The deets: Sweet Thymes muslin cloth bag (5x7); Target thank you cards (love these); Plum Polka Dot customized hair scrunchies; Vaseline Lip Therapy; blue sparkly silicone key ring; Blueberry LARA BAR; Ghirardelli sea salt caramel chocolates.

When prepping for baby to come, as I did last time around (see the gifts I made for Isla's nurses here), I include nurse thank yous on my list of things to pack for my hospital bag. I know not everyone does them or maybe brings in some donuts or treats for the staff once they are there, which is also great! The only issue I heard about that is sometimes the staff rotates and then the people who were actually helping you don't end up getting them. I was really happy I had these bags on hand last time and loved knowing each of those angels that guided me through this huge scary painful (and kind of gross) life event walked away knowing I was so thankful for them! I wish I had stuffed MORE into them after seeing what they actually have to do for you. Nurses are the STARS OF THE SHOW. Your Dr. pops in literally to like catch the baby and then is out five minutes later. The nurses are there calming you down, easing your pain, checking your dilation, bringing you all the things, then cleaning you and your baby up, coming back hourly to make sure everything is going well, and in my case - saving your child's life multiple times from coughing up meconium swallowed in the womb. These little gestures are the absolute least I can do in return. I think it's a sweet surprise for the staff as well since it's not totally common to have individual bags.

GIFT CONTENTS

Silicone Key Ring: these are all the rage right now since you can just slide on your wrist like a bracelet and go while you hold your books, baby, groceries, whatever! I saw these sparkly baby blue ones with gold rings and had to have them!

Silky Hair Scrunchies: I mean scrunchies are having a major moment. I did hair ties last time but I see these everywhere I go now and I am pretty sure one of the bachelorette's has even started her own line of them. We had them personalized so recipients would know who they were from too.

Vaseline Lip Therapy: Okay Vaseline is my ONE AND ONLY for rough skin. ALWAYS (see this post). I have tried all the things and its just the best hands down. I love their Rosy Lips and included them in Isla's bags but as pink was not going to go with my "theme" I went with the original. 

Card: This came as a suggestion from someone who is a nurse! They really appreciate a thank you note more than you know.

Blueberry Larabars: I picked blueberry for the color but also it's my favorite flavor of them. Larabars are great because they are gluten free, vegan, and dairy free so you hit a lot of food restrictions. I heard that breakfast or meal bars are good for medical professionals working crazy hours.

Ghirardelli Chocolate: This one is a just for fun. Who doesn't love sea salt caramel gourmet chocolates? Last time I made homemade chocolate chip cookies for them but figured that with everything going on COVID-wise, it might not be as well received and would be best to make sure everything came individually wrapped.

SIDE NOTE! I would definitely call your hospital to make sure you can bring gifts in before assembling them. My hospital had just lifted their restrictions when I asked about a month ago. I also am extremely over prepared when it comes to packing/life events and I was worried about shipping times on Etsy with this pandemic going on, so these were finished up pretty early but I am not mad about it! I like to have my entire bag packed and ready to roll out the door by roughly 36 weeks just in case. 

I also personally just enjoy putting these together, it's one of my favorite parts of preparing for baby's arrival. I can't resist a good theme anything so of course I went floral and pink with Isla and now full blue/navy for baby brother. I am who I am, folks. I'm just embracing it! Also how cute is my litter helper?

The deets: Amazon maternity suit on me; GAP kids suit and Target suit on Isla; hat is old MANGO but similar here; shorts are old Ingrid and Isabel maternity similar here; Sunnies were from Oui Fresh but they have since closed, here are similar adult and kids versions.

Lets just start by saying WOW what a change of scenery for us from the last ~100 days of quarantine life. It was so very needed and so good to get out of our bubble. We felt totally safe the whole time, we stayed in a big house with two other families that have been really careful and didn't really venture out anywhere but the beach which was across the street so I want to get that out of the way.

When a spot opened up in a beach house our friends were throwing together last minute we jumped on the opportunity to see Nags Head, NC for the first time. It was just a four hour drive from us which is basically the same as traveling to my family up in NJ so it didn't seem like to much of a task. Isla, however, is in a phase where she hates being in the car seat from the first minute we put her in so we attempted the leave at bedtime strategy which was actually pretty successful! The way home was torture since we didn't do the same. Also the swelling in my extremities is insane this pregnancy so after we emerged from the car I basically had no ankles - the cold ocean was a nice relief. 

Isla was hesitant to say the least. Day one was a little overcast and she spent basically the entire time on a chair sitting on one of us but did have some fun floating in the private pool after. Day two was better she ventured off the towel and started putting sand on Mike and playing around with the beach toys and in little bits of water away from the shoreline. By day three she was still terrified of the ocean but would have us fetch her pails of water to play with at a safe distance. My goal is to have the family on the beach at least once a Summer since that's what I grew up doing and we initially were headed for Delaware in June but the trip was cancelled due to Covid. I am so happy we got here! Here are some pictures I took of days 2 and 3. So grateful for good friends and my little (growing) family.

The deets: Gal Meets Glam Dress on me; Isla's jellies + sweater (dress is old); photos by Rebecca Honeycutt Photography.

I am thrilled to announce that we'll be welcoming a new baby BOY into our family this October (see Isla's pregnancy announcement here)! We always planned to have another baby pretty close to Isla turning two for a multitude of reasons and got really lucky (we used this same tool). They will be almost exactly two years and one month apart. I am happy I get to reuse all my same maternity clothes and we can also use some of Isla's neutral stuff for him since we'll be in the same seasons for size.  

My morning sickness kicked off literally week 5-6 which is SO early but since I had been through this before I didn't have to wait until 10 weeks to chat with a Dr. and get some help. I have a lot of feelings about being pregnant/possibly giving birth during a pandemic but also found the one silver lining which is that I was spared my 50+ minute bus commute during much of my most sick weeks. Did I still vomit most days between 6-15 weeks? Yup, but at least I got to do it from the comforts of my own home and sweatpants, right? 

While this pregnancy was pretty similar in how nauseous I felt (started to let up right around week 17 - same as last time) it was/is still so much different than my first in a lot of ways. With Isla, my sickness was steady all day. With baby boy, I would wake up feeling okay and then slowly decline throughout the day, peak vomit time being around dinner. I am also SO MUCH more tired. The Dr. says it's because I also have a toddler this time around but it really feels like much more than that. I physically can't keep my eyes open at some point in the afternoon no matter how much or little I do that day. I literally feel like I took NyQuil and need at least 45 mins to function (another COVID-19 silver lining - I usually can while Isla naps). My cravings are also so different! With Isla I couldn't get enough dairy, bread, and sweets. This time, while I still WANT those things, they make me feel so weird after I eat them. I crave brine-y/salty/spicy things. I actually wanted to DRINK the salty vinegar juice that a jar of hot peppers came in (WHAT, WHY?). I also was so grossed out by meat last time that I would wear a mask around the house when Mike cooked it, while this time I was into meat the whole time. Strange, right? I guess some of the old wives tales are true.

I am currently in my 20th week and can't believe baby boy is HALF WAY BAKED! It's going by so fast and I feel like I am not able to cherish this special time like I did before. Going to try to slow down a bit and enjoy it this summer since it's likely my last baby. 

So that empty plot of land I mentioned we bought back in this post, well, it's DONE! We closed on it January 2nd of 2020 and it was the best way to kick of the New Year. We of course had to have a little champagne to celebrate, and my husband was sweet enough to think of having the same exact kind that we had when we got engaged (he is truly the best sometimes).  All in all it was much less eventful than we thought, just a lot of signing paper and then they handed us the keys! We both felt a little, "uh...they are actually letting us have this grown up house no questions asked...WHAT?" 

Okay, so there totally were questions asked, obviously, during the approval for the loan, but it had taken place SO far in advance (house took eight months to complete with permitting taking about four of those months) that it felt like we just showed up and they handed us this awesome house. We thought there would be more drama involved since we had heard so many other stories that were the opposite experience but I guess that's when you are selling/buying at the same time and we were lucky enough to have all the time in the world to wait while we crashed at my in-laws who live 5 minutes from our new home. We actually just moved in a few weeks ago, really taking our time to fully transition.

It's a much (understatement) larger space than we come from so decorating has been a slow, expensive process. We still have empty rooms but I am happy to take my time and get things right that feel good instead of just throwing anything into the spaces to fill them. I'll share the rooms as they start to take shape. Our style isn't for everyone and I'm not a professional (don't want anyone to think I'm trying to be a home blogger) so I get intimidated to share things, especially when it feels like everyone lives in a picture perfectly designed house on Instagram, but it's a really fun process for me and 100% a labor of love so why hold back? It's exciting. They're just room outfits, right? 

Anyway, this year has already been a really great one for my family. Glad to be able to share it and so thankful to you if you are reading this! 

Oh, hello! It's me, Erin. If you're seeing this I'm the person you used to follow along with via this very blog. Then I had a baby, had to figure out what to do with said baby, realized babies are expensive AF, got super focused on my career, went through the process of building and buying a house, that baby turned one (here is a video I worked unnecessarily hard on of her first year), moved twice in the process (thank you in-laws), transitioned to suburban life, and here I am again. That baby is now almost 18 months! 

I took a very, very long break from the blog. The longest I ever have (eight months!) because I needed it. My time was just split too razor thin to allocate out any more of it, and it still is, but I knew it wasn't a "goodbye forever," it was a "see you later." Whenever I break for a long time I eventually feel like I've lost part of my voice, my creative side starts to tingle and misses taking photos, editing them, and then sharing them paired with a little writing. I like having something to say, even if it's just about food, or clothes, or home decor (which I now am pretty consumed with). 

I dusted off my camera, and with a small nudge from my mother-in-law, decided to do a little V-day shoot of my mini. I am embarrassed to say the last time I took real non-iPhone photos of her was when she was just six months old. I felt reluctant at first even to dig it out, almost as if I had betrayed a good friend or something ridiculous. As if a camera could hold a grudge! As soon as I started clicking it was like  riding a bike, and I realized how much I missed it. 

So here, without anyone asking for them, are some cute photos of my almost 1.5 year old daughter. She's as sweet as can be, this age is insanely exhausting because she is basically trying to kill herself every five minutes, but also so rewarding because they love you fiercely and are always learning new things.  As all biased parents say, she's my favorite.