welcome to amateur hour

dear hadley, starting a baby blog 17-months deep does not make the most sense in the world, but I figure better late than never. so, sorry baby girl, i’m trying my best here. xoxo.

 

for any strangers {friends} peeking in on this little blog, allow me to introduce myself. i’m jessica, a sahm to the sweetest {and sometimes the crankiest} little girl, hadley. my husband jon and i sort of stumbled upon our dream house over the summer in leander, texas. we’ve settled in hardcore with no plans to move anytime soon.

i used to work in downtown austin for a real estate developer. i left my job 6 months after my baby was born. the long commutes and the late hours were just more than my mama heart could handle.

i also had a brief stint in furniture restoration. while my refinishing business was fairly successful, it left me with a bad back {the lifting, the pulling} and zero relaxing weekends with my little family. my cooperative husband never complained, but i knew we needed to leave that venture behind. 
 

however, it did spawn my highchair rental business {aka- the date night fund}. I have several antique chairs refinished in fun colors. atx locals can rent them out for 1^st birthday parties, cake smashes and photo props. there’s a link to the left if you want to check it out!

now i spend my days willing a toddler to try green beans and attending {refereeing- because my child has a sharing issue} playdates. we go to the grocery store approximately 678932748932 times per week because i’m terrible at meal planning. i spend have half of hadley’s naptime paralyzed by indecision over whether I should vacuum {a futile effort with the massive yellow lab that shacks up with us} or tackle a mountain of laundry comprised of 500 tiny socks in every imaginable shade of pink.

 

for as mundane and un-spectacular as this lifestyle sounds, there is something quite magical about it all. it’s hard for me to explain, but it is entirely fulfilling.


raising good humans, it’s probably the best business around. 

and there is some special brand of magic reserved for the moment dad walks through the door every night.

 

last week my mom brought over a couple of pages from her journal {february 1988}. the words she wrote about me {at 18 months} literally took my breath away. i swear, i could have written this myself.

“i want her to have a good life and grow up to be a nice person and someday know what it’s like to have a child and love them so dearly. i really cannot put into words how it feels to hold her soft body and smell her sweet hair or watch her run across the yard in the sunshine with her hair golden blowing in the wind and pink cheeks, smiling all the way."

these three pages, they are so special to me. i want that for hadley. so here’s to new-era journaling. i’m also overly sentimental/nostalgic/weird/whatever about everything that belongs to hadley so i’ll be sharing my mad love for tiny human clothes and useful baby {toddler} gear on here. i hate being preachy, but i’m always eager to share things that have worked for her and for our family. this is the perfect outlet.

the pajamas? they are hands-down my favorite brand, kickee pants. the material is unbelievably soft and they hold up really well, like 6 months+. i know kids pajamas are supposed to fit nice and snug, but unless you’re wanting to show off your baby’s wicked ripped abs you should probably size up.



make no mistake though, my mom tribe can firmly attest to the fact that I am no mothering expert. #bffp {barely fit for parenthood}

note: my best friend, kelly with mint photography, took these amazing photos in about 10 minutes. she’s a stellar wedding photographer, but also has this incredible ability to make ordinary, everyday life look dreamy and blissful. which it is! but sometimes, like when your kid chokes on a cookie in h-e-b and throws up all over the coffee aisle and you know only have 3 wipes left so you just abandon ship {except the kid, you do take the kid}, life doesn’t seem so blissful and dreamy.

anyway, i’m rambling. point is, if you’re looking to do a day-in-the-life family session, you must contact kelly. she is the best.