This summer’s motto: let’s do it! I’ve realized recently that we can’t live life thinking ‘what if ____ happens.’ Living life that way, we’ d miss out on a lot of great memories. We survived taking our 9mo baby on a 12 hour road trip and had an absolutely amazing time. Sometimes we do things that I’m sure people say ‘why are they doing that?’ like taking our bean to Kohl’s at 10:30 this weekend, letting Soph climb into the shower with me with all of her clothes on because she’s being needy or as everyone with babies is leaving the festival for the night, we’re just going! If our girl is happy though, we’re happy. We want her to experience all the awesomness that this world has to offer and we’re not going to say ‘what if ____ happens’ but ‘let’s do it!’
Roadtrippin’ With Baby
Howdy ya’ll! You’ll never hear those words out of my mouth but we recently returned from Oklahoma and I felt it appropriate. 😉 We took our 9mo baby girl with us on a road trip to visit our family in Tulsa two weeks ago. Now that things have settled down, I thought it would be helpful, to other brave souls who may try road tripping with their lil ones, to put together a little post on what things worked and didn’t work on our trip.
The most important thing we learned while vacationing with our little bean is to not worry. Don’t be afraid to go places. If things don’t work out you can always go back to the car or hotel for food or a nap. We made sure to max out this vacation with ‘firsts’ for Sophie. We drove on a Saturday thinking it would take 8 hours…it took 12. Of those 12 hours, only two were bad though so I think it was extremely successful! We had a few spots mapped out to stop in case she was awake. She was awake for the safari but missed out on the fire breathing dragon so Mommy and Daddy ran out to take a quick pic. It’s ok though, giraffes and dragons are pretty much the same. 😉
Another thing we learned fairly quickly is to take it easy at rest spots. When we let Sophie out of the car to look around in the gas station, watch the kids play on the swing set or pretend to drive, she did a much better job of eating and going back to sleep when we got back on the road. When we rushed her stops, she couldn’t be consoled and we’d just end up stopping again soon. Sometimes she was happy pretending to be George Washington by playing with random stuff in the car (does she not look like GW with the diaper on her head?!) other times she’d need to be thrown really high outside with Daddy. She LOVED captaining her ship with her cape too (we were listening to The Princess Bride and she thought she was Dread Pirate Sophie.) I wish we would have taken a blanket to lay on the grass so she could crawl around a bit at rest stops. Next time!
One thing that we did very successfully was her diaper bag. We packed a ridiculous amount of crap stuff for her when we should have just bought all of her diapers, wipes and food once we got there. The diaper bag was clutch though. It had a gallon ziplock bag for ‘wardrobe change accidents’, wipes, two extra pairs of comfy driving clothes, tons of toys, (book, teethers, rattles, stuffed animals etc.) ready-made Enfamils, baby food jars, and TONS of diapers and bibs. We were extremely thankful we laid a towel down on the back seat next to her car seat in case she had a bad accident and we weren’t near an exit (we’ve learned from experience.)
We also made sure she got enough sleep but we didn’t plan our vacation around her naps. She got good naps in the morning and at night but we tried to keep her awake a bit longer during the middle of the day to do something fun and she was completely fine. Did not cry once from hunger or being tired. She LOVED watching every person, animal and dinosaur we saw! We took her to the Driller’s baseball game, Tulsa Zoo, Oklahoma Aquarium, City Museum in St. Louis and the 4th of July Festival to see the fireworks. She seriously loved every single thing and we loved watching her. We were only about 15 min. from home/hotel from all of these places so we knew if she was too tired or scared we could easily take her back.
I was worried before we left that our ‘quiet, relaxing, peaceful trip to visit our family’ would end up being a ‘cryfest, headache filled, sleep deprived’ trip. I was very wrong. We couldn’t have had a better time and I’m so thankful our family let us come visit them and showed us a wonderful time in OK! We won’t be afraid to travel with her again until she’s in her terrible two’s. 😉 Have any of you taken a road trip with a little one? What did you learn that you want passed on to other parents to keep their vacations a happy memory? Mmmm that funnel cake was amazing by the way.
Creative Summer Crafts
TGIF! I hope you’re all doing well and gearing up for a fun filled weekend! I was super inspired by the sheer number of creativity I saw on my fellow blogger’s sites this week! TONS of great summer crafts! It was actually really tough to choose only five that I wanted to do/share with you all! Anyone want to come babysit so I can just create all weekend?!
My top favorite crafts that I saw were projects that I’d like to make for myself or someone else. I like how some of them are things I’ve never done or thought to do but are simple to do and are inexpensive.
- The first project I fell in love with is trending all over the blogsphere right now! Weaving! I really like the thought of putting something textural on a gallery wall in whatever shape/pattern I choose. Rachel at A Beautiful Mess wove this darling pink and green piece with a loom but shows how to make your own with a board and nails!
- Ashley from Sugar and Cloth guest posted at Julep this week the most adorable way to liven up some simple candy jars! You could really do this with any container. She painted the bottom and added feet for just a few dollars to make them one of a kind.
- I spotted this summer outdoor sign painted by Ariean at One Krieger Chick! Ariean did a great job of writing the tutorial and showing how to do a great ombre effect with paint. I love how it livened up their outdoor space to make it more fun and personable to their family!
- Amy at Delineate Your Dwelling, once again, created something that I fell in love with. Stamping cocktail napkins as a gift using wine corks! The design possibilities are endless and it’s a great way to re-use something you already have!
- Kristy, from Diary of Dave’s Wife, posted this totes adorbs tote at Eighteen25 this week! I love it for so many reasons. 1. You can’t have enough totes. 2. I abrev ev. 3. I love stripes and the heart on the back!! Looks like a great tote to take to the beach or farmer’s market this summer!
Was I right or what?! Awesome job ladies! Lovin’ the creativity going on this summer! I think I’ll save weaving for this winter because I’ll get too restless doing it while it’s nice out, although I really want one for my gallery wall..hmmm… tough problems today. 😉 I also want to throw a party so I can make some cute jars, and instal a pool so I can make that sweet splash sign. 😉 Anyone throwing a party that I can make these cocktail napkins for? I’ll bring the wine in my totes adorbs bag! Now that I’ve got it all planned out…what are you going to try to make? Any fun crafts you’re going to try your hand at soon?
Happy Birthday My Love
Today is my second favorite day of the year (now tied with October 5th which is Soph’s Birthday!) Christmas is my favorite day but close behind is my husband’s Birthday! He’s not a fan of celebrating his Birthday because he doesn’t like attention, but I am so grateful that he was born, I must celebrate! Jeffrey is my best friend, biggest motivator and soul mate. I couldn’t have been luckier to find the best person to be Daddy to our Sophie.
In honor of my love’s Birthday, I thought I’d ask him 10 simple questions to see how well I know him.
1. Where would you live if we could take our family and friends anywhere in the world?
His: Scotland
Mine: Germany
His: Scotland
Mine: Germany
2. What is your favorite TV show?
His: Scrubs
Mine: Game of Thrones
3. Who is your favorite author?
His: Terry Pratchett
Mine: Steven King or Terry Pratchett
4. When were you most nervous in life?
His: Before auditioning for drumline…I knew your parents would let me marry you.
Mine: Asking my parents for permission to marry me.
5. When were you most happy in life?
His: Getting married to you…or Sophie’s birth.
Mine: Snuggling Sophie to sleep as a newborn.
6. If there were 5 extra hours in the day, what would you do with them?
His: Gosh…write and work out.
Mine: Write or read.
7. What is your favorite movie?
His: Come back to that one…Sophie what’s my favorite movie? Ummm Frozen? No…Probably Twilight… hold on, let me look…let’s say…why is this so tough? (it’s now been 10 minutes) The Matrix.
Mine: Probably Twilight… I have no clue…I feel it changes often…LotR?
8. What would you tell your 16 year old self if you could go back in time?
His: start writing and stop eating crap food.
Mine: There is a girl out there that is going to love you (nerdiness included) more than life itself.
9. If you were given $10,000 what would you do with it?
His: Save it.
Mine: Pay off loans.
10. If you were given $10,000 that you could only use for fun, what would you do?
His: Travel
Mine: Travel to Europe or buy Legos!
Man, that was soul searching! -Jeffrey
I was pretty close!! He thought it was funny that I knew to ask number 10 because number 9 would be boring. I really should have known Scrubs was his favorite TV show but I was surprised about his biggest nervous moment! I’ll love looking back on this in 10 years to see where we were at this stage of our lives. I wonder if he’ll still love Twilight as much as he does now? How would you score if you asked your SO these questions?! If you happen to see Jeffrey, wish him a Happy Birthday!
Breathe
It’s summer which means the kids are home and vacations are in full swing! We just had an amazing week visiting our family and when I came home I felt like I needed to unpack everything, wash all the clothes and clean the house?? Why? Sometimes I need to remind myself to just breathe. When I’m feeling anxious or hurried, breathing a few deep breaths really calms me down. How do you calm down?