Disney trips… We’ve had two more visits to Disney since the first one and I am just now posting the photos and a quick recap of the Epcot and Magic Kingdom visit when Alexis was 7 months old. I know it’ pretty bad. But what can I say – I get busy. I get a zillion emails from you guys, another zillion for other people, other posts to write and life to live. I have to pick and choose based on urgency and desire. This was neither until now. I just wanted to finish posting pics from our first trip –  it was fun, it was memorable, it had to go up on the blog.

So move along if you don’t want to see cutie patootie 7 months old pictures of Lexi at the most magical place on Earth.

Age reference: 7 months old

EPCOT

How much fun are toddlers?

The answer is A LOT OF FUN!

It’s a pretty recurring theme here on the The Art of Making a Baby.

But it’s true. We’ve known that Alexis has been focusing on her physical development for a while now. It has been constant since about 9 months when she first started walking supported.

What’s interesting is that it has not changed until maybe now (16 months) when she started to work on her speech development in parallel (another post coming). But the physical aspect is and has been front and center.

I know every baby focuses on its own thing, works on one thing at a time, or two things at a time, with one always being the primary focus. It’s usually pretty obvious in babies. If you’ve been to the playground, you’ve seen a kid who’s in non-stop motion, climbing a top of everything, demanding swing rides, slides, rushed from one side to another, runs around with his mouth open, screams. Then there are talkers, builders, collectors, swing babies, slide babies….

Before I had Lexi, I remember talking to a friend of mine who has a particularly active baby as well, about how she HAS to take her places because staying home is a nightmare.

We are experiencing a similar thing.

While Lexi doesn’t cry or whine or throw tantrums at home, I can still see that she gets bored easier when we are not out and about.

We’ve been having a ton of fun dusting off my long forgotten SingStar disks, Rockband game and our keyboard and drums.

Alexis instantly took to all of it and asks to go sing and play several times a day. It’s really cute, too, the way she asks for it. She will point in the direction of our movie room and sing “Dadabada” while dancing :)

I can’t help but notice her taste in rockstar clothing is pretty awesome, too. Nununu star romper couldn’t be used for a better occasion.

A year after having a baby and I think I am finally in a good place when it comes to my personal care routine. {I am always searching for better products, though, so I will keep updating you if I find something superior}

I still don’t have time to do certain things regularly, especially now with my new website, Daily Mom.

I don’t get to shave legs unless I am going out somewhere semi-important.

I forget to moisturize my body more often than I care to admit, and that is one of the biggest things I need to work on.

I wash my hair only if I know that I will be leaving the house. Or when it’s really dirty.

I put my make up on at the same time or when I want to look more put together at home.

I like to prioritize and personal care falls somewhere in the middle on the priorities list. However, one thing I have done over the last year is assemble a good “team” of personal products that I use, love and swear by. They help me be a little bit more of a woman that I want to be without having to put too much effort into it. I’ve been mentally writing this post for 6 months and each month I would add something else to it.

In fact, in the last week, I’ve had a chance to try out some organic and natural hair products that I am quite impressed with that you can read about on Daily Mom in the coming months. I am thinking about going on a mission of finding more obscure products and brands you don’t see in retail stores and trying them out. If only I could find time…

In the meantime,

I know I only recently wrote a post on sign and using sign languages for babies, but it has been getting better and better.

Lexi’s verbal development has taken back seat to her physical development ever since she started walking, so while she keeps adding words to her vocabulary little by little, her  use of signs has exploded.

I’ve had this post written in my head for MONTHS. Since Alexis started walking full time at 11 months. And it was only now when a reader asked me to write it, did I actually consider putting it “on paper”.

For the past few months I’ve had unexplained joy inside of me. Waking up with Lexi and seeing how she has changed, what a wonderful little person she is becoming, how she is turning into a girl.

First Birthday Party Part II

{All photography is by Stacey Downey Photography, editing by The Art of Making a Baby}

This has been one of the most requested posts and I have been dreading writing it, because I am just not sure what to say.

I mean I WAS NOT sure.

I am writing it now because after a whole year, we are finally starting to find our place together, our new relationship. That’s right – it took us a year to get into an equilibrium!

So I will finally put a complete mess of my thoughts into a post in an attempt to make some semblance of it.

As I am slowly and painfully trying to design/fill/create Alexis’ playroom I am finding absolutely zero guides online as to how best to do it.

The truth is, while it is very personal as to what kind of playroom you design for your children, it is also important to make sure that you’ve got all your educational and creative basis covered, as well as make it a comfortable, safe and inviting environment.

So I decided to put together my own guide. It’s not a guide for OTHER people, it’s MY guide, though you can definitely use it to help you define your baby’s playroom areas, as well. I’ll be sure to put in a few finds for you guys, too.

PLAYROOM {in progress} GUIDE