February 2012
15 posts
2 tags
Letters to Everly
Dear Everly,
You have always been a daddy’s girl. From the very start, really. I’ve had the great honor of protecting you, singing to you, loving on you and providing for you - but so often, when you feel sick or sad or just need some extra comforting, it’s daddy that you want. Your affections for me have been great, but it’s always been pretty obvious that...
A Pep Talk
(Courtesy of Pinterest)
Sometimes I need a little pep talk. A brief reminder that I’m doing alright or at least, headed in the right direction. So here’s a visual one I gave myself recently:
(via)
(via)
(via)
Lately I’ve had the urge to put my whole life through a cheesecloth. To strain out the impurities and give more of myself to only the most authentic parts. More...
Pepper's Paw: Quick update on donations! We have... →
I don’t typically reblog this sort of thing on Dear Baby, so I hope you’ll bare with me for a moment, but I am really hoping to help this ol fella out. What good is a blog following if you can’t use it to do good things for those in need? My friend Kelly has such a heart to pull this sweet dog out of a high kill shelter where he most certainly would have been put down.
Sweet...
3 tags
Love and The Kitchen: Mimi Mary's Poundcake
This is for you Everly. The first in a series of six afternoons to be spent in the kitchens of your grandparents and great grandparents. Six afternoons helping to make recipes that have appeared again and again at our table as we have gathered together as a family. Food that tastes like memory, like my girlhood (and yours too…) I hope, my lovely daughter, when you are my age you will...
First Snow of the Season.
Oh, we had such high hopes for this winter. Just one, maybe two, snowfalls - enough for the kids to play in without shutting down the major roads or stores. At least one snow fall each winter used to be a guarantee for North Carolina when I was a kid, but with global warming, it’s becoming less common with each passing year.
Here in the south, where snow is a novelty, a snow day holds a...
Q Handmade "Sweetheart Necklace" Winner
Do you know what was so beautiful about this giveaway? Having a front row seat to the amazing comments you left about people who have made a big difference in your life. Even if you didn’t win, I hope you will take a moment and share your words with the person you nominated, I guarantee you it will be more precious to them than all the sparkly necklaces in the world.
I threw all 167...
2 tags
3 tags
3 tags
Happy Valentine's Day
I know a lot of people loathe this holiday, but I’m a sucker for any and all reasons to make heart shaped food and eat chocolate and lay a few extra kisses on my little family. Everly has been working on pronouncing “Happy Valentine’s Day!” all morning and she’s almost nailed it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lunch date with the three loves...
2 tags
2 tags
January 2012
27 posts
2 tags
Cute Babies in Animal Hats.
You’re welcome ;)
Love,
M
1 tag
Work Clothes/Play Clothes
This is officially my favorite way to highlight fashion on my blog because there are no rules. There is no set deadline for getting them up and no must-dos about what to feature. As long as I remember to snap a shot of what I wore, it’s fair game (including a few outfits I’m not even crazy about). Without further adieu, here’s some stuff I threw on in the past month:
Play...
1 tag
Baby Babble
Here’s what I’m talking about on Baby’s First Year this week:
1. How important is a father’s role in childbirth? Did your own partner help or hinder your labor? Mom’s weighed in with their personal experiences here.
2. I’ve shared before my struggle with losing too much weight since Arlo was born. I went to the doctor this week and learned I weigh 116 pounds...
1 tag
Songs to be Alive To.
Morningbird by Forest Sun.
...
Songs to be Alive to.
Sweetness by Pearl and The...
A Brief But Worthy Moment.
The very best thing about work from home days is that instead of taking a break by walking down the hall to grab a snack from the break room, I get to take a break by laying in the grass with my eight month old and husband.
They’re only small moments in my day, but a welcome respite from hour long conference calls and writing email after email. Nothing relieves the stress of a busy work...
3 tags
The Rundown: 8 months & 2 years
(Arlo fresh from a bath & Everly having just been caught attempting to give her balloon puppy a “baf”.)
Stats:
Everly: You are riding that 25 percentile curve all the way through your second year of life. At your 2 year check up, you were 24 lbs 8 ounces and 34 3/4 inches tall. You’ve got a closet full of size 5 shoes and you’ve got a serious opinion...
1 tag
I Forgot to Post This Last Week...
Look how cute Mylah and Everly were in the invite we sent out before their party. My favorite is the second shot where we asked them how many fingers was “2”. Such sweet munchkins!
Love,
M
1 tag
A little Something Something...
It’s fun to online window shop, isn’t it? I think I currently have 10 or more “virtual” shopping carts loaded down with things I wish I could buy. Sometimes it feels really therapeutic to fill them up and then close out the screen - all the fun of shopping without the buyers remorse! But sometimes I happen upon a good deal that’s hard to pass up if the price is right...
A Progression of Dear Baby Headers.
It’s kind of fun to see them all lined up next to one another. One of these days, when I get my act together, I’m determined to give this entire blog a facelift- but in the meantime, a fresh new header will cure my itch. A special thank you to Jess of I Rock So What for designing this for me!
Love,
M
2 tags
Letters to Arlo.
Dear Arlo,
I was reading a beautiful story by another blogger last week when I was stopped abruptly by these words:
“God makes children so specifically for us, each of them.” ~Arianna Segerman
It called on me to sit down and write this to you. Before you were born, I carried some assumptions about parenting. For one, that going through it once already meant I knew what I was...
1 tag
Songs to be Alive to.
Sort Of by Ingrid...
1 tag
Songs to be Alive to.
Skeletons by Yeah Yeah...
4 tags
Mylah & Everly's Down on the Farm 2nd Birthday...
Two weeks ago, I sent my best friend an email asking if we could push the girl’s joint birthday party to January 15th. We’d originally planned it for the 8th (right in between both of their birthdays) but since I couldn’t get my act together, I’d done nothing to plan for it, including the basics, like, you know… inviting people.
“I have a barn shaped cat house...
1 tag
Baby Babble.
I’ve found it really challenging to juggle both Dear Baby and my blogging at Babble these past few months. I do the large bulk of my writing and photo editing in the late hours after my children have gone to bed and it’s become increasingly challenging to do write and edit for both. The thing I hate most about not being able to get it all done is that I WANT to, so badly. I love...
Music to be alive to.
Several of you have asked...
1 tag
Toddler Tools: 3 Simple ways to turn No! into Yes!
I am always hungry for smart tips and advice from other moms on things that work to make their daily life run a little more smoothly. With that in mind, I wanted to share 3 inexpensive items that have been helping us avoid major battles at meals, bath time and bed time lately.
1.DINNER TIME: The funny face plate!
Remember those magnetic wooly face toys from our childhood? This plate is like...
1 tag
2 tags
A Few Friday Links
A Rainbow of albums in our record collection
What a fun weekend we have ahead of us! We’re throwing a small little birthday party for Everly & her best buddy, Mylah West this Sunday. I think elaborate birthdays are inspiring and beautiful, but pulling one off last year for Everly’s 1st was SERIOUS work. I’ve vowed to keep all birthday parties (except the big ones - 1, 13,...
To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega
2 tags
A Birthday.
I set my alarm for 6:45am. Plenty of time to wake up Everly early so that she could see the decorations that Brent and I had hung for her late the night before. Instead, at 6:15am, I heard the thump thump of little feet down the hallway and saw her tiny frame, wrapped in fuzzy red pajamas standing at my bedside. “I see sumfin’” she said, pointing out the door....
2 tags
Letters to Everly.
(A blurry account of Everly’s first carousel ride. She spent most of it crying out for mama and saying “all done!”)
Everly Veda,
My darling little two year old. Happy happy birthday to you!
I realize now why mamas everywhere on their children’s birthdays say reminiscing things like “On this day X number of years ago, I was bringing you into the...
1 tag
1 tag
Christmas.
Do I get the award for latest Christmas recap ever? I think YES!
This one goes down as the Christmas that snuck up on us. The one where we pulled a tiny tree and the children’s stockings out of cardboard boxes the night before Santa came. The one where my dad and step mom brought coffee over on Christmas morning and had to bring coffee mugs too because we didn’t...
December 2011
20 posts
oh.hello.
When I have big chunks of time off like I do now for the holidays, I find it incredibly hard to blog. Blogging is part of my routine, and eleven straight days with my family with no agenda or place to be is certainly not part of my typical day in/day out. So as much as I love this blog, finding the motivation to sit down at my computer is pretty much non existent- Especially considering there are...
2 tags
Have you ever owned a dress so pretty it deserved its own party? A dress with the perfect amount of sparkle, lace, and dainty details that it suddenly has you itching to throw together an invite, hang some garland from the ceiling and whip up your famous white bean dip? When this beautiful little frock by designer Corey Lynn Calter arrived on my door, it was all I could do not to call...
2 tags
Dear Lovely Home,
Tomorrow you become ours. Despite having visited you countless times in the past months (sitting in your driveway, peeking in your windows, taking in the lovely afternoon light from your kitchen window), this time when we turn the key in your door, it will be different. Tomorrow we start a new adventure in living a good life together.
A year ago, we wondered if...
1 tag
2011 in Review. Another Year Lived in Love.
They say, the older you get, the faster the years fly by. In my experience, for every child you have, go ahead and double that rate of speed. I’m telling you now, just yesterday it was May and I was just delivering my baby boy. And two weeks ago, my daughter was just a wobbly walking, barely speaking little toddler-baby hybrid. Here’s a look back at my favorite moments from the past 12...
1 tag
2 tags
Minted Giveaway Winner
In Christmas card update news, they were waiting for me when I got home Friday evening. I have since stuffed them all and sealed them with our new home address on the front. Actually addressing them, buying stamps and mailing is likely to happen sometime between now and January 2nd. Baby steps.
So on to the winner of the Minted card giveaway - Congrats to Anna, a...
4 tags
