We haven’t been to Chicago at Christmas time in couple of years, but we have our favorite places to visit when we go. I love Chicago at Christmas time. It is magical. All the stores are decorated, and they actually have winter weather. If you like the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, then this list is for you. We live in Oklahoma and we get ice storms sometimes and maybe a little snow, but it doesn’t stay very cold for very long. If you like the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, then this list is for you.
Here are our favorite things to do in the windy city when its chilly out! If you’re planning a trip during the holidays, then you need to check these places out.
Here are my favorite tips for air travel with a baby. These are all things that we have done to make the plane ride a little easier but you’ll still get dirty looks from people for bringing a baby on the plane. It’s inevitable. Just kill them with kindness because you’ll never have to see them again and if your baby cries during the flight try to remain calm. It is not the end of the world and remember that your baby’s cries sound so much worse to you than to other people because you are programmed to respond to their cries and meet their needs.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. This is just what worked for my family. I am in no way telling you to try this with your own baby, and I am here if you have any questions regarding things I tried with my own baby.
I knew when I got pregnant that raising a baby would be the hardest thing I’d ever do. I worried about everything, especially what to feed her and how much to feed her. I also knew that I’d have to research and find something that would work for our busy family because both my husband and I work full time and do not have the time to be pureeing a ton of baby food.
One day I was looking at YouTube to get ideas on what to feed her when she first started eating solids and I found this awesome video. I knew that baby led weaning was the answer to my prayers. We tried it that night. It was pretty stressful because she gagged a ton and it was so scary at first that I was worried she wasn’t really eating much. But then she started taking more food down and found things she liked.
Her motor skills were pretty advanced because she was feeding herself with her hands. Isla was hitting every milestone a little bit early. She was able to express when she wanted something in particular to eat from the fridge (I would point to different items and she would lift her arms when she saw something she wanted to eat), and would get excited when she got to try something new and play with textures. She had mastered the pincer grasp by 7 months and was using a spoon correctly by 11 months. Don’t be weirded-out and think your baby can’t chew without teeth. I promise as long as it’s soft, your baby can probably chew it.
Warning: BLW is super messy and we try to only feed her foods with sauces at night before bath time.
When we lived in Fort Worth we had a MASSIVE pantry. I never had to even think about organizing a small pantry. Our old pantry was an entire separate room in our house. Mind you, our house was super tiny because we lived in the married housing section of the seminary campus. Our entire home was about 650 sq. Ft. and 625 of that was pantry. I kid. But seriously, I wish I could have kept that pantry and relocated it to Oklahoma.
Our current house is much bigger, but has absolutely no pantry. There is a cabinet, and we have to cram all our stuff in there, but then it’s hard to find things – especially on the top self because I’m not a giant and I don’t like using our bar stools to climb on because I’m pretty clumsy by nature and have been known to take a spill, just from walking, that required surgery. It’s a terrible situation, y’all. Go ahead and take a moment of silence for my old pantry that I miss so much.
I have tried over and over to organize this glorified cabinet and nothing has really stuck. I suspect Evan has something to do with this. Isla can’t reach the cabinet yet so it can’t be her. Now we could also use the cabinet down below for pantry storage but we use that for other storage and who wants to bend over all the time to find stuff and have your butt hit the kitchen island? Not me. #Tinykitchenprobs
Don’t you just love decorating your porch for fall? For me, this usually begins in August and I have to cycle through my pumpkins a couple of times. This year we had so many tiny pumpkins and the most beautiful mums I’ve ever seen! That giant purple one. Swoon.
We got the mums to decorate for my daughter’s first birthday party which was in October and the theme was pumpkin everything. We decorated with pumpkins and used a pink and orange color scheme. It was wonderful. I started decorating with pumpkins as soon as they hit the stores.
We rarely go on dates that require leaving the house and getting a babysitter so we have to improvise a bit and get creative when we want to spend time together (watching The Office on Netflix). Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing an actual movie in a theater or going to a nice restaurant but we also like spending time with our daughter and I’m sure my mom could use a baby-sitting break because she has 8 grand-kids and 2 great-grandchildren.
Look at those cuties. So young. So energetic. No bags under their eyes. Haha.
I thought I’d share with you my 5 favorite date-at-home ideas for when you can’t find a baby sitter but you desperately need some time with your hubby. Our toddler goes to bed pretty early at 6:30pm. No we aren’t mean, she literally can’t keep her eyes open past 6:30 and if we try to keep her up past then, she turns into a fire breathing dragon and we must face her wrath. This leaves our evenings freed up which is wonderful for date nights at home.
I just love a good routine and even though my evening routine looks much different than it did before having a baby, it still leaves plenty of time to get everything done, spend time with the family and have some self care.
My evening routine begins the second I get off work, usually about 4:30. I pick up Isla from daycare at about 4:50 and then we head home.
