Archive of ‘Motherhood’ category

Picture Books to Add to Your Bookshelf

By Natalie

I love when friends ask what Lici’s favorite books are. I’ve grown fond of dozens of books over the years, so today I’m sharing a list I’ve broken up into four different categories! Favorite picture books of all time. These are our constants. The books that Lici often picks up and memorizes. Books that teach lessons. I’m not only hoping to raise a reader by surrounding Lici with books. I’m also hoping to teach her about the world and teach her how to be kind, share, be courageous, be a good friend, to be conscious of caring for our earth and dozens of other lessons that can be learned through reading. Books to sing to your child. Perfect for those soothing nighttime lullabies. Books to diversify your bookshelf. My all time favorite genre of fiction is Asian literature. I find it so captivating and find alot of cultural similarities to my own Hispanic culture. I want Lici to read books about children in different cultures, partly to instill a love for travel in her and partly for her to see that we’re all the same inside though we may look different or eat different. I’ve learned a few things myself through searching for more diverse books and we both find it so exciting to read about and try new things that maybe someone in our story does.

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2020: A Debrief

By Natalie

Is it too late to share a Christmas photo? We’ve had a slow start to our new year which has been a lovely way to start fresh. Last year we experienced our own set of hardship and grief for experiences lost. But by this point we’ve created a new normal, incorporating some new routines that have helped keep us going. This post I suppose is somewhat of a debrief. (more…)

Yes to the Mess

By Natalie

Thank you to everyone who reached out to express their love for our advent calendar. I’m blown away by all of the sweet words, my mama heart is full. I’m constantly reminded that this is a time to create memories with Felicity, a merry time indeed. Today I’m grateful for so many things including Brandon for putting Lici to bed so many nights, which allowed me time to prep all of this. Grateful to my mom for instilling a love for crafting in me. Even when she signed me up for a quilting class when I was 13. I at the time was so embarrassed, but I learned a thing or two about a sewing machine. I might be doing that same thing to Lici! I’m grateful to all of the crafters in my family who had the patience to teach me all I know about glitter, glue, yarn, thread, paper, needles, fabric, you name it! (more…)

DIY: Advent Calendar

By Natalie

Happy December 1st! I hope you have your Rudolph jammies on for this.

I decided that this year called for more Christmas cheer than usual. Our Lici has been so excited about baby Jesus in the manger and of course all of the animals that were in Bethlehem that night. She’s starry eyed over the Christmas trees, lights, reindeer, nutcrackers, snowmen, anything and everything Christmas. Last year we did the Trader Joes’s chocolate advent calendar with her which she loved! This year we got her the same since the girl LOVES chocolate and we also went ahead and grabbed Bingley the dog treat advent since we knew Lici would love giving Bingley a treat every time she got one. (more…)

Fall Sensory Bin

By Natalie

This is a little late to the season but here you have it. Felicity and I put together this fall sensory bin at the beginning of October. Full of both Halloween and fall items. I love a good sensory bin for my busy girl. She’s tactile and a problem solver so she loves having a new set of goodies to discover. It’s versatile fun! This kept her busy when she lost interest in making dog treats with me toward the end of baking. (more…)

Camping with a Toddler

By Natalie

On our way home from our first camping trip with Felicity Brandon said, “Well it was worth a try. If we’d never tried it we would have never known.”

Alot of friends said that we were brave for taking a toddler camping. I’m not sure it was brave per say. Maybe spontaneous is a better word. Going into it I thought that the worst case would be we didn’t sleep well and it’d be a disaster. It wasn’t a disaster, but we also didn’t sleep well which will always put a damper on things. With a brand new family tent and new camping chairs including a chair sized for Lici we had big hopes that our little outdoorsy girl would have the time of her life and we’d be camping all the time. I’ve come to realize that the more activities we’ve done this year the higher my expectations have become. After half a year of blah cabin fever I’ve expected so much joy and refreshment from these new adventures and that’s maybe too much to ask of a camping trip and a pumpkin patch hayride. (more…)

Naivety

By Natalie

One Sunday morning at church, just before we were thinking about trying to have children, I watched a woman in a video voice her pain. The video highlighted people’s struggles and how the community they received from church helped through the hard times. Standing next to her husband she spoke about how they had been trying to conceive their second child for over a year. I remember thinking, “At least you already have a child.” I was so dead wrong. We’re always a little naive about the things we have no experience with.

The love you have for one child does not consume the love you desire for another. After over a year of trying to conceive our second child I still feel like a family member is missing, just as I did with Felicity. If anything I know much more so what is missing now. Here I am in that woman’s shoes. Over one year in, with secondary infertility. (more…)

Potty Training and Pandemic Birthdays

By Natalie

Felicity is pretty potty trained at this point which is exciting! I don’t really feel like I did very much other than suggest she sit on her little potty and hey if she peed she could have a sticker for her chart and a couple M&Ms. Low and behold we should have known what this girl was willing to do for a little extra chocolate. In a matter of a couple days she took it upon herself to go whenever she needed to go. She doesn’t even tell us anymore! She just goes off on her own and plops down. We usually hear the bathroom door swing open and are running in to help her just as she finishes. She also doesn’t even ask for the chocolate anymore, she’s just totally accepted that this is what we do now. I am considering ourselves extremely lucky. (more…)

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