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Here you can get a glimpse of what our normal day-to-day life highlights look like, not just the stuff I choose to post.

I have no comments for these photos, I think they speak for themselves.

A few of my favorites I’d like to point out are:

Alexis struggling to lift my camera.

Alexis studying a Victoria’s Secret catalog and going “Hmmm, I want…. this on!”

Lexitwins sleeping together, on top of each other.

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I had a low day today.

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Our Vine videos from the beginning. It’s a bit slow in the beginning, but gets much cuter half way through.

Join us on Vine: The Art of Making a Baby

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Rather than doing monthly updates for the whole 2nd year of Alexis’ life, I decided that it would be much more fun and special to regularly write about all the cute new things she does. I will attempt to keep this a regular features and add things to it as she learns new things or blows our mind with the adorable things she can do.

CUTE THINGS LEXI DOES:

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Here is the best of the best from December I hadn’t gotten around to posting.

{I am not sure how I missed Decemeber so completely, so I am going back to that. I also have both January and February scheduled to post, so I don’t miss them this time}

DECEMBER {age reference: 10 months}

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First Birthday Party Decor & Planning

Party planning! Wow what a daunting task!

There are some things I can do with ease… Give me photography, video editing, anything computer related, programming, languages, reading, memorizing, researching, filling out- I won’t blink an eye at the challenge. But anything to do with decor, style and crafting – it just eludes me.

So as a disclaimer, nothing here was handmade by me. The most I did that would be considered crafty is buy parts and assemble them based on the vision in my head.

This was  also the first time in my life that I wanted it to be perfect, to work out well. I am usually a “prepare like crazy but go with the flow” kind of girl. But Alexis’ first birthday carried a special significance to me. It signified her transformation from a baby into a toddler and my transformation from Elena to Elena who is Lexi’s mom. It was the time to celebrate her babyhood (while cheerfully waving goodbye to it, because we like being a toddler oh so much more) and it was my first chance to celebrate her birth ( since I didn’t get to do the baby party like I wanted to when Alexis was a few months old).

After we decided that yes, we do in fact want a birthday party, I tackled the overwhelming task of figuring out the theme that wouldn’t be too much work, but was also unique enough that just going to Party City wouldn’t do it.

Quickly I came upon a few ideas that seemed easy enough that such a novice like me would be able to achieve and yet unique and classy.

Since I was infatuated with the French language and France for a few years before Lexi was born, I went with “Tea Party in France” theme. It fit the bill perfectly- classy, simple, easy to execute and non-specific.

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I wanted to quickly tell you about this great contest we have going over at Daily Mom.

It’s called Mom and Baby Style and all you have to do is post a photo of your and your baby’s outfits on Daily Mom’s Facebook page.

The winner gets a $50 gift card to Nosilla Organics

Go enter!

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I’ve been emailed and asked about what we cook for Alexis in terms of BLW and how our whole feeding process goes. So here is the breakdown.

First thing you have to remember is that we don’t really eat like a typical American family.  You almost never see green beans on our table, or green peas, or corn. No mashed potatoes (no reason for that, we just never get around to making them), no meats, no dairy. What you will see is mostly other types of vegetables, fruits, grains and fish. My husband was vegan for a couple of years, but I think we’re slowly starting to permanently introduce fish. I would always eat certain fish, because of its benefit when pregnant and now, but my husband used to stay away from ANY animal products (except for trace amounts in baked goods on occasion). But I think we have decided that the benefit outweighs the disadvantages. I do eat eggs once a month or so now, my husband doesn’t. We’ll occasionally “cheat” if we have to or want to. So at this point our family is a bit of a smorgasborg of vegan/pescetarians/vegetarians/whatever. However, our eating habits are constantly changing and I am not exactly sure which direction we are going with them.

Our goal is (and of course that doesn’t always pan out) to make sure that Alexis has a protein source at almost every meal (beans, fish), a few vegetable servings every time, whole grains (which can also be considered high in protein if you stick with quinoa) and fruit/berries for breakfast.

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I am starting a series of posts about Alexis’ First Birthday celebration.

I was going back and forth between doing a party and celebrating small with just family and then finally things started falling in place for a party, so I decided to go for it.
We both felt like the first year needs to be celebrated. It was a trying and a joyful year for us an one of the most important years for Alexis and that needed to be acknowledged.

Slowly I came up with a theme I wanted to have: French. I didn’t have a clear idea on whether it was going to be Paris or Poodle (ok, definitely not poodle) or countryside or shabby chic. It was kind of a mix of everything…but that’s for a later post.

The morning of January 31st, we woke up bright and early with Alexis while it was still sort of dark. Her grandma USA was visiting and my mom is staying with us, so they promptly came out to congratulate their adorable granddaughter and watch her open presents. For the gift opening, she wore her new dress, a birthday gift from Nosilla Organics and a matching diaper ( so cool that we had a teal BG to go with it)

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is photography. Photographing my little girl.

I don’t think I am great at it. I am average. But it gives me so much happiness taking photos and then sifting through them, organizing them , processing them. It’s a shame I can’t to on a vacation and organize my photos all day long for 2 weeks …

So while I was gone from here , from life, without having my laptop and my precious photos, and while working on launching Daily Mom, there have been many photos taken a filed away.

Here’s a small part of what I have shot. In just 2 months (has it really been two months) Alexis has changed greatly. I have a lot to catch up on – I know… But I am loving having this blog, and managing Daily Mom and being a SAHM/WAHM to the most adorable toddler in the world and a wife to the most hardworking loving man in the world. I never thought my life would take this kind of track. That I would be a full on MOM. A mom with hobbies and interests and work, but still a MOM, one completely dedicated to her daughter. Yet I am and I am going to embrace it.

11 Months old