hello again! (again)

so here we are again, again.

it’s been a long time since i’ve thought about blogging, but the combination of a serious candy crush addiction and a desire/need to share a little bit of myself with someone has brought me back again. i can’t promise it’ll be regular (like it ever was), but i will try my damnedest to write every once in awhile.

it’s been so long that i can’t even remember where we left off, so instead of recapping my life over the past six months (more? much more.) i’ll focus on the future. tomorrow my baby girl is TWO YEARS OLD! we are entirely in the throes of toddlerhood, where the terrible twos have well and truly begun rearing their ugly heads. in the bad moments, everything is ‘mine NOW’, epic floor-rolling tantrums, and kicking/smacking/thrashing anything within reach. in the good moments (which to be honest are much more common than the bad), it’s all ‘luv doooo mommyyyy’, cuddles, and crazy developmental strides. i’ll take it. maybe with a glass of wine.

work is the same as ever. mondays at starbucks give me a little bit of a ‘break’ from home. more importantly, they give p and s time together for adorable daddy/daughter dates. most of the time i wish i could be home with them, but there’s something to be said for walking into town without a buggy and worrying about no one but myself. i still don’t think i could handle full time work. i don’t know how working moms do it! (believe me, i still thinking being a mostly stay at home mom is tough too, in different ways.)

speaking of family time, we’re heading away on a ‘mini-break’ to paris next week (thanks bridget jones for the english terminology here!) and can’t be more excited. s is excited too, to take the ‘twain’ through the big ‘nunnel’ and to see the ‘gib ife towah’. and to eat cakeys. obviously. i promise an update after we get back! 

that’s all for now, but we have a mini toddler birthday party planned for this saturday, so i’ll let you know how that goes, too! much more low-key than last year, with more play, less prep, and just as much cake. in the meantime, to make up for my absence, i give you cute toddler photos. you’re welcome. (photo credits to the ever fabulous francesca db photography)

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smash that cake up…a photo shoot to melt your hearts and make you broody.

they’re here!

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thanks to francesca db, our super-talented, amazing mummy of a photographer. we’ll be back for more, i’m sure.

another family update (and more apologies)

i think sometimes i lose my writing mojo. or my precious baby decides to sleep 12 hours a night and reminds me what 8+ hours of consecutive sleep feel like and i capitalize on that shiz. one or the other. either way, sorry for the hiatus. i’m back now with a vengeance! and here’s a song for you.

that’s fort atlantic with their amazing ‘let your heart hold fast’ from my favorite episode of how i met your mother. yum.

so, what’s new in our lives?

p and i are now the proud owners of a TODDLER. and whoever coined the phrase ‘the terrible TWOS’ is a dirty, dirty liar. that crap starts as soon as your baby realizes that there is a world outside of the buggy. i swore to myself i would never be THAT MOM (ie. my mom …i wasn’t a very good baby) but this product is on the to-buy list at the moment. sometimes you just need a leash.

s is officially a social butterfly. over the past month and a bit we’ve had more than a few houseguests (p’s sister and her family, s’s godparents and their four kids, s’s other godmummy and my best friend, and my sister…not including the house full for her birthday party!) and s has had an amazing time dancing, playing, laughing, eating chocolate, blowing bubbles, dining out, and shopping.

and a few other things, in brief:

s is addicted to chocolate.

p and i saw the dalai lama.

s had not one, but TWO babysitters, and appeared to behave to some extent.

never go to the natural history museum (or any other free london attraction) during the school holidays. especially with a sick baby.

my baby rocks out to bruno mars, psy, and macklemore. i’m a bad mommy.

this summer is going to be epic. plane tickets booked to america, holiday in wales with s’s godparents paid in full, and s and i get to join p on the choir trip to germany AND on another weeklong program in london. i should probably talk to my boss.

‘no’ is the new ‘yeah’. and i do not like it.

i bought baby crocs and i don’t feel guilty.

some mummy friends and i started a book club and so far we’ve read one whole book! up next? this one! (thanks e for the inspiration!)

that’s all for now, but stay tuned for a post on the party of the year…it was a good one.

one year old

dear sophia,

happy birthday! today you celebrate the very first anniversary of your birth. this time last year you were brand new, tiny, delicate, and wonderful. daddy and i had absolutely no idea what we were doing and were terrified of breaking you, but were so excited to have you in our lives. now we can’t imagine life without you.

in the past year you’ve grown from a newborn to an infant to a baby to virtually a toddler. in some ways you’re like a completely different person, but in many ways you’re exactly the same. you’ve always been headstrong, vocal, happy, and active. now you’re an independent, walking, talking, bubbly little girl. you learn something new every day and love to explore the world around you. your smiles light up our lives and make us so happy to call ourselves your parents. you’ve achieved so much in just one year of life that we’re so excited to see what you’ll do next.

we hope you have a fantastic birthday and can’t wait for many, many more years of celebrations with you.

we love you so much!

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eleven months

dear s,

holy cow! you’re almost a year old! this time next month we’ll be celebrating your first birthday, and your official graduation from baby to toddler. well, really, you’re a toddler already. you’re my little walker now! you get better and better every day, and now you can stand up from a sitting position, cruise/run around the room while holding onto your wheelybug or the sofa, and walk half a dozen to a dozen steps confidently before falling down on your adorable little bottom. you’re a handful now, but we love (almost) every minute of it.

although you spend most of your energy on moving (and moving and moving!), you’re starting to talk a lot more, too. somehow in the last month you lost the ability to say mama, but call both of us dada instead. you still love to make animal noises, your favorite being meowing like a cat. you can also parrot our own speech, and repeat gone, bye, and yeah most of the time. you call gram gaga and like to chat to your kitty when you’re falling asleep. i can’t wait for you to start talking even more!

your social skills are developing quickly and you love to play with (read: climb on) other babies and older kids. every week we go to kindermusik class with a mixed age range of kids. we also meet up with some friends who have babies at restaurants, the library, and cafes. this weekend you went to your first birthday party! i can’t believe the other babies in our nct class are starting to turn one. it’s your turn soon!!!

we’re starting the process of moving you to your own room by napping you in your nursery, and so far you’re doing remarkably well. you generally sleep from 7pm to 5 or 6am, but lately you’ve been getting up at 4 thinking it’s playtime. please, s, give us a little more sleep! you still take two naps most days, but i think before too long you’ll drop one or the other. take your time! really, it’s ok to sleep lots!

you’re a champion eater, having three full meals and one or two snacks a day. you’re almost competent with your sippy cup, but don’t really understand that a cup without a lid will spill if you bash it and throw it around. you’ve decided you don’t like cucumber very much any more, but love cheese, bread, hummus (the piri piri kind!), and anything starchy. you also like peas, blueberries, fromage frais, and weetabix. you’re happy to explore new flavors but let us know when you don’t like something, either by making a face and spitting it out or sweeping everything off the table and flipping over your plate and mat.

you only take milk from me in the morning and at night time, and sometimes once during the day, but you’re more interested in grown up food and need me less and less. but that’s a good thing, because instead you’re becoming a cuddly bunny who likes to lie on top of us while we scratch or rub your back. like father, like daughter! you also love to give and blow kisses and laugh all the time.

thankfully you still love to read. you sit so nicely with daddy while he reads to you and even read yourself stories in your crib while we get ready in the morning. your favorite books are the touchy feely ones because you really like to be involved in the reading.

thanks for being such a fabulous baby for the last eleven months. and happy almost birthday!!!

love you! ❤

happy eleven months!

family update time

it’s been kind of an epic week for this little family. mostly for s.

we officially have a walker!

also, apparently walking = becoming a teenager.

it really is the beginning of the end now, isn’t it?!

in other news, i successfully completed a day (okay, four hours) of ‘keeping in touch’ work at the bux without crying or breaking down at all. it was actually kind of nice being out of the house for awhile without pushing a pushchair or worrying whether s was too hot, too cold, poopy, hungry, or tired. it was also nice knowing that p and s were spending some quality time together. i’ll be back for good one day a week in just a few weeks’ time, so i’d better be ready!

as of today, i’ve also completed two weeks on weight watchers. two weeks in and ten pounds down! thank goodness for lots of water, cucumbers, and ww snacks (mostly of the chocolate variety). i know weight loss typically slows down after the first few weeks, so i’m determined to keep on track and not to cheat myself out of anything. i WILL lose this baby weight (shhh, i know it’s been awhile, but i still like to call it baby weight. it makes me feel better).

p is back at work and it’s in full swing, so there are three or four nights a week when s and i do dinner and bedtime alone. it’s not always fun (as evidenced by the temper tantrum above) and it’s seriously testing my skills as a SAHM, but we’re getting there. plus, it’s kind of nice to spend the evening vegging out and playing on the computer (read: blog) without feeling like i’m neglecting the hubs.

speaking of alone time with s, we are officially enrolled in a kindermusik family time class for the next 12 weeks. s is kind of a bully compared to the other babies, since she thinks that slapping and climbing up on children is a perfectly acceptable form of social interaction, but the teacher assures me that it will all be okay and that s will enjoy it. i’m looking forward to it, too!

and finally, plans are coming along for s’s first birthday party in march. we’re just about to set a date and have decided on photography, (cup)cakes, and decorations. i’m sure i’m far more excited than i should be, but you only turn one once!

and now for a little bit of adorable, just to make up for the naughty baby face above.

first birthday prep (or how to plan a frat party with babies)

in less than two months, s will be celebrating her first (and most badass?!) birthday. it’s equal parts exciting and depressing for us to plan. exciting because our baby is almost almost almost officially a toddler and we get to celebrate the wonderful ways she’s changed our lives over the past year. depressing because, as cool as we make this party, she won’t remember it.

so there will be booze.

Source: 100layercake.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

obviously. because otherwise it’s just a silly afternoon where a bunch of parents wish they’d smuggled in their flasks of whiskey while their respective babies crawl and scream and cry and poop all over each other. just like every other day, really. just kidding. mostly. in all seriousness, i really want this party to be laid back and fun for kids and adults alike. so there will be beer. and tequila. if you know me, you know that one of my mantras in life is this: EVERYTHING is better with tequila. so there will be beer with tequila (desperados, anyone?!), cupcakes with tequila (for the grownups only, no need to call the authorities!), and, since i’m a little old fashioned, tequila with tequila.

**note: i am not an alcoholic. in fact, after approximately two drinks these days i am done for the night. so obviously most of this is a joke and does not affect the parenting of our beautiful child, who i’m sure will enjoy tequila just as much as me when she’s all grown up. and not before then. i’m sure she’ll be as innocent as a flower until her 21st birthday (please just let me live with this delusion for awhile).

and there will be cake.

Source: 100layercake.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

we’re still ironing out details for this aspect of the party, but i found a fantastic local bakery two little cats that’s happy to provide a smash cake for s’s photo shoot (surprise! oops) as well as cupcakes for the party. i thought two smash cakes might be a bit extravagant (read: paul thought) so we will have to settle for adorable photos of s smashing a cupcake into her face during the party. on the menu for the cupcakes: raspberry and lime flavored with lime green sugar sprinklings and fresh raspberries on top. yum. as for the smash cake, i’m hoping it’s going to look like this fabulous cake above!

there will be decorations.

Source: hapykoi.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest




Source: indulgy.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest




Source: plentyofcolour.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest




Source: 100layercake.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

i toyed with the idea of having a very hungry caterpillar theme for this party, but decided instead to go with bright colors and more basic decorations. i especially love the ideas from 100 layer cake!

and there will be presents.

Source: amazon.co.uk via Kaitlin on Pinterest




Source: shak-shuka.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest




Source: amazon.co.uk via Kaitlin on Pinterest

since march is fairly close to christmas, and since my house already seems to be a toy factory, we’re planning on keeping gifts pretty minimal this year. what i would love for her to get, however, is a few musical instruments. she shakes and bashes all of her toys already and really enjoys rhyme time and music of all kinds, so i think she will really appreciate a few things like these.

and there will be s.

Source: rstyle.me via Kaitlin on Pinterest

everyone who knows me knows that i love a little bit of baby style. in fact, i’m kind of obsessed with pinning gorgeous dresses/tops/jeans/shoes/anything to my baby d board on pinterest. and i have absolutely no restraint when it comes to baby clothes. we had BETTER have a girl the next time around, otherwise there are going to be many lonely, depressed articles of clothes that haven’t been worn in s’s nursery. so here is my inspiration for baby birthday style. (ok, so it’s more than inspiration. i bought it today but shhhhhh! don’t tell paul! ps. i want EVERYTHING from the beatrix potter range at baby gap right now. check it out here.)

i’ll keep you updated as the plans progress!

ten months

dear sophia,

last saturday you celebrated your ten month – day. we can’t believe how fast you’re growing (i know, i say it every month!) and can barely remember the days when you were our tiny new baby. you’re almost officially a toddler, and i can’t wait for you to start walking and running and skipping around the house. i’m also terrified of your mobility, since you have SO MUCH ENERGY all the time and never ever stop moving, unless daddy is reading to you or you’re ready for bed. God help us all when you take those first steps.

this month has been pretty epic in your little world. you celebrated your first christmas, new year, and epiphany with us. you traveled around the country to see aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, godparents, and friends. you became fast friends with our goddaughter grace and broke her poor little five year old heart when we came back home. you’ve got eight (!!!) teeth, can cruise around the room like a pro, make animal noises (elephant, kitty, and sheep) and perform other party tricks like blowing kisses and playing peek a boo on command. you’ve begun to stand on your own pretty confidently and you like to dance to the hot dog song from mickey mouse clubhouse and gangnam style (sorry to my classical loving friends; girl is a pop fan!). you’re such a happy baby; you laugh and laugh when daddy carries you on his shoulders or spins you around. you are so adaptable and laid back in most new situations, but you love us so much you cry whenever we leave the room. you give us big, open mouthed kisses and love to cuddle your stuffed kitty (dubbed mr. meowgi by daddy…the poor cat!). you can say dada, mama, and baba, which we’re pretty sure means baby. or boobie. hmm. you are our little love, and we love you more every day!

only two more months til your birthday! we can’t wait to see what these next two months, the last official months of babydom, bring for our little family.

we love you!

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nine months

dear sophia,

today you are nine months old! for some reason, nine months feels so OLD. you’ve officially been in the world as long as you were in my tummy (give or take ten days…i’ve almost forgiven you for making your daddy and me wait so long to meet you). and man, have you made your mark. i feel like the days are flying by lately and that soon you will be a toddler. phew, what a scary word!

this month you’ve been working on honing your party tricks. you still love to clap along to music and wave at yourself and other people. you’ve also learned how to blow kisses (adorable! gram is so proud) and high five. you say ‘dada’ to your daddy, and i think you know what you mean when you say it, even though i’m usually dada too. you’re not only crawling all over the shop, but have also started pulling yourself up to standing and cruising along any surface you can find. your favorites are the dangerous ones: end tables, the TV unit, the bookcase. you fall sometimes but always get yourself back up. you really are such a determined little girl. i’m pretty sure i should invest in a copy of parenting the strong willed child ASAP. your great grandma thinks you’ll be walking in a few weeks, and for our sake, i really really hope she’s wrong. i love watching you develop, but man, i can’t be the parent to a walker just yet!!! give us another month and i’ll give you some cake. 😉

this month you took your second trip to the US to be with family after your great grandpa passed away. he was such a wonderful man and was lucky to be able to meet you, sing with you, and share some cuddles this summer. the trip home was pretty rough on all of us (daddy didn’t get to go, but aunt kylie came along for the ride) but it was worth it to see everyone. i think you really helped lighten the mood for a lot of people. you also got to properly celebrate your first thanksgiving at beaner’s house! although we enjoyed the trip, we are not planning on flying again until you can sit in your own seat. it was so hard to keep you still, since all you want to do these days is move move move!

we’re looking forward to celebrating your very first christmas with you in less than two weeks. we know you’ll be more excited about wrapping paper and lights than gifts and traditions, but it means so much for us to be able to spend time together as our little family of three. we hope you enjoy it all more than you enjoyed your first encounter with santa!

so thanks for a lovely nine months. here’s to the next nine, filled with smiles, milestones, and hopefully a little bit more sleep.

i love you!

nine months!

eight months

dear sophia,

i can’t believe you’re eight months old today! you’re a proper baby now with your very own personality and quirks. it’s fantastic to see you grow, learn, and play every day. i’m so grateful to be able to experience all of your firsts with you and wouldn’t trade a moment (even the not so nice ones) for the world. here’s what you’ve been up to this month:

playing: you still love to play rough, and i think we have your daddy to blame for that. you love flying on his legs, rolling around on the floor with him, and sitting on his shoulders. i think he secretly throws you in the air, too, but i’ll turn a blind eye because i’m only KIND OF nervous about you getting whiplash or hitting the light fixtures. only kind of. 😉 you’re still rolling and sitting beautifully, but you can also sit up from a laying down position and have just just just started to CRAWL!!! it only happened on saturday and luckily daddy, gram, and i were all there to see it (gram was there via skype, unfortunately not in person). it really really is the beginning of the end now for us. time to bolt the bookcases to the walls and get some gates up. and vacuum daily. even though it makes you cry, the naughty hoover. you’re also waving at the baby in the mirror (who we talk to every day) and anyone else who will catch your eye, clapping along to if you’re happy and you know it (and justin bieber songs…i know, i know), and are this close to blowing kisses. you’re smiling, chatting, and experimenting with new sounds all the time. you like to play peekaboo and are starting to develop a cheeky little sense of humor when you offer food and toys but take them away before we can get to them. you NEVER stop moving (unless daddy is watching something like return of the jedi on tv!). you are SO MUCH FUN to be around. also exhausting. phew.

eating: BLW is going so well and we couldn’t be happier. you love your food, and have started to show preferences for certain foods over others. you like your veggies sometimes, but prefer breads and rice cakes to the really healthy stuff. oh well, baby steps! you also really don’t like cheese. whose baby are you, seriously?! when i let you feed yourself messy meals, the room is covered in rice and sauce. but you love it! you’re so proud of yourself when you can do it on your own, so we let you as much as possible. you still love eating out at restaurants, but spend most of your time flirting with the waiters and other patrons (i don’t know WHERE you get it from, honestly). you feel so special when i let you drink water out of the bottle or grown up glass, and seem to prefer it to sippy cups. maybe you’re trying to tell me something!

sleeping: this month you’ve come along leaps and bounds with your sleep schedule. you go down at 7ish without a fuss, after a bottle feed from daddy or a cuddly feed from me when he’s at work. you’re adaptable and rarely cry at night, probably because you tucker yourself out with all your crazy activity during the day. we still haven’t moved you, but i don’t really mind anymore because it’s nice to wake up and hear your little snores from the end of the bed. you’ve been suffering from a cough that just won’t go away for the last few weeks, so sometimes you wake up coughing, but can usually get yourself back to sleep. the only negative with your sleeping this month is your waking time. for some reason (i blame daylight savings time) your body clock decides to wake you up at 5am. every. single. day. i love that there’s time for family breakfast before daddy has to go to work, but seriously, girl. 6:30 would be fantastic, once in awhile. as a result of your early waking times, you still have three naps most days. yesterday was a record: first nap at 7:30am. it was a loooooong day. you’re also teething again, so i think it wakes you up earlier at naptimes. poor bunny! soon you’ll have six teeth (or more!) and will look more and more like a big girl.

socializing: as well as being a kinetic and energetic little girl, you’re a little social butterfly lately. we go swimming with friends every friday and usually stay in town for lunch. most days we go into town to meet daddy for coffee and quick cuddles while he’s in between services and phd work. we meet other friends occasionally for coffee and you love being out and about all the time. i’ve just heard cambridge is starting a kindermusik program for babies in the new year, so we’ll add that to our schedule soon enough! you love shopping with me (unless you’re tired, in which case you usually scream your way through john lewis until you fall asleep). we also took you to your first mini photo shoot this month (see a sneak peek of it in this post), which you absolutely LOVED. you hammed it up for the camera and francesca, the lovely photographer. maybe we should make some money out of you through baby modeling!!! JUST KIDDING, but seriously, we would make some decent cash. 😉

it has been one heck of a month. you’re coming along so quickly that i often forget what you were like only a month ago. i look back at pictures of you as a newborn and feel like you’re a totally different little girl! thank you for letting me share this time with you. here’s to another fantastic month!

i love you!

Eight months