First Year Comparison: Annabelle & Josephine

So many people these days make fun of parents who choose to document their baby's first year with monthly photos. To that I say... why does anyone care? I am so glad I decided to capture these moments with both of my daughters. It's amazing to see how they compared to each other at each stage and also how incredibly different they are!

Annabelle was born weighing in at 6 pounds 3 ounces, while Josephine weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces at birth... though hospital staff said she probably weighed at least a full pound more than she should have because I was on fluids for so long during labor.

Annabelle weighed 18-ish pounds on her first birthday, while Josephine was 22-ish pounds on hers. They were both breastfed (though Annabelle only took bottles), and it is just so fascinating to me. Annabelle wore 6 month clothes at a year, while Josephine is in 12 month clothing. Clothes fit Josephine better too - her body fills them out, whereas Annabelle was so skinny (still is, really) that pants especially fit her really oddly.

Both of my babies have been tall - 85%+ each in height! I'm 5'8", and Dan is 6'0", so I guess they're just destined to be tall humans.

I can't wait to see how they continue to be alike and different over the years!

If you have more than one kid, are they more similar or different?

Introducing... Baby Cookie #2!

Well, I'm only a whole MONTH late making this announcement... but our beautiful second daughter made her appearance on November 21st! We've been a little (ha!) busy since then moving across the country (more on that later), so I'll just leave you with this for now!

Welcome to the world, Josephine Jayne! We are so glad we get to be your parents and that we got an extra 20 days with you... if pre-eclampsia is good for anything, it's extra snuggles! :)

Mother's Day Gifts for the Grandmas

Yes, I know I'm basically two entire months behind, but I am playing some SERIOUS catch-up. It seems like I go through spurts with this little blog of mine... I either take a few weeks off completely or post a ton of posts all at once. I'm trying to be more consistent, as usual, but life happens.

We actually told my family about Baby Cookie 2.0 on Easter! We had Annabelle wear a BIG SIS shirt that we made for her (and I somehow have exactly ZERO pictures of her wearing it that day because we told them, ate Easter dinner, and then quickly changed to head out to the Royals game... oops!), so I decided to make them a little something special and ship it to them for Mother's Day.

I found this idea on Etsy, but it was from a seller in another country, so the shipping was really expensive. I decided to try to make my own, and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I knew I wouldn't be able to top last year's mason jar photo frames, but those were FAR more work intensive... I love mine, but I can't say I'll ever make another.

Do you make DIY gifts for Mother's Day, or are you more of a traditional gift buyer / giver?