Elsa updates!

My little baby is 15 and a half months and went in for her check up and a flu shot today. She's currently 19 pounds and 29 inches tall which puts her in the 15th percentile for height/weight ratio, meaning she's petite. Her doctor said that if she stays in that percentile until she's about two, it would mean she'll end up about 5'1" as an adult. Mini! He said it was very likely that she'll have a couple growth spurts in the next 9 months though and we'll re-predict her height then.

Because she hit her 29" mark, it means she is officially too big for her car seat now! Sad face. Look how she overflows:

I hopped on the internets though and did a little researching and decided to go with the same seat that Karen and Jerod chose for Jude. It's the Safety 1st Alpha Elite Convertible Car Seat. It was a good price, plus it has three modes. She can still rear face until she hits 35 pounds (the new recommendations are rear facing until they are 2 years old, we'll see how that goes), front face with the full cushions until she's 40 pounds, and then it becomes a booster until she's 100 pounds, or 17 years old. Whichever comes first. It's pretty sweet, and thanks to Amazon Prime, it'll be here on Tuesday before we take the road trip to San Jose!

On other developmental news, Elsie is cruising now! She walks all over the place, and I'd say it's about 40/60 walking to crawling as her mode of personal transport. It's really fun to see. She totally does the orangutan walk but is getting sturdier by the day. I'll try to post more videos up on the Tube, but I got one up today.

Okay, enough words. Pictures!

Elsa had a play date with Matt, Jana and Elmo the other day and they were so sweet to let her come home with him. He's only on loan until their baby is born, but Elsa is loving on him in the meantime. This was a sweet pic Matt took of them sharing a moment that I stole from his Instagram:

Jeff is all about the play dates during the day with Elsa. I think he gets lonely. These pictures are from Alex and Aikiko's home in the Hollywood Hills. I'm obsessed with that daybed by the huge window overlooking the canyon. Me and my Kindle would be very happy there.

Lynne made fun of Jeff's creepy modeling in the background, I think it's hilarious. He's making bedroom eyes at Alex in the picture above.

Bugging me at my desk while I'm trying to work. She's tall enough now to pull things off the desktop so all my washi tapes, my mouse, my little vase with billy buttons (shut up Lynne!), and my lovelydesign address file are all pushed to the middle.

Elsa sees me wearing head bands all the time and she tries to put them on herself, but ends up just balancing them on her head like a tiara. When I put them on her she thinks it's awesome and cracks up at herself in the mirror. I thought this tartan headband was lovely with her serious boxer sweater. Made her look more like a girl too.

Pumpkin patch!

This is Bandit, our neighbor Mark's chihuahua. Elsa is big on sharing right now, even her precious milk. And really, how cute is that shirt? I think it was a hand me down from Elena.

I love this one Jeff took of her at the Hotel Maya in Long Beach. The colors are so pretty and her eyes so innocent and wide. Totally hiding all of the diabolical plans running through her head...

A visit with Shalom!

We had a parenting fail the other day when both Jeff and I were booked with work meetings and forgot to arrange for childcare, but luckily for us, Mandy stepped up and took Elsie in. They had a fun little morning so to reciprocate, I offered to take Shalom on a slow Friday last week while Jeff and Mandy went it to RVCA. It was a little tricky for a half hour when Elsa refused to take her nap and Shalom refused to let me put her down, but they magically fell asleep at the same time and slept for over an hour! I worked on my iPad with Shalom snuggled on top of me until Elsa woke up and it was playtime.

I was in Elsa's room with Shalom on the rug and missy bolted out of the room and found her way to Shalom's car seat and helped herself to the pacifier. Not such a little baby anymore Elsa!

Thank God I had Tyr and Thor there to help me with the two babies. They actually did most of the babysitting while I read my Kindle.

Elsa was enamored with Shalom and liked her in this bouncy seat where she could blow raspberries on her toes.

 

Elsa was surprisingly gentle with Shalom, petting her feet and head softly, which kind of pissed me off because she's not like that with the cats and I thought it was because she doesn't have the motor control to be gentle. We're going to have to work on that.

 

They played happily on the floor for awhile together, Elsa pulling out every single toy she has while Shalom rolled around.

Here's Elsa trying to give Shalom the baby bottle:

Elsa kept burying Shalom in toys and I'd have to dig her out.

And after Shalom left... so sad!

I think Jeff needs to give this a test run, I'm sure he'd be able to handle the two babies just as well, if not better than me. Not that I'm trying to prepare Jeff for another baby, it's just a win-win. Mandy and Jeff get baby-free breaks and our kids don't develop only-child syndrome. Because no one wants that.

Congratulations Heidi and Joe!

Last night was our long awaited black tie affair, Joe and Heidi's wedding at Vibiana in downtown LA. Needless to say, it was a gorgeous wedding. So lah-tee-dah but also so quirky and personal and fun. They brought in so much of themselves to the wedding, and it was an honor to be a guest.

But let's rewind to the real main event- getting dressed up!! If you've been paying attention, I rented my gown from Rent The Runway which was SUCH a good experience. I can't recommend them more. I polled my peeps and the Badgley Mischka Meshing Around gown was the winner, so I ordered that one up in two sizes (for one price you get two dresses in two sizes to make sure one fits perfectly). Fast forward to the day before the dresses were set to arrive, I get a call from RTR saying that my back up size was no longer available and they were SO sorry and allowed me to choose any other gown as my back up, regardless of price. So HELLLLOOOO $2600 Arabian Sea gown! They arrive via UPS in a nice garment bag along with a little gift baggie of samples, including fashion tape which the teal gown needed. Such a nice bonus! The day after your event, you toss both dresses back in the padded pre-paid envelope they provide (the garment bag is yours to keep) and drop them off at the post office. Done and done. Easy, affordable, and so fun. DO IT. (But if you do, let me know and I'll send you an invite because then I get credits towards more rentals! And you know I need that gold sequin gown...)

So anyways, I'm all thumbs when it comes to doing my hair, and somehow a messy ponytail bun and pompadour bangs didn't feel right for this occasion, so I treated myself and got my hairs did at Surrender Salon with my girl Josie. Lynne was there and took pictures.

I should take a picture of the pile of 57 bobby pins that were in that updo but I'm too lazy to get up. If Jeff and I ever become millionaires, I'm hiring a personal hair stylist to live with me and do my hair every day like Ken Paves and Jessica Simpson. It was great.

On to the dresses! The Alberta Ferretti Arabian Sea gown was definitely my favorite, I loved it so much, but it just wasn't right for this wedding. I matched Jeff better in the black gown, plus this was pretty attention grabbing, which I'm kind of shy about. Maybe for another fancy pants event when I don't have a big zit on my back. It was fun to have it on for a few minutes though.

The back is so pretty. I love the deep V and the one long sleeve. The dress was kind of crazy short though which was weird. Still looked good with my nude Jessica Simpson heels though.

I was a big fan of the draping in the front too. So fashionable.

And here we are all spiffed up in our chosen outfits. Lynne took a bunch of pictures but we were dumb and only did them in one room where the light was way too bright. None of us are photographers. Oh well. These ones will do. I also could not use quite a few because my husband is 16 and likes to make faces at the camera. Sigh.

By the way, these heels are also the Jessica Simpson Abrianas. They are amazing. Perfectly rounded toe, one inch platform, and the perfect thickness heel. They were very comfortable. Much more so than the teal Badgley Mischka's that I sadly had to return because they were impossible to walk in. BUT, for the price of those, I got both pairs of these! Every girl needs a great pair of black and nude heels. It really makes me realize though the height disparity between Jeff and I. Look how much taller he still is, despite my 5-6 inch heels!

 And because Roger requested the Angelina leg shot, here you go:

And the Mom Angelina pose:

So we get to Vibiana, which is gorgeous, and first thing we see is their wedding Be@rbrick. I think Jeff was tempted to grab it and run.

Is it just me, or are those penises on the gates? 

Vibiana is all Carrera marble and churchy chic, so their orchid arrangements that were the size of an overstuffed armchair fit in perfectly. The other arrangements (Mandy) were pale pink roses and hydrangeas. Very pretty.

Here we are geeking out before the ceremony. This was just a distraction to keep me from taking pictures of their famous guests. I won't name drop here though because that's tacky. (Jin from Lost!)

And the happily newly married couple! Check out Heidi's orchid bouquet! HUGE!

Oops, out of order, but again- lazy. Her dress was beautiful, so princessy. Huge skirt and a really long veil. Really elegant.

That veil continued for like another 13 feet.

I told Mandy I was bringing home all of these orchid arrangements after the wedding, but sadly we had to leave on the earlier side to relieve the babysitter and I was a little self conscious trying to steal one of these and tie it to the roof of our Mazda.

These were the table centerpieces, so cool! Be@rbricks and flowers, on top of a gold and white sequin chevron tablecloth. Fancy!

And the wedding cake! Jana could have done this, no problem. Would have been a cake walk for her. Got that?! It made R2D2 noises and had a glowing light and the head spun too. It was delicious too. Dulce de leche was the slice I got, with a buttercream frosting. Yum.

Our wedding favors were mini Be@rbricks in these boxes. Guess who got mine? (And in case you're curious, the F stands for fish, not female which I thought at first. Andy had a B and I assumed it was for boy, when in fact it was beef. I'm hella smart.)

Party time! The reception was in the same hall the ceremony was in, but blue lights made it seem much cooler.

Andy and I were table mates. He's hilarious.

And I swear, about 94% of the girls at this wedding were wearing black, but it just so happened our 4 girlfriends there that I'm posing with were the colorful ones. I wish Rose's heels came out in this picture (she's all the way to the left). They were glitter and awesome.

So that's it! Back to our boring regular people lives now...

And the winner is....

Mesh sleeves and the thigh slit!! Thank you all for voting. You royally screwed with my head this week, making me only able to think of sequins, teal silk, and the Angelina leg pose. The Badgley Mischka meshing around gown received the most votes, after consulting with my hair stylist, Jeff, and you, my dear blog readers.

When weighing all the factors of color, time of the wedding, comfort, and rental price, this one was the best choice. But I still long to wear gold sequins so I think I'm going to make Jeff take us somewhere fancy every year for our anniversary so I can dress up like it's prom again. So stay tuned for the gold sequins because HELL YES they're coming.

Until then, for Joe and Heidi's wedding, I'll be meshing around in this gown and THESE HEELS!!!

Gorgeous, right? I had to get them. I think I'm obsessed with B.M. now. I never would have thought. These are perfect, in many respects. One, the height will be great with the dress, the slit, and my 6' tall husband standing next to me. Two, the platform makes the height tolerable. Three, the feathers. C'mon. So cute. Those damn Siameezers better stay away from them. And four, the color! They will be perfect with this dress (and duh, of course I'm going to make Jeff's tie match my shoes), and even MORE perfect for Matthew and Kelly's wedding! She's weaving a lot of that peacock blue/teal into their wedding, and her girls are all wearing that color, but since I'm on Matthew's side, we're wearing gray. I have a cute little grey silk J. Crew number I'll be gussied up in but these heels will coordinate me nicely with the ladies I think. Kelly?? Stamp of approval?

Lynne is so graciously going to come over for the pre-wedding events, to watch Elsa and take a ton of pictures of us all pretty, so I'll be posting those soon after. Glamour shots!!

Two more options!

Thanks for voting on the dresses readers! I especially love that you weighed in on them Roger. I needed a man's opinion. And I think I'm leaning towards the meshy sleeves. As much as I agree with Brooke and Lynne's recommendation to go big or go home with the sequins, I'd be mortified if everyone was wearing short black dresses and I show up in a full gown of silver sequins. I'm not ballsy enough to pull that off. Yet. 

Another little tidbit that might make a difference, is that the wedding starts at 5:00pm, so it'll still be light out and I kind of think sequin gowns are a nighttime only indulgence. Right? I am just making up these rules?

Anyways, I found two more today that are contenders. A short navy blue Monique Lhuillier and a stunning teal satin Alberta Ferretti. The AF one is $2595!! Rental price for me is $150 which is more than I wanted to spend, but when am I EVER going to wear a $2600 gown?? My wedding dress wasn't even like 1/10th that. Here they are:

Ooh... look at the back... I like the scalloping in the lace too. So Monique.

I mean seriously. Come on. The long sleeve and that back line? So pretty. And that teal is the same color I want to paint our living room!! This one takes balls too though. The color alone...

The polls remain open. You may vote twice.

Forgotten memory card pictures

I plugged in my memory card in my laptop the other day to pull off a scanned document and found a few pictures from when my parents were visiting us. Not that long ago but Elsie looks so much younger!