a blue cake, an adorable baby & funny expressions

yesterday, we took beau to have his first studio photo session done. we decided to do a few portraits of him and then a cake smash session. beau was leery of the photographer at first but warmed up to the whole idea by the time the cake pictures began, thank goodness.

my mom and i made the cake for the cake smash. i found a cake on pinterest that i really wanted to try to recreate. i bought the pan i needed for the giant cupcake shape. the icing i had no clue about. luckily, my mom had a bunch of different icing tips from the cake she made beau on his actual birthday. i think the cake came out great. it's not perfect but i like that you can tell we did it. another memory in the picture.

gah, his facial expressions kill me. i just want to squeeze this little chunk all day long. i love him to the moon and back and all the other places.

all my love,
E

dubrovnik, croatia

this past weekend, bobby and i dropped off the bear to grandma & grandpa's house and took off for croatia.

we were able to book an apartment right on a little harbor. it was so great to be so close to the water. in the evenings, bobby and i would walk down, sit on a little dock, and let our feet dangle in the water. we could also walk into town for dinner and we had dinner at the same restaurant twice! bobby swore they had the best pizza. i loved that it was a rooftop restaurant that overlooked a port. so pretty!

we could also walk to the copacabana beach from our apartment. this is meant to be one of the nicest beaches in the area. the water is so blue it's almost unbelievable. so scenic. i spent most of my time in the lounge chairs reading. bobby preferred being in the water and that was fun to watch, too. they also had an obstacle course in the water that a lot of kids and teens were attempting. bobby was drooling but didn't want to be the only adult, ha.

we took a cab into the old city of dubrovnik one day. this place was stunning. you could walk the walls of the city. i felt like some of the staircases going up the walls would never end but it was worth it. the views were amazing and the overall experience of it was cool. apparently some of the scenes from 'a game of thrones' were shot here. i've never seen the show but a lot of people were talking about it as we were on the walls. when you come off the walls, there's a little port with tons of tour boats that head out to the islands. we didn't do a tour (motion sickness hits this girl strong) but we did walk around the port. there was a spot where you could walk on a bit of a wall that went into the sea. waves constantly come up crashing against this wall. tourists love to stand there and either try to dodge the waves or stand there and take the waves. bobby dodged a few but a giant one got him as he turned away. he spent much of the afternoon soaked after that. we ate generous amounts of gelato, played with a few stray cats, and nonessential souvenirs as any good tourist in dubrovnik should do before heading back to our apartment.

i wish we had more time in this fascinating city. it was a perfect little getaway in the perfect little city with my perfect husband.

all my love,
E

mr. tony, the bear & the best gelato ever

ice cream trucks aren't as they are in the states with all of the good humor ice pops and treats. ice cream trucks here are filled with homemade gelato, sundae toppings, fruit, chocolate, liquor, and real whipped cream. no artificial ice pops with gum-ball eyes here.

my parent's neighborhood has fallen in love with mr. tony, the neighborhood ice cream man. he's from sicily and makes the best italian gelato. and he's super friendly. and funny. and also what other ice cream man do you know that hands out free shots on his route to all his favorite customers? anyway, since i became pregnant, mr. tony has called beau his future customer. he finally got to meet him today and absolutely adored him. beau was pretty fond of him as well as he got his own free baby cone.

beau agrees, once you've had a taste of mr. tony's gelato, you can't settle for anything else.

all my love,

E

beau paints

being a new stay-at-home mom, i'm always looking for new activities to do with the bear during the day. i thought i had a great idea and bought some finger paints for him to play with. all i can say is the only smart part of this whole thing was that i took his clothes off beforehand. yes, he had fun. but i was one stressed momma. from trying to get him to understand that it wasn't food to trying to keep the paper down on the tray. it was an adventure. the smiles were almost worth the nightmare of a cleanup i went through.

but i do love those smiles. maybe we'll just start with some good ol' crayons next time.

all my love, E

bear goes for a swim

my parents bought beau a cute little baby pool for the summer. it's finally getting warm enough outside for it and my dad wasted no time in setting it all up. we went over to parents for dinner after work/ daycare and my dad was outside waiting for beau to get changed into his swimsuit. 

beau wasn't a fan of the pool at first. i don't think he cared for the colder-than-the-bath water. also, i forgot to bring water friendly toys out. probably not the best first introduction to the pool. once i got some toys involved & he got used to the water, he warmed up a bit to it and started splashing around. 

we'll work on it. 

all my love,

E

a parisian weekend

bobby and i took a fast train to paris last weekend to meet up with two of his friends from college. it was interesting getting to hear bobby's college stories and learning about the things they did in those years. definitely different from what i experienced at byu! it was all good fun talking and such. the food was amazing, too. we had one of the best breakfasts while were there and, let's be honest, crepes are one of the best foods on earth and no place is better to eat them than france. we only got to see the eiffel tower and notre dame while we were there as it was such a short visit. both sites were gorgeous. spring is in full bloom and i love it!

the only downside to the whole weekend was the weather. typical rainy, european weather. also, the line for the catacombs was horrendously long and, if we had waited it out, we could have missed our return train home. that was a bummer.

but it's paris & paris is always a good idea. i hope we get to go back soon!

all my love,

E

traveling at 41,000 feet for 8 hours with an infant

my mom, beau, and i flew to new york yesterday, to visit family. it's about time he gets to meet that side of the family!

i was so nervous about flying with a baby. i didn't want to be that person on the flight with a screaming infant and having no idea how to calm them. i was picturing worse case scenario the whole way to the airport. check-in went smoothly, saying goodbye to bobby went semi-smoothly (i cried), and boarding the plane went okay.

we were able to score the bulkhead seats, thank goodness. the airline was exceedingly accommodating and hooked in a bassinet for us to use during the flight. the bassinet was interesting, though. it had a flap that came down on top of the bassinet to make sure the baby wouldn't fly out during unexpected turbulence. we placed beau in it for a bit and pulled the flap down. it was pretty funny. poor kid had no idea what was going on.

eventually, we were able to get beau to sleep and lay in there without the flap. i'm not 100% sure that was kosher with the airline, but no baby is going to willingly sleep with a lid on their bed. 

overall, the flight went perfectly. beau was such a good baby and all of my worrying was for nothing. he didn't get fussy at all until maybe the last half hour or so during the landing. people on the plane complimented how well he handled the flight. it made us all feel pretty great. 

let's hope he does just as well on the flight back in a few weeks!

all my love,

E