Connor's 1 Year Photoshoot + Milestones

Besides the fact that we've surprisingly managed not to damage the kid too much during his first year of life (kidding!.. well, kinda, haha), his reaching the 1 year mark also brings to mind a couple other milestones we've somehow managed to hit.

First off, we're cloth diapering. We started when he was around 2-3 months old, so we've pretty much been doing cloth for almost a year now. We switched over completely to save our sanity from disposables not being able to contain... well, you know. Seriously, 3-4 blowouts a day in disposables was ridiculous, and besides the obviously grossness of the whole thing, we wound up doing laundry ALL.THE.TIME. to clean stuff up. So we figured why the heck not give cloth a try?

Our verdict? We love it. We use BumGenius 4.0 snap diapers (LOVE the super cute prints they have!). Stuffing them is kinda boring, but when we remind ourselves of how much we're saving by doing cloth, the 5 minutes it takes to stuff the things everyday doesn't seem so bad. The only other downside is the rinsing part once the kiddo started solid food... ya, that part is pretty gross, too. But still loads better than blowouts, in my opinion.

And you know what? Even with 1 load of laundry for diapers a day, we end up doing WAY less laundry than we were with disposables. Score.

So that's the low-down on our diapering, incase anyone is interested or even cares about how we do that whole process, haha.

(warning: any family members or guys reading this, feel free to skip this paragraph! haha) The next little big milestone we've hit? I've been breastfeeding the little guy for a whole year now, 10 months exclusively (we hit a few snags in the beginning and supplemented with formula). Seriously, I am actually pretty darn proud of that accomplishment! Someone PLEASE give me a pat on the back for that, mkay? In the beginning it was downright horrible and painful and I'd take childbirth 10x over again just to avoid having to go through the pain of one more feeding, and with feedings like 8 times (or more!) a day in those first weeks, I pretty much just wanted to die. Yep. It was THAT painful, and I was even on all sorts of painkillers to help with the pain of a c-section - and those drugs didn't even hold a candle to the pain of a feeding! I wondered countless times how anyone could breastfeed for a couple months weeks days, much less a year. But with some help from family, our doctor and my amazing husband (love you, honey!), and a little formula, I got through that rough patch and actually started enjoying the close moments and time I got to snuggle the little guy. I never even DREAMED I would make it this long nursing him. And when the little man turned 1 it dawned on me that I've, or rather we, have accomplished something pretty darn awesome. Go us.

Now that I've probably completely bored you to tears with my endless ramblings about poop and boobies, let's get on to the real reason you're reading this: cute baby (or now toddler?!) photos!

That last photo makes me smile - Connor is copying Barley. Cute, huh? Love it.

So there you have it - one whole year. Can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Did you enjoy this post? Please subscribe for free updates in the future and to see what we're up to next!

Connor's 1st Birthday! Wha-whaat?!

I can't believe it's been a whole entire year since the little man was born. I know people always say that time flies by and babies grow up before you know it, but hearing that and experiencing it are two completely different things. Somehow it seems like Connor's been part of our family forever and yet it also feels like he was just entering our hearts and lives yesterday. Craziness.

Anyhow, a few weeks ago we threw a little party - a monster party, to be exact - to celebrate the little guy turning a whole year old.  Bring on the baby (or now toddler?!) cake-smash-face and party photos! Woot woot!

We also setup a ball pit in the backyard for the kiddos. It was a hit!

And of course Connor got his own smash cake, made special just for him. Yep, it was an egg-free cake (Connor has an egg allergy) - actually pretty easy, just use vanilla yogurt instead of eggs. Easy peasy!

I used some of the green candy melts to make dots all over his cake. That kid is funny - he must have thought they were buttons, because he spent FOREVER just sitting there pushing them all in!

Finally we got a little action going - and threw in a spoon for him for good measure, too.

Happy First Birthday, Connor. We love you so much!

Did you enjoy this post? Please subscribe for free updates in the future and to see what we're up to next!

Nursery: Final Reveal

There were a few projects left in the old house that we did before we put the house on the market, and so I'm sharing these with you before sharing all that good stuff about selling, staging, moving, buying the new house, etc etc. Enjoy!

____________________________________________________

So, I know that I've been sharing bits and pieces of what we've been doing in the nursery, and all the projects we've done in there, but this is the first time the nursery is actually DONE. Completely finished! Seriously guys, it's amazing (mostly because no room in our house is ever actually considered "finished"!). And just in time for us to move - haha! Oh, the irony. But that's okay - because it's about the journey rather than the destination, right?

The room would look better without the mobile attached to the crib, but Connor really enjoys it, so it's staying right where it is for now.

We put a picture up above the changing table, but never got around to photographing it. Bad blogger, bad blogger...

To increase storage space in the tiny nursery, we installed some hooks to hang up slings, wet bags and diaper bags behind the door. It worked very well! You didn't even notice they were there unless you shut the door (which we didn't do very often). You can also see the large wet bag hanging on the doorhandle that we use for cloth diapers (yep, we jumped on that bandwagon!).

And now let's take a quick peek as to what the room looked like before we turned it into a nursery for the little man, back when it was my studio...

And wayyyyy back, to what it looked like when we bought the house...

And now:

It's sure come a long way!

Did you enjoy this post? Please subscribe for free updates in the future and to see what we're up to next!