BABY BEAR FIRST BIRTHDAY
Last week our baby bear turned ONE. He’s my last baby and even though his entire life has been lived in a pandemic, I still wanted to celebrate him in style.
We’re still in a bit of a social lockdown here so we were not able to have any of our friends over but a few family members who provide childcare came over to celebrate sweet baby Leo.
The MASSIVE balloon garland was created by the incredible Tonye who owns I Dream in Decor. She blew us away with the garland she made! I told her I wanted neutrals with brown and sent her a photo for inspo and she blew it out of the water. The colours were PERFECT and it looks like a waterfall. If you’re local to Victoria, BC, hire her for your party or event!
The adorable bear cake was made by my friend Rachel of Rachel Cakes. She did our wedding cake, first anniversary cake, first birthday cakes for Luca + London and my baby shower cake for London so naturally we had to hire her to make Leo’s! We had to go for the flavour, ‘The Liira’!! It was actually the flavour she created for our wedding cake and it’s AMAZING.
As happy as I was to celebrate our boy, a part of me was saddened. I couldn’t help thinking back to Luca’s + London’s first birthday…we had celebrated with tons of family, friends and little baby friends and Leo wouldn’t get that. Pandemic babies (+ parents of babies) have missed out on SO much. My heart truly goes out to first time mamas who raised their baby during the pandemic, you guys are amazing!
Happy birthday sweet Leo bear!!! We love you so much.
OUTFIT DETAILS:
My Dress is from Jackson Rowe. Use code LIIRA10 to save 10%
MATERNITY FAMILY PHOTOS
Back in December we had our photos taken by Bethany Joy Photography. It was a cold, rainy day but the photos turned out so great! Bethany was such a joy to work with and she was so great with the kiddos! I highly recommend booking her if you are on Vancouver Island!
I was around 25 weeks at the time of these photos. I didn’t want to feel tooo huge so I opted for an earlier shoot, and I’m glad because I’m almost 30 weeks and I am HUGE!
Our last set of family photos before we embark on the adventure as a family of five!! Can’t believe baby boy will be here so soon!
xo, laura
WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WEIRD BUT TRUE! CANADA EDITION
Did you know that Canadians eat more than 12 kilograms of cheese every year on average?
Did you know the first Thanksgiving in North America was celebrated in Newfoundland on May 27, 1578 with a meal of salt beef, biscuits, and peas?
Did you know it’s the 10th anniversary of National Geographic, Weird but True! books??
Ever since we’ve received our Weird But True! Canada book, I found myself telling James all these random facts about Canada. I’ve had so much fun discovering all these random facts about our country!
Luca loves looking through it as well. So many bright, fun pictures and we read the facts together!
Did you know that Canadians eat more than 12 kilograms of cheese every year on average?
Did you know the first Thanksgiving in North America was celebrated in Newfoundland on May 27, 1578 with a meal of salt beef, biscuits, and peas?
Did you know it’s the 10th anniversary of National Geographic, Weird but True! books??
Ever since we’ve received our Weird But True! Canada book, I found myself telling James all these random facts about Canada. I’ve had so much fun discovering all these random facts about our country!
Luca loves looking through it as well. So many bright, fun pictures and we read the facts together!
During Christmas time we loved reading through the Weird but True! Christmas edition. So many crazy, fun facts!
Here are some of my faves:
The ideal snow temperature for building a snowman is 30 F (-1.1 C).
Hot chocolate was once considered a medicine.
The world’s largest gingerbread house was a two-story home!!! It was made with 1800 lbs of butter, 7200 eggs, 3000 lbs of sugar and 22000 pieces of candy!!!
In celebration of the 10th anniversary, National Geographic has updated the original 10 Weird but True! books. Check them out and purchase them on their site!
Even though Luca is just 2, he loves flipping through these books to look at all the fun pictures! I can’t wait for the day when he will be able to read these fun facts for himself! But in the meantime, I’m going to keep reading them so I can impress others with my random fact knowledge, ha!
I highly recommend getting these books as a family. They’re the perfect size for your coffee table and you will love seeing your kids discover these fun facts!
XO,
Laura
I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.
LONDON ROSE // 9 MONTH UPDATE
LONDON AT NINE MONTHS
I cannot believe sweet London Rose is NINE MONTHS!! This is hands down my favourite age of the first year. She is sweet as can be and her little (or should I say BIG) personality is coming out!
Here's the London's 9 month update:
LONDON AT NINE MONTHS
I cannot believe sweet London Rose is NINE MONTHS!! This is hands down my favourite age of the first year. She is sweet as can be and her little (or should I say BIG) personality is coming out!
Here's the London's 9 month update:
WEIGHT: 20lbs 9oz
London had some great gains the past 3 months, ha! She's now in the 85th percentile for weight
HEIGHT: 27.5 inches
Her height went down to the 50th percentile but that's totally normal that it goes up and down the first year!
WEARS: I know I've said it a number a times but dressing a baby girl in the summer is SO FUN! She wears lots of dresses, rompers and shorty-shorts! She's mostly in 6-12 month clothing.
SLEEPS: Her sleep has gotten MUCH better. She usually sleeps through the night but sometimes has a feeding around 5 and then I have to wake her around 7! She is a champion napper and NEVER skips her naps. I mostly always have to wake her up from both of them. She's still on two naps and will probably be until about 15 months.
EATS: She eats EVERYTHING! We're pretty much off purees (unless it's a pouch on the go). She finally cut her first tooth but without them, she's been a champion eater! Honestly, she sometimes eats more than Luca!! She's still nursing. Luca weaned around this age but I don't see her weaning anytime soon. (Praying she doesn't bite me!!!) She nurses about 6x a day but only for about 5 minutes and then has about 6oz of formula before bed.
PLAYS: She's been crawling for the past month and it is crazy! She's soo fast and gets into everything!! She constantly tries to open the fireplace and has gotten into our avocado plant, ha. I took her to Bumble and Hive (a local play centre) and she loves it now that she's crawling! She's sooo close to pulling herself up on things.
HIGHS: Reading with her before naps and bed is my absolute favourite. She loves books, especially with lots of colourful pictures. She's also giving the BEST open mouth kisses.. Love my sweet girl so much.
LOWS: Last month she got a bad GI bug so that was not fun....and then came teething, a few days of a lot of crying. But she's honestly such a happy and easy baby.
PARENTING: Oh man, if you've seen my latest IG post, parenting a TWO year old has been so hard lately! But I've been reading this book and it's already been so insightful. London is a breeze right now (aside from the pic below, ha!!)
Taking them out by myself is a bit of an adventure as Luca likes to run and she likes to be on the move and then put everything in her mouth. But thankfully if I bring LOTS of snacks, it will occupy her or bribe him, ha.
WHAT I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO: Summer is hard because James works long days BUT we're living for the weekend. Lots of family time is my favourite!! Oh and I'm also looking forward to going to Van next month to see my bestie. TWO nights BABY FREE!!! I love my babies but I am SOOOO looking forward to some personal space LOLS!
Love ya!
Laura
SUMMER BUCKET LIST
Hello Summer!! I'm a little late on our Summer Bucket List BUT our weather here has recently been more like fall so I'm all confused and now craving a Pumpkin Spice Latte, ha!
Hello Summer!! I'm a little late on our Summer Bucket List BUT our weather here has recently been more like fall so I'm all confused and now craving a Pumpkin Spice Latte, ha!
Do you guys do bucket lists? I just looked over my Spring Bucket List and I'm happy to report that I checked off most things...except for the vegetable garden (mainly due to the fact that our yard is currently torn a part from perimeter drains and fence installation..but next year for the veggie garden!) AND running 5km...I've been on lots of hikes but haven't done a run in ages :(
My Summer Bucket list is a bit bittersweet because right after Summer, I head back to work! I'm obviously so excited to get back doing what I love but I will miss my babies LIKE CRAZY!
Here's what I'm hoping to cram in this Summer...
Our Summer Bucket List:
- Little getaway to Pender Island (CHECK! We did this a couple weeks ago and it was so fun!)
- Visit a Waterpark
- Visit Parksville, BC (we just booked 3 nights in early September. Some of our family is coming up too. I'm SO excited!!)
- Update Luca and London's Baby Books (I'm sooo bad about this. Need to get photos printed and update as much as I can!!)
- Stay at a hotel for our Wedding Anniversary (It will be our very first night away from both kids!! Any recommendations for a lovely place in Victoria, BC?)
- Summer Reading Club (I grew up doing the Summer Reading Club at my local library and it's still going on! Today I'm going to sign Luca and London up for it!!)
- Organize Built ins + Junk Drawer
- Budget update (Sadly, I have to adult as well this summer)
- Beach + Picnic as much as possible!
What's on your summer bucket list?
XO, Laura