
Remy Bea turned 3 on January 23rd. I’m in disbelief. Absolute disbelief.
It seemed like just yesterday that she came bursting into our world — faster than expected and with a full head of hair!










Remy Bea turned 3 on January 23rd. I’m in disbelief. Absolute disbelief.
It seemed like just yesterday that she came bursting into our world — faster than expected and with a full head of hair!
This blog post is coming to ya 3 days late, thanks to a healthy dose of laziness at the holidays! Ha! At least I’m being honest.
But also? I’ve been doing a lot of extra reflecting over the last couple of days. And my emotions are straight up all over the place.
I truly expected 2018 to be SUPER hard. I started the year pregnant with baby number three and fully anticipating that this child would send me down a deep dark hole of PPD and PPA. It turns out she didn’t. In fact, I’ve kinda been flourishing and finding myself kicking butt at this mother of three thing.
We ended our night in perfect ‘parent-of-3-kids’ fashion — with an 8:30pm Netflix countdown with party hats and sweet tarts. And followed it up with a parents-only movie night in our NEW home, with a bottle of champagne, and homemade lobster rolls.
So while our 2018 came to a slow and quiet end, I looked back through my camera roll to see all of the amazing things that transpired since last January.
I met up with some great local bloggers for a little networking and brainstorming. It really kicked off my year in a big way by getting the creative juices flowing and reigniting my spark!
Visited NASA Glenn Research Center with a special group of influencers for the State of NASA address. We got a behind the scenes look at some really cool aerospace technology.
Later in the month I covered the Cleveland Auto Show on behalf of Toyota!
We spent most of the month having fun at Cafe O’Play with the kids (thanks to a Winter family pass!). It wore the kids out and allowed me to get some work done at the same time!
Oh – and Chad and I had a much-needed date night at Hilarities at Pickwick and Frolic, complete with a Barrio dinner-date beforehand!
This was a pretty big month for us. We had (secretly) known about the gender of baby number three for a while, but we finally revealed the news to our friends & family! Baby number three was officially a GIRL!
We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with little fanfare. And, by little, I mean none! Ha! But that’s what happens when you’re pregnant with your third baby, right?
This, the month before my due date, I spent as much time as possible loving on my existing two babies. Lots of small adventures were had.
Oh, and I had some maternity photos done.
And met up with some fabulous bloggers for glass blowing at the Glass Asylum.
And then again for a photoshoot meetup at Borrow Rentals.
I swear to you I spent this entire month just ready for Mila to arrive. In any spare moment I had, I was walking. Usually with the other two kids in tow.
The kids also enjoyed a LOT of swimming!
And then, of course, the arrival of Mila Rose.
We adjusted to life with another little.
But I still managed to make it out of the house with all of the kids! Like Mila’s first trip to the Cleveland Flea with me and Remy Bea!
And her first trip to the LEGO Store with Ari!
Oh, and we had amazing newborn photos done.
Then visited Edgewater Park Beach.
And I took a yoga class with some fellow bloggers at Sibling Revelry Brewery. Mila came, too, although she spent most of her time in her car seat. Ha!
My first baby went off to his first day of Kindergarten!
I spent my first week completely solo with all three kids. I survived while Chad went away on his business trip AND I even managed to sneak out with just Mila to see the Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Remy and I went out exploring our local Akron neighborhoods.
And we visited the apple orchard when Mimi came to town!
Ari turned SIX!
Chad and I went on our first truly solo (no Mila!) date night to the Best of Cleveland party at the Rock Hall.
And we had a fun Halloween photo shoot with the girls!
I got to check out the new indoor putt-putt course at Punch Bowl Social in the Flats!
The Big Kids went to Kringle’s Inventionasium to see Santa’s workshop!
And we decided to purchase our forever home!
We closed on our new house!
…and between moving and getting settled, we celebrated Christmas.
Seriously I could not be more grateful to all of the people who made 2018 the best year yet. I may not have taken a fancy vacation or gotten a big new promotion, but I had the most fulfilling year to date! It was full of everything that is most important — family, friends, lots of love, memories, and delicious food.
Cheers to 2019!
“We haven’t been happy for a long time.”
Disclaimer – this may be an unpopular post/opinion, but it’s real life. And, in all honesty, when my husband said this out loud to me, I responded with, “we’re just a different kind of happy.” But then he said, “Yeah but not a ‘happy all the time just because‘ happy.”
And you know what? He’s right.
But so am I.
Having kids is completely draining. Sure, it’s emotionally draining. But it’s also physically demanding. At the end of a busy day, when you have zero left to give, you have no choice but to give just a bit more. Your little humans’ lives are depending on it.
Would I trade them? Not for all of the riches in the world.
But I can still long for the days where I only had to wipe *only* my own ass.
The days where I could live by my own schedule.
The nights where I could work extra hours in the office and not have to worry about anyone waking up and needing me in the middle of a deadline.
I look at my husband and long for moments where we aren’t both too tired to converse during (a long overdue) date night.
So if you’re in the thick of it like us, just know that you’re not alone when you get these feelings. It’s okay to be bummed about the fact that your life looks vastly different than it did before. It doesn’t make you a bad mom (or dad); It doesn’t mean you don’t love your kids; It just means you’re normal.
(No, it’s not a baby.)
We bought a new home! Our FOREVER home!
The house is double the size of our current house. It’s 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a gorgeous kitchen, high ceilings, original wood framing from 1900, a huge yard, and a basement! I fell in love right away and thank goodness they accepted our negotiations (there were several times that I thought they would walk away and it resulted in a serious loss of sleep and many tears).
I just can’t wait to start living here… and neither can the kids!
PS. For all of the times I asked for positive vibes over the last month on Instagram, this is why.
The last few weeks have been filled with exhaustion, thanks to a cold that we’ve been passing throughout the house and a baby that is teething; but in between the sickies and the sleepless nights, I wound up getting out of the house not once but 2 whole times for fun events with friends.
First came a blogger meetup at The South Side for Chef Natasha Pogrebinsky’s fall menu preview. Even though I was exhausted and a big part of me wanted to stay home snuggled up in bed with Mila, I decided to venture out. I’m so glad I did.
I was able to meet up with some of my favorite local bloggers and enjoy a night of wonderful conversation, laughter, and fantastic food.
Oh, and rumor has it that The South Side has a pretty killer Bloody Mary on the weekends. I’ll definitely be returning to check it out.
The next big adventure was the Best of Cleveland Party at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Our two VIP tickets not only meant that Chad and I could go on our first real baby-free night since Mila was born 4 months ago, but also that we could visit the Rock Hall and check out all of the 2018 winners of various food, drinks, and live music.
Sometimes a little bit of (extra) exhaustion is worth the fun, right? Absolutely, totally right. Thanks for being so awesome, Cleveland. You continue to amaze me. ♥ ♥
Fall is my most favorite time of the year — it always has been. Not only is it the season of my birthday, but it’s the season of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving! The weather gets cooler, the leaves change, and pumpkin spice is readily available! Ha! 🙂
Our Fall has already been off to a great start! Here’s what we’ve been up to and loving lately!
We went to a local Fall festival and the kids were super excited about the hayride through the apple orchard! Remy had never experienced a hayride and the last time Ari was on one was several years ago, so it was excitement across the board.
Going to the pumpkin patch!
This is one of the things I love doing the most in the Fall and I’m happy to share my passion with my kids. Thus far, they seem all about it. I mean, who doesn’t love pumpkins!?
Outdoor swimming may be over for this year, but a change in season is no reason to stop learning to swim! Remy is in the middle of her Mini 3 lessons at Goldfish Swim School in Hudson and we’ve seen huge progress with her abilities already.
Fall Food + Beer.
One of the best parts of this season, at least for me, is all of the delicious food and drinks. Apple pie, pumpkin spice lattés, apple butter, pumpkin ales… the list goes on and on.
And, of course, Halloween Parties!
I know it’s still a bit early in the ‘season’, but we’ve already been to one big Halloween party and look forward to at least two more!