Five on Friday!!

Happy Friday! We had an exiting week here with Gabriella taking her first steps! She is such a cautious little thing and approaches every milestone the same way- she does it by accident first and then spends a week or so thinking about it and deciding if it's safe. She took another 2 little steps this evening but besides that has been cautiously holding on and reaching as far as she can to get to another stable object. It really is the cutest thing ever :)

1. Sippy Cups
I am pretty sure we own every single brand of sippy cup on the planet. We have one child and a whole kitchen drawer filled with a variety of cups, lids, straws, handles, etc. And 95% of them are never used. We have had 2 favorites, both with pros and cons. The first one that we use a lot is the Nuby cup that comes with 2 different tops, both are soft silicone, one is closer to a bottle nipple and the second is more like a classic sippy cup.

 

This cup has been a favorite around here but the downside is that even the "stage 2" top is very bottle-like. We still use this first thing in the morning and at bedtime but would like to move away from it. The second cup that has worked well is actually the classic tupperware brand cup. 

This cup is great; it is a classic sippy cup with no flow regulation so it actually has made Gabriella learn to drink properly. The only down side is that it is not no-spill so putting it in the diaper bag doesn't work and when she throws it, it definitely makes a mess. Then last week, one of my favorite go-to bloggers, Christina, wrote about the Munchkin Miracle 360 sippy cup. I kept it in the back of my mind and then just happened to see one when I went to buy diapers this week. I tossed it in the cart and decided to give it a try. Not to sound insane because I am declaring my love of a sippy cup, but it is amazing. Toddlers have to drink out of it like a regular cup, but the special top prevents them from getting flooded with water and it is no-spill. It's under $5 and worth every penny :)

 

2. Brick fireplace thoughts
We have a floor to ceiling brick fireplace in our den that we absolutely love. It makes the room seem so big and cozy at the same time. It is dark though and recently I've seen lots of DIY guides to whitewashing brick and the finished product looks gorgeous. All the guides I've read seem very easy and the cost is extremely low (usually less than $20!). Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of Fixer Upper but I am really thinking about this. Although I will say, I am a complete chicken when it comes to big changes like this so maybe it will never happen. We'll see.

Our fireplace

3. Minivan 
We recently did a little car swapping and took over my sister-in-law's minivan and our nephew will be taking Gianni's Saab. The minivan is super comfortable and has a ton of great features but of course, it did prompt some teasing from my siblings.  But luckily videos like this exist :) Cheers to all of my fellow minivan moms

4. Weekend fun
We have a full weekend ahead. Tonight we are having dinner with some friends that we haven't seen in awhile (even though they live 2 miles away!), tomorrow evening we are having our annual corned beef dinner cook-off with some other friends, and in between we are helping Diane and Alex move into their first apartment! Yay! (The cheering is happiness for them but also cheers for the excuse to dump boxes of extra wine glasses, old furniture, and basically everything in our basement in their apartment :))

5. This week's photos

Happy Friday!!

xo,

Mary