This post was written in collaboration with Minted! Thanks for supporting the brands we love.
For the past few years, Valentine’s Day has crept up on me, and I’ve always been running to the grocery store on February 13th to get classroom Valentine’s for the girls to hand out. Since I’ll have a newborn this year, I decided I would get ahead of the game and order something sweet, but simple, early and have them ready to go for the 14th. I found two designs that I thought matched the girls’ personalities at Minted, and ordered accompanying treats – heart lollipops for Isla’s class and Valentine’s rubber duckies for Emi’s. I stuck them in little clear bags, hole punched them and attached the cards with ribbon and voila, they were easy to assemble and inexpensive!
The first draft of this post had “Happy First Birthday, Emilia!” as the title. The photos all have file names “Emi First Birthday Photos XYZ.” I am clearly in denial that my baby (soon-to-be middle child!) is two years old. I want to freeze time to let her sing to me and tell me stories in her sweet little voice all day long.
Her favorite song is Happy Birthday to You! She also loves Twinkle Twinkle and the Finger Family (seriously…). She knows her ABCs, but her favorite part is “Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with me?” She gets to the end, yells, “YAY!” then claps for herself proudly. She can count to 20, but will most often get to about 13 then yell, “POOP!” because it makes her sister laugh, and therefore, she thinks it’s the best joke ever.
Emi is a mama’s girl through and through… exhaustingly so at times (or almost always these days!). It will be interesting to see how she adjusts to Georgie’s arrival because she adores babies (she has about 13 baby dolls, but still that’s not enough! Ha!) but is very demanding of my attention. She still wants me to hold her all day every day. By the time I get to the top of the stairs carrying her now, I feel like I’ve just run a marathon.
She loves matching her sister, which makes Isla’s hand-me-downs semi-irrelevant (but she wears them anyway!). She is not recognized around the house for her amazing ability to share (especially when the item is snatched from her from her big sis!), but if she retaliates at all, she is very quick to say, “SOWWY!”
Emi wakes up around 6:45 with a loud, “MAMA! EMI HUNGY! MAMA! EMI EAT WAFFLES!” or “MAMA! MAMEE! MAMO! WHERE ARE YOU!?” She must eat right away – and I can’t even toast the waffle because she’s that “hungy” that she needs it frozen. Strange but true!
She loves playing with baby dolls, coloring (on my furniture – it’s her specialty), riding her Strider bike, watching Umizoomi or Super Why, and playing hide and seek with her sister. She calls Isla “Iwa” unless she’s yelling for her, in which case she says, “SEESTER!”
Emi is strong-willed but gentle. She loves to snuggle more than anything. Isla was never a snuggly toddler, so it’s a big change for us. She lets me carry her like a baby, and when I do, she immediately says, “GOO GOO GA GA!” Pray for us with this next baby, y’all. Ha!
She is most often called Emi, but when she’s in trouble, it’s always Emilia. Her other nicknames are Emilia Bedilia, Emi Girl, and The Goose. When she’s on the run, it’s “THE GOOSE IS LOOSE!”
Emi loves picking out which shoes she is going to wear, which is basically why they never match her outfit. She loves all boots and tragically, these Paw Patrol Crocs that Sasha bought (and I need to hide).
I love her to pieces and kiss her cheeks all day long. Despite moments of extreme toddler-ness, she’s as sweet as they come, all huggy and kissy, and melts me every time she says, “I WUV YOU, MAMA.”
I took some photos of her this past weekend at Centennial Gardens. I love that I captured her playfulness, sense of wonder, and even her cheesy, cheesy smile. Happy second birthday to my baby!
How is already January 28th?! My resolution (or perhaps more of a goal) to keep up with weekly posting has clearly not gone so well, but I will blame that on being very productive in the last weeks of my pregnancy. I’m 38+ weeks now and have my appointment today to check on progression. I was 1cm dilated last week, which is normally not significant but I’ve always had issues dilating and never been dilated outside of L&D. So we’ll see how the next 12ish days go! Praying Georgie stays in until after Emi’s birthday (tomorrow), then it’s fair game!
I cannot believe that in just one day, our sweet (and also very toddler-esque) Emi Girl turns two. I cannot handle that. We threw her a small birthday party on Saturday, which was so much fun. We had immediate family there and both of the girls’ Godmothers (or “fairy Godmother” if you ask Isla!). There was a moonwalk, some party games, and some delicious desserts (vegan cupcakes from Crave are my weakness!). Lots of photos below!
The party would not have been quite as cute without the help from a few very talented and sweet ladies – Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made the invitations and the cake, Sarah of Sarah Savory & Sweet who made the cookies, my mom, who made the meringues, Tiffany of Glamfetti, who made the balloon garland and my lifelong best friend, McKenzie, who spent Friday night setting everything up with me (and running to the grocery store on Saturday!).
Other highlights from the past month are our regular bike rides through the neighborhood (with Emi joining us on her Strider bike), a trip to the Houston Polo Club, ice cream runs (for the girls, of courseee) multiple visits to our new local park, Sunday family dinners, Destiny’s visit to Houston last week, McKenzie’s sleepover this weekend, and lots of time spent with our close friends. Trying to check off all boxes before Georgie arrives.
Below are some of my favorite photos taken over the past few weeks. I need to go and update my Artifact Uprising book now! Hope you have the best week. xo, Ailee
Ahh, The Container Store Elfa systems – truly what my dreams are made of! Each of the girls (including Georgie!) have Elfa systems from The Container Store in their closets. In fact, one of my most viewed blog posts is this one which shows the different Elfa components in Emi’s closet at our old house. I absolutely love how easy these solutions are to install and how helpful they are in keeping me organized and maximizing space.
My ‘office closet’ at the old house was the playroom closet, and after it got a serious organizational makeover by Meggie of Organized Life Design, I was finally able to find things I needed for shoots, lifestyle photos, crafting, events, etc. It also made transitioning all of the goods (per se) over to my new office closet so much easier. I am fortunate to have my dream office now, and I have a nice-sized walk-in-closet for storage. It is an odd shape though, as part of it goes underneath our stairs.
As part of the move to our new house, Isla’s got a whole new bedroom set. I wanted Isla to have a queen bed, as we will likely use her room for guests who come to stay with us. She used to have a full bed, which Emi has now inherited (typical second child!). As soon as I saw this flamingo wallpaper, I knew it would be the center of the design for the room.
I wanted to design a space that was more grown up than a toddler room, but still young and whimsical. I am so happy with how it’s turning out! I still need to add personal touches like photos, art/prints, etc. (and a ficus, because every room needs one! Sorry, Sasha!), but it’s getting there.
Since we were upgrading her bed, we needed to buy a new mattress. I did a ton of research, and I was dying to try The Essential Mattress from Casper after reading and hearing great reviews. Sasha was more dubious about a mattress that arrived in a box, but once it was unrolled and on the bed, he was sold. It is truly so comfortable, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep on it while putting Isla to bed at night so far. Whenever friends come over to look at the house, I always tell them to sit on her bed to feel how comfy it is. I want one for every bed in the house. At $600 for the queen sized mattress, it’s hard to beat on price too. It’s the perfect transition mattress from toddler to big-girl, and Isla couldn’t be happier (can’t stop her from bouncing all over it!).
Thank you to Casper for partnering on this post, and thank you for supporting the brands we love! Also, special thanks to Megan Hermis for her help designing the room and the fun pillows/chair!
