FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. Laura co-hosted a lovely baby shower for us last weekend. She picked the perfect venue, a kid’s vintage train park. We received so many wonderful gifts and my husband has already started reading a few of the books to our little guy. Our favorites so far are B is for Boston, A Giraffe and a Half and Dragons Love Tacos.
2. I’m really feeling the deadline looming for picking a name for our little munchkin. As part of my research, I greatly enjoyed listening to these two episodes of Freakonomics: How Much Does Your Name Matter? and Hello, My Name Is Marijuana Pepsi.
3. I have a new favorite breakfast item, it’s these delicious muffins from Trader Joe’s. They have a great ingredient list and are super filling. It’s the perfect follow up to my breakfast smoothie.
4. Walmart is hosting a cool promotion this month, if you bring an old car seat to their customer service desk for recycling, they’ll give you a $30 gift card for baby items.

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. Really loved this read on motherhood and careers from Doré. The countdown is on for my return to work (10 days to go…eek!) so I’ve been trying to surround myself with lots of stories and tips from other working moms.

   

2. I used a bunch of recipes from Molly Yeh’s blog when it came to filling up our freezer in preparation for the early months of baby-rearing, and now I’m addicted to trying everything she posts about! A fun one I’m itching to try: Homemade Snickers! **Sidenote: I loved Molly’s nursery reveal for her little girl, Bernie, and it has made me really want to get crafty and replicate this felted breakfast foods set (and so many other things in their ‘Pretend Play‘ category!) from Crate & Barrel!
3. I’m on a mission to declutter and organize as much as possible before I go back to work. I fully subscribe to the idea that a clean and managed house makes me less stressed in all over facets of life. To that end I ordered this rope basket for Ernie’s toys in the living room (I already use this giant one for blankets and this small one for bibs in his room and love the look of them).
4. Also in the name of organization, I’ve newly been using these reusable food storage bags. I love that it is cutting down our use of unnecessary plastics!