Caprese Frittata and Friendship

December 12, 2018 ~ atastytrip ~ 1 Comment

Happy Holidays! I can’t believe it’s December…and that I only have a 10 month old for one more week. That means I will have an 11 month old for only one month and then boom…my baby is a year old and not such a baby any longer. Insert all the crying emojis.

10 months has been the most fun yet. Considering it has coincided with the winter holiday season it has also been the busiest yet. Amelia is now crawling and starting to pull up and clapping and pointing and doing some baby signs and eating EVERYTHING…all in the last month. I am equal parts proud of all the new developments, excited for the things to come and nostalgic for the days that we first brought her home from the hospital and I didn’t quite know what to do with her. Those days sure don’t seem like almost 11 months ago. And back then I couldn’t imagine being where I am now. Time is funny like that.

A few weeks ago Amelia and I had a visit from my two best friends from college, Anna and Michelle. They are also some of my favorite traveling companions as you’ll remember from Maine, Canada and even as far back as China!

The three of us lived together our last two years of college and they are some of my very favorite people who hold some of my very favorite memories. Lots has changed since those days, but when we are all together its just the same as it always was. This visit was extra special because not only was it the first time the three of us have all been together again since we went to Maine, but they also got to meet and spend more time with Amelia! Seeing your best friends loving your children is pretty incredible.

Our visit was low key and just right. We went to dinner, lounged around the house, took Amelia shopping, ate chili and watched football and did lots of watching the baby in anticipation of her starting to crawl. Despite Anna and Michelle’s best efforts to teach her she still waited another week or two to start. A for effort guys!

I ended that weekend with a profound sense of appreciation for old friendships. I am always thankful for the wonderful people I get to call friends, but lately I have been overcome with the knowledge of just how precious my female friendships are. I exchanged Christmas presents last night with my two best friends here, Justice and Lindsay. I ended the evening with a profound sense of appreciation for new friendships too. Justice and Lindsay made Hilton Head finally feel like “home” and I cherish the time we spend together. Reuniting with Anna and Michelle also feels like coming home. I always say I would rather be with Robert than anyone else in the world, and I would, but the older I get, especially in this season of new motherhood, the more I realize that time with these girls is also necessary to my health and happiness. How lucky I am to have all four of them and a few other wonderful women who also fall into this category ❤

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Life Lately

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 ~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Well, it’s been long enough since my last post that I just had to re-read the whole thing to remember what I wrote about. So in case it isn’t obvious…my goal of writing more than one post a month post baby clearly hasn’t happened yet. Baby steps. Literally.

Life is different. Getting a little more ~~normal~~ new normal everyday but oh so different. And for the record, new normal means I have realized that I have so much less control than I once imagined, and that as soon as I think I know the “schedule”, it changes. What is it they say? The only constant in life is change. Changing schedules and changing diapers. Welcome to evening mom-brain.

At about two months old Amelia started sleeping through the night, and now at a little over three months old we are still going strong…which is amazing! Especially for a breastfed baby, apparently? She’s always been a great sleeper so it’s definitely not anything we’ve done. I’m going to chalk it up to luck and cross my fingers that this is one aspect of the ever changing “schedule” that does not change.

Amelia Kicks — Please keep sleeping my sweet girl

And lest I misrepresent my baby and lead you to believe shes perfect and so easy, she isn’t. Well…she IS perfect to me of course. I think she is a good baby, and a normal baby, but not necessarily an ‘easy’ baby. She is a fantastic sleeper but when she is awake she is very alert and likes a lot of stimulation. This means she does NOT like to be laid down on a play mat or left to her own devices for more than a few minutes. She likes to be held, in front of your body so that she can see and be a part of everything you are doing. I think she has got serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out for the non-millennials ). I HOPE this means shes going to be one smart cookie one day, but I KNOW it means it is very hard to get things done during the day. Sleeping through the night means her naps are brief and there is really only so much you can do efficiently with one hand the rest of the time.

Amelia Smiles — Don’t let this angelic face fool you

So life is different. I use a lot more dry shampoo, do a lot more laundry and have become really skilled at reaching into the backseat to find and replace pacifiers while driving.

But it’s getting more normal. Continue reading →

Amelia Grace

February 15, 2018February 15, 2018 ~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a little over a month since my last post. And in just a few days I’ll have a baby girl that is one month old. Hard to believe is an understatement. People always say the time goes so quickly when you have children, boy is that ever true. It seems like both yesterday and a lifetime ago that I was making lactation cookies and wondering if I’d be pregnant forever.

As my OB told me many times, no one is pregnant forever. Amelia Grace came right on her due date, my friends laughed that she was so punctual, unlike her mother who habitually runs a few minutes (or more than a few) late. I won’t bore you with a birth story but we arrived at the hospital around 8:30 and at 8:03 that evening, there was our baby girl.

She is pretty perfect, although I am definitely biased.

And if you asked me that during one of her inconsolable, rough periods (luckily we only have about one of these a day) I might change my tune just slightly.

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A Winter Wonderland Shower <3 & Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi!

December 22, 2017 ~ atastytrip ~ 2 Comments

Merry almost Christmas! Wow, the holidays seem to come quicker every year and with the baby due so close to the new year this Christmas has really snuck up on me! We’ve officially got less than 4 weeks til baby and I am not so sure I feel prepared yet. I have yet to pack a hospital bag or get the carseat out of the box but thanks to two fabulous baby showers, we have got a beautiful (almost done!) nursery and plenty of baby gear!

My sister threw me a darling baby shower in TN over Thanksgiving and just a few weeks later I was lucky enough to be treated to a second shower at home in HHI by my sweet Aunt Vanessa. The theme was Winter Wonderland and it could not have been more beautiful.

Hostess with the Mostest

Mother and Sister in Law

Mom, and sweet details everywhere!

I aspire to entertain as well as Vanessa does someday as she truly outdoes herself with each event! The food was to die for, a beautiful brunch spread complete with a low country shrimp and grits station and egg cups with caviar!

The decor was beautiful and the little details, like this sweet Christmas tree and the elephants tucked away everywhere were absolutely precious!

I knew with Vanessa at the helm that the shower would be wonderful, but it truly couldn’t have been more perfect.

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30th Birthday in the Big Apple: New York Part 1

September 22, 2017September 22, 2017 ~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Now that it’s in writing I guess I am officially 30! I’ve said it out loud plenty over the last month but this must be the first time I’ve actually typed it out because it looks so ~~old~~ odd!

Robert’s family always makes a big deal out of celebrating birthdays and I am lucky that he has passed that on and makes sure that I feel special and celebrated each year. I met Robert a few months shy of my 21st birthday. We hadn’t had the DTR (defining the relationship) talk before I left for Las Vegas with my girlfriends to celebrate finally being legal. Upon checking into our hotel I learned that Robert had surprised me with a day at the hotel spa the morning after I turned 21. It was such a thoughtful gift and I returned from that trip with an “official boyfriend”. It also kicked off a long line of very sweet and special birthdays (except for the one fluke year where he forgot to get me a card and we ate McDonalds for lunch…but we don’t talk about that 😉 and this year was no exception.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, dinner with friends is always nice and a party (while pregnant) didn’t sound too fun so we decided to take a trip. I hadn’t been to New York City in years and Robert hadn’t been since he was in middle school so we decided it would make for a perfect long weekend. In true crazy planner fashion I started our itinerary right away. There were LOTS of sights I wanted to see, but more so there were LOTS of places I wanted to eat (I mean what else is a pregnant girl supposed to look forward to on vacation?). If you are planning a trip to the city I highly recommend you start following a few NYC Food Instagram accounts but prepare for your mouth to water.

We flew out on Thursday and arrived in NYC around noon, just in time for lunch! Of everything I wanted to try, I was the most excited about trying soup dumplings or Xiao Long Bao. I tried a giant soup dumpling once when I was in China but couldn’t wait to try the cute little ones I’d seen all over instagram (and that aren’t available in any restraurants anywhere near where I live 😦

We wet to Pinch Chinese on Prince Street, a menu I had scoped out well ahead of time and couldn’t wait to order one of everything from. Much to my dismay, they weren’t serving the snow crab over glass noodles for lunch, so we opted for pork soup dumplings, beef pan fried dumplings and Shrimp and Pork Wontons which come in the most delicious broth. EVERYTHING was delicious, highly recommend, A+++. Everything we didn’t order that I saw others around us eating looked delicious too. If we return to NYC anytime soon we will definitely be making another visit to Pinch, preferably at dinner so I can get my hands on those crab noodles.