I'm A Disney Vacation Planner! - Special Offer -

Friends! I'm excited to announce an amazing offer! 

I am beyond excited to announce that I am now an

Authorized Disney Vacation Planner!

Fairytale Journeys By Chelsea

As a Disney Vacation Planner, I can plan your Disney vacation for FREE. That's right, it costs you nothing :) By booking your vacation through Fairytale Journeys by Chelsea, you will be sure to have an extra magical vacation!

As a former cast member who is also married to a former cast member, I have many tips and tricks for making your Disney vacation extra magical! 

What's Included?

*Booking your hotel, park tickets & dining reservations 

*Laminated Vacation Itinerary to insure you make the most of your valued time

*Our Disney Tips & Tricks PDF

*With you before, during & after your vacation!

Disneyland Resort - Walt Disney World - Disney Cruise Line - Disney's Aulani - 

Adventures By Disney 

You can like us on Facebook - Fairytale Journeys by Chelsea

Visit our Website - www.FairytaleJourneysbyChelsea.com

Follow us on Pinterest - FTJbyChelsea

So, what's the special offer?

Right now, every family who *books their Disney vacation* through Fairytale Journeys by Chelsea will receive a $25.00 Disney Gift Card! And...for every booking referral you send our way, you will receive a $10.00 Disney Gift Card! 

*must book hotel & park tickets*

I cannot wait to help you plan your next Disney vacation!

Announcement!

Exciting announcement coming soon...

I'll give you a hint - It has to do with these guys...

(No, we're not moving to FL/CA and no, we're not pregnant BUT for me...it is a life changer & is something I've been working on for a few weeks now...)

Photo: thewaltdisneycompany.com

Cannot wait to fill you all in! Soon...very soon.

Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

The song my Dad sang to me every night at bedtime and now the song I sing to Lilly Belle every night at her bedtime. Perfect song for this perfect day!

We didn't get to do Lilly's 6 month photo shoot at the Seattle Public Library like I was hoping for so I tried to channel Jessica (my friend/our family photographer) and did the best I could today while we were at the library :) (Maybe we'll do an 8 month shoot instead...)

Need to frame this one...

Matt stuck his tongue out like this when he was little - she has so much of her daddy in her!

Relaxing day in the sunshine and 60 degree early March day...

First time in the grass. She was so interested and touched it the whole time she was sitting here.

Her eyes.

My recital assistant helping mommy pick out costumes at Target :) 

Cutest assistant in the world.

Lol, thought I got some good pictures of them playing but they were all crazy like this. Playtime with Papa before they leave for Ireland tomorrow!

Ended the night with carrots - who needs a bib? psh.

Seriously, I had a moment tonight looking at these pictures where I wanted to just cry. Almost did. Today was just everything I've dreamt of being a mom. I had so many sweet moments with my sweet Lillian and I wouldn't trade them for the world! Perfect sunshine on our shoulders day.

{ Dad, do your ears ring at night? We talk about you and think about you a ton! }

My New Title!

Eek! I am loving life right now.

I have a new title and it's one that I've never been more proud of:

Stay at Home Mom (who teaches dance part time)!

Changing the way I say that alone is making me feel better. 

I get to stay home full-time with Lilly now 4 days/week! How amazing is that!

I'm still getting paid the same as I still have our program through the Parks and Recreation.
I'm teaching just around 13 classes/week and thats just 32 weeks/year.

Perfect!

Today Lilly Belle and I hung out together all morning and when she wakes from her afternoon nap we are heading to the library and then Target to get recital costumes :) 

Lilly Belle: Seven Months

Lillian Belle - 7 Months Old!

Weight: As of today, 16.5 lbs :)

Health: We have been really lucky with a healthy baby. Other than normal baby things like constipation, teething a few low grade fevers & some sniffles - Lilly Belle has had a healthy 7 months.

Sleep: What sleep? ;) Lilly takes short naps throughout the day. Lately she has been able to stay up for a good 2 hours at a time before taking a 30-60 minute nap. She does not sleep through the night. She wakes every 1-4 hours through the night beginning at 11pm. We put her down between 6:30 and 7:00pm and she wakes every morning at 7am. So, her nights are 12 hours but she wakes to nurse and be with mommy 3-6 times.

Social: Lilly is becoming a lot more social. It probably has to do with the fact that she is now not only with Mommy & Daddy all the time. Now that Matt is working, Papa L. and my friend, Jodee, watch Lilly during the week. We also continue to go to our weekly Kindermusic class. Lilly Belle now loves to "sing" during class and gives her teacher and friends big welcoming smiles.  Lilly was a great sales baby a few days ago when we had a tutu sale at the studio. She was talking and smiling at all the women who stopped by. I'm sure thats how we sold so many ;) On the opposite end, she does get nervous and more quiet when her environment gets too loud or when people get too close to quickly. She still really studies people before deciding on giving a smile or not. We had many moments this month where I saw a bit of me in there for the first time. Little missy can be quite loud when she "talks and sings". It's so funny, especially because she is usually calm and quiet. When she does talk, you can see her wind up for it. Adorable.

Schedule: We are still working on getting her schedule down. Slowly but surely, we are getting there. Still so hard when I work such weird hours. She always wakes up around 7am, nurses and then we can usually keep her up until 9am when she takes a 45-90 minute nap. She will then nurse again around 10am and then at noon. I give her solids around 12/12:30pm and she stays up until 12:30-1:00pm. Then she sleeps for 45-90 minutes again. 90 is if we are lucky (super rare). Her afternoons are always different. Sometimes she can stay up for 2-3 hours, other days just 1 hour at a time. All depends. Then at 6pm we start her bedtime routine and she is down for bed by 7pm.

Diet: Lilly Belle has now had a lot of different solids. I am having a blast with feeding her! She has now added squash, mango & peaches to her list of foods she has tried. 

Clothes: Lilly wears 6 month onesies and tops, her 6 month pants no longer fit and her 6-9 month pants are on their way out as they are too short. She wears 9 month pants and lots of 6-12 month outfits. 

Baby Gear Love: We still swaddle her every night with her Aden & Anais swaddle blankets. We use her Britax stroller and carseat everyday and still love them. Lilly now loves to be in the Ergo Carrier with me and still enjoys her Bjorne as well. She now sits in a high chair for meals and only sits in the Bumbo seat while I'm getting ready in the morning. Sophie the Giraffe, her zebra, Oball, bunny, Haba wooden ring, wooden stackers & Poppity Pop Dino are all favorite toys. She has discovered a new love for chewing on books. I just go with it because I know babies learn through touch and taste the most. My goal is just for her to be interested in books. If for now, that means chewing on them is part of it...then that's fine. She still loves her "office" - jumper. Most of all though, she just likes to sit on a blanket with all her toys around her :) 

Crying: Lilly cries if she is hurt, scared or tired. 

Likes: I may have blended the "Likes" category into "Baby Gear Love" a bit. She still loves bath time. Splashing is a lot of fun now! Lilly's laugh is probably the cutest thing I've ever heard and she loves to be tickled. She loves the song "Do You Want to Build A Snowman" from Frozen. She starts "singing" and talking almost immediately after we sing or play it - every time! Big smiles! Lilly likes her Begin Again bath toy turtle. (obsessed!) She loves to nurse and be held. She is just a really content, happy baby. She is such a joy to be around. We really are so lucky. 

Dislikes: Getting her turtle taken away from her when it is time to get out of the bath or getting any toys taken away from her really. 

Milestones:  Lilly Belle is most definitely able to sit up on her own now. I sit her in the bathroom on a towel while I take showers and can sit her on the bed with toys while I do laundry and she is totally fine. She's a pro now. Lilly really reaches for toys now which is fun to see because we are finding which toys she likes more than others. (Bunny is probably her favorite - she chews on the feet which are like satin ballet slippers.) Lilly says "Mamamamama" and the "bababa" sound. She does "babababa" on her own but will copy me if I say "mama" :) Good girl ;) 

And now for a plethora of photos...

Lilly takes baths sitting up now :) 

"MOM. Seriously, if you take one more picture." (she totally has my eyebrows)

These aren't in any order - This was our last time in our apartment. This is our room where Lilly Belle slept her first night home with us. I made sure to stand where her basket was ;)

Final moving day. We were exhausted and I was sad.

Daddy came to music class with us because he went back to work the next week.

Little Miss loves her turtle! 

Best friends forever! (we miss Cogsy) :( 

Big girls first attempt with her zippy cup. Can't quite figure out that you need to tip it ;)

Backstage with mommy during awards at a dance competition.

It's hard work to be at a competition all day, especially for LB! 

This is how she feels about dance competitions LOL. We were in the back of the auditorium when I took this and it was ridiculously loud. 

At least we had a girls day together :) 

Someone likes Nana and Papa's high chair :) 

Visiting Nana at work for a lunch date!

Loving Mum Mums!

...I will do the rest of the pictures in a separate post as there are tons! 

Love you, Lilly Belle! You are such a good girl!

A Mother's Love

Lilly Belle is not a great sleeper. Some nights, she wakes up every hour. Most nights I'm lucky to get a 3 hour stretch in between feedings. Am I tired? Yes. Are there moments at 7am when she's up for the day and I feel like I may die? Yes. 

But...I would not trade it for the world. I love that she needs me. I love that she just wants to be with me, her mommy. She gave me the best job in the world. I get to be her mommy. I get to kiss her, hold her and make her laugh all the time. I love being up with her through the night. Now that she is older and I trust her and her breathing more, I usually just get comfortable in the glider - put my feet up on the bed - get Lilly Belle cozy and latched and then I fall asleep. Sometimes I wake up an hour later and she's still latched but sound asleep. Sometimes I stay up during her feedings and just stare at her and try to take it all in. I try to remember everything about it. 

I'm so bad at remembering little things. My memory tends to take things in as an overview instead of capturing the details. I hate that because the details are all my favorite parts. 

I want to remember how when I nurse her, she loves to hold my hand and move it up and down, up and down, up and down. Like she's shaking hands with me but with such rhythm. Sometimes she will hold onto my breast and squeeze (sometimes too hard) but almost like she is trying to make the milk come out faster. And sometimes...she pulls off while still latched on -- okay, more like yanks off. In those moments, I'm in pain but I just cannot be mad at her. I go and chug water knowing she may have been frustrated; maybe she wasn't getting enough and got mad. I know I would. I want to remember how sometimes when I fall asleep, I open my eyes to find she's still staring at me with her beautiful blue eyes. Her eyes are so intense. She really takes everything in. When she looks at me, I know she loves me so much. She knows I'm her mommy. I love when she wakes up crying and then I reach in her crib to pick her up and she reaches her arms to me and wiggles in excitement with the  most amazing smiles and then grabs my face and "kisses" me. Those are my favorite moments. I want to capture them. Every second. 

I would never want to be anything else. I was meant for this. If I could snap my fingers and make everything all better, I would stop working and just spend all my time with her. Nothing is better than watching her grow and learn. And with how fast she is changing and growing...even my working just part-time hours soon are crushing me. I will never get this time back. It is killing me to leave her.

So in the moments at 1am...2am...3am........I just soak it all in. I know she is only little like this for a very short amount of time. She's almost 7 months old. I want time to stop and slow down for just a bit. I need to soak this in some more. I'm not used to her being 6 months old yet. I feel like just yesterday we brought her home.

Last night we stayed at the beach house and she slept in the pack n play next to me. I almost cried telling Matt how much I missed having her sleep next to me. I even asked if when we got back if we could move the glider to where the crib is so that the crib could go next to me. Matt said no - she needs this...she needs to grow. 

I know. 

So, I will let her. I will soak in every moment of her being little and soak in every sleepless night knowing it won't last forever. She has to grow. I want her to grow. 

Lilly Belle, 

I know you'll be reading this one day. Know that I love you so incredibly much. You are my whole world and then some. I pray we always have a strong bond and that you always know you can come to me and I'll be there. When you're 25 one day, like I am as I write this to you, know I'm just a phone call away...even at 3am I'll be there for you...like now. I love you! 

-Mommy