Earlier this year I had a profound experience in parenting – one in which I got to see a cycle from my past be broken before my eyes. My daughter had picked a flower out of a bouquet we had and asked if she could put it on the nightstand in her room in a glass of water. At the time, she was newly 4 1/2 and I knew that the chances that this cup of water would wind up…
I still remember being pregnant with Julia (my first baby) and feeling quite confused about making a baby registry. There were so many different products, so many different brands, and the part I dreaded the most – so many reviews to weed through. Ultimately, I made my choices based on two factors: things I remembered working well with my niece who I had spent a lot of time babysitting as an infant, and affordability. I tried to register for things…
Hi readers! Today I want to continue my book recommendations series and share some of our favorite books for the preschool age. As Julia gets older, stories continue to be not only something we use for enjoyment but also as a tool for learning about everything from the environment to emotions and everything in between. There are so many incredible children’s books out there to discover! You’ll notice that I added two purchase links in the description of each book….
When Julia was a baby, her checkups were not necessarily super difficult. Every 3 months we’d pop in for our appointment, and hope the wait time wasn’t too long. Of course, even as a baby she never enjoyed getting vaccines but back then she didn’t have the ability to associate the doctor’s appointment with them just yet. This all changed when she was about 18 months old. We had been at her neurologist’s office for her 18 months check-up and…
I can still remember so clearly the single most difficult day of being a mother (so far). I can remember this day so vividly and just thinking about it brings me right back. It was the day I made a decision to break the cycle of what I grew up around: impatience. Let me explain. On this day, Julia was about four months old and in the throws of the withdrawal process for her seizure medication she had been on…
I cannot believe that I am writing this right now – Julia is officially, a ONE year old! a Toddler! What?! How does the first year go by SO fast? I feel like she has been developing rapidly in the past few months and blossoming from my sweet little baby into my full blown, still sweet, but also very adventuous, toddler! I struggled a bit to put together 5 essentials for these past three months because really I’ve found that…
Wow! I seriously can’t believe I’m on the 2nd to last installment of this series! Julia just turned 9 months old and there have been a few new things we’ve been using to help her learn, and also make life easier. I started to see a huge jump in Julia’s development around 6 months. Suddenly she’s learning so many new things, and so fast! It is seriously a joy and relief to see her becoming a smart, determined-to-learn, little “junior…
When we became parents, my husband I knew that we wanted to give our child/ren a childhood filled with warm family memories and traditions. Recently we celebrated Julia’s very first “1/2 Birthday”! I had seen photos of 1/2 birthday celebrations on Pinterest and thought it would be such a fun idea to do every year on her 1/2 birthday! This year we decided to celebrate by doing a little photoshoot with a cupcake, and let her have a little taste…
Reading has always had a special place in my life and I hope that Julia will also know the comfort of curling up to read a good book one day. Before she was even born, my husband and I began buying her books, and have built up a little library for her. There are a ton of benefits that reading to your baby can provide, such as helping them to recognize the connection between words and sounds, and eventually introducing…