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sheetpan greek chicken
after making this for the first time a few weeks ago, we quickly decided it’s our favorite go-to easy dinner. i have been doing a ton of sheet pan dinners lately, they’re simple enough to throw together while wearing arlo during witching hour and have the easiest cleanup.
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surviving the first three months
This post is brought to you by CJ Affiliate’s VIP Content Service. Thank you Kmart for sponsoring this post. While this was a sponsored opportunity from Kmart, all content and opinions expressed here are my own.
its now been three months since arlo arrived, and that means the “fourth trimester” has officially come to an end. it’s amazing how much i’ve learned about him in these three months, how much i’ve learned about myself, about my marriage and husband, and at the risk of sounding so corny — about life, and how time really is so fleeting! today i’ve partnered with Kmart to tell you about their new baby clothing line spencer by jaclyn smith, which just recently launched online, and to share my experiences as a new mom.
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arlo : three months
and now he’s 3 months old!
he is still my big huge chubby boy, he’s getting so heavy to carry around but at least it’s probably good exercise (and the only exercise i’m getting). what if my arms get super toned! that’d be cool.
he has been teething for weeks now, but seems like right now we’re doing ok with it — he sucks the shit out of his fists and my arm and i put an amber anklet on him everyday which honestly does seem to help maybe? who knows. tylenol works better. he’s usually bad at day time naps, but he sleeps at night like a champ. like 7-9 hour stretches. it’s amazing.
we’ve had some rough days this month, but i’m getting to know him better and how to deal with the meltdowns — a lot of them stem from excursions and the transition of being in the car and then coming home. he’s not one of those babies that sleeps in the car, he usually prefers to scream the whole. entire. way.
…but we’ve discovered his undying love for raffi, who can make even a horrible car ride more pleasant! it’s so funny to see him crying and try so hard to stay upset but the happiness comes tearing through. i listened to a ton of howard stern while i was pregnant so i thought howards voice would soothe him, but not as much as raffi — so i guess we’re just gonna be one of those cars where raffi is always playing.
he also now loves sitting on my lap facing out which is so cute that he’s gotten more curious and also it’s chill for me because i can sit and watch tv — which he seems to also like! he is getting much better at supporting his huge head, and i’m so excited for when he can sit up.
i’m almost an old pro at wearing him, which i find myself doing almost daily at witching hour, and it’s made life a lot easier. i go outside to get him to fall asleep and get fresh air for myself, and i’ve been able to start cooking dinners which is always so good for me to do. i feel so proud of myself when gid comes home and i’ve accomplished keeping arlo alive and cooking a meal!
but most of all, he is the happiest baby i’ve ever seen! he is so loving and sweet and joyful and fun and i am just madly in love!
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my favorite baby book by artifact uprising (+ a giveaway)
while my mom didn’t really “finish” my baby book, i cherish the entries she did put in there — about our first outing to “the bagel” and my first visitors and words and tooth, so i was for sure going to do one for arlo. and then i went a little nuts. i got three different books because i couldn’t decide and i liked them all for different reasons — and i actually thought i’d be able to mildly keep up with each of them too. so then i decided gid would have one book and i would have another and arlo was so lucky he’d have a baby book documented by both his mom and his dad. well i spent about an hour with my book until i realized that was a stupid idea and completely unrealistic and if we have free time like that, we should probably be doing something more fun than silently filling out our own baby books. then i discovered artifact uprising’s “the story of you”.
it’s exactly what i wanted, a perfect balance of wordy and photo-based, so i wouldn’t feel like writing entries was this big daunting task every month, and it’s a really good excuse to print photos regularly so that i can make sure all these photos i take of arlo daily aren’t just getting lost into oblivion. so i am so happy to have teamed up with artifact uprising today to give away one of these!
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DIY earring dome organizer
look! a DIY! there are a few things that inspired me to make this — i have so many stud earrings lying around waiting to get lost, i felt like making something very quickly during a nap, and i am really into pink rn. this project could not be easier or simpler, and i think it came out super cute!Read More
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postpartum essentials
now that we’re almost three months out and i’m finally feeling a little more normal (in some ways), i can look back with a little clarity even though that first month and a half was a complete crazy blur. it’s kinda weird how you think you’ll need certain things and expect some items to be crucial and then end up never using them — everyone is different but for my first month with the baby, these were the things i could NOT have survived without. Read More
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sriracha ketchup
while i am usually more of a mayonnaise person (i dip my fries in mayo because i am very european and chic), i do love a good flavored ketchup here and there. i’m excited to have teamed up with with Newell Brands, makers of Ball® Fresh Preserving Products to create a couple of fun posts for the rest of the year and show you how easy canning is, and i thought it would be really fun for gid and me to make ketchup together. any excuse to eat more fries and lose less baby weight tbh.
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lighting is everything
so this might make me sound so lazy, but we keep a lot of lights on… all the time. we feel safer having our outdoor light on all night, we keep a light on for the cats to eat at night (no — our cats cannot see in the dark, that is a total myth or ours are just complete brats), and these days we keep a kitchen light on for the 4am feed/pumping session. the problem is that we forget to turn them off during the day, so our outdoor light is just always on and that’s always been something that bugged me but not enough to remember to turn it off every morning. so no joke, my life was just changed by sengled element bulbs.
you can control these bulbs with your phone, but the thing i love by far the most is the timing and schedule abilities. these are especially crucial rn with a newborn, because now i have the light scheduled to turn on at 6pm (no longer will i be nursing in pitch black until gid gets home from work), and then they get dimmer (8% brightness) at 10pm and stay on until morning, which again has been a lifesaver for when i go out to pump in the living room in the middle of the night and then wash everything in the kitchen. you can schedule each individual light, or groups of lights — also would be super helpful when you’re out of town and want it to seem like you’re home.
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15 neutral area rugs i love
i get so many questions about the rugs we have in our house, and also i am kinda over the rug in our living room right now, so here we are. i feel like i could always buy more rugs and more jackets, no matter how many i have of either.
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diy ikea hack baby play gym
sorry to all you non-moms, but today is a baby DIY. but to all you moms, have you noticed how expensive play gyms are? i’m sure you have. i was annoyed by this and wanted something cute for arlo, but wasn’t going to spend a lot considering i’m assuming he won’t even be using this kinda thing for that much longer, so when i saw the bones and price of the ikea LEKA one, i thought it would make the perfect one with a little finessing. Read More
