For the Techie Baby...

It so hard to know what to get babies and toddlers for Christmas sometimes. With so many different people shopping for baby girl, we know she's bound have more clothes and toys that even the hautest baby actually needs, so last Christmas we got her an iPod! And now that she's a bit bigger, she loves it. She listens to the lullabies and looks at our family pictures as she goes down for a nap and now she's starting to even use a few of the baby apps out there. So what's the perfect accessory for baby's iPod? A Fisher Price Apptivity Case!

What a great to keep it protected and give baby something new to play with/chew on all in one!

It's Black Friday!

Like so many others, I'm completely satisfied to stay tucked in at home today and wait for Cyber Monday! I'm not sure there's a sale big enough to get me out there today if the words "Free Gucci" aren't involved! But, Brandi Pitts Photography has a sale worth checking today, until midnight only. Happy Shopping!!

Black Friday Sale: email brandi@brandipitts.com to purchase. First come first serve. All sale offers end midnight 11.25.11

 $300 off any Bundle: (2 of each bundle will be sold at sale price )

simply{growing} bundle   $600    today only $300

wonderfully{growing} bundle $800   today only $500

maternity + newborn+ 3,6,9,12  $1100  today only $800

Buy 1 Get 1 (A total of 5 will be sold, limit one per customer.)

Buy one regular session fee and get a second free. You could use them as your Spring & Fall sessions, or keep one and gift  the other!

50% off Image Collections: 

Purchase for 2011 session or future sessions. (limit 1 per session)

  4×6 Image Collection   $150  today only $75

  1 4×6 of each image in your gallery

  5×7 Image Collection  $200  today only $100

  1 5×7 of each image in your gallery

Christmas Time is Here! (almost)

I love love love this time of year. I look for any excuse in the world for anything Christmas-y, so now that we have a sweet little baby (toddler) running around, I'm in search of sweet stuff for her. One of my fav websites is Chasing Fireflies and they have the sweetest Christmas PJ's and even personalized slippers to match! Look how cute!!

Baby girl loves running around in these little slippers almost as much as I love watching!

Dior-able

That title, "Diorable", I saw on a tiny little t-shirt long before my sweet girl came along. I've searched literally everywhere to find one for her, but it was literally years ago so I guess I'll just have to be content using it as a title (as often as possible!)
A friend sent me this link because it made her think of us, (LOVE that Dior makes anybody think of me :), and I just had to share it! How beautiful!

For anyone reading who may still be stuck for ideas for baby girl's first birthday, this would work just fine! Or if your shopping for your own sweet girl, this adorable set is available, and on sale, right now at Neiman Marcus!

Sweet Spot For Slumber

I love celebrities. I love the gossip, the "steal this look", just all of it, which made me excited to see this:

Just look at this gorgeous little crib by Bratt Decor that Jewel chose for her sweet baby boy. It's the same one my little angel sleeps in every night, but because it's so versatile, it looks completely different in a baby boy's room. This crib comes with four-posters to add on and a canopy as well, so it really will fit well into any design! Oh what a sweet spot for any baby's slumber, this crib is available at my fav local spot, Plaid Rabbit, or online.

Nanny Pickle!!!!!!

Yes, there are a lot of things I say I "love". I know this. That's ok.
Nanny Pickle qualifies as something I "love, love"! Their sweet baby things are ultra soft organic cotton and bamboo, quirky designs and sweet colors. I adore the fun sayings like "Good Bunny, Bad Bunny" and a recent favorite purchased for Baby Girl's nephew, "Giraffes shouldn't ride in hot air balloons"!

Just. So. Sweet.

And a little bit hard to find, I find which is why I was so thrilled to see it on zulily yesterday! Go, be a good bunny, check it out, get some for your sweet little one or as a gift for someone else's!

Sweet Shop, Sweet Nursery

As I've mentioned before, my favorite baby shop is hands down Plaid Rabbit. I simply love everything in the store, which is probably why I've basically ended with a "satellite" shop right in our home!

There are lots of places online you can buy just about any and everything you can possibly need or want for a baby of course, but there's just something about walking into a store, seeing and feeling what you want rather than just click, click, click, done. Here are a few of my fav things for a haute nursery:

Chandelier: It doesn't have to be fancy or flashy, just something that gives a tiny bit of extra personality to the space! We put ours on a dimmer switch so it also works perfectly as Baby Girl's little nightlight and I can just barely brighten it if I need to go into her room! This one is by Maura Daniel.

 Crib: Ok, so this obviously isn't an "accessory" like lighting, but might as well have it as sweet as possible! I'm big on iron cribs right now and Bratt Decor seems to be fitting everyone's idea of perfect!

Bedding: Because I am such a "girly girl" I love pink, frills, etc...Lula Smith is, in my opinion, the Louis Vuitton of baby bedding. Love it.

All of these beauties along with lots of sweet, one of a kind furniture can be found at...Plaid Rabbit! Visit their celebration this weekend!

Haute Painting

Long before we were even expecting Baby Girl, I knew just the nursery I wanted. It was all planned out in my head right down to the tiniest of details...and then I walked into my fav baby spot, Plaid Rabbit, and it all changed!

My thoughts of bright colors and modern touches quickly dissolved as I instantly fell in love with full wall murals, sweet pale pink walls and iron cribs. That's kind of a lot to talk about in one post, so I'll just start with my favorite:the walls!

I often have creative ideas, but the execution is usually dreadful so it was wonderful when I met Leigh Ann Agee who could take all my thoughts, make sense of them and change then them into something wonderful! The work she did on Baby Girl's walls is so incredible that I'm not sure I could imagine a nursery being complete without at least a little something special from her talented hands!

Beautiful Ceiling Mural

These are just a couple of the oh so sweet scenes for which she's become famous. Check out her website www.leighannarto.com for a beautiful selection of her work, or better yet, meet her on Thursday night at Plaid Rabbit's Grand Re-Opening for Cupcakes & Cocktails!

Photos by Brandi Pitts Photography

Cake!

Not that kind of cake! Maybe I'm just not as "in" the baby loop as I'd like to be, but I didn't know until recently that Petunia Pickle Bottom had this other line called "Cake"!

A very sweet friend sent me a fabulous PPB diaper bag before Baby Girl's arrival and I have loved it! Sometimes a mom just doesn't feel like dragging around a big "look at me, I'm a diaper bag" diaper bag and PPBs definitely fit the bill on those days! On top of being adorable, they are super functional, too.

But, anyway, back to "Cake"! I discovered them on a visit to my favorite local baby shop, The Plaid Rabbit. 

I mean, really, I can totally imagine one of these with a Jackie O outfit, big sunglasses and adorable baby!

Saks Sale!

I sometimes have mixed emotions when my fav websites like Saks or Bloomingdales have a sale. On one hand, I can't wait to shop. On the other, I hold my breath really hoping nothing I've already bought is on there. Although I tend to find things I want and stalk them until they are more obtainable, sometimes I bite the bullet, especially with Baby Girl things. Such was the case with this adorable Burberry dress, now on sale at Saks.

Oh well, at least she looked super haute all spring!

Diamonds Are A {baby} Girl's Best Friend!

I have found it so difficult to know what to give Baby Girl for some of the first milestones in her life. There isn't anything under the sun that she needs, a baby can only have so many toys, and honestly all of her "firsts" are so special, we want her to have sweet keepsakes rather than just "stuff".

After struggling with this quite a bit for her first Christmas, we decided on giving her something that she could keep forever and will hopefully always be special for her. Thoughtful keepsakes like this for first birthdays, Christmases, Baptisms, Christenings, etc I think are just so much more meaningful than a toy or clothes and don't necessarily have to be expensive. Of course,  a little of sparkle does help!

"Baby's First Diamonds"

Any little girl would be thrilled to grow up and have something like this sweet sparkler from 

Tiffany & Co!

Burberry, Baby!

With the start of summer, birthdays and just playing with Baby Girl, I've gotten off track a bit, but the arrival of this super adorable little dress has put me right back in tune with keeping my little tot haute!

I mean, seriously, how cute is this??!! I'm thinking it will be perfect for late summer and with a cute little jacket over top will work into early fall. Oh how thankful I am for Bloomies!

Haute Couture-Baby Style

Some of my favorite clothes for our Baby Girl have been things we've found on trips. I have mixed feelings about this because I like her having cute clothes that are a bit different than everything else I see at home, but I also wish I had a little shop to just pop into to get them!

My first introduction of my now favorite brand was in London before Christmas. I spotted the brightest, most wonderful little dress I'd ever seen (in Baby Girl's short 10 week life) and snatched it up to bring home. I tucked it away in the 12 month section of her closet for the fall and didn't think of it again. Then in Vail the next month we were shopping at Kidsport (the BEST shop in Vail, hands down) and we picked up another super cute dress (and on the next trip two coats, a couple of hats, another dress, you get the picture). And would you believe when I tucked all of these beauties into her closet I realized they were the same designer as my London find?! So obviously I have a new obsession favorite: Catimini.  They're designs are fun, colorful and French. Need I say more?!

Why none of the sweet shops in my hometown sell this designer I will never know, but thankfully I can survive off the Kidsport website and bide my time 'til ski season comes around again to visit and stock up on another three seasons worth of sweetness! I mean, look at these bright colors. I can't imagine any baby or mama not being happy looking at this all day!

 Photos by Brandi Pitts Photography

Another Adorable Ride!

So as soon I posted about Baby Girl's sweet stroller, I thought there must be something out there equally adorable and perfect unisex or sweet baby boys. I immediately went to Amazon and Look!

It's a Beatle's Yellow Submarine "buggy"!!! Perfect any tot of a haute rock n roll mama and daddy! And not to forget those sweet little cold toes, there's a footmuff for this one, too!

Hmmm, how many strollers are too many for one little girl?

High Maintenance Baby's Juicy Ride

When my husband calls Baby Girl and me high maintenance, I (among others) usually point out to him there's a reason we're this way: him!

Last year on Mother's Day, he was so excited about my gift that he gave it to me at around 4 AM during one of the many preggo potty breaks I had during the night (he did the same thing this year, but that's another post).  We had been all over the place trying to decide on the perfect stroller for out sweet Baby Girl and I had been completely in love with the Juicy Couture for Maclaren stroller since well before she even existed. I had looked at it several times and been told by several that it was just "impractical". Oh how wrong they were!

First of all, just tell me this isn't the cutest stroller you've ever seen:

And secondly, it's SO practical! It comes a rain cover that snaps right on and totally encloses Baby Girl; leave it to a British company to include that. It folds up oh so easily and compact that if necessary, it can go in the floorboard of a backseat! And you can get this sweet little footmuff to keep her nice and warm.

We used this stroller, footmuff and raincover in both London and Vail in the winter and Baby Girl stayed completely dry and toasty warm. Why can't someone just get a clue and make one of these for mamas, too?!

And don't forget a bag to store the stroller in when traveling! This red one is bright enough that the airline shouldn't lose it! Hopefully!

Haute Memories

I know so far I've just really been talking about "stuff". But even a high maintenance mama knows that stuff is the least important part of having a sweet baby.  When she's long grown out of her nursery, her toys, her sweet little dresses only the memory of this time will remain. Well, the memory and the photos!

For this mama, the 40 weeks I was preggo with Baby Girl was the absolute most special time I had had in my life to that point. I'm sure it sounds nuts, but from the very beginning I absolutely couldn't wait to have my baby bump! After years of exercise and keeping it all "sucked" in, I couldn't wait to let my belly hang out at the beach. Couldn't wait until I could balance a bowl of popcorn on it. You get the picture! During my pregnancy, I felt the best I've ever felt and was just absolutely blissfully happy each and every day. All of this brings me to something I had so much fun doing and am so glad my husband and I took part in: bump pictures!

My hubby wasn't too keen on the thoughts of the pics and even asked to not be in many of them, but once her saw them, he was so glad we did them. Especially now, looking back, even though it was just last year, it's so nice to almost see how we were feeling at that point.

So obviously if I'm going to say that bump pics are important, you can only imagine my thoughts on baby pics! Oh yeah, we have LOTS of baby pics! We were so thankful to be able to have Brandi Pitts with us at the hospital the day Baby Girl arrived. We had already formed a good relationship with her from the bump pics and by the time the baby was here, she already felt like a friend so it wasn't intrusive at all to have her there with us.  She just kind of hid in the corner while we snuggled and cuddled our new bundle, completely oblivious to her even being there. It wasn't until a couple of weeks later when we were looking at our photos that I was able to remember some of those moments that I had already forgotten during the rush of Baby Girl's first few hours.

Since Baby Girl's arrival, we've had newborn, 3 month and 6 month photo sessions with Brandi. I truly feel so blessed to be able to keep up with the changes and milestones from each session. We will continue to have photos taken every 3 months until her first birthday. At that point, my husband says we'll do photos once a year, but I say that's still negotiable. I mean, I don't plan to have 96 month photos taken of her, but as long as she changing so quickly, I want these changes captured!

I suppose to this point, this may the topic I feel strongest about. You don't have to spend a ton of money or have your walls plastered with baby photos (not that that's a bad thing...our house is now a gallery), but at least find someone who knows how to work a camera well and take those sweet pics of your sleeping newborn, your smiling 6 month old, etc because believe me, when that sweet sleeping newborn is big enough to splash in the dog's water, crawl faster than you can walk and sneeze green peas all over the kitchen table you'll want to remember it!

This Mama's Sleepy Baby Must Haves

It didn't take too long at all after Baby Girl came along to realize that, although nice, it isn't lotions, potions or creams that keep a mama in good condition after baby. It isn't work outs, although they are wonderful. It isn't special diets or nice clothes. It's sleep! After a few sleepless nights in a row once we came home from the hospital with Baby Girl, I decided maybe we would test out a gift one of my husband's coworkers had given us, the Woombie. At first, I thought there was no way I could possibly zip my sweet baby into such a thing. But at 3 AM on the third sleepless night in a row, this mama was ready to do just about anything to get just a few zzzz's so I settled her down and zipped her up. And she slept the rest of the night. The next night, I thought maybe I'd try it from the beginning. And she slept for about 4 hours before waking up hungry. We never looked back, and I know it isn't typical, but my sweet Baby Girl has been consistently sleeping straight through the night since she was about 5 weeks old! Our very first 8 hour night came when she was 2 weeks 6 days old. I will never forget the sheer panic when I woke in the morning and saw first the clock then the baby monitor. Of course she was just fine, sleeping like a little angel and looking like a little gloworm!

Something else I learned nearly immediately we wouldn't be able to live without is our video monitor. I think it must be natural for all new mamas to kind of jump out of bed when sweet baby cries, always fearing the worst! For me, I just knew Baby Girl was wonder baby and had thrown herself from her crib into the floor at 4 weeks old or that someone had crept into her second-floor locked windows and was trying to steal her. I mean, who wouldn't want to steal the most perfect baby God has ever created, right?! It was and is still so nice to be able to just look over at the nightstand and see that she's okay without having to wait a whole 30 seconds it takes me to get to her nursery. I know there are several different kinds, but this is ours. I truly don't think I could live without it even now that she's bigger. It really is so much fun to watch what she's doing when she thinks only the bunny rabbit can see.

                                              

The last thing that I have found to be really useful is a thermometer in the nursery. Not because I can't tell the difference between hot and cold, but because everyone else likes to give you advice about the temp of the nursery. I can't count the number of times I was told her room was just too cold. Her grandparents complained, her great-grandparents complained and sometimes even her wonderful Daddy swore that I was keeping our house way too cold for a newborn. I didn't get it because I thought I was wrong, but because I was tired of all the chatter about the temp! Now I can just point to the little egg in the corner when someone shares an opinion on the temperature of Baby Girl's room. And sometimes quietly say "I told you so"!

Organic Baby's Haute Palate

As I've said before, I'm a high maintenance mama, but nobody's palate can be as high maintenance as my husband's! He has many thoughts on just exactly how good food should taste and he's never shy about sharing those thoughts. The same goes for Baby Girl's food!

Now that she's nearly 8 months old, she obviously on "solids" now in addition to milk. I homemade most all of her stage 1 foods from fresh organic veggies, but now that she's moved into stage 2 and more adventurous mixtures, I've found what I truly believe to be the perfect baby food.

Plum Organics are some of the most interesting combinations. Baby Girl love loves the purple carrots, blueberries and pears mixture as well as the spinach, peas and pears. She gets so excited when I bring our those pouches!

I love that they are all-natural organics with no artificial preservatives, which should probably be my biggest reason for loving them, but have you seen the adorable Boon spoons that screw directly onto the pouch? Hello wonderful! 

Not only are they super cute, but so easy to keep a couple of pouches and spoons in the diaper bag for picnics at the park, emergency meals in the car and so many other times!

I first found the yummy pouches at Toys R US. The Boon spoons are available at Amazon, as well as all of the Plum organics.