easter pre-game

Posted on April 19, 2017 by tandem in love

we had quite the eventful day before easter!

one, it was hc’s birthday and two, it’s easter! we love to do fun things like decorate easter eggs and participate in fabulous easter egg hunts!

it was all very last minute because olive had been sick for a few days prior to this and we could not get out of the house with her. poor thing was glued to the toilet, so no easter egg hunt outings or anything of that sort due to her not feeling well.

i scrambled to put together something…we didn’t have any food to host with, nor did i even decorate! ha! i thought i was going to get away with not decorating for easter but then we, last minute, decided to have our family over and how could i not decorate to create a little bit of a festive environment?! sphhh, hello…it’s me. so there i was in the morning, hanging banners, pulling out fun decor, and filling easter eggs. {let alone, i had to make a quick or tried to make a quick trip to the grocery store too!}

my family came over and we sipped lemonade, ate a simple lunch, and hunted for & decorated easter eggs! the weather was a m a z i n g!!! seriously, it was so beautiful out! the kids had a blast searching for the eggs and opening up their goodies to find toys, candies, and money inside!

after all that, we then opened up easter gifts! {of course we saved olive’s basket for the morning because the easter bunny needed to drop that one off} the kids were so excited and spoiled rotten. gosh, we tend to do that with every special occasion. when you have that many family members…it can get cray with the gifts!

overall, it was truly a wonderful day! we celebrated hc, we celebrated easter, and we were all able to spend some great family time together! until next year my bunnies!

[easter prep]

[my new favorite glasses]

[we wished hc a happy birthday!]

[super aunty thuy created the prettiest french braid for miss o]

[always the yummiest]

[hc’s easter birthday cake]

[tulips are so pretty]

[easter egg hunt!]

[the contestants]

[olive finding the eggs!]

[this way!]

[run!]

[dada helping olive out]

[ellie famous face with aunty kim]

[levitating eggs]

[checking out her goodies]

[happy birthday hc!]

[raspberry lemonade refresher]

[silly rabbit]

[bunnies]

[ready to dye easter eggs]

[i love how excited olive is!]

[she did so well!]

[she loved her pink decorated egg!]

[eggcited for easter gifts!]

[baby ellie opening her gifts from aunty thuy]

xoxo

happy nine months ellie!

Posted on April 15, 2017 by tandem in love

happy nine months ellie!

[pics taken on 4.14]

heyyyyy baby girl! i seriously thought you would be crawling by now! nope. it’s currently not your thing but you have certainly gotten a lot more mobile. you scoot, scoot, scoot around the floor and can get from point A to point B in a unique way but there is definitely noooooo crawling. you tend to scoot forward, then really push backwards, then you will pivot, and move into a different direction by repeating the same moves. you go girl. whatever works for ya!

she’s become a strong consumer of solid foods. she will chow down quite a bit with the container of food{s} we give her and sometimes asks for more. we were soooo great at making food for olive but really dropped the ball with ellie. we buy her organic foods off the shelf and it suits her, and us, just fine. i really wish we had the time to whip together homemade meals for ellie but alas, it all ends up being good. her favorite foods are fruits and she’s finally starting to like the vegetable and protein blends!

she is still nursing. my milk supply has been consistent but the difference i see with my back up supply is drastically low compared to what i stored with olive. when i nursed olive, i constantly pumped. like constantly. i pumped on the hour every two hours, i pumped when she slept at night – at 3am every night the first year. i pumped if her naps were longer than two hours and i stored a ridiculously amount of milk! now we are the verge of running out with ellie! i can’t believe it! i am hoping to nurse ellie for as long as i can and i hope i don’t completely run out of my back up supply! the good new is, she’s almost one and cow’s milk will be introduced but until then, i think i need to step up my pumping game!

she’s become a lot more solid with her nighttime stretches. she will typically go down around 9pm and sleep until 5 or 6am! woo hoooooo! now if i can only learn my lesson and go to bed when she does!!! her naps have become more consistent but she’s not completely regular with the timeframes. she will typically, or at least we try to put her down around 10am and then again around 2 or 3 pm. she will usually nap for an hour in the morning and a bit longer in the afternoon. there are some times she will fight it and nap for short periods of time and then she gets super duper crabby around 5pm…really girl, just nap!

she’s so happy and so funny! she will make the craziest noises and tries to mimic us! she loves to scream and make silly faces. this past month, she has clapped her hands and waved to us. i love watching her grow and seeing her hit these fun milestones! those are the best moments. i also love that her bald spot has grown in, i totally knew that it would once she started sitting!

she’s still so tiny and i love it. i am savoring her tiny moments. i cherish her soft skin, her sweet breath, her fresh smell, her chubby thighs, her fat cheeks, her big belly, her teeny toes and fingers…oh the list goes on and on. i don’t want to forget her state, her baby stage, her sweet innocent being. oh ellie. i love you so much and i am such a lucky lady to have you as a daughter.

happy day sweet lady, you are so loved.

xoxo

train station lunch

Posted on April 7, 2017 by tandem in love

it was a lazy sunday morning and we wanted to do something fun with olive {and ellie of course, but ellie is just a baaaaaby!}.

we decided to hit downtown glen ellyn and go to the train restaurant. we scored a parking spot right next to the restaurant and there was a tiny bit of a wait but no worries, olive spotted the mechanical horse and became fixated! she was so excited to get on the horse and i was so excited to see her do so! i love it when i see the joy exude from her face. i took so many pics because it made my heart full to see her many expressions, showing the different emotions she was feeling. i chose these two pics that best showcase her joy!

she also loved putting a quarter in the ‘gum’ball machine to receive a toy! i loved all this newness that she was experiencing, it was melting my heart!

we were finally seated and she was loving the train! she was so good, she was sitting right next to the tracks but she never once tried to touch the train or did she ever get in the way of the train when it rolled by. she barely sat down and was so mesmerized by all the quirkiness the restaurant had to give.

after we devoured our mediocre lunch, i ordered ice cream for olive. now, she’s not really into ice cream…yes, i knoooooow! how could that be?! but yes, she doesn’t care for it too much but i couldn’t pass up vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on top! besides that, it also came with a pink train!!! now that was something olive loved! as soon as the ice cream cup was served, her hand snatched up the pink train immediately!

shortly after, we left the restaurant to walk around the downtown area. the downside? pretty much all the shops were closed on sundays…what a bummer! so, we decided to walk around the neighborhood and just enjoy the great weather.

it was a perfect afternoon and we had such a great time hanging out together and exploring the quaint little area. i know olive had a great time at the restaurant and i can’t wait to take her back to enjoy it again!

[first thing we see…the mechanical horse! olive had to ride it!]

[she was sooooooo excited!]

[me and my babe]

[she’s always so happy!]

[first time getting something out a ‘gum’ball machine]

[excited for her surprise]

[she got a mini dinosaur! she loved it!]

[here comes the train serving the food!]

literally loving the bells and whistle]

[there goes the train!]

[mmmm, pink lemonade]

[my precious babe]

[olive couldn’t wait to pluck off her pink train!]

[she tried to scoop the ice cream but it was a little bit hard]

[so dada helped out!]

xoxo

atrium brunch

Posted on April 4, 2017 by tandem in love

one, we were excited to meet up with olivia and aaron. two, we were super excited to try 3 arts cafe in the restoration hardware building. a six floor mecca of insane home inspiration. i really mean insane. it’s probably the most gorgeous store i have ever been to.

you walk inside and immediately it’s sensory overload. the architecture of the building is stunning, the colors are so pleasing, the luxurious fabrics against your fingertips were titillating, your eyes dart from one space to the next, almost unsure on what to focus on, and the chandeliers are absolutely mesmerizing…i could go on and on! every room was gorgeous and meticulously well kept. they had a cleaning lady walking around and that was all she did…maintain each room to perfection.

olivia, olive, ellie, and i walked around to explore while hc and aaron stayed downstairs and talked. we walked and talked and drooled over every single room. olive was having a blast. she loved inspecting each room and she loved hiding her dinosaur under every blanket she found. she thought it was the funniest thing! she is too adorable!

we only made it throughout the second floor {plus feeding ellie} before we headed back downstairs to check on our table. get this – aaron and olivia got to the restaurant at 10:05am or close to that time {they open at 10am} and the wait was already 1.5 hours!!! the hostess told them that the line to get in before they opened wrapped around the building and everyone waited in the p o u r i n g rain! whaaaaaa? cray!

anyhoo, it was close to noon and we were finally seated. i said to our group that after waiting for so damn long, we were going to sit at our table for freakin’ two hours! hahaha! actually we ended doing just that. we were having such a great time! the restaurant inside the atrium was gorgeous. everything was lavish, decadent, and supple. ellie’s highchair was made out of leather! hellooooo?! so amaze! i loved what i ordered and the bellini’s went down way too fast! yum!

after a few hours of hanging out, we went on our merry way home. it was such a great brunch! i loved eating there, the ambience was exciting, and it was just plain fun. the wait for a table was quite long but it felt like minutes when your surrounded by possible hours of exploration. what a novel idea this is! i can’t wait to go back and experience this again.