Spent the day reveling in the fact that my baby is not so much a baby anymore! She sprouted her first tooth a couple of nights ago, scooting all around the house and is developing quite the sense of humor. (How do I teach her that face-swatting is not funny?)
Now that I have a pair of eyes constantly looking up at me for validation, assurance or encouragement, I am starting to really feel like a mother. I am growing more cognizant of what I do and say, knowing that sometime soon this little one will be making her very own memories of me.
I laughed at the idea of “nursing necklaces” until about a month ago, when Maddie started to pull at my hair. But then I got used to pulling my hair up in a ponytail and problem solved. Until two weeks ago when she started to pull at my clothes. My shirt, my nursing cover, anything. I wonder how we must look in public: me sitting quietly wearing a large nursing cover with a baby hand waving and flailing around trying to tug on everything it touches.
And then today happened. She grabbed hold of my bra strap, pulled it as far away from me as it would go, and before I could react… SNAP! My very first nursing bra wound. Now I’m scouring the internet for nursing necklaces. Which, by the way, are hideously unattractive in a “look at me, I’m an all-natural nursing mom, do you like my hemp skirt?” kind of way.
These clay + leather necklaces are not nursing necklaces, but something tells me Maddie will like playing with these as much as I’ll like wearing them. Not sure how safe these are for teething though so will definitely keep these out of her mouth!
{For Me, For You, $60.}
This is the closest Maddie comes to “taking” a pacifier. Like most moms, I have a love/hate relationship with pacifiers. A part of me scoffs at new parents who rely on the pacifier, but the other part of me is jealous that these parents have a quick and easy way to soothe their baby. I’ve gone back and forth numerous times on “trying” to get Maddie to take a pacifier.
As a newborn she had a very strong sucking reflex and our pediatrician suggested I use a clean pinky until she found her own fingers to suck on. Though it felt natural to me, most people balked when I did this. For all the usual reasons I didn’t want her to rely on a pacifier, but I also wanted an easy way out when she couldn’t soothe herself in the car seat or stroller. So then we proceeded to try every pacifier on the market. (Besides, I had a really cute knitted froggie pacifier clip I was gifted that couldn’t go to waste!)
The first pacifiers we tried were one-pieces, as advised by the Pump Station since they are more sanitary and didn’t have nooks and crannies where bacteria could grow. We tried the Avent Soothie which she actually enjoyed sucking on, as long as my finger was inside. As soon as I took it out, she would pop out the pacifier and cry again. Then we tried the Natursutten round rubber pacifier, which she liked a little better but her vigorous sucking always popped it out within 3-5 seconds. Then I gave up for a couple of weeks until one groggy afternoon when I was desperate for a nap. Again, she refused the Soothie and the Natursutten so I begrudgingly busted out some plastic pacifiers I got from my baby shower. She liked the Dr. Brown’s but they smashed her nose. The Nuk was too curved and dug into her cheeks. Finally she took the Avent Freeflow pacifier that came with our bottle set and I was able to get 20 minutes of peace and quiet. I happily clipped on our little froggie thinking, this is it! This is her new pacifier! But… she never took it again. And then I realized, if I don’t like pacifiers anyway, why am I trying so hard?
Then when she was 3 months, and I got tired of her using me as a pacifier, I learned that Natursutten made orthodontic shaped nipples with a butterfly base. This seemed to be exactly what we were looking for… the rubbery texture that she liked, an orthodontic shape that will stay in her mouth, and a butterfly base that wouldn’t smush her nose. I was so optimistic, I bought two. And even picked up a cute Haba pacifier chain along with it.
Long story short, we had about 3 instances (all in the car) where she took the pacifier and sucked on it long enough to fall asleep. Most of the time she would just fling the pacifier back at us, disgusted that we even dared to give her a fake nipple to suck on. She was far more interested in the wooden pacifier chain. Until recently. Who knew rubber pacifiers made such good teethers? =)
{Wearing today: Janie and Jack dress, Splendid X Target cardigan, headband from Etsy.}
I’ve always loved the tailored look of a Chanel jacket, but thought myself too young (and too poor) to pull one off. Plus my casual wardrobe could never support such a mature, formal jacket. But what would a deconstructed, modernized version look like? Probably like this.
Loving these Zara frayed jackets and boucle cardigans. The muted blues and greys pair perfectly with this Spring’s brights. I picked up the blue this weekend (top, right) to experiment with at work. If all goes well, the other 3 might work their way into my closet…
What a random week this was, I can’t even come up with a cutesy theme to thread my instagram photos. First I moved offices, and now have this odd view of our parking garage. Why is this important? It’s not, just made for a random inception-esque photo opp. I had a couple major shopping sprees this week, 3 categories in particular: beauty/personal care, Maddie’s S/S wardrobe and baby shoes. I can’t believe I bought hipster sneakers for my baby. O_o
Lastly, a quick word about our dinosaur tree. This was the first tree we picked out for our backyard when we did our landscaping 3 years ago. The leaves reminded me of dinosaur paw prints so it has since been dubbed as our dinosaur tree. Every year when the leaves sprout into little paw prints, it always makes me pause. Something about a tree shedding all of its leaves at the end of the year, only to grow taller the following year and start all over. It always gives me this strong motivation to rid myself of excess clutter, worries, thoughts, waste and spring forward.
I am a little obsessed with Giggle. Okay, maybe a lot obsessed. The first time I was introduced to Giggle (in Pasadena), I circled the store wide-eyed, like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t know baby gear could be so much fun. There were brands I hadn’t heard of, baby products that looked modern and cool. I must have visited the store 3-4x without buying anything… just to mentally jot down brands and products to later search and put on my registry. Of course, in futility, since most of the stuff in Giggle can’t be found at your local Babies R Us.
On top of just better designed stuff, I started to notice that Giggle also carried better for you stuff, and even better for the earth stuff. All plastics and feeding accessories are BPA, PVC and phthalate-free. Most clothes and toys are certified organic and free of harmful dyes & toxins. Nursery decor was modern and simple, and didn’t make you feel like Dora the Explorer exploded into tiny pink butterflies.
Not only does Giggle handpick the most healthy, stylish and innovative products available, they also team up with the best baby brands for their own exclusive line of “better basics”. Here are a couple of my favorites, both mommy-approved and Maddie-tested.
better basics organic bibs, pj’s
Giggle’s organic pj’s grow with baby: Maddie started out in the kimono bodysuits, moved up to the long sleeved footies for the winter and now free roams in the basic onesie.
giraffe mitt & hooded towel, $50
We have a couple of towel sets (mostly gifted to us) but these are by far the softest and most absorbent. They are pricey, but you really will ever need just one!
manhattan toys, $24
Maddie likes Giggle stripes too… her favorite thing though are these little tags that stick out of the corners. She’ll fixate on these and try to grab them with her fingers, developing the fine motor skills needed to pick up small objects.
mommy hook, $7
Just like the original but orange, to match my orange BOB. =)
pronto mini changer, $30
Love that this has a zippered pocket to stash diapers and a back-up onesie. I use this all-in-one on short trips when I don’t need my entire diaper bag; just throw it in the car/stroller and go!
My MIL just brought back this beautiful 15th Anniversary RMK cheek palette from Japan. I was so excited to try it out but when I was applying make up this morning I just could not get myself to bring a brush to it. The pattern is so delicate but the colors are so pretty and just begging to be used. Part of me just wants to keep it in its packaging and bring it out once a year to fawn over.
Help! What to do…
It was hard enough trying to keep a work-life balance before, now it just seems impossible (hence my new tea collection). An exciting new, sort-of-fashion-related project at work at least makes the hours go by quickly. Can you guess what client it’s for? 
Some other random happenings this week: another baby shower (that’s like 2 a month now!), yummy ramen for the gloomy weather, and a toy spree at Giggle.
{Dress: Janie and Jack.}
Oh Maddie. Only six months old and already you rule our lives! Sleeping in is a thing of the past, as you dictate my wake-up time more reliably than any alarm clock has in the past. Can I just request that you stop waking up before 7am? Your every-3-hours-on-the-dot feeding schedule is no longer. Now you demand milk when you want it (and spit it out when you don’t) and twice a day we battle it out in the high chair. One day you will eat every spoonful of your puree and you will like it too!
And most surprisingly, you have turned me into the exact type of parent I never wanted to be: the prideful humble brag mom. “Yes, she’s already pooping on the toilet; I just hate changing poopy diapers!” “No, she’s a horrible sleeper. She doesn’t sleep through the night, unless you count 6 hours. Well, I guess it’s actually 10 hours if you don’t count the teeny tiny feeding at 5am.” “She is SUCH a cryer! I mean, she’s cranky right now! What, this isn’t real crying you say?”
Aaaaand, you love the way I just humble bragged and snuck those in right now.
{Wearing today: Bonpoint dress.}
Now that we’re making baby food at home, I’ve been a little more cognizant about what goes into our own meals as well. This week I challenged myself to make every meal for the family at home. With a little planning (and a lot of plastic containers) it wasn’t too hard to do; I cooked 4-6 servings of food every night so we had leftovers to choose from to bring to work.
I also picked up these great Takeya drink makers (2 for $15 at Costco) to make our own cold drinks at home. We consume so much juice and iced tea, we always end up with a ridiculous amount of trash at the end of the week. (Not to mention individual cold drinks are e-x-p-ensive!) This week I brewed a flowery white tea and a lemon-ginger Arnold Palmer. Yum!
{Outfit 1: Catimini. Outfit 2: Zara baby.}
