Room Reveal: Sadie's Big Kid Room!

I'm so excited to finally share Sadie's new "big girl room" - it was a lot of planning and some heavy lifting, but we got everything moved in and set up within a few hours!

Switching our house around to give Sadie this great space was 100% worth it - she's closer to everything else (our room, the dining room, kitchen, etc), there great natural light, high ceilings, and plenty of storage. We no longer have to keep a space heater running because the room stays plenty warm. And even though the room is in a high traffic area (just off our front door) she has been sleeping great!

Polka dot feature wall using decals above Sadie's crib and a hopscotch rug is featured in the center of the room.

We switched Sadie's yellow dresser from a changing table to a storage spot for diapering items and clothes she has recently grown out of. We now simply do diaper changes on the rug, and it works out great.

Polka dot wall “nooks” used to store Sadie's monitors (regular video monitor and WiFi Dropcam). These nooks already existed in the room and they're really convenient.

Sadie's toy bin/bookshelf works perfectly for her (growing) library and collection of toys, and her growth chart is on the wall.

Wall for Sadie's coats, slippers, and sweaters featuring adorable owl wall hooks.

New crib sheet, pillowcase cover, and quilt made by me to brighten up the space (note: we are not yet using the pillow or quilt for night or naps).

A Sadie-accessible closet features all of Sadie's current clothes, pajamas, and socks all at her level (minus, of course, the dresses).

Sadie wanted to get in on the photos!

We are just in love with Sadie's space! It’s a very functional space for a growing girl, giving her better access to her clothes and toys and allowing her to hang up her coat and sweatshirt herself. And because we owned so many of these items already, we did not have to purchase very much to make this room happen. Below I’ve detailed the where we sourced everything in the room, broken down by items we already had and items we purchased for the new room.

Items We OwnedRyder Rocker from West Elm (now discontinued)
Hopscotch Rug from CB2
Yellow Dresser from Mint Home
Sauder Pogo Bookcase from Wayfair
Baby Mod Modena Crib from Wal-Mart
Growth Chart from Margaux Makes
Boon Curl Baby Shoe Rack (we are using it for sweaters)
Lamp from Land of Nod (no longer available)
Bekvam Spice Racks from IKEA (used as book racks)

Items We PurchasedWhite removable polka dot fabric decals from Wall Dressed Up
Yellow polka dot vinyl decals from Polka Dot Wall Stickers
3 Sprouts Flamingo Door Organizer from Diapers.com
Sketch Curtains from West Elm
Blackout Liners for Curtains from Wayfair.com
Fabric for sheet, pillowcase, and quilt by Lotta Jansdotter
I Think I Can close organizers from Land of Nod
Yellow, Gray, and Blue Owl Hooks from Strictly Vintage

Picnic Birthday Party Inspiration

Last year around this time, I was planning Sadie's rainbow 1st birthday party! I love how it turned out - bright, fun and relatively easy to pull off. The party matched her bright and sunny personality and I had so much fun making the rainbow birthday cake, something I'd wanted to tackle for a long time!

Well, time has magically flown by and my little girl is turning the big 2! I initially thought that we would not do much of a party this year, but of course I've got the planning bug and am ready to jump into party planning again.

Steve and I were brainstorming what we wanted to do when we started talking about pie for some reason (Sadie fell in love with apple pie last fall, and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving!). From pie we jumped to picnics and that's where we've landed: an indoor picnic birthday party! I'm having so much fun starting to pull things together, with some great inspiration.

Picnic invite via Boo and Lou Design

 

Ants on a log cake via The Partiologist

 

Pie cupcakes via Oprah.com

 

A simple, rustic food table via Honest to Nod

 

Easy picnic blanket seating via Kate Spade (sadly, amazing blanket no longer available!)

 

With a few simple touches - some gingham fabric here, picnic baskets there - this party should be simple to put together but delightfully adorable. Oh, and why an indoor picnic, you ask? As the party will fall in April, there is no telling what Chicago's weather will be like! We could have a gorgeous warm-ish day or snow. So we'll be playing it safe indoors!

 

Do you have any fabulous picnic party inspiration to share?



Guidecraft Kitchen Helper

One piece of "toddler gear" we really wanted as Sadie has been getting bigger is a kitchen/learning tower. She was always wanting to be "up up up" when she was in the kitchen - she wanted to be up at our level for everything we were cooking.

I knew we didn't want to rely on a step stool, especially because we have slate floors in the kitchen, which are very uneven. I loved the idea of a learning tower that would completely surround Sadie so that she couldn't (easily) fall. After doing a lot of research, we settled on the Guidecraft Kitchen Helper.

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What sold us on it was the ability to fold it when it was not in use. There are many other similar products out there, but most of them cannot be folded. Because we live in a small house with no storage space to spare (no garage, basement storage, etc) we needed something that could be flexible for our home.

 

The pros of the Guidecraft Kitchen Helper:

• Can be folded
• Comes in white to compliment our décor
• Decently sturdy

The cons of the Guidecraft Kitchen Helper:

• At around $150 it's not a cheap investment if you don't find yourself using it a lot
• The little dry erase board and the chalkboard are cheap quality/not necessary
• Sadie likes to stick her feet out of the little shape cutouts on the sides
• You have to use a wrench to be able to fold it up, so it's not something you would want to do every day - you still need a dedicated place in your kitchen to keep it for daily use

For us, the pros definitely outweigh the cons and we have no regrets about adding this into our small kitchen. It took Sadie one day to get used to it and after that she always wants to be up in her "tower" whenever we are doing anything in the kitchen! We use it to wash her hands at the kitchen sink, we involve her in doing the measuring and mixing when we bake, and we often set her up with various spoons and bowls so that she can "cook" while we get some actual cooking done in the kitchen!

 

Overall, it is amazing how seamlessly we've added the helper into our daily routine and how it is not an extra thing but a truly useful tool for involving Sadie more with what we're doing.

 

And, the proof is in the picture - Sadie and I making biscuits together!

 

 

Easy Toddler Meals

We are always working to try new and interesting foods for Sadie, with a focus on what we can easily make, freezes and/or reheats well, and is a combination of tasty and nutritious. Fortunately Sadie is a pretty good eater, but she still shoots us down from time to time!

Black Bean Burgers

We love this black bean burger recipe from Weelicious because it's easy to throw together, the patties can be frozen individually and reheat wonderfully, you can sneak in any veggies you want, and Sadie just loves them! Our only twist is baking them in the over for 10 minutes on each side instead of pan frying them.

Cauliflower Macaroni and Cheese

I love cauliflower, and I happen to love macaroni and cheese. Sadie also happens to love macaroni and cheese but so far has not been a big fan of cauliflower. Easy solution? Cauliflower macaroni and cheese! We really like Michelle Obama's cauliflower mac and cheese - super simple to throw together. And if you can't buy fresh cauliflower, just steam a bag of frozen cauliflower and puree. So simple, tasty, and good for a few days worth of meals!

Pumpkin Waffles

We like making a special breakfast on the weekend, and a big hit this winter has been all different kinds of waffles! We recently happened upon this pumpkin waffle recipe from Food.com and we love it. Better yet, we make a big batch of waffles and freeze some to eat on days where we don't have time to make a fancy breakfast. Just pop a frozen waffle in the toaster for a few rounds of toasting (depending on your specific toaster) and you're all set with a yummy waffle without all of the work.

Pizza

We like to make up a few homemade pizzas on the weekend and then eat the leftovers at the beginning of the week. The best part with a toddler is that you can load it with veggies, which are completely disguised by melted cheese! Use any pizza dough recipe or pre-bought dough, some red pasta sauce from a jar, and any cheese and veggies you want! Sadie's most recent pizza featured broccoli and black olives and she absolutely adored it.

Egg Scrambles

Our most common go-to meal for Sadie is an egg scramble. We throw in whatever veggies we have on hand (usual steamed peas and broccoli) and Sadie just devours her veggie scramble. It's so easy to make and since we always have eggs on hand, it's a quick and easy way to get her some protein.

What meals are in regular rotation for your toddler?

Toddler Room Design - Doors, Curtains and Fabric

Progress on Sadie's "big girl" room is rapidly underway! In fact, we have a move date set for later this month and we've been working to make the room "Sadie ready" bit by bit. Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of online shopping and a whole lot of sewing!

Our biggest project to date, with the help of a good friend, was to replace the vintage French doors with a standard door. While charming, the old doors were difficult to open and close (they lead out into a sun room) and the thought of all of that glass combined with a wild toddler made me nervous. I love the new door and will sleep easier at night knowing it's safer.

While the doors were getting fixed, I was frantically looking for curtains. With the tall windows in the room, we needed curtains that were around 96" long. And we needed them to be light blocking/blackout curtains. A hefty - and expensive - quest.

After endless amounts of obsessive searching, I landed on West Elm's "Sketch" curtains. For $19.99 a panel, these curtains were a steal!

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As you can see from the picture above, these definitely weren't light blocking. My compromise to get curtains that were of a good quality but not boring (as many light blocking curtains can be) I ordered Eclipse's light blocking panels to attach to the back of the curtains. At $20 for a pack of 2 panels, these were a great deal. You do have to secure the hooks through the back your curtains (something their instructions aren't very clear about), but the finished product works well to keep the room dark on the sunniest of days (and definite need with a young child in the room). Because the light blocking panels are not as wide as the actual curtain panel, when the sun is shining brightly you do notice where the panel starts and stops so it's not a seamless effect, but this was a great budget saver for us as actual blackout curtains can be quite pricey.

With the curtains set, it was time to move onto fabric! I have been in love with designer Lotta Jansdotter since I stumbled upon her fabrics when working in Sadie's nursery. On a hunt for new fabrics, I fell in love with three different designs that perfectly coordinate. They still pull in the blue and yellow of Sadie's current nursery but with a fresh new perspective.

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from left to right: Ball and Leaves in Schooner; Wide Strip in Sunspray; Basket Weave in Schooner

 

These fabrics are lovely in person - rich colors and playful designs. I've had so much creating a new sheet, pillow case, and quilt for Sadie. I just can't wait to see everything actually come together in the room! Bedding sets for children are quite easy to make yourself and are much more inexpensive than buying an entire set. I'm definitely planning on sharing all of the tutorials I used.

 

Now that the big items are out of the way - door, bedding, curtains - I'm having fun with all of the little details. Currently in the works are a polka dot decal wall, some adorable little wall hooks, coordinating stuffed animals...the list goes on!

 

In the meantime, each day we are reminding Sadie that the office will soon be her room, and talking about where her bed will go. She loves spending time in "daddy's office" so we hope she'll love it just as much when it's her big kid room!

Toddler Room Transition

It's about time I start blogging on here more regularly, right? Right. As I'm pretty sure my monthly updates of Sadie are 99.9% so I don't forget anything (because, as you know, it's incredibly important that I remember what her nickname was at 14 months vs. 19 months).

Anyhow, I want to get back into sharing recipes, house projects, parenting, etc. A little bit of everything as we continue to enjoy our kooky little family.

Top of mind for me these days is Sadie's room! Yes, room - she's not a baby anymore and therefore does not have a nursery (although it seems like just yesterday I revealed Sadie's finished nursery).

It's amazing the amount of hours logged in that sweet little room, and how many changes we have made to it over the course of the past (almost) 2 years: adding in bookshelves, purchasing a toy bin/bookcase, removing all picture frames near the changing table (to keep them away from grabby hands)...so far the space has been able to keep up with our growing girl but soon we'll need to make some changes.

As Sadie gets bigger, I get more and more anxious about her room being down in the basement, two floors below our own bedroom. What works out really well with this set up is that her current room stays relatively quiet, meaning she's less likely to wake up when we have people over, someone rings the doorbell, we're cooking, etc. Steve can also have client meetings at the house in the evening because she's nicely tucked away in her little room. But as she gets bigger and someday soon will be transitioning out of a crib and into a real bed I don't like the thought of her down in the basement all on her lonesome. I want her closer to me!

So, soon we'll be making the necessary steps to transition Sadie into what is currently Steve's office on the main floor of the house.

The upside of this transition is:

• The room is closer to our bedroom
• The room is larger, with higher ceilings, nice windows, hardwood floors and a big closet
• The room is big enough that someday in the future it could accommodate two kids (not any time soon!)
• The room isn't in the basement
• I'm super excited about decorating a new room (!!)

The downside of this transition is:

• The room is directly off of the front door, meaning she will hear every doorbell, dog bark, mail delivery, etc
• Steve will have to move his office downstairs to her old room, which is less space and means he can no longer have evening client meetings at the house
• We'll have to move our piano out of that room and back into our living/dining area
• We can no longer use that room to store incredibly random things - our winter coats, things for the dog, odds and ends
• We have to spend a decent amount of money to replace a door in her new room before we can move her into it

So, these changes aren't exactly a perfect world scenario, but we live in a small house with a great location in a wonderful city, so I assume we'll always have compromises. Right? Right.

With that out of the way, on to planning a new room. The fun stuff. Sadie's room currently looks something like this:

And because we already have invested in this great dresser, we'll still be using this mustard yellow in the room.

And as much as I like the look of our West Elm Rocker, I don't really think it would fit well in the new space. Plus, we never really rocked in it so if we have another baby I don't feel the need to really have a rocker. I'm also incredibly sick of the fabric and that shade of blue (probably because I've been looking at it far too much over the past two years), so I'd love to refresh things a bit in the new space. Starting with some simple, gray curtains:

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We also got this awesome chair earlier this year upholstered in a great faux bois (re: wood grain) fabric. It's currently in our living/dining room but would potentially be displaced by the piano. I think it would integrate perfectly into Sadie's new room (don't mind the army of stuffed animals), pairing nicely with the yellow.

 

 

Initially we'd have Sadie in her crib, and then transition the crib into a toddler bed of sorts. Once she outgrew that setup, we'd need to get her a real bed. I was interesting in some sort of loft bed but I think it would be years and years before I'd be truly comfortable with her sleeping way up high. I love the classic look of this Jenny Lind-style bed.

 

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Finally, since we'll be making the switch from carpet to hardwood for Sadie, we need a rug! Fortunately we already own this hopscotch rug from CB2, and it's held up incredibly well over the years. It just needs a good steam clean and it will be all set for her.

 

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I think the furniture would really pop in a fun way, and everything else could be kept really neutral but still fun.

 

So, those are the plans. Now it's just going to be a step-by-step process of getting everything transitions over the next month or two: house repairs, moving of furniture, buying/selling furniture and other items, etc. Oh, and getting Sadie really, really, really excited about her new room!







Sadie at 19 & 20 Months

Again, I hope to start blogging on here more regularly. Time simply escapes me! Plus I have a new endeavor I'm trying to focus on - a new Etsy shop! Check out Sew Kooky. I'm hoping to get a lot of new, fun items sewn over the holidays to be listed soon.

In the meantime, Sadie continues to get bigger and bigger and oh so much fun! While her tantrums are definitely becoming more frequent, the time where she's happy and running around far outweighs the tantrums. She's so silly and loves singing and dancing. Plus, she still eats everything we give her (loves her veggies!) and sleeps 7pm-7am like always.

Nicknames: Say-Say, Say, Mooky, Bug, Buggy
Temperament: So happy and curious and polite (most of the time!). You always say "scuse me" when trying to walk past us (even if you're going somewhere I don't want you to go!), and you sign and dance like crazy.
Things I Could Do Without: Screaming and throwing tantrums. Please stop! It's so much more fun for all of us (you included!) without the screaming fits.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: The Swiffer. You love walking around with that thing "cleaning" the floors. We love it because you are cleaning the floors and engaged in an activity for longer than 3 minutes at a time.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: It depends on your mood - one day's favorite toy is not necessarily the next day's favorite. You like "making soup" with a  plastic spoon and bowl. You love your wooden cell phone. And you really enjoy coloring at your art easel.
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Watching you splash around and play in the bath. You like washing my hands and arms, practicing "blowing bubbles" like you do in swim class, and playing with all of your bath toys.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: You definitely like to "help" us. When I'm making dinner, I have you go on errands to find me something I "need" - i.e. a blue spoon. It keeps you occupied and helps me get food prepped.
Sounds/Words: Everything you hear you repeat! We're never sure what is going to come out of your mouth, but it's so much fun hearing how you interpret certain words or phrases. But the best right now is "I love you" and "I miss you."
Foods You Like: Still everything we give you. You're great about eating your veggies before fruit at meal times. You're a little nervous about trying new foods at times, but we can usually win you over if we are eating it first; you always want to try what we have!

 

 

Sadie at 17 & 18 Months

I promise myself that I will start blogging on here more regularly beyond Sadie's monthly updates...but in the meantime at least I'm getting monthly updates posted here (somewhat consistently) which is much better than the job I'm doing (or rather, not doing) of keeping Sadie's baby book updated!

Sadie continues to be, as always, so much fun! She's singing the ABC's through the letter P and counted to three. Every day is a word explosion with her as she is always picking up new words. We're lucky she hasn't picked up any, umm, bad words, although I'm sure that's right around the corner. She has also gotten so fast! She's litterally running around the house doing laps, which also means she is pretty quick to fall asleep for her nap each afternoon (which is lucky for us, as she wears us out!).

We love our silly little bundle of energy so much, with her snuggles, hugs, and healthy big appetite! And that big appetite is definitely doing her good, as Sadie jumped up from the 25th to the 70th percentile for her weight!

Nicknames: Say-Say, Say
Temperament: Happy and upbeat, per usual. You love "calling" your friends and your phone, and are convinced that grandma and grandpa live in the iPad. You miss your nanny desperately when you're not with her and you love giving us all big hugs.
Things I Could Do Without: Dropping your sippy cup, especially from your high chair. It often hits our feet (ouch!) or the dog's head (ouch!). You often do it just to test us to see what we'll say or do, and we always promptly ask you to say sorry.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Right now you have a bunch of plastic spoons and forks that I gave you to play with. You love putting them in containers and into the back of your toy truck. When I'm cooking I'll often ask you to find me a "red spoon" or a "blue fork" and you set out on your quest, usually bringing back exactly what I've asked for. It's a fun distraction!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Lovey. We started giving you a "lovey" at night around your first birthday. At the time you could have cared less if it was there. But over the past couple of months, you have become obsessed with Lovey. You love cuddling him and carrying him around and he's definitely your buddy at night!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Time with you and watching you play and playing games with you. You get so excited when you see and learn new things, and you love watching us in the kitchen while we're cooking. It's so much fun having you right by my side!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: You are starting to walk down the stairs while holding our hands and using the wall for support. You are obsessed with this "big girl" activity! It's slow-going but fun to see you so proud of yourself when we make it to the bottom of the stairs.
Sounds/Words: You are talking non-stop! You've started saying full sentences ("Say Say goes night night too") and three-syllable words like "applesauce." The night you first said a sentence, I think my jaw dropped.
Foods You Like: Anything and everything. You have started to like salmon. You love veggie quesadillas (our "dillas" as you call them), French toast, pancakes, you recently had bacon for the first time (yum!), lots of fruit and veggies, and egg scrambles are an absolute favorite. I'm still so grateful you're such a good eater!

 

Sadie at 16 Months

I’m offically starting to understand why people love the toddler stage so much! It’s so much fun watching their little brains growing as they learn new words and actions. Sadie has been enjoying experimenting with walking sideways and backwards, “dancing,” and her walking is getting so fast she is practically running! She is also learning to sing her ABC’s – she’s up to “A-B-C-D” right now. She also can identify her colors – pink, blue, yellow, green, white, black, purple, and red. Her favorite color is blue, so she regularly requests a blue diaper! It’s so cute (but sad when all of the blue diapers are dirty and we have to settle for yellow or green). While she still wears us out quite a bit, we have a lot of fun with her while in the process of becoming exhausted!

This was one of our most fun photoshoots to date. Sadie actually sat still for multiple photos in front of the chair, and enjoyed posing for the camera and saying “cheese!”

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Mooky
Temperament: Happy and goofy. You love music and singing songs and are almost always singing in your stroller when we go for walks. People always smile at you! And you're always smiling at the people we pass and saying "hi." You definitely are firm, though, about what you like or don't like and are quick to say "no no" when given options, whether it be a shirt or a book.
Things I Could Do Without: If you don't get your way, you express your anger/frustration through throwing a toy, food, sippy cup...whatever you have in hand. It's so sad and I always feel bad when you're that upset.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: You have a little bee push toy that you love to push around the house, especially when daddy is swiffering the floors!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: You have a Mickey Mouse toy that grandma and grandpa bought you. We're not sure who taught you that his name was "Mickey" (it wasn't us!), but wheneve ryou see him you say his name and go "Oh Mickey" and give him a hug. He's your buddy.
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: You're fun to be around. You give lots of hugs and kisses. You know how to give Charlie "gentle pets" and sing "night night Charlie" to him when he's sleeping on the rug. It's just a lot of fun to sit back and watch you engage with the world around you!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Walking everywhere! Up and down the street. You squirm out of our arms and say "walky" so that you can go a run ahead of us. You are loving this new freedom!
Sounds/Words: Anything and everything. Sometimes it amazes me the words that come out of your mouth. And again, all of the singing.
Foods You Like: Still a lot of fruits and veggies. We will be so sad when the farmer's market ends! Some new foods have been pasta with homemade pesto, a homemade (basic) pad thai, salmon cakes...all kinds of good stuff! But the continued favorite right now is definitely a scrambled egg with veggies.

Sadie at 15 Months

I promise one day (hopefully soon!) I will get back to blogging more than monthly updates! But in the meantime...

Sadie is all over the place these days and is so much fun to be around! She has a silly little personality that shows more and more each day, although she has also started developing some of the dreaded “toddler tantrums” – arching her back in frustration when she doesn’t get her way (or when she finishes her milk!). On the flip side, she loves say “hi” to everyone she sees on the street and “sings” silly little songs.

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Boo, Mooky, Bubba Boo
Temperament: So silly and happy! You still love singing songs and learning new words. You are super chatty and will just entertain yourself playing with your toys or following us around the house while we do housework. You're almost always happy and upbeat (unless you're not getting your way!).
Things I Could Do Without: You hitting me in the face! You have recently learned the word "ouch" and know that when you hit me or pull my hair I will say "ouch." You love the reaction so I have to ignore the fact that you're hitting me. Please stop doing this, it's no fun!
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Books. You love sitting and reading books with us and now you are very opinionated about which books you read, especially before bed. Sometimes I have to hold up 5 different books before I find the one that you want.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Stacking bowls - you loving pushing them togehter to make a ball, putting them on your head to make a "hat," and stacking them. They provide hours of entertainment!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: How much easier your schedule has gotten. You now take one long nap in the middle of the day, so we actually have time to go out and do fun stuff in the morning and afternoon. It is amazing!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: I think it's a tie between walking and talking. You love running around everywhere and have started walking sideways and backwards. You also love dancing and it's the cutest thing ever. But you also love talking and picking up new words every day!
Sounds/Words: Before your 15 month doctor's appointment I figured out that you had about 40 words you regularly say and a few two-word phrases. That's a lot! You say "big girl," "let's go," "I know," "go baby," "here go," along with a lot of other words in our daily life. It's so much fun listening to you talk!
Foods You Like: Everything still. Fruits and veggies of course! You love eggs and now when we get the frying pan out you run around the kitchen saying "eggy!" It's so cute. We joke that you eat better than us with your organic diet full of fruits and veggies from the farmer's market!

Sadie at 13 & 14 Months

We officially have a walker on our hands! At about 12.5 months Sadie took her first independent steps and she's been "go go go" ever since! Which means we've been "go go go" right along with her. It has been especially exciting to see her become more sure of herself. At first she was very hesitant to walk in public (on the sidewalk, at the park) - she always wanted to hold our hands. After about a month of walking she has gotten more and more confident in herself and now refuses to hold our hands when we're outside!

 

She's such a big girl with an infectious smile and loves saying "hi" to everyone she sees outside (although her timing is often off and she'll say "hi" after they've passed us by).

 

Nicknames: Say-Say, Sade, Say, Boo
Temperament: Still very happy and smiley, but very determined to have things go your way. If we pick you up without asking you "up" first, you are not a happy camper! You're listening to us and watching us very closely, especially when you go near something you're not supposed to (and say "no no" to yourself as you do it!).

Things I Could Do Without: The occasional epic meltdowns where you arch your back and try and wriggle out my arms. It's not fun for either one of us!

Item/Toy We Love The Most: Definitely your stroller. It's great that we can get out again with the nicer weather. You just kick back and relax in your stroller! And I love that we can give you snacks and a sippy cup while we go for walks.
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Your play pots and pans - you could play with those for hours. In truth, you are happy to play with the silliest things long periods of time - one day you played with your winter hat for an hour!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Sharing food with you! It's so great to be able to share a smoothie or pancakes or really anything with you. You're eager to try new foods and usually want what I have.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Walking. Everywhere. And you're fast!! You love running away from us so that we have to chase you. You're also getting really good at climbing the stairs, which is exciting and scary (for me). Oh, and of course: lights! You love pointing out the lights in a room and switching them on and off.
Sounds/Words: All kinds of words. You repeat after us all day long. You are also getting really good at sign language, and say the words while you sing: please, more, water (waa waa), milk, all done. It is so cute and so much fun that you really communicate with us about what you want!
Foods You Like: You love absolutely everything, especially green veggies. You could eat broccoli all day long! You love fruits, fruit smoothies, beef stew, Indian lentil stew...pretty much anything we put in front of you is devoured in seconds!

 

Sadie at 12 Months

This is a little bit belated (ok, a lot!), but I wanted to make sure I wrapped up Sadie's first year updates, even if it's just for her and me in the future!

The year has flown by so fast my head is still spinning. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be “pre-baby me” but I don’t even know her anymore. Because the “momma me” finally feels like the real me. And it took awhile to get to this place. The first few months of being a mom I felt absolutely silly as a pushed the stroller around my neighborhood. Now being out strolling with Sadie is second nature to me. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that sleeping until 7am on Saturday mornings is sleeping in. And it’s blissful.

And I know that having a toddler isn’t exactly easy fun and games all the time, but I’m really looking forward to this time as Sadie's momma. We’re less tied to nap schedules, she can have snacks in her stroller as we’re out and about, and we’re finally having some fun! I’m sure I’m in for some challenges with my strong-willed, goofy little girl, but I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us.

I’m excited to share our last installment of week-by-week photos. It’s been so much fun capturing Sadie each week in all of her fun outfits and silly expressions. And, starting with 13 months we’ll be taking monthly photos with an entirely new backdrop!

Nicknames: Say-Say (given to her by her nanny), Sade, Boo-ba, Sadie-Boo
Temperament: Happy, happy, happy!
Things I Could Do Without: Your appetite is sloooowly getting better, but we'd definitely love to see you eating more!
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Your little wagon walker - you can walk pretty fast with it now!
Item/Toy You Love The Most: Your stacking rings. Still. They provide so much entertainment!
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: Tickling you and hearing you giggle!
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Cruising around the furniture! You also love going to your music class.
Sounds/Words: The usuals: momma, daddda, go, ba-ba
Foods You Like: You're definitely getting more interested in finger foods, but you're still not quite sure.

Sadie's Rainbow First Birthday!

I'm so excited to share that Sadie is a one year old! I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by, and I never stop thinking about how immensely lucky we are to have a happy, healthy, silly little daughter. Even if she overtired or sick with a cold, our little miss Sadie is so happy - I wish I could have her sunny outlook on life!

Ok, onward to Sadie's first birthday party! We chose a rainbow theme because Sadie is such a bright, sunny little girl so it only made sense to feature bright colors. And since I always love to know all kinds of details (where, what, how), I'm going to be incredibly thorough.

Party Timeline
The party was scheduled from 11am-1pm. If I could go back and change it, I would shift it to a little bit later to fit better with nap schedules - Sadie barely napped that morning, and the other kids at the party didn't either! Here's a rough timeline of how things worked out that day:

11am: Everything for the party was set and guests started arriving
11am-11:15am: I got Miss H up from her short nap, gave her a bottle, changed her outfit, and brought her up to a room full of people (she loved it!)
11:15am-11:45am: guests mingled, kids played
11:45am: We dressed Miss H in her Korean hanbok (traditional dress) and did the doljabi ceremony
12pm: We gave Miss H her smash cake and then cut the big cake for the guests
12:20pm: We helped Miss H open up her birthday gifts
1:15pm: The last guest left and it was time to clean up!

Food
Since the party was over the lunch hour, I wanted to make sure we had somewhat substantial food. But I also wanted to make sure everything we made wasn't temperature specific (i.e. didn't need to be served hot) and that everything was easy for us to prepare ourselves. To top it all off, we had one guest who is gluten free and one who is vegan and gluten free. We served:

• Egg salad finger sandwiches
• Cucumber finger sandwiches
• Black olive tapenade crostinis
• Mediterranean quinoa salad
• Chips and guacamole (which many of the babies enjoyed too!)
• Skewers of fresh fruit (rainbow colors, of course!)
• Cake pops
• Cake
• Izze sparkling drinks
• Bottled water
• Applesauce pouches for the LOs

There was more than enough food for our (roughly) 15 guests and everything was budget friendly!

Details
The details of the day are what I'm most proud of! I spent a lot of time gathering items, making various pieces of decor, and just trying to create a rainbow theme that was fun and bright. And I'm proud to say that I did all of my planning, crafting and baking when Sadie was sleeping - I never prioritized anything over her.

I've been blogging Sadie's week-by-week photos we've taken, so of course I wanted to share these photos at the party! These are 5x5 prints that we hung on twine and attached with mini clothespins. We hung these low enough on the wall (the top row is about 6 feet high) so that our guests would easily be able to look at all of them. It was fun hearing people comment on what their favorite photos were and how much Sadie has changed!



I made cake pops the Monday before the party. These are great treats that can keep for a week, so they're easy to make in advance! I'd found this little planter with a chalkboard on the front from an Etsy seller (their shop is currently unavailable) and I thought it would be so much fun to have "cake pop flowers" in it!



The "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall was by the talented Chelsey Emery, who also did the party invitations. It was a perfect addition to the room and I love that we can easily save it and use it year after year! We hung it with the same twine we used for the weekly photos.



As mentioned above, we prepared all of our food ourselves for the day. I decorated the table with scalloped paper circles punched out of cardstock in all colors of the rainbow!



I ordered spoons and forks from Sucre Shop, napkins with rainbow dots from Target, and plates in rainbow stripes and solids from Oriental Trading.



As mentioned above, we served Izze drinks (in all of the flavors they have for great color variety!), and bottles of water (which I may or may not have wrapped in washi tape purchased from In The Clear), and applesauce pouches for the kiddos.



Favors were copies of the book Planting a Rainbow and little individual pots and seeds (found in Target's dollar aisle!) for growing their own flower. Since we only had 3 children as guests at the party, I could afford to gift books.



I fell in love with the look of paper rosettes! I used this tutorial for them (there are many tutorials for rosettes if you look; it's a pretty simple concept), found cardstock in solids and patterns, and afixed them to the wall with removable mounting tape. I was worried about them not staying on the wall, but I hung them 2 days before the party and only one had fallen off the wall a day after the party, so we did really well! It was an inexpensive piece of decor that added a lot of fun to the room.



I found these fabulous rainbow colored bottles/vases on Etsy (also from the shop where I got the cake pop box, shop currently unavailable). They were incredibly affordable and so much fun! I plan on keeping them up year round in our dining room. The day before the party I bought white spider chrysanthemums for each vase.



Korean Doljabi Ceremony
After all of our guests had arrived, Steve's mother and grandmother helped me dress Sadie in her traditional hanbok that they had gifted her. It was a bit large on her but we were able to tuck the sleeves under. She did amazingly well in the dress!



For the doljabi, you set items out in front of the baby and the item they choose indicates something about his or her future. The items we opted to use were: a pencil (scholarly), a tennis ball (athletic), a paintbrush (artistic), money (good fortune), and string (long life). She hadn't seen any of these items before so we knew she wouldn't be playing favorites!

I predicted she would choose the paintbrush and Steve  thought the tennis ball. I was right! After some pondering, she touched the paintbrush, then took her hand back. And then she went for the paintbrush again. It looks like we have a budding artist on our hands!



Cake!
The cakes were a labor of love, as I made both of them. I like the idea of making her birthday cake every year as something special that I do. I made banners for the cakes using washi tape, baker's twine, and paper straws. The big cake said "Sadie!" and the small cake said "One." (They're hard to read because I used metallic pens and it was really sunny). I'm going to do a follow up post and share the recipes I used and the decorating tutorials that I referenced.





We put Sadie in her high chair (in her "Rainbows Make Me Smile" t-shirt, naturally) and the smash cake right in front of her. She eventually decided she would touch the cake...



...and even sample some of the buttercream...before she picked the whole thing up and tossed it on the floor! I had been borderline worried about her shoveling a lot of cake her mouth and then choking on it (morbid, I know), so part of me was relieved that she wasn't that into it. She was definitely fun to watch!



After Sadie had her cake, it was time to cut the guest cake! I always enjoy the "big reveal" when a cake is fun on the inside.



I was incredibly pleased with how vibrant my rainbow colored layers turned out, and how neatly they were stacked!



I had been planning this cake in my head since January, so it was incredibly rewarding seeing it come to life, and it was even more rewarding sampling the delicious cake!



We almost forgot a family picture! So here we are at the very end of the day!



And that, in a nutshell, was Sadie's rainbow first birthday party! It was such a wonderful day and it was worth all of the prep and hard work! Keep your eyes out for a more detailed post on the cakes, including the recipes and tutorials I used for inspirationg, baking, and decorating.

Happy birthday to our little "Say Say!"