Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic
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Personal

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Personal

Week in Review

Remember how last week, I alluded to perhaps resting this week post-party? Well, that did not happen, and isn’t going to happen this week, as I head to Oklahoma City today to visit one of my bestest best friends and her daughter, Lillian, then come back to a few meetings and an exciting photoshoot with Sugar & Cloth that I’ll share details about later. I am bursting at the seams with excitement over our short ‘second generation of bestie’ trip, as I don’t get to see them enough and love them to pieces (Brett too, of course). Lillian is getting her first birthday photos taken on Tuesday, and we’re sneaking in for some bestie shots too! I cannot wait for this!

The past week was wonderful, as we got to celebrate Sasha’s birthday and spend lots of quality family and friend time. A few highlights from the week include:

  • Isla got new sunglasses in the mail from Blue Bison Designs – a friend from high school’s new Etsy monogramming business. I adore them! And she was cracking me up trying to put them on upside down. That girl!
  • Swimming every single day of the week, either at my parent’s house, in swim class, in our wading pool or in our next door neighbor’s pool. Isla is a total fish!
  • Meeting some of my favorite Houston mamas (all Instagram friends-turned-real-friends) at the Ervan Chew splash pad. Isla loved it (see fish comment above). See this photo’s tag for everyone included!
  • Getting fun packages from Cuteheads Kids and Willow Crowns – incredible businesses owned by two of the mamas I met at the splash pad! I first met both Esther and Megan when we were on Great Day Houston the same day, and we’ve kept in touch ever since. Love them both!
  • Attending a floral crown workshop hosted by Meredith of Cake & Confetti at Baanou (Houston’s coolest boutique!). More details and photos to come from the Get Crafty Workshop later this week (some pictures below).
  • Since we skipped Isla’s normal The Little Gym class in order to go to the splash pad, we went on Saturday morning as a family and loved it. Having Sasha there to flip Isla and walk her along the beam was so nice! She had a great time with Tata too.
  • Going to The Monogram Shop to pick out a cute little dress and bloomers for Isla to wear in an upcoming picnic shoot (details to come soon!). She was all over the place (walking is insane!), but I adore that store and it will always be a highlight to go and visit.
  • Celebrating Sasha’s birthday with TCBY and vegan cupcakes from both Crave and Sprinkles. Needless to say, my BBG workout/diet started on Thursday! Lots of time spent at Lifetime Fitness this week!
  • My dad’s retirement started a few weeks ago, and although he seems to be keeping busy with Board of Directors work, we have loved seeing him throughout the week. He dropped by quickly on Monday just to say ‘Hi’ (and to help pick Sasha’s gifts – whoops!) – it’s so nice to see him more often already!
  • Taking Isla to the doctor for her one year check-up, which she passed with flying colors. We ran into baby Pierce and his sweet parents as we were leaving (the day after I took his newborn photos!).
  • Finally going to get my eyes checked by my friend, Ashley (ahem, Dr. Bagwell) of West Houston Eye. She looked like a million bucks with the cutest Kate Spade/Anthropologie-esque outfit on – I wanted to snatch it right off her! I am in trouble for wearing my contacts too much and not letting my eyes rest, so I’m working on getting my 20/20 vision back. What a bad patient I am!
  • Spending time during the weekend with my sister-in-law, Ivana, who lives in San Francisco, but is in Texas right now for work (coolest job ever at Google – so jealous!).
  • Sipping tasty drinks at Julep for Cocktails with Creatives (an AIGA event) – I met my friends, Meredith and Brittany, and finally got to meet Ryann, the creative whiz behind Nine Zero Nine Creative.
  • Getting two of the most gorgeous paintings from my mother-in-law and her husband, Nenad, who is an incredible artist. I am dying to show photos of the two paintings soon! They’re perfect.
  • Meeting an old co-worker, Catherine, and her mom at Rienzi to take head shots for their new non-profit organization which will be empowering young women in Houston by matching them with female mentors. I’m so excited to share details and be a part of this!
  • Celebrating my friend, Judy, and her fiancé, Josh, at a stock-the-bar shower on Saturday night! They’re getting married in August, and I can’t wait for the wedding.
  • Getting trained before church to be a Sunday School volunteer in our children’s ministry (ideally the little babies!). Bayou City Fellowship has been so wonderful to us, and we’ve enjoyed having Isla watched while we worship, so it’s about time we gave back!

How was your week? What were your highlights? Please excuse the insane amount of photos below, but I couldn’t help but to overshare!

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Tips for Traveling with a Baby

TRAVELtipsWe recently got back from a 10 day trip to France and Russia, and when I tell people we brought our almost one year old, they’re shocked. Everyone wants to know how traveling with a baby went, and honestly, it wasn’t bad at all. I think that a sightseeing type of trip is probably easier with an infant (versus a beach), as she spent a lot of time snoozing in her stroller while we toured the city. We typically woke up, ate breakfast, walked a mile or two to a museum, church, site, etc. and she would nap while we were there, then we’d go to a park and she would play, then eat lunch, then another tourist activity (and nap), followed by another park then dinner and bedtime. Isla was very well behaved so long as we stuck to this routine! The hardest part of the vacation was definitely the flight to Paris (with a layover in Frankfurt), but I learned my lessons and the return trip was much better. I’m sharing some of my travel tips today so hopefully you don’t have to learn the hard way!

  • Rent an apartment versus staying in a hotel, if possible. If it’s more convenient to stay at the latter, then look for a hotel with a decent suite rate. We stayed in a suite at the Hotel Novotel St. Petersburg, which was so nice because we could put Isla down in her room, then spend the rest of the evening in our room and not worry about waking her up. I’ve also read that you can have them sleep in the bathroom, but that seems like a challenge to me. We rented an apartment with Airbnb in Paris, and had the best experience! Look for one with two rooms and a kitchen and ideally, a washing machine too (buy these Purex 3-in-1 sheets if you have one!)! Also, check to see if there is an elevator, and if not, how many stairs do you need to climb! I forgot to check, and we lucked out on only climbing two sets (which was still a lot!).
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Introducing Pierce (And a Big Announcement!)

No, I’m not pregnant. I thought I’d clear that up immediately, as ‘big announcements’ are normally associated with telling the world this news!

We will, however, start this post with baby talk, as I had the honor of taking newborn photos for the cutest little man ever on Sunday. I know baby Pierce’s mom through a friend of a friend, and Melissa is one of the most gorgeous ladies ever. She already looks like she was never pregnant, let alone in delivery the week before. We took the pictures at their perfect house in Rice Village (another swoon), and Pierce was so well behaved! I always have the hardest time narrowing down the photos to share on the blog, as I want to show them all! Sweet little Pierce and his adorable friend Tucker both melt my heart, and after photographing two other baby boys recently (Kerr and Brooks), I have to say I’d be more than pleased to have one next (although a sister for Isla would be perfect too)! But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

My big announcement isn’t that much of a surprise, as I mentioned here that I was quitting the world of consulting to do photography, but today I’m sharing the link to my new site. So here we go (drum roll, please!)… introducing Snapshots by Ailee Petrovic! I originally had another name for the business (She Delights), but I wanted the blog and the photography business names to complement each other, and so Snapshots by Ailee Petrovic was born. The website is not super fancy, doesn’t have a bunch of bells and whistles, etc. but it serves the purpose for now. I imagine down the line, I’ll revamp, but for now, it serves the purpose well!

So with this said, if you know of anyone who is pregnant or just had a baby, I’d love to take their newborn photos! I’m also doing family sessions, and I’ve got a few head shots and other shoots lined up too. They can contact me through the site or email directly.

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Week in Review

Whew, what a week! We celebrated Isla’s first birthday on Thursday, then busied ourselves until midnight on Friday prepping for Isla’s confetti-themed party on Saturday. My sweet, sweet friend Meredith (of Cake & Confetti) had me over on Thursday evening to make the floral arrangements for the party, then was over until 11:30pm on Friday helping to set everything up (including our insane balloon arch!). She’s insanely talented, and I cannot recommend her enough to help design any event in Houston!

Now that her birthday and the party are over (photos to come tomorrow or Wednesday!), I’m finally taking a deep breath (and plan on catching up with all my favorite blogs!). There are tons of decorations that need to be put away (but where?), loads of thank you notes to write and lots of laundry and cleaning to be done. But for now, I’m trying to soak up the feeling of not having any trips to organize or parties to plan.

Other highlights from the past week include:

  • Isla getting her first ‘You’re a star’ type ribbon at her gym class at The Little Gym of Memorial. The semester is over, so all the kiddos got awards for their outstanding participation! Isla just wanted to steal other kid’s ribbons. She’s such a sharer (yikes!).
  • Seeing so many family and friends at Isla’s party. It felt like our wedding, but on a mini-scale (by mini, I mean there were 60+ adults and 20+ kids, so not far off our wedding count!).
  • Watching Isla transition from mainly crawling and sometimes walking, to mainly walking and sometimes crawling. So cute! And scary.
  • Seeing Isla play with her new baby doll(s). She adores pushing them around in their little umbrella stroller. It’s the best. I don’t know why she didn’t have one earlier!
  • Having all of our parents and my sister over for family dinner on Thursday to celebrate Isla’s first birthday – she was very, very tired, so the meal didn’t last more than 30 minutes (and no gifts were opened!).
  • Wading pool fun with Isla after unpacking on Monday. She then proceeded to hop in the pool days later with her clothes and shoes on. Lesson learned: never turn your back. Ever.
  • Taking photos of two adorable little babies – Tucker and Pierce – two friends who gave birth to boys just days apart! I love it! I cannot wait to share photos from Pierce’s shoot soon! I got to snap a few photos of my friend Julie’s kids, Evie and Kerr, beforehand – they’re too cute!
  • Celebrating my friend, Brittany, at her bridal bruncheon at Ouisie’s Table. She’s getting married so soon in Vail, and it’s going to be gorgeous!
  • Spending time with my sweet sister-in-law, Ivana, who came to visit for Isla’s party. She lives in San Francisco (so jealous), and we cherish the time we get with her when she’s in Texas!

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Happy First Birthday, Isla Milijana!

Today, my little baby turns one year old. It sounds so cliche, but I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by. For her birthday, I bought her a little baby doll and stroller, which I of course gave to her on Monday as soon as I got home from Target (she doesn’t know the difference!). She has been pushing it all around the house and will stop to lean over, adjust her baby and sometimes get in front of it to put the pacifier in the doll’s mouth. My emotions don’t know how to deal with this level of sweetness. My baby loves her baby, and I love my baby so much it hurts.

So much has happened over the last year. Isla was born, then we went and lived in Colorado for two months during July and August, then traveled to Mexico City (our first time to leave her!), Sasha started working on a new client for work, and I quit my job. We traveled to Europe, took trips to Austin and New Orleans to watch two of our best friends get married, and enjoyed plenty of time together as a family of three here in Houston.

Having a newborn is so tough. I was reminded of that the other day. But I miss it so much at the same time. Isla is way more fun at one year old than she was at one day, and I love that her personality is shining through. She is definitely a wild child in the making, and it makes me laugh. She’s also so sweet and tender at times, when she’ll bury her face into a blanket and snuggle in my lap.

Isla started walking around her 11 month-iversary, then stopped for the first week in Europe. She’s back at it again, making huge strides (pun intended) around our house since we got home. I cannot believe it – I love watching her do the Thriller walk with her arms out in front of her (getting more and more confident everyday). She eats everything, but also loves throwing her food on the ground for Belle to eat (she calls her Bbbbbeh-beh and adores her). She especially loves water (even La Croix), almond butter, goat cheese, hummus, pasta, bread, strawberries and salmon. Isla is still breastfed 4-5 times a day, but I’ll wean her to two starting next week (wahhh!). She’s exclusively been fed breastmilk since she was born (but we have nothing against formula!). Isla has her bottom two teeth that are fully grown in, and the top two just broke through with the next two already becoming visible (thanks, Livi, for the warning!).

Isla is definitely more of a mover-and-shaker than a talker, but she does say “Baba,” “Dada/Tata” (in reference to Sasha) and as of the last two weeks, now says “Mamamama” (I almost fainted when I heard it). She also says, “Bubbles” which is hilarious because I LOVE bubbles and we have them floating around our house all too often. She loves her books, her lovie, her blankets, and recently, her pacis (aren’t we supposed to wean her? Woops). Isla really likes swimming (and wading in our new pool) – and I am right there next to her! It’s hot in Houston!

We are throwing Isla a confetti-themed party on Saturday, and I cannot wait to celebrate her with our closest family and friends. I’m getting some serious assistance from my friend, Meredith of Cake & Confetti, with the party! She’s amazing.

A few weeks ago, we had our family photos taken by Paige of Awake Photography (whom we adore). It rained for days on end before the photos, so the humidity was at an all time high and I was a puddle by the end of the shoot (my hair didn’t stand a chance – even though the most talented lady ever, Brittany of Butter Makeup, did it!).

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