Mama + Mini

Army green & coral... say it isn't so! I've been in love with this color combo forever. I fondly remember frolicking down the steps last spring in my neon coral shorts & army green shirt and my husband looked at me like I had five heads. If I remember correctly, his words were "...the fuck are you wearing??"
All the more confirmation that the color combo rocked.
Turns out? Old Navy thinks so too. I couldn't scoop up this floral print sleeveless dress fast enough when I saw it on the site a few weeks ago. Do you ever see something online & fly through online checkout at lightening speed because you are SURE that the rest of the world just discovered it as well...and it will surely be out of stock in the next sixty seconds?
No? Ok me neither.

Green Dress (similar here) - Coral V-Neck Tee (similar here) - Coral Scarf

Essie Haute As Hello - Essie Armed & Ready

Green Patterned Dress - White Floral Romper

White Ruffle Dress - Floral Patterned Leggings

 Harper rocked her hot pink & army green today while we had lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Of course we matched, but was entirely too busy stuffing my face with white chocolate raspberry deliciousness to be captured on camera.

Look at her double fisting all the bread slices... a girl after my own heart.

Also, the countdown to St. Patty's Day is ON! We are ready for some festive pancakes, shamrock shaped everything & a few green beers. If you follow me on instagram (@jlgarvin) you know I will most likely be sleeping in the yard at some point this weekend, all curled up in our new cozy hammock. Which I totally fell out of multiple times, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Cheers to that, life doesn't get much better than holiday weekends with family.

Monthly Favorites

As Harper gets older, she is really transitioning away from all of her baby things & being totally interested in all of our stuff instead. It's a crazy thing when your child is prompting you to teach them things, they start imitating everything you do & are so totally curious. Some days you wake up with that crazy feeling, thinking "shit! should I be teaching her the alphabet? should she already know how to count to ten...?" I guess that goes hand in hand with us not saying things like "shit!" anymore.

Here's a recap of the most recent months' favorite things...

Infant Pumas. She only has a few pair of shoes, but these are PERFECT for a new walker. They actually stay on her feet & she can move around well in them. And they are EASY to put on. So easy that dad's can even do it. (kidding... kinda... but seriously these are the only shoes my husband will even attempt to put on her)

Beaba Stackable Snack Container. Not much to say here other than it is perfect for bringing a variety of snacks along in the diaper bag without having crumby ziplocks everywhere.

Hand & Face Wipes. These have never become so handy. Now that the kid is running (falling), grabbing everything & eating on the go, having an outrageous amount of these stashed in the diaper bag is an absolute must.

Large Toy Ball. You know, the giant, plastic, colorful balls that husbands love to bounce around Target like children while you shop? Which is obviously a non-issue since it allows you to sneak more crap into your cart when they're not looking. Anyway, I have caved & brought one of these puppies home. Harper is absolutely obsessed with it! It looks so huge when her tiny little hands carry it around but she loves to take it everywhere.

Radio Flyer Wagon. This was a birthday gift & is the coolest thing ever. It's so much more fun than a stroller for taking walks around the neighborhood. It has drink holders, a sunshade & is roomy enough to lug all your gear to the park or the pool this summer. I see us getting an insane amount of use out of this in the months to come. Harper has so much fun getting pulled around in it. I do too.

You can find previous month favorites here!

Also, for those who have left comments or have asked via email, I use Adobe Illustrator to put together these monthly favorites product collages. I save the images that I find as .png files (that will keep the background transparent) & then pull them all together and add text. You can do similar things using online software, or using Microsoft tools like powerpoint or publisher. If I am just pulling a few images together without text, sometimes I use paint since it's so easy. Hope that is helpful!

More questions like these will be answered on the blog this week, another post full of your questions answered will making it's way to the blog in just a few days! :) And last but not least, remember the monthly chalkboard-inspired rounds that I used for Harper's pictures?

I have made these available for you to download for free for personal use. These are perfect not only for a growing baby, but also a growing bump! The link is here if you would like to download them! :)

St. Patty's Day Festiveness

It doesn't take much to make St. Patty's Day a little extra festive. Lots of green, shamrock shaped everything & maybe an Irish cocktail or two, and you are set! You gotta love holidays that don't require a lot of planning or presents, just some good old fashioned shaking of your shamrocks.

These are my must-haves for an extra festive St. Patrick's Day!

 

Striped Straws. An essential in making every drink just a little more festive!

Comfy Green Tee. These v-neck tissue tees are my absolute favorite, perfect to dress up with a maxi skirt or rock with comfy leggings!

Shamrock Cookie Cutter. The amount of time that I have spent cutting food into shapes for holidays is outrageous. Sandwiches, cookies, pancakes, you name it, make it shamrock shaped!

Festive Garlands. If I could only put up one single decoration for each holiday, it would be a garland. I would probably wear one & hang one in my car if people wouldn't look at me like I was bat shit crazy. Although I suppose that means I kind of am....

The Night Before St. Patrick's Day. We love the "night before" kids book series, showing the eves a little love! 

Outfits for the Mini. Gotta decorate the baby. (Lots of green gear here!)

And you can't forget green food coloring & some Lucky Charms! I bought some this week when I saw them on display at the grocery store, I figured what a perfect time for Harper to try them. This morning we put them on our cupcakes, such a festive topping. My husband is always the weirdo that gets gummy worms & frosted flakes on his papaya flavored frozen yogurt, so I figured putting a little cereal on top of white cupcakes wouldn't be too bizarre. Turns out, they are delicious, even Harper thought so. 

 

Sweaterdress, Paper Garland

This kid knows what's up when she smells cake now.

I let her pick off some of the marshmallows & make a huge mess, she didn't actually eat the cupcake. I did though :)

Do you have any fun St. Patrick's Day traditions?!

We are looking forward to some more festive shenanigans throughout the week, which will include me trying to avoid my husband's requests for extravagant Irish meals & us throwing back a few tasty green beers.

One Year Recap

 Today was Harper's one year check up. If I remember the doctor's words correctly, it was something like "dang. baby got back."

Baby girl is 29.5 inches (70th percentile) for height & 24 lbs (90th percentile) for weight. Our doctor confirmed that Harper is a certified badass since she is walking (almost running), says more than five words & was able to pick up on a little bit of sign language right there in the office.

 I wasn't sure I wanted to do one of those "one year stats" posts, but I have decided that I have to. It will be fun to look back on, to remember all these things & hopefully will come in handy for baby #2... someday.

Age: One

Stats: 29.5 inches, 24 lbs, 18 inch head circumfrance

Favorite Foods: Blueberries, Lasagna, Green Beans & Graham Crackers

Favorite Words: Mama, Dada, Zee (Izzy our cat), Bop

Favorite Toy: Organic Monkey Lovie Blanket & Baby Einstein Activity Table (crazy because she's had both of these toys for months & they are still easily her favorites)

Favorite Activities: Bath time, imitating everything we do, running laps around the dining room table, playing with mama's lip gloss bag & going for wagon rides 

Least Favorite Activities: Getting out of the bath tub, the word "no" & being calm.

Nicknames: Harpie, Harpie Doodle, Doodle Bug, Harpsicle, Harps, Harp-dogg, Harplacher, H-bomb & Punkey.

Signature Moves: Her fake laugh. Anytime she hears other people laughing, she wants to join in, so she does the loudest, fake laugh, that sounds like a dolphin or a sheep. It is too funny to describe, but we have a hundred videos of it. Also, the memorable booty drop. Girl's got moves.

Mom's Proudest Moment: Accidentally looking away long enough for Harper to grab one of my tubes of mascara, unscrewed the lid & put the wand in her mouth. (Yes, I called poison control. And no, it's apparently not harmful. But dear God, it was terrifying)

Runner Up: spilling beer on the baby when I leaned over the side of her crib to kiss her goodnight. I felt like a certified asshole on this one.

Dad's Proudest Moment: Putting little baby Harpie on his lap during dinner, but when she sneezed, her face slammed into the table top because she was too close.

Runner up: dropping a mini-bottle of water on her leg when she was riding in the stroller just a few minutes after she got shots in that leg. (She didn't even flinch, but dad felt awful for days)

Some other recent one year shenanigans...
The other night Harper finally pet our cat soft on her back (instead of plucking a whisker, poking an eye or trying put the cat's tail in her mouth), and while she was doing it she said "ni.... ni...." since we always show her how to pet "nice..." I was laughing so hard that I cried, it was the sweetest moment.

I bought Lucky Charms this week (for St. Patty's of course) & put a few on her high chair tray. She tried them & immediately proceeded to throw all of the actual cereal on the ground, only eating the  marshmallows. Smartest kid ever?

The most recent fun game she likes to play when she wakes up from a nap, she puts her head down and closes her eyes. We say "oooh night night..." and then she pops up laughing. Five hundred times.

 I could do it all day long. Although I guess that's an easy way to get fired from my job.

This face? My heart!

Pajamas, Security Blanket

That about sums up the highs & lows of Harpie Doodle's whole first year. I never thought I could possibly love someone as much as I love this little kid. Every day with her is exponentially more fun than the last.  I fondly remember sobbing over her growing up too fast (when she was literally four days old, but I was totally bonkers at that point) but now I look so forward to all the incredible things that she learns & does.
It just keeps getting better & better mamas... you have lots to look forward to! :)

Easter Sunday Style

...not to be confused with Sunday Funday Style! :)

Picturing Harper running around our yard picking up her eggs in a fancy dress makes my heart almost burst into a million pieces. So does thinking about eating Easter candy. Am I the only one that eats all of my mini snickers crushed up & partially microwaved over ice cream? I thought so. 

Here are some of my favorite frilly fancies for Easter this year, how can we pick just one?!

Ivory Classic Bow, Teal Bow Dress, Bunny Headband

Pink Floral Bubble Dress, White Pleated Dress

Old Soles Flats, Pink Tulle Dress, Bloch Ruffle Flats

Baby boys? Without a doubt, this sweater one piece. I consider it to possibly be the cutest outfit to ever exist at Baby Gap. Harper will be sporting the matching hat on Easter Eve.

I can only hope that it will actually be warm enough (and not raining for once) so we can actually do a fun Easter egg hunt in the grass. I am still bitter that it is so early this year. This morning, we had some randomly warm weather, which landed us outside "pick up sticks & put them in your mouth." It was a great time had by all.

Floral Skinny Jeans, Hat from Baby Gap last year

Highlight of the day?

All of a sudden, I shit you not, this kid whips off her hat, closes her eyes & takes an insanely long, deep breath. It was a total "stop & smell the roses ivy" moment. I couldn't stop laughing. I literally looked around, in hopes that someone else saw it happen. Luckily my rapid-firing-thumb was still taking pictures while it happened.

This is totally photo caption contest material.

Spring Decor

I have been obsessing lately over Target's Easter decorations, like big time. I have lurked in that aisle far too many times.  I knew that I wanted to decorate our entryway for spring, so I finally got a few things that matched the amazing yarn wreath that I picked up a few weeks ago & got to work! 

I just used a few old mason jars that we had & filled them with some branches from the back yard to hang the egg ornaments from.

 

It's colorful & it smells good (not to be confused with the made-up song "silly & she smells good," that we sing to Harper) ...everything that Spring decor should be! :)

Have no fear, this room is baby-gated off, so all is safe from little critter fingers.

Of course, our house is totally the MULLET of holiday decorating right now. Business in the front, party in the back. Easter in the front, St. Patty's in the back.

We are having a St. Patrick's Day Brunch & Green-Beerfest with some friends so this festive saying has to stay on the chalkboard until then. This has been made available as a print here if you love this Irish saying as much as I do! :)

Biggest BOO of the weekend? It was way too cold to do Harper's one year pics outside. Instead, we bundled up and helped dad hang some hammocks (plural! and more on that later) in our backyard early this morning! Her smirk here kills me. 

Do you SEE the effing hair outgrowth that I am dealing with from losing my hair after Harper was born?! A year later and I still have two inch antlers. 

 Neon Jacket, Neon Scarf

I also got started on the Easter basket this weekend after discovering all the awesome Dr. Seuss books that were on sale! This one totally looked Easter-ish to me. I got our magic lollipops, dug out the plastic eggs that I got on clearance last year (a whopping fifty cents instead of a dollar, score!) and found this sweater dress that we are OBSESSED WITH on sale, so I got it in every other size that we didn't already have. Triple BOOM.

We are about to soak up every last second of today, since this week will be filled with busy work schedules, business travel & one year shots.

  Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend!

Easter Basket Goodies!

I remember how magical Easter morning was for me as a kid. Our entryway table would be overflowing with glittery green Easter grass, covered in all sorts of candy and a basket for me & each of my four brothers. We had a ball eating donuts, asking each other if anyone saw the Easter bunny overnight & trying to slip jellybeans into our pockets before our parents would attempt to ration it all for us. We went to church with our new kick-ass pez dispensers in tow, anxiously awaiting the Easter Egg hunt afterwards. We would go crazy in our yard looking for our plastic eggs, some filled with candy, some with pennies (which I'm sure my brothers probably swallowed) & some with clues scribbled on pieces of paper to go find other Easter goodies that were likely stuffed in the dryer or the fruit drawer in the fridge. Pretty unforgettable.

This is the exact image that I want Harper to have as she grows up, telling her friends at school or her own children one day. Do I care that she is only ONE and will probably not remember this particular Easter Sunday? Noooooope. We are going all out.

Here are some Easter Basket ideas for your little ladies & gents!

BlaBla Bunny Doll \\ Easter Basket \\ Dot Onesie \\ Fancy Nancy's Elegant Easter

 Dot Print Tights \\ Jellycat Bunny \\ Floral Sheep Pajamas
 

 Easter Basket \\ Pat the Bunny Book \\ Easter Bib \\ BlaBla Rabbit Doll

Duck Stacking Bath Toys \\ Happy Socks \\ Zubels Bunny Boy Plush

Teether \\ Neon Footie Pajama

Here are Harper's goodies from last year, I still remember trying to take pictures of her in the basket itself. Ha. Hahahahah.

Guess How Much I Love You - The Tale of Peter Rabbit - The Velveteen Rabbit
White Bunny - Wooden Teethers - Trumpette Tights

   

Also. I heard about this EASTER EVE tradition (you know I'm all over this) and can. not. wait. to do this with Harper.  Have your kids plant magic jelly beans & overnight, they will "grow" into lollipops in the yard!!!

I knoooow. Take a minute. Catch your breath. And go buy jellybeans & lollipops.