Welcome to Mini Mod! Where each week I showcase some of my favorites in kid fashion and you can share your favorites too. Who doesn't love showing off their kiddo? If you posted some photos on your blog this week, let us know where you got his/her outfit and link up below so we can stop by and visit!
We're slashing at our "To do before #2" list. We went to the circus last week, fed ducks this week, and will be starting some sewing lessons next week thanks to a dear friend, who is helping this lost soul out. Guess it really does take writing it down to get at your goals! Lil' and I went with some friends to feed the ducks at the park. The last time I had done this was almost 7 years ago, right after I got married. Lil' J had never seen ducks before and, like any other animal, she was pretty intrigued. She would throw them bread and watch them eat it. Then her friend would try to feed her like one of the ducks and we were one big happy bunch.
Towards the end she even held out her hand of food toward them. I did it too to make sure they weren't biting and they were pretty gentle. Before anyone reprimands me... Yea, some lady at the park made a point to tell us bread isn't good for the ducks, so next time I'll bring vegetables.
Afterward we went to the park and she found her new favorite thing: Slides! Her dress is from Adelaide's Boutique. I just ordered my 4th dress from there and my addiction is getting ridiculous, hence the need for sewing lessons.
I loved looking at last weeks' Mini Mod links (still looking and stopping by). I just had to show you this little Carnival Diva from Hartlyn Kids! How gorgeous is she?
Visit her and show this cutie some love! And link up below so you can blog hop! Hopefully we'll get more every week!
"All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus!"
I couldn't get that song out of my head up until we went. That, and songs from the Yo Gabba Gabba Circus episode. I guess I thought the more I exposed her to songs relating to the event she'd get what was going on when we got there. I'm weird.
It's a whole new world, looking through the eyes of my daughter. When I noticed a free ticket to the Piccadilly Circus stapled to her daily sheet at school I couldn't resist. It was as if SHE was asking me to take her there.
So I did.
I read some reviews about the circus before heading out and got worried I wouldn't like it so much. I had been to Barnum and Bailey before; years ago with my husband. But we had such bad seats it was hard to see. This one stuck out to me because it was open seating, so if we got there early enough we could get front row seats. They were coming on a Monday and Tuesday which coincided with my days off.
My husband had to work (and I knew he probably wouldn't want to come) so I got tickets for the earlier show time and invited a good friend of ours and her little girl to come with us. After she said yes, I felt guilty and asked my husband if he wanted to come. I pretended to beg to make sure he didn't want to go before letting him know he couldn't anyway. I'm evil. When we arrived we went straight to the petting zoo. I bought some food for the animals and let Lil' J at it. She tried to feed me, instead of the llamas but after watching me feed them she seemed to realize how it was done. Boy did they love her! And she loved them. I have a fearless child. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. We sat down on the front row and watched the elephant go back and forth in front of us as people took their elephant rides. I debated taking her on it but we ended up missing our chance. I kept telling her "Elephant! Look at the elephant!" And she'd look in the direction of it. She caught on pretty quick. Then one time, all of a sudden we look over and the elephant's trunk is coming over the side bar to say hi! It was the craziest thing. Her trainer brought her over to say hi. I helped Lil' J pet it but she wasn't too sure what to think. I assume she preferred watching Dumbo's mom from afar. The look on her face seeing that, in itself made the trip worth it. During the show there were motorcycles in a ball, clown shows, juggling and balancing acts, and two more elephants doing some tricks. It was cute.
You can tell from the pictures she had a blast, and slept well that night. So did I. Just another fun experience for the memory books, and to cross of my list before baby #2. We're on a roll.
I know I want more children, but I'm not exactly sure when. I do know I'm loving spending time with my only daughter, and my husband as the three of us (and Snoop). One happy family.
For now, I want to cherish these moments and live them to the fullest before we become a family of four. Which by the way, if you happened to pop over to BabyCenter today you may have read my guest post on convincing him it's time for #2. No, I'm not doing any convincing right now, we are both happy and content with just one for now. But I wrote about this here before Lil' J was conceived and y'all were able to laugh with me so I thought I'd spruce it up and share it with the rest of the world.
Now, see you here who read my blog get me and my sense of humor. I'm not exactly sure what's up with these BabyCenter moms but they can't take a joke. I can't bare to read any more of them comments because I keep smacking my forehead and shacking my head in disappointment. I hope they aren't that serious all the time.
Anyway, the first baby bucket list I made was a pretty bad fail. I didn't accomplish most of the things as my baby fever overtook me. So no GRE, no graduate school, no traveling the world, and I can't even remember what else I wanted. This time I'm going for more realistic, and mostly aiming for things I'd like to work on and go do with my family. If I do it all, cool. If not, it's ok too. But this will be a way to keep my mind on my growing little girl without thinking too much about the future.
Comparing my two lists I can't help but laugh. Boy, how things change!
I'll cross these off as I accomplish them.
To do together as mother/daughter, or family: 1. Go on a bike ride. 2. Take swimming lessons. 3. Take a dance class with hubby. 4. Feed ducks. 5. Visit a pumpkin patch. 6. Take a trip to the zoo. 7. Get a mother/daughter pedicure. 8. Go kayaking as a family (with Snoop too). 9. Go to the circus. 10. Go to a concert. 11. Shop at the farmers market. 12. Take a stroller strides class. 13. Visit our state capitol. 14. Visit our local black history museum. 15. Complete a sewing class.
Other to do: 1. Establish a regular date night with the hubs for AT LEAST once a month. 2. Teach my daughter how to fold her arms when we pray. 3. Make my will (I know, it's horrible I haven't done this yet). 4. Open Lil' J's savings/bond/college account. 5. Open our 401K. 6. Be cooking dinner (non-frozen meals) at least 3 nights a week. <--- This may never happen. 7. Take a creative writing course. 8. Get a 50mm 1.4 lens (for new newborn pics!)
Anything else I should add? What have you enjoyed doing with your families?
I wouldn't say I'm a bad person, but I haven't been the best person lately either. Ever since switching to the morning weekend anchor schedule at work I've loved having less sleep, and more time with my family, but my church life has suffered tremendously. It was my #1 worry with taking on the new schedule and sadly, it's taking the toll I feared it would.
I get a long break during the same time as sacrament meeting. So if I dress for church, I can rush over, meet my family, and enjoy one of the three hours of service before rushing back to work. The only problem is the moment my daughter sees me, she immediately wants to nurse and begs and screams until I take her to the nursing lounge, which usually results in me missing sacrament and/or listening to all of the meeting from the speakers in that room. Now, add in my husband's new busy schedule, and my weekend break hour is a good time for him to squeeze in an extra hour for studying, so add in going home, changing and taking her to church with me before taking her back and heading back to work. I'll admit, I haven't been that dedicated.
I've promised myself I'd read the scriptures a half hour a night to make up for missing Sundays but that's easier said than done. I've just been happy we still keep up with family prayers.
A prayer for a chance to be reignited was answered when my grandmother told me her choir was coming to my town! She's in Glady's Knight's Saints of Unified Voices choir. It was a chance for my husband and I to hire a babysitter, and go on a date together, but also a chance to feel something I've been missing.
We recently went and it was more amazing than I had imagined. Not only was it awesome to see my grandmother on stage with a musical icon, but it was a great spiritual experience. And awesome to hear Sister Knight's testimony. Oh, and to hear gospel music and loud beats boom through our LDS chapel. We weren't used to that.
It was also an excellent missionary opportunity. People of all shades came and some people who had never stepped foot in an LDS church sang along in praises to gospel songs they knew shouting "AMEN!" in affirmation, clapping, and standing when they felt moved. It was incredible.
They are touring the country and if you have the chance to see them I'd go. It's free and unbelievable.
I left and kept saying to my husband "Doesn't that make you want to be better?" "Doesn't it make you want to do better? I want to be a better person."
It's often how I felt when leaving church on Sundays (well, before having my daughter, since then, I've started to hate Sundays as they've been utterly exhausting, and I'm excited if I catch the topic of the lesson).
This was amazing, and just what I needed. I'm not a horrible person, and I'll never be perfect. But I can be better, and I will.
Welcome to my weekly addition of Mini Mod. Share a photo of your cutie on your blog, and share where it's from or if you made it and link up below. Then visit other mamas showing off their little mini fashion bugs!
Top and Bottom: Gifted from China; Shoes: Cambria Laine
This week I made an appearance with Lil' J. My friend Heidi recently went on a trip to China and brought back this adorable outfit for Lil' J. I couldn't wait to get it on her.
I've always been a huge fan of mandarin collars myself. I have a really long neck and I feel like they make my neck not appear as long.
My husband also has a long neck and we thought we'd have a giraffe baby but she came out with a perfect little neck that we could hardly see because of her triple chin. Now we can see it more but it's still perfect, and not absurdly long like ours.
Anyway, like I said, I love mandarin collars and I didn't realize how cute they'd look on a child. I want to find more this style for her.
My dress is from eShakti. I'm not sure if they're still selling it but here's one that's similar. The standard dress had a regular collar but you can customize your dress length, sleeve type and collar type so I chose this collar for this dress and I love it. It also started sleeveless and sleeve length but I adjust it to elbow length sleeves and mid-calf length. I LOVE this site and have recently bought 4 dresses from them in the last two months and I genuinely love them all. I plan to keep buying at least two a month until I get sick of them, but I doubt that. Being 5' 11" it's hard to find modest dresses in my size for be height and weight plus having sleeves, yada yada yada. I'm excited to stock my closet full of dresses again.
If you decide to check out the side and order something you can use code "BMM0811" to get $20 off until the end of October I believe. Yes, by you using that code I'll also get a perk to use towards my next dress, so share away!
And please share your photos again this week. Link up below and I'll stop by (sometimes it takes me a few days but I will visit) and return the favor to others who link up to blog hop.
I about died looking at all of last weeks links. Your kids are SO CUTE! I just have to show of Peyton from Baby Shopaholic this week though. Showing off her fall fashion wearing Uggs with her jean skirt. Too cute!
Lil' J and I have had an amazing last couple of weeks. Getting out of the house and trying new things. I haven't had as much time to blog, but that's ok because we've been living instead.
Just to recap a little, we went on a bike ride with one of my friends from work, Heidi, and her little girl. We rented bikes for $8 and rode around on the Austin Hike and Bike Trail for an hour. If you haven't been there and done that before I highly suggest it. The wind in your hair and the shade of the trees makes the hear bearable. Lil' J and her friend rode along in the seats on the back of the bikes. Heidi's daughter tried to pass Lil' J Cheerios from her bike to ours. Lil' J tried to reach, but of course couldn't. It was too adorable!
I decided to go with the seat instead of the trailer because my mom said she'd like it more. haha. I was afraid I'd fall and I was prepared to lunge my body in front of her for cushioning if we did. Luckily, that didn't happen. I need to buy Lil' J her own helmet because I think we'll go biking again. The one we borrowed for free was a little big so we used diapers to add a little cushioning so it didn't slump over her face (it did that the first part of the ride and she was mad she couldn't see).
When we rode around she at first would hold a long "OOOOOOOOOOOOH" Sound while we went down the hill so she could hear her voice go "OoOoOoOoOoH" down the hills over the bumpy rocks. She seemed to get a little tense when we when faster but a little ways through the ride she was having a blast, and she'd only whine when I stopped.
Dress: Tea Collection
Over the weekend I took her to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I went alone Saturday, and met up with friends before seeing Stevie Wonder. The next day I went back with Lil' J and took her to Austin Kiddie Limits. I wanted to get her sound canceling headphones before but ran out of time. She didn't seem to mind. In fact, she was dancing and clapping with everyone else.
The kiddie part sadly ended early at 4:30 but we met up with friends, sat down, and listened to some more music from the back of the 60 thousand person crowd. She's getting to be a little more independent, and she'll walk a little bit further from me depending where we are. Here she just walked in a small circle around me, in our neighborhood, she'll walk and walk and walk so long as she can still see me. She has no fear of strangers right now, which scares me. She'll just walk up to people and waive, or try to give them hugs. As long as she doesn't think I'm leaving her with them, she doesn't care. It's nuts.
Finally, we went to see The Lion King at the movies. I opted to see 2D since the last 3D movie I saw gave me a headache, and I wasn't sure she'd keep her glasses on, or what it would do to her vision if she didn't. We've been to see three movies before (Inception when she was teeny, Eat Pray Love before she could crawl, and Tangled when she was just starting to get mobile) but none since she's been walking. I worried it would be a disaster so we arrived about a half hour early, hoping to get good seats. There were like 5 other people there so good seats weren't an issue.
We shared chocolate covered raisins and a giant lemonade as we waited for the movie to start. She was so giddy and excited about the pre-show I thought she's love the movie. Once the lights dimmed and the previews started she snuggled with me and asked to nurse, then, as she has every other time we've gone to a movie, she fell asleep. And missed the whole thing! I tried to wake her up during Hakuna Matata so she could at least hear one fun song but she watched and smiled for a moment, then went back to sleep. Probably smiling about milk and not the movie anyway. Oh well, it was her nap time and I purposely brought her then so she could sleep if that's what she wanted.
Having all of this one-on-one time with my girl has made me realize how fun she is getting. It's amazing seeing her light up about every little thing. From my neighbors cat, to the pretty peacock at the park. I called my mom and told her about the good time we were having and she reminded me to enjoy it, because it gets a whole lot harder with two. I can only imagine. I'm sure someday it won't be a nightmare to leave the house and accomplish things with two little ones as it sometimes is with just one... But that probably won't be for several years. So I'm going to savor these moments and do as much as we can together before she becomes a big sister.
I've decided to make a list of all of the things I'd like to do with her before then. Manageable, and fun things in a new baby bucket list. I'll share tomorrow!
He says: "So what did you guys do today?" She says: "We saw The Lion King at the movies." He says: "Oh cool, what was new in it?" She Says: "Well it's in 3D now, but we just saw the regular 2D version." He says: "So you paid money to go see a movie you already have on DVD?" She says: "Yea! It was bigger! Plus, she needed to see it in a theater!"
I got behind on writing the love letters but of course not on photos. I finally caught up tonight but it took an all-nighter to get it together. We've had a lot of fun these past few weeks. It's hard to pick a favorite but her dancing in the photo on Day 259 is up there. Which is your favorite?
If you take me shoe shopping I will be bored out of my mind. With a size 11 shoe, everything either looks like it's made for a clown, or non-existent. I was beginning to feel unwomanly thanks to my shoe demise. But that's all changed since Lil' J started walking about a month ago. Now have a new mission to hunt for adorable toddler shoes. And she is just as obsessed as I am.
This month I got her her 3rd pair of cowgirl boots (she's outgrown her other pairs), and some new Mary Jane style shoes with flair. She's grown so accustomed to having something on her feet that when she doesn't, she finds the nearest shoes and brings them to us and sits and whines until we put them on her feet. Oh, and we have to wear shoes too. She'll bring me my shoes to put on and sit there waiting until I obey. When they're on, she drags me to the door because then it's time to go outside.
But it doesn't stop there. Yesterday we ran into a store and she toddled over to the shoes. Grabbed one that was on display and tried to hand it to me to help put it on her.
I'm crating a monster.
I had always ordered her shoes by months according to the sizing on sites like Robeez or See Kai Run, but I finally figured out her feet are a size 4, while we were cruising down the shoe aisle at Walmart. I considered picking up the $10 pair of Mary Janes because they were sparkly, oh so cute, and only $10, but I said I'd search etsy first and see what else I could find.
I stumbled upon some adorable ADORABLE shoe stores, many of which I'll be sharing with you in the near future, but the one I'm sharing today is Immanuel's Closet.
I was posting some baby shoe sites I was finding on my facebook page when an email popped up from the owner of this store. My search for cute shoes ended right there and I died and went to shoe heaven.
It's too much for me really. Lil' J got the Sasha pair to start with and I love them so much I took a billion photos of them. They are ivory, and very elegant, with gorgeous fluffy flowers on the end, feather embellishments coming off the sides and a silver bead in the center. I'm amazed by the detail. So was Lil' J because she kept trying to pull the flowers off and probably smell or eat them... Most likely eat. Luckily she hasn't managed to destroy them yet.
Latasha, the owner of Immanuel's Closet is as sweet as can be. She is not only a show maker but a lawyer--Go figure! Lil' J's shoes are made with walker soles, so they are a little more sturdy than her Robeez style, but not as thick as say sneakers or my heels.
I know some of you are looking at this going "Jennifer, what the *bleep* are you talking about? $50 for toddler shoes? You've lost your dang mind!" Right? Well, she has a deal I'm dying to get into. It's her shoe of the month club. For $180 you get 12 pairs of shoes of your choice, a pair a month. Including those red bottoms you know you've been eying--Don't lie. So that averages out to $15 a month. Look, I even did the math for you. You're welcome.
I asked her what if she decides she hates making shoes in six months, but she promises me that won't happen. I still need to ask if she accepts payments or layaway. I'll get back to you on that.
So this is the first of several new shoes we have in our repertoire. I thought I'd change Mini Mod up this week and show off her feet. Considering how many shoes she's been rocking lately, we'll definitely have to do this theme again soon.
Check out this other Mini Mod diva here!
A spotlight from last week is Weather Anchor Mama and her little Princess. She's showing off an over the top bow from Izzy's Boutique. Be sure to stop by her blog and say hi!
What did you cutie wear this week? Link up and show me! I'll pick another to spotlight next week!
(Highlight and Ctl+C to copy)
Don't forget to link up and visit each other. I'll be stopping by:
Before anyone reprimands me... Yea, some lady at the park made a point to tell us bread isn't good for the ducks, so next time I'll bring vegetables.
Her dress is from Adelaide's Boutique. I just ordered my 4th dress from there and my addiction is getting ridiculous, hence the need for sewing lessons.
