Nella's Birthday Bash!

As I am sure anyone who reads this blog you are well aware that we recently celebrated our little bean's first birthday! Well actually she's not so little anymore. We also went to her one year check up and she is weighing a little over 23 pounds now and measures 31 inches high!

31 inches means little miss finally got a big girl car seat! We decided to go with the Evenflo Procomfort Triumph. I really try to research any big purchases that we make for our bean. I felt like every car seat review I looked at it was pretty split with people either really loving it or hated it. My biggest concern was it fitting into my car. I drive a Honda insight which is a hybrid and it's a pretty small car. I know that all car seats are ultimately safe, they are all tested and run through the same safety tests. The thing that makes or breaks your car seat is making sure it is installed properly. This car seat was easy to install and I could get super tight where it doesn't have much wiggle room at all which I love. I still want to take it some where to have a professional check it out and make sure it's all good. I like that it has a nice head rest and it has a body pillow part which sits under her butt. I mean it looks comfy to me, I wouldn't mind sitting there. Another bonus is that it seems that it has a lot of room for her to grow, and by grow I mean a lot of leg room for her while she is rear facing. I plan to keep her rear facing until she's at least two. She's already pretty tall so we'll have to see how comfortable she stays. I also like the fact that her head doesn't hang when she falls asleep. I'm not sure if it's because of the recline of the seat while she's rear facing or if it's because of how well her harness clips her in but I really love that her head doesn't hang, that just can't be comfortable. The only thing that I have trouble with is when I need to tighten the strap it's really hard to. It has a knob that you're supposed to turn but it's really hard to get it to go, it seems tight enough but I wish it was easier to turn. Update: If you use both knobs at the same time that makes tighten it up much easier.

Ok now onto the fun part. Our bean had her first birthday! I sent out this invitation (except with her information):

And I used this background for a little tag that I included in the envelope along with her invitation:

I wrote on her tag "Please NO gifts. If you would really like to get her something please consider donating to her college fund." I went back and forth with this idea mainly because I didn't want people to think I was being a bitch. Long story short I just didn't want a bunch of crap taking up space in our house. Christmas is right around the corner and I can't tell people not to get her gifts for Christmas so this was the compromise. We decided to let her immediate family get her gifts (meaning grandparents and her aunts and uncles). It actually worked out perfectly. She got some new clothes which she needed (she's in 24 months now!) and just a few toys. Some people decided to ignore the tag which was fine, I mean I don't think I could not buy some clothes for a little kid, it's too hard to resist!

We had two separate parties, a family one that was on her actual birthday and a friend party the following weekend. We had to split it up because our family is massive, we had her family party at my aunt's house where there is plenty of room for everyone. I really tried not to go crazy. She's not really into anything yet so we went with a fall/pumpkin theme. I mainly focused on pumpkins and colors. I stuck with green, orange, brown and of course some pink. I headed to my favorite inspiration spot, good old Pinterest! Of course there were million of ideas to choose from but like I said I did not want to go crazy! I decided to do her birthday from 2 to 4 so I wouldn't have to do a meal, call me cheap but hey we're not made of money! We did provide snacks and drinks of course. We had pretzels, crackers, taco dip, chips, soda and coffee. I made cupcakes and a pretty sweet pumpkin cake!

Here's the cake, made by me!

 Her cake set up!

Made this sweet little "I am 1" banner for her high chair! It didn't make it all the way through the friend party (it was only construction paper!) so I'm glad we got this shot!

For decorations I just did some fabric garland using the colors to go with the theme and I also made cupcake garland. This was probably my favorite decoration. All you have to do is take some cupcake liners, which is great because they come in so many colors and patterns so they can literally go with everything, you take them and string them along a ribbon and hang them up. It really doesn't get any easier than that!

I also made pumpkins for every month and put her pictures in it, just to show how much she's grown.

Some other DIY things were a birthday banner, and we got your normal party stuff like paper plates, cups and some plastic ware. I also really wanted to do a chalkboard poster but I didn't want to do a huge one. I wanted to make a smaller one so that we could keep it and display it. I used this tutorial, http://www.hausofgerz.com/2013/07/diy-chalkboard-poster/ and took some ideas from the ones I saw on Pinterest. I also printed out some pictures from her one year photo shoot and put those around too. My friend got some balloons and that was it. It was perfect! I think she enjoyed herself and I had a good time too! Looking at my Pinterest board there were a lot of decorations I wanted to do but I just didn't have time and I really couldn't find any good real pumpkins once Halloween was over, but it worked out well because I wouldn't have had any where to put them!

Here's her chalkboard poster!

I decided against goody bags. I know I personally don't need a bag of crap to take home. I mean let's be honest most of the time it's mostly candy with some dollar store toys thrown in that are going to get lost anyways. Don't get me wrong hats off to those who want to put together a goody bag but honestly I just didn't have time.

I don't really have many pictures because at both parties I had no idea where my phone was (which I don't hate because it really allows me to be in the moment instead of constantly checking my phone or looking through the camera) but here's what I've collected from friends & families pictures:

 I think she liked everyone singing to her!

Blowing out the candle!

 She really liked the cake!

Her fabulous outfit! Which I got for $2.50 at Trendy Tots!

 Love this one!

 Opening presents!

 Checking out the new stuff!

 All the babies!

 Hanging with Miss Evelyn!

I think I can safely say the party was a success, both parties actually. I think everyone had a good time at both parties and I really liked how everything turned out. There was just enough food and the party wasn't too long. I couldn't ask for a better family or a better group of friends to help celebrate our little girls birthday!

And here's some pictures of our Thanksgiving! Another great day full of family and fun!

Seriously? Could she be any cuter?! Loved this outfit! 

My little family!

Mimi with her kids & grandkids

She loved the turkey dinner!

Baby Colton!

Cousins!

Birthday Reflections

Well I recently (November 5th to be exact, just in case anyone wants to mark it on their calendars!) celebrated my 27th birthday. 27! I honestly can't believe I'm 27. I am happy to be 27. I am happy in my life. I am blessed.

I am blessed to be celebrating seven years together with my man later in the month. Our original anniversary (before we got married) was November 23, we only celebrate our wedding anniversary
(May 20th) now because let's face it, my husband has a hard time remembering things so I won't torture him with two anniversaries. I am blessed with the amazing family I have and I got super lucky with having some pretty amazing in-laws too! I am blessed with the friends that I choose to surround myself with. It may not be many but I hold them near and dear to my heart. They all have a special place in our lives and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am blessed to have an awesome apartment along with even better neighbors, a nice car and enough to not be struggling. I am blessed to be celebrating my little bean's first birthday on Sunday! Yes you read that correctly my girl will be 1 on Sunday. Actually writing that out really makes it real and gets me all sorts of emotional. I really don't talk about her turning one. Don't get me wrong I've got everything ready to go. I've got the decorations, the plates, her outfit is all set, we've taken her one year pictures but even doing all of that it really hasn't hit me until I just wrote it out. Damn, my baby is turning into a toddler. When did this happen? Why did this happen? Can't she just stay my little love muffin forever?

Here's a little peek of her one year pictures (the rest are on Facebook):

I love these pictures so much! I still seriously can't believe she's going to be one! I just love our little family so much!

Don't get me wrong I love watching her grow but it's definitely bittersweet. It's so much fun now that's she's getting bigger and now that she's walking. Going places is a lot more fun just watching her take everything in and exploring. I've been wanting to write about this for awhile. I've been wanting to write about my parenting style but I just haven't had time. The days go by too fast and the weekends even faster. So here we are, we've almost made it one whole year. Now don't get me wrong I am by no means a parent expert and every one's different but this is what we do. This is what works for us. I guess for the most part I let Penelope take the lead. I really want her to be a strong and an independent individual. I like to let her explore and figure things out for herself. I'm a big believer in learning through play. I think it's important for her to be able to play on her own. I think it's important for her to be creative and use her imagination.

My one biggest fault as a parent (so far) that I really hate is that I yell no.....a lot. I'm sure it's annoying to her if it annoys me, and if it's annoying to her she's probably just ignoring me anyways.  I'm just not one of the parents who can stay calm and take the time to say things like "No Nella we don't do that, we need to be safe, blah blah blah." I mean she's turning one, how much can she really understand. I feel like they learn best by doing. If they're running and they fall, they'll learn to slow down. Yes I let her test her boundaries but when it comes to not being safe I say/yell no. Like when she's going for the stairs or when she's headed for the toilet or towards the end of the bed I yell no. I've tried extremely hard to not make sounds when watching her. Which means when she falls, or bumps her head I don't say "Ooo" or "Ahh", I just let her be. She really only cries if she really gets hurt. She's very big into the fake crying right now and it makes me laugh. If I tell her no to climbing the stairs or take away something she shouldn't have she let's out this nice big wail but there's not one single tear. You can tell it's fake.

Update: Just so you know since writing this last week I have been working very hard to not yell. I'd like to think I'm doing a pretty good job. Although there's really no one to hold me accountable (I'm by myself all day) I am really trying. Instead of getting mad and yelling I simply take a breathe and just tell her no thank you. I don't want to be the mom that yells all the time. Distraction is key for us as well, if I don't want her to climb the stairs I tell her to go find her baby or her ball and that usually works.

We're working on having nice hands. She can be a little violent I guess you could say. I'm sure it's not on purpose. She is only one and she's still learning, but she will get into kids faces and just hit them or fail her arms. I just take her away and tell her that's not nice. I still think it's hard for her to understand. She doesn't get that pulling some one's hair or hitting someone in the head hurts them. That will come with time but for now I will remain consistent in telling her that's not nice and showing her gentle hands.

We are still going strong with breast feeding and I am proud. I was always unsure if I would breast feed. I knew it was normal, it was what our bodies were made for me but I had never been around anyone who really did it. My sister did with both of her kids but I never really saw it and we never really talked about it. Honestly I thought it was a little weird. You know having this little baby just sucking on your boob. I decided I would try it and if we could do it great but if not that was ok too. The main goal was to feed my baby and weather that was by boob or bottle I didn't really care. But we did it. We tried and kept going. Yes it was hard. Like when she would eat, and then act like she was starving ten minutes later. I gave her a binky. Yes my nipples felt like they were going to fall off. I should have expected that seeing as I've never had anything sucking on my boob for 15 minutes at a time, but don't worry they got used to it. Your body will adjust. I was worried I wasn't making enough until we went to the doctor for her one month check up and learned she was 10 pounds. (Her birth weight was 7 lbs 13 oz, she dropped a couple ounces before we left the hospital and a couple more after that, a little over a week later she was back up to her birth weight.) That was confirmation that I was doing ok. Here we are a year later still chugging right along.

Being a mother is such an amazing journey and I don't want to rush it. I want to enjoy all of her moments. Lots of people ask when we're going to have another and I always say when's she's potty trained, but really I am in no rush. I may be getting older but I don't mind spending this time watching Penelope and all her moments. It's amazing to watch her learn, weather it's learning how to eat yogurt with a spoon, or learning how to walk or how to put her puzzle pieces in her puzzles it's all fun and I'm learning too. I'm learning how to be more patient, I'm learning how to let go, I'm learning how to be a better person and I can thank my daughter for that.

Here's some pictures from last month:

11 Months In

Yup that's right. Today marks 11 months for my little bean (who actually isn't so little anymore). Are you as shocked as I am that it's already 11 months! Gahh! I wish I could stop time! And although if I had it my way I would keep her a baby forever I am really enjoying watching her grow.

She's gotten pretty sturdy on her feet, walking all over the place. One of her favorite activities is sneaking away to see how fast she can make it up the stairs. And trust me she's fast! She loves to climb, she gets into her chair and actually sits in it like a little lady. One of her favorite new toys is the toilet. So fun, right?! Ugh it's so gross and our bathroom door doesn't close tight so she can just push it open, and believe me she's a sneaky one. Her current favorite word is "Ba!" She says it for everything and all the time. She loves to play with balls, her baby and of course mom and dad!

 She loves her baby!

So far this fall we've gone apple picking and we're headed to the pumpkin patch this coming weekend. It's so fun now that she can walk around and move on her own. She really likes to explore and see everything there is too see.

 Hangin' out with dad!

 Auntie Rachel

 Uncle Matt

 We love this place!

 First apple cider!

 First cider doughnut!

She picked out her own pumpkin, she thought it was a ball but she loved it!

And now that she is 11 months old I am starting to plan for her birthday party. My baby's first birthday party. I can't believe I'm writing that. Now don't get me wrong I love to plan a party but this one is a little bitter sweet.

Let the party planning begin!

So let me get your thoughts on this. I'm leaning very heavily towards asking people to not give presents. Obviously she'll be getting something  from us, grandparents and her aunts and uncles, but because Christmas is right around the corner and we live in a two bedroom flat we really don't have a ton of room, and I really can't tell people not to get her stuff for Christmas so that's why I'm leaning towards no presents. That being said I don't want a lot of crap taking up space. And let's be honest how much of the stuff that they ever get, let alone for their first birthday, do they use or even keep for that long before it breaks or before you're giving it someone else to get a little more love. So my plan was to put on the invitation something along the lines of "please no gifts, if you'd really like to give her something you can make a donation to her college fund." Now I'm not asking for $100 for everyone, I'm simply saying if they want to give they can, and it doesn't have to be a lot. Even $5 is fine. I don't really care. My whole thought process was well college is pretty crazy expensive as of now so I can only imagine what it will be like when she's old enough to go. But of course I googled this lovely idea because when you're unsure of something you always google it, right? Well that's my go to. Anyways, a lot of the answers I saw to this question was "No, you can't ask for money, that's tacky!", and I get that. But I'm not telling people that have to give money it's just an option. Ok so what do you guys think? Yay or nah? Really I want to know your thoughts.

Onto other news she still only has two teeth. No clue when she'll be getting the rest in. Sleeping habits are getting better, or maybe I'm just putting my foot down. I refuse to feed her during the night/early morning because I know she doesn't need it. She's usually pretty good about taking her paci and going back down but some nights it can be a fight. Not going to lie, sometimes I do give in if she's not feeling well or she's been fussy, but for the most part in her crib she stays. Since she's getting close to a year I'm trying to wean her off breastfeeding. Hoping to get her down to just morning and night and she can nurse until she's ready to stop.
She's a really good eater, I do still give her baby food only because the doctor said having baby cereal would be good for her because o f the iron in it so I usually give her that with whatever fruit or veggie we have left. But other than that she can eat pretty much anything and she loves it.

Here's some recent pictures, well that's a lie some might be older because I missed her 10 month check in.

 This is how Nella takes a selfie. 

 I'm a sucker for holiday wear, she probably has at least five Halloween shirts. This one might be my favorite. "Don't scare me! I poop easily!"

 The three musketeers!

 She really loves to read! Haha

My girlfriend did a little photo shoot with her son and we got in on the cuteness. I mean really, how could I say no!

Jam session with dad!

 We recently went to Violet's 3rd birthday and we got to hang out with Miss Ivy!

 We also got to visit with Miss Sadie!

The girls have gotten so big!

 So big!

If this doesn't scream fall I don't know what does. 

And here's some stuff from her 10 month:

 Getting into trouble!

 Best friends!

 She makes the best faces!

 In September we made our way to Massachusetts to meet the newest Francisco. Baby Colton

 He's pretty cute! 

 Giving kisses

This pictures just shows how big she really has gotten. In the left picture she is 4 months old and in the right 10 1/2 months old. She just looks so grown and I can't get over it. I can't believe my little peanut is getting to be such a little lady. I hope everyone is enjoying their fall season! Keep an eye out soon for some yummy recipes coming your way!