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Surprise! Baby #2 Due in February

We are so excited to share that our family will be growing next year! We are aware that getting and staying pregnant isn't a given, and we are so grateful to be able to add another baby to our family. It is surreal how similar, and yet how different this pregnancy feels in comparison to my pregnancy with Ellington. I was much more tired this time around, likely because I am running after a toddler most days. Every evening after my husband got home and could takeover, I found

5 Things I Do Before 8:00am As A Toddler Mom For An Easier Day

This blog post is sponsored by Brandless. As always, the words and opinions are my own. Sponsored posts help support the work I do here at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support! I've always considered myself a morning person. It is when I do my best thinking, when I am most productive, and sets the tone for my day. But now with a toddler, I've had to tighten up my morning routine to ensure both he and I aren't disasters by noon! With some trial and error, I have fo

Ellington's Eats: Embracing the Mess

I get several messages a week asking how I deal with the mess of letting Ellington self-feed, especially yogurt and applesauce. Let me tell you - it isn't easy for me. I am a "neat freak" in every sense of the phrase. Just ask my husband. I loathe clutter, organize with gusto, and have been filling my Christmas and birthday lists with cleaning tools for decades. I remember once as a teenager, my friends thought my room was "too clean" so I staged some "teenage clutter" that l

Iced Maca Latte

This blog post is sponsored by Brandless. As always, the words and opinions are my own. Sponsored posts help support the work I do here at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support! The middle-of-the-night feedings may be over, but mothering a toddler often seems equally as exhausting as those newborn days. At 14 months old, Ellington is a constant blur and I am the slightly-less-put-together blur behind him. He lives to be outside, pushing his trucks along the sidewal

Weaning Ellington

As many of you know, I have been exclusively pumping for Ellington after a difficult start to breastfeeding. And for the past six months, I have thought about weaning daily. Not only about the technical "how do I introduce a new milk to Ellington and phase out breastmilk" and "how do I wean myself off the pump without mastitis," but about the emotional as well. "Is now the best time for Ellington?" "What will our connection look like after he is no longer drinking mama's milk

Essentials for Baby's First Year

We have reached that pivotal parenting milestone: our baby is one! I've been sorting through all the baby items we have accumulated over the past year and deciding what to pack away for the next babe and what to pass on. In honor of this process, I have rounded up a list of the items we found most essential for making it through this first year, and those we bought but mostly sat unused. SLEEP Sleep is hard for the first year, to say the least. Ellington transitioned from sle

Presents for Ellington's First Christmas & Philosophies on Gifting

By popular demand, I am sharing what we are getting Ellington (11 months) for his first Christmas! We have given a lot of thought to how we want to approach family gifting for the holidays and birthdays (for him, one month after Christmas) and we are still figuring out what will work best for our family. There are so many thoughtful posts out there on gifting philosophies like: Amanda Watters' (of @mamawatters) beautiful post on the Want / Need / Wear / Read gifting philosoph

2018 Gift Guide: New & Expecting Mothers

As a new mama, I am most excited to put together this gift guide! These are the gifts that people gave to me or looking back, I would've wanted to receive to make that transition easier. Of course, the best present you can give a new mother is time. Either watching her baby so she can shower, workout, or just go somewhere solo, or doing her dishes, grocery shopping or laundry so she can spend more time cuddling her new love without thinking about everything that needs to get

Ellington's Eats: Eight Months Old

To see what Ellington was eating at seven months old, visit this post. Ellington has been eating solids for about 3 months now. His meals are such an integral part of our daily routine that it is hard to remember the days of just bottles. He looks forward to his meals, and even gets agitated when he sees his ezpz mat come out, but he isn't in the highchair yet. The recommendations I've seen are to have babies at three meals per day by 9 months old, working up to three meals +

My Clean Beauty Morning Routine

Nine months into staying at home with a baby, and my morning routine had all but disappeared. I ran out of my face wash and found myself using my husband's for over a month. Add this to still not feeling very comfortable in my post-baby body, living in sweatpants and never having much time to take care of myself, and my self-esteem was pretty low. I wanted to get back into my routine to give myself a boost and invest in self-care, but also have a quick enough routine that it

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