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….

This post has been due since Lexi started walking 5 months ago.

SHOES!

Such an important part of a baby’s wardrobe.

Making sure what they are wearing is comfortable, doesn’t rub, lasts through their roughplaying, looks great and is versatile (because at $30-50 per quality pair of shoe, they better last long and look great).

Proper footwear is surprisingly important for your baby’s foot health, their developing walking skills and their comfort.

Here are our favorite shoes and brands:

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 am absolutely in love with the Russian trend in baby clothes. This is quite unlike me because I don’t tend to like “Russian things”, but the old Russian style of Matreshkas and roses and fashions of that era agrees with me. The heritage plays a big role, too, of course. I do want Alexis to know where her mom came from and the history of Russia and its rich culture. One day we’ll be sitting next to each each other reading History of Russia together ( as long as her love of reading continues to grow like on steriods).

One of my favorite brands, Polarn O Pyret, surprised me with a release of Russian Rose collection (search for it on their website) this year, which is, mind you, on sale right now. I am in love! They really are masters of prints. Check out this post about their spring pattern on Daily Mom

So one of the cooler spring days, when my mom was still here ( *tear*), we went out for a walk in the park and a little Russian Rose inspired photoshoot.

I present to you, Russian Alexis!

This is probably the most requested review of all times. And for a good reason.

Clek’s Foonf has been the most hyped and anticipated release of a juvenile product in 2012 and 2013.

I cannot tell you how excited and honored I am to be one of the bloggers to be able to try it out and give you guys my opinion.

As my long time readers already know, our car seat experience has been “interesting”, to say the least. If you’re interested in reading our story of the first few months of constant car screams and our solution, read this post.

To be completely honest, while I was absolutely psyched about trying out Clek’s Foonf, I just couldn’t see how there could be a car seat that would be significant better than our trusty Maxi Cosi.

And it took me a good few months to truly appreciate what sets Foonf apart from all other car seats.

I could spend hours writing about the technical specs of Foonf, talking about the unparalleled safety and the technology behind the seat. It is truly one of a kind convertible seat that can arguably be called “BEST FOR BABY” without being melodramatic.

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:

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}

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.

We had beautiful plans for Valentine’s Day/Our Anniversary. Picture a dreamy picnic on the beach, wearing all white with red 5 inch heels, wind blowing, sun warming up the sand, Lexi running around with her white dress, red bow and red shoes, trying to run into water and squealing from delight…