmarked quite a few recipes there for future use. In particular I appreciated a decent amount of vegetable/bean based recipes in a kid friendly and kid safe form, like a chickpea patty that I am looking forward to making. A great thing about this cookbook is that you will enjoy cooking and eating these meals as well, they are for the whole family, not just for your baby.

Tweet

I was planning on sharing these in a Letters to Lexi post, but just couldn’t resist, I love them so much! My baby girl is turning into a beautiful lady!

Headbands by Hopscotch Boutique

Star Romper by NUNUNU Baby from MyHabit

Linking to Ashley’s meme

Tweet

Ok, I have to preface this review with the following:

{I am not a huge fan of exersaucers/stationary jumpers/jumperoos (whatever else they are called). The crazy bright lights, the annoying repetitive sounds, the upright position when they should be crawling around on their belly – it’s essentially a placeholder for the baby while you go get some stuff done. However, babies LOVE them, and they give mamas a minute or two to get stuff done. }

Note: I couldn’t stop taking pictures of Lexi in it, since it’s so cute, so you get a lot of essentially identical photos :) lol

So when I was talking about reviewing one, I was skeptical. We had a Fisher Price one we borrowed from a friend of mine. A conventional standard Fisher Price that you see in every other house. Alexis really enjoyed jumping in it and playing with toys. But the annoying sounds and music would get us EVERY time. We’d have to turn it off, but then I felt like I was robbing her of full experience in it.

And then she started taking EVERYTHING in her mouth. This spelled the end of the Fisher Price. I don’t particular trust Fisher Price, or any big big corporation for that matter, to not make toys out of some toxic plastic ( nothing to back it up, just a big company and a few lead related recalls, as well as their previous stance on toxic plastics,which I know they have correct ).

Note: If you happened to have inquired with their customer service about the type of plastic this jumperoo is made of, feel free to share, I am sure a ton of parents would love to know.

Anyways…. so we get the Evenflo Exersaucer Jam Session and get it out of the box and I don’t know what I expected, but it’s plastic (duh!)…. Before I get Lexi in it, I email the customer service ( even though I am dying to try it out), inquiring what plastic it is made of and whether it contains PVC, Pthalates, lead or cadmium, which I should have done ahead of everything, but I spaced out. The answer comes back fairly quickly: “[...]polypropylene and does not contain PVC, Phthalates, lead or cadmium.”   Whew!

In the meantime, I wash the seat fabric and the chew toys.

It was fairly easy to assemble, though I have to admit, hubby was doing all of the assembly with me just playing with Lexi and watching.

A few minutes later, Lexi was put into it to play. At first, I thought  it was just like any other jumperoo/exersaucer type deal. She jumped around in it, all wide eyed, excited at this new shiny toys she’s been presented with.

But unlike most products that you start finding flaws with as your baby uses, this one kept getting better and better.

So the concept of the Jam Session is the following:

There are 4 interactive “smart” toys that represent an “instrument” each: percussion, piano, guitar/sax/trumpet and a conductor’s score. Each instrument plays a specific genre of music depending on what has been selected on the conductor’s score. So if the conductor’s score is set on jazz, the rest of the instruments play jazz melodies when triggered. Same happens when she selects rock or classical music There are 67 activities for your baby to play with in this version of the exersaucer.

The piano toy can be set to play notes or melodies. The conductor’s score plays longer songs when triggered. The hanging guitar/sax/trumpet play shorter songs when pulled down on and the overhead lights light up. The drum plays a short little melody, as well and there’s a spin wheel with plastic balls in it. On one of there corners there is a fake microphone with little plastic pellets for noise making. Each side has a detachable teether in different shape and one mirror.

The bottom of the exersaucer has a blue balance base that supposedly helps to “build core strength and coordination”

Like I previously mentioned, at first I was a bit disappointed. Being so used to jumping centers that were filled with multitude of toys, lights, noise and color, my first impression was that Lexi won’t like it because there are not as many toys to play with.

Over the last 2 months, I have been learning why my initial impression was completely wrong.

-The lack of overly stimulating toys means that she has to turn and reach and pull and push to get the results she wants. {It’s kind of like the advice of not surrounding your baby with too many toys, but leaving one or two for her to play with so that she would be prompted to move to reach them}. I almost feel like it IS truly beneficial to her and her development which is a far cry from how I felt about activity centers before.

- Given that with Lexi who is semi-mobile ( she doesn’t crawl, but easily gets from sitting position into a crawling position, but not always safely or gracefully), we often have to put her in the Jam Session for a minute or two while we get what whatever we need.

Well, I couldn’t believe it, but both me and Andrew would dance and sing every time Alexis would trigger a song. Why? That’s because finally the music in a kid’s toy is one that parents can relate to, as well.  To this day, I dance every time she plays Rocking Robin and she watches me and jumps around (or sometimes shakes her leg in a fun way attempting to dance too).

It’s been 2 months and I have not once thought “Oh, this music is annoying”. In addition to that, rather than have music every time she jumps, it has to be triggered by her specific action, whether it’s pulling on the hanging instruments, turning the page of the score, or pressing the piano keys or drums.

- Teethers are a perfect shape and height for her. They bend, they twist, they turn, they can be manipulated in any way possible. It’s often that you see her with her mouth on the teether while jumping around

- The piano keys are really easy to press and she is at the point where she uses the switch to go from melodies to notes ( not on purpose, of course).

- I also was not sure that I’d like the base rather than the floor like most other activity centers have, but I like it  lot, because it adds more bounce to her jumps and keeps her trying to balance her body which is always a good activity for infants.

Evenflo has 3 exersaucers in their new line, but I just really really like this Jam Session. It’s fun, it’s low key and it fosters love for music that is not an annoying repetitive childish tune.

-Another pleasant surprise for me was that the Jam Session is not overly colorful. The toys are bright and happy but the posts and the seat base are white with black accents, so if you’re the type of person who is not a fan of ridiculously bright and colorful baby things in your house, this will probably be the most inconspicuous one of them all. I actually enjoy looking at this bright spot in our living room.  It looks very neat from the distance.

There are very few baby items that I get very excited to review and this is one of them. It turned out to be a great one from both parents’ and baby’s standpoint contrary to my expectations of what a jumping activity center would be.

Note: When we first received the Jam Session, Lexi couldn’t easily turn in the seat. I emailed the customer service and after a few emails back and forth, they sent me a new seat that turns perfectly. I just wanted to mention that in case someone else has that problem. Evenflo customer service is great,so don’t hesistate to contact it.

Note 2: I don’t have a giveaway for you, guys, at this time, since Evenflo didn’t have giveaway units available, but I am hoping in the future I’ll be able to offer a giveaway as well.

Let me know if you have any questions about it, I’d be happy to answer.

Tweet

I just had to share this article with you guys. I hope it helps reinforce the positive parenting techniques for moms who are trying hard to be responsive.

It’s hard work but it is natural, instinctive and well worth it.

ENJOY!

[don't read it from the standpoint of "omg that one time I let my baby cry, she's scarred for life", but from the standpoint of the background on human history for why babies need to be responded to and not left to cry until they are over with it]

the Dangers of Crying It Out

And just because I can’t post without a photo: Lexi reading her favorite book

Posted from iPhone.

Tweet

A month ago we took Alexis on her very first cruise around the Bay and into the Gulf. Again, with the heat and the sun, it’s very difficult to do anything outdoors with a small baby, but we decided that if we make it an early outing, it should be fine.

I had no clue as to how Alexis would react to the heat or the boat or the speed. It was a total shot in the dark.

We used out favorite Lavanila Baby Block and wore a UPF50+ swimsuit that my friend Elena bought as a present for Lexi.

We went slowly at first, wading through the bay to get to the open Gulf. She was fine as long as she was in the shade and then when we turned to face the morning sun, Andrew opened our super convenient Mutsy parasol that we brought along. She was starting to fuss and then we picked up some speed and Yeehaaawww! Lexi LOVED it! As soon as we were moving and the wind was blowing, she was a happy girl. She wasn’t crazy for having to hear a lifevest, and because of the size of the boat, she technically didn’t have to. But we felt more comfortable if she did, at least while we were moving fast.

We spent the rest of the time alternating between cruising and going really fast. She even had her first taste of beer. Just kidding, of course, but she definitely tried to, pretty forcefully. I had to get her attention with one of the boat gadgets, before she stuck her finger into the opening of the bottle.

The picture below on the left is her face when we sped up a little bit – she was loving it and making cute happy noises :)

So the picture below:

If you remember, the first time Lexi met J, she freaked out and cried for 30 minutes after he attempted to take her into his arms. We figured it was the beard. So this time, he purposefully let her touch his beard to show her that it was all cool. And while there were no tears, you can judge her reaction by the two photos at the bottom. haha!

Oh and here’s some EYE CANDY for car lovers, which I once was, until I got pregnant and decided that my life is now too important to race around in fast vehicles. I still love beautiful cars, but just looking at them is enough nowadays :)

Tweet

I guess the post titled, “Time Management”, was misleading some people into thinking I’d write some tips, or about how I get things done, so I changed it to a more relevant name. Eventually I might write about what I actually do to manage time in detail, but for this post I wanted to describe the frustration of never having enough time and how I dealt with it from the emotional perspective.

I think the hardest change that motherhood brought for me has been time management. When you’re pregnant, people tell you that you won’t have time and you have a vague idea of what that means, but like with everything in life, you don’t truly understand until you’re there.

Some people have it easier, some people have it harder. If you’re a stay-at-home mom and your baby sleeps perfect 2 hour naps each time, then you probably find yourself with more time on your hands than you did when you were working. But that’s really rare. Most of us are in situations where juggling responsiblities, desires, hobbies and babies is a reality that we have to contend with. Everyone, obviously, deals with it differently. Every person is different in their needs and what issues they have with lack of time, as well as how much their baby allows them to do while asleep and awake, and finally what they are happy with and what the priorities are.

My problem has been that I am used to being very engaged with things I do, having a lot of hobbies, only feeling good when I am productive and get things done. On the other side, I do love to relax, take a bath, sit back with a book ( i love reading), swing in a hammock, listen to music. I didn’t have much problem giving the latter up, though I do miss a good read and a cup of tea once in a while. However, what really bit me in the ass with was not being able to be productive in the sense that I am used to.

I have always had a ton of hobbies and I have been very fast and productive at my job, as well. To switch to something that doesn’t have deadlines, rushes, unlimited work time, no interruptions, and more importantly for me thinking- it was hard. And the hardest thing was to never be able to rely on a certain amount of time that I could dedicate to one task.

I went from a 24 hour day where I could work and do things I wanted virtually at any time of the day and night to 3 naps a day that lasted anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. To me the uncertaintly was the most challenging. What complicated things further is that I refused to do anything but engage with Alexis during her awake time unless she was interested in playing on her own ( which she wasn’t until literally 2 weeks ago).

I would be rocking Lexi to sleep, thinking and planning in my head all the things I was going to do and GET DONE once she is asleep. When I’d get up to put her down and she would wake up, I’d think “Oh that’s alright, I’ll get it all done after I rock her some more”. When I would finally put her down for good, after 4-5 failed attempts, I’d rush to my computer with a massive list of things to do and, before I can even check my email, she’d wake up.

So needless to say, I’ve had very very frustrating days in the beginning. I have to admit I’d get VERY frustrated, because I wasn’t getting anything done and I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to do them when Lexi was up. She needed my attention and my love and my most important job, as a SAHM, was to give that attention to her. What didn’t help matters was that I didn’t have any time in the evenings when most babies go for the night around 6-7pm and sleep relatively well. {Lexi STILL goes to bed around 8-9pm, up for the day at 6am and wakes up often enough that it necessitates that we go to sleep with her so that we could get ANY decent amount of sleep.}

But the resentment kept building. The resentment of the situation where most every other baby “appeared” to have normal 1-2 hour naps and I would fight for 10-20 minutes of nap time. (Since then I’ve met a few moms whose babies need to be rocked to sleep and only nap for 20-30 minutes as well)

I was enjoying rocking Lexi to sleep and spending time with her while she slept, but I wasn’t enjoying not getting things done and feeling completely unproductive. I decided that I had to do something about it. Change the way I thought about the whole situation.

The worst part was not having my expectations met when it came to being “productive” for the day. When I’d expect to get a few things done, but be unable because Lexi would wake up the second I put her down or 5 minutes later. So I told myself to ALWAYS go into her nap time EXPECTING that the first 3 times I put her down, she will wake up right away. Then after that, when I managed to put her down with her still asleep, I would tell myself that I would ONLY be able to open my computer and check my email. Then if I got THAT done and she was still asleep, I’d tell myself that I WILL NOT have time to finish the next task I am about to do. And so on and so forth…

This made A WORLD of a difference in my levels of frustration. I wasn’t setting myself up for failure, I was setting myself up for constant pleasant surprises (” Oh she is still asleep and I can do one more thing?”). Of course, I had to keep reminding myself to think in this new way.

I lived like that managing my expectations for about 4 months and then her naps started evening out. Now I still keep it in the back of my mind that, most likely, I won’t be able to finish what I am doing, but now I get a pretty reliable 30-40 minutes with occasional days where she’ll be up constantly.

My husband and I had also agreed that, for my sanity, I needed 2 hours a day to work on things. So he’d take her for 2 hours when he could, while I would FRANTICALLY try and get stuff done (some work stuff, some accounting, some blogging, some family stuff). This is no longer necessary on most days, but it helped me get over the hump.

Now that she is over 6 months, she can play on her own for a bit. I still refuse to do any computer work while she’s awake, because it’s a slippery slope to ignoring your child for me. But now I have the opportunity to get a bit of cooking done, throw in a load, hang up some clothes, mail some returns. And her nap time is exclusively reserved for blogging, researching, ordering, emailing, editing photos and videos. I am still very organized during the nap times, because I can only rely on 40 minutes twice a day (or 40min x2 twice a day if I am lucky). I don’t eat, I don’t drink, I don’t take time to go to the bathroom (unless I can’t hold it)- I just work, work, work. And then when she wakes up, I catch up on all that eating, drinking, peeing business :)

I still spend about 1/3 of my day just rocking Lexi to sleep, because of how often she wakes up and how hard it is to put her down occasionally, but I have adjusted emotionally to not expect anything different.

My next goal is to find a way to work out and to do my hair/light make up/moisturize/take a consistent shower in the morning.  {edit: I do take showers when I have/want to. But I just always feel like there are more important things to do lol Like play with Lexi} Up until now that hasn’t been the priority, but now I feel things have mellowed out enough that I can start to figure out ways to get even more organized and get that done as well. I had stopped “taking care” of my skin and my hair for a month or so for lack of time, and I see a huge difference a month has made. I also need to tone up and Lexi still doesn’t like the stroller much, so we can’t go jogging with her yet.

{Lexi is at 3.5 months, wearing a Polarn O. Pyret onesie}

But I am HAPPY.

I am happy with the place I am at, emotionally, productively and physically. I am happy about the way things are ( with occasional bouts of frustration here and there). We’re in an equilibrium and life is just awesome right now. I love having a baby, I love having a 6 months old, specifically. I love Lexi, and our time together. I love to occasionally have time to blog. It took a little bit of adjustment, but once you figure out how to deal with the curveballs thrown by life and/or your non-sleeping baby, it’s all pretty darn good.

Tweet

{It’s amazing to see how Alexis has changed in just 1 month}

{I initially wanted to wear this awesome red headband from Ruffles&Fringe , but after clipping my bangs up, I realized it wouldn’t work and had to take it off.}

Our first 4th of July as a family.

Hmmm. I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen this year. Up until recently we couldn’t even take Alexis anywhere since she wouldn’t fall asleep in the car, let alone a PARTY with lots of music, noise and people, 50 minutes away, that starts at 7 pm. This really spelled disaster, but encouraged by a few recent outings that were actually successful, coupled with our own desire to do something adult-like, we decided to go for it.

The plan was to keep her napping as much as she would all day and be sure that EVERYTHING was in the car and ready by the time she wakes up from her last nap. At which point we would whisk her away into the car and drive to the party to be there right at the start.

{the photo above was taken by the photographer at the party}

Oh those well laid plans of “a type of rodents and a few representatives of human species”. First of all, who were we kidding? We are NOTORIOUSLY late to everything. We always were before Alexis and we’re late now. It was all going well until the last nap. We gave Lexi a bath, I rocked her to sleep and went to get stuff done. Twenty or thirty minutes later she was up and as usual I swooped her in and started rocking again. She wouldn’t have it. Kept looking around and arching her back. Finally after some boob and more rocking she was asleep, I laid her in bed and went to a different bathroom to do my hair. Hubby stayed back to make sure she was good and asleep. 5 minutes later he comes out with Lexi in his arms. She was up, about 40 minutes before we had to leave, before we COULD leave.

I continued doing my hair while Andrew strapped her into our Nordic carrier and attempted to get the last few things done. I had all her toys packed, her cloth books, her bedtime books, her blankets, her lovey, a Sunny stroll arch, a diaper bag, her outfit ironed and ready, my camera ready. He was supposed to take it all to the car while I finished my hair. Then I quickly got dressed and that’s where it started breaking down. I find out Andrew has to shave (what?), he didn’t catch that the stuff downstairs needed to be put in the car as well (what?). I put Alexis into her adorable outfit and as we walked to show daddy how pretty his girls were , she sneak-spits up ALL OVER her dress. (Lexi has this tendency to spit up without us noticing)

{BTW, I’d like to thank everyone who weighed in on the 4th of July outfit ideas for Alexis on my Facebook page. I loved all the suggestions and had actually ordered the Jack and Janie dress for Alexis but it had just fit her which meant that it would probably be uncomfotably small for her in 2 weeks which is when the party was supposed to happen. So I had to return it and ended up ordering a cute RL dress.}

Agh! Disaster! {ok, maybe not so much} I clean up her dress and fortunately it all comes right off. Whew! Bullet dodged! {ha! Naive first time mom!}

Eventually we get out the door and then I remember the first rule of successful event photography: take a picture before getting in the car because it might be the only chance you get to do it all dressed up and pretty. I still hadn’t put make up on (I was going to do that in the car), but I figured it’s no biggie. We take a few family pictures, on most of which Alexis is squinting from the bright light or trying to chew on her daddy’s shirt.

Then we are off to the party. Planned time: 6:20pm Actual Time: 7:16pm

To my surprise Alexis did pretty well in the car going back and forth from playing with my nursing necklace I hung up above her, to chewing and screaming at her Sophie. A few times she strained and I figured we’d change her once we get there. Half way down ( at that point it’s been 1.5 hrs since she slept) she started getting really upset. I figured it was time to eat and we pulled over to feed her. I laid her across my lap preparing “the meal” and that’s when I FELT IT. My dear girl had had a MASSIVE POOP EXPLOSION that leaked all over her Ralph Lauren dress. AGH!

{the photo above on the left was taken by the photographer at the party}

Well, so much for a cute outfit. We had to change her into a spare onesie we brought which just happened to have red white and blue colors ( I sort of subconsciously packed it), and while it was one of my favorite onesies, it wasn’t the special 4th of July dress mommy agonized over, asked opinions, ironed and hoped to see on more than one picture. Oh well, that’s babyhood for you.

Once we got to the beachside area, the traffic was INSANE because everyone goes to the beach to see the fireworks around here, so we probably arrived at the party at 8:30pm (nice huh?) It’d been 2 hours since Alexis slept and this was the point where I usually put her down. She was getting really fussy being stuck in a seat.

We finally arrived, valet’ed our car and went in. There were about 100 people at the party, I overheard the valets say in awe. One of the reasons I was really looking forward to this particular event, besides the fabulous food, entertainment, host and his house and awesome people, was my friend Elena who I hadn’t hung out with since Alexis was born. She hadn’t met Alexis yet and we were both just really looking forward to seeing each other.

{the photo above was taken by the photographer at the party}

Alexis was getting so much attention and after some time she was really loving it.

There were 3 bands at the party. THREE! All pretty awesome, but this charismatic guy was the bomb!

At that point it had been 4 hours since she slept and while she was NOT fussing at all with all the sights and music and people, I could see how very tired she was getting.

So I took her into the house and walked upstairs into a nursery ( J has a few sons with small kids who sometimes visit) to try to nurse her to sleep. I was very fortunate to have a rocker there since Alexis doesn’t do well without one. But no matter what I did: fed her, rocked her, sang to her- she just wouldn’t go to sleep. I laid her on the bed thinking maybe that nursing position would be more conducive to sleep but instead she wiggled her body and pumped her legs, ready to play.

The photo above just cracks me up. Elena feeding me while I am feeding Alexis :)

After a while we decided it was really time to go. So after changing Lexi, we went out and were waiting for the valet to get our car (Yeah, this house party had valet parking, crazy huh?). I was nursing Alexis while rocking her as we stood there talking to our friends. When our car arrived, I noticed that Alexis was starting to fall asleep at the breast, so I held off a little longer. Then, while very drowsy, we put her in the car, and after a bit of fussing on her part, she fell asleep as soon as the car started moving. We both let out a sigh of relief and drove home.

{At 11 pm, all happy and ready to play}

It was our first big success in getting out with a baby, especially that late and we expected it to not go so well, so it felt really great to have had a good time and include Alexis in it, as well.

I wrote a post about the few things I learned from this late night outing that worked for Alexis, so feel free to check it out here.

Tweet

Some stepping out shots I forgot to share from last week.

Lexi doesn’t look like herself here and I am slouchy in the bottom photo but hubby looks positively glowing. I love the stubble, too bad it’s not baby kisses friendly :)

Tweet

As I was writing the postpartum beauty routine post, I realized how much it changed from before and during pregnancy and how I was struggling to find new routines that were faster but more effective.

I’ll be talking about what I personally arrived at and what products I use to make my life easier and how it differs from before.
I would also like to ask you, guys, if you have any problem areas or questions and what you’ve found to be most challenging when it comes to postpartum hair care and make up.

I’ll have 2 pros answer your and my questions (one for make up, one for hair) about what we can do to look beautiful and polished when our lives as new (or old) moms are far from it.


Ask your questions in the comment section. The questions should be about styling and applying make up and techniques or routines. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to answer questions about green/safer products to use (it’s sometimes I will try to discuss a bit in the actual post)