motherhood

[Amazon Fire Tablet // Blue & Pink Cases // Nest Cam] after sharing on Instagram stories that I reached my breaking point with baby monitors and was finding a new solution, I knew I had to write a blog post on how we ditched the baby monitors and found a solution! so many of you are were in the exact same boat as me. you had tried multiple baby monitors and they all failed you - either they just altogether stopped working, stopped charging properly, lost their charge quickly, or it was something else. we've spent hundreds of dollars on monitors, to no avail. well now, I found a solution, and I am so excited to share it with you! the nest cam since...

I've been meaning to put together this post for a while, since I'm out of the newborn stage (I can't believe I'm already in the 'infant' stage!) and now can vouch for registry must-haves. there are so many things I registered for that I didn't need to, because Luca didn't need them right away, things I registered for too many of and wish I had waited until the baby was here, and also, of course, things I registered for that I use everyday and am so thankful for.

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I was recently having a conversation with a friend who was telling me that she was stumped on what to get her friends that recently had a baby. She wasn't sure if she should get something for the parents, the mom, or the baby. She wanted to get something to pamper the mother, but wasn't sure if that would offend the husband? Note to all of you friends of new moms: NOTHING will offend the husband/spouse. The spouse is happy if the postpartum woman is happy. She just went through the most physically challenging event of her life, the spouse wants her to be celebrated and taken care of. I remember when someone sent me a basket of organic, high...

Follow me on @inspiralizedkids to see Luca's plates everyday! Our general philosophy about feeding Luca, our almost-17 month old toddler is this: nourish him as best we can, while having fun and exposing him to all types of foods. For the most part, we try to eat as healthy at home, because we have the time and resources to do so. We can shop for the right ingredients, prepare meals in advance, and control what's in our fridge and thus, what's in our bellies. This is our opportunity to eat our best, so that when life happens, it's okay if we all need to grab pizza (those are our favorite types of meals anyway!) We want to teach Luca how to...

Our second child is due at the beginning of the summer, at the end of June. The closer and closer we get to my due date, the more and more I think about what I want to do similarly and what I want to do differently. We feel very blessed with Luca - he slept through the night on his own (no sleep training necessary) around 9-10 weeks, he's always been a playful and happy baby who rarely cries (he whines for sure, but rarely ever cries!), and he's extremely affectionate and loves to give kisses and hugs (without being provoked to do so!) While we hate to change anything, because Luca is such a wonderful boy, there are certain actions...

It all started with a shower. Seriously. It did. But first, let me talk about what we were going through with Luca before we trained him off cosleeping. Luca's sleep story Luca started off a great sleeper - on his own, he started sleeping through the night by 9 weeks, from 7pm to 7am. We thought we were the luckiest parents ever! Then, around 6 months, he started teething real badly and would wake up all night. The only thing that would work was nursing him in the middle of the night. Instead of sitting in the rocking chair a la the newborn days, I took him into bed and side-lay nursed him and we'd all fall asleep peacefully until 6:30am. And then,...

When Luca was 5 months old, I decided it was time to go back to work full-time and so we hired a nanny (more on how we found her and our thoughts on the whole thing, here and our 3-month nanny update, here.) Our nanny has become a part of our family, and I couldn't imagine life without her! She's amazing with Luca, reliable, trustworthy, dependable, understanding, and has honestly helped me through many stages of infancy and toddlerhood with her expertise (not only having 3 children herself - including twins!, but having nanny-ed for several other families, she has a lot of experience.) Finding the balance between working full-time at home and having a nanny at home definitely has its challenges,...