Somewhere along the line, I discovered I love cooking. The girl who once went through an entire apartment lease without turning the oven on once now enjoys preparing food for fun.

I like finding recipes that sound good, usually accompanied by some mouth-watering photography, and pinning them for later. I like turning on some tunes, getting all my ingredients together, mixing everything up, and sampling the finished product with my boys. Eli is a good cooking buddy and loves to run around the kitchen with me, playing with cookie cutters, wrestling the dog, and dancing. Some of my happiest moments are hanging out with him in the kitchen, just watching him bop around while I make some food: simple, happy stuff.

ELI! How are you 16 months old already? It feels like you should still be a tiny baby, but it also seems like you've always been here.

These days, you're growing like a weed, you're curious about everything, you're mischievous and you're chatting up a storm. It seems like you say a new word every day. You love to make people laugh  - you know what makes me and your dad laugh, and you'll do it over and over, looking at us to make sure we're entertained.

You're running everywhere now. You'll actually help tidy up, which is nice. If we ask you to put something away in your basket, you do it, then clap. Very helpful. You love animals and you get excited every time you see any critter. You're really good at making animal sounds too and you've expanded your repertoire past the same old farm animals to things like snakes, owls, and monkeys.

You adore music and dancing and you still love bathtime and being read to. You'll also pull a stack of books out of your baskets and read them for a surprisingly long time. Now that the weather isn't as crazy and cold you're able to get out more to play in the yard and go for walks in your stroller, and you're great at pointing out things like birds and trucks.

The only challenge with you is mealtime. You're developing a little bit of pickiness - one day you love sweet potatoes, the next day, forget it. I made Nutella crepes on the weekend and figured that would be the best thing ever and you wouldn't eat a bite. Things you consistently like to eat are bananas, cereal, yogurt, rolls, avocados, cheese, and blueberries. Everything else is 50/50. I've figured out that I can hide pretty much anything, including veggies, in your yogurt and you'll eat it.

You're starting to mimic things we say, so we've started to really make an effort to keep the bad words to a minimum. You want to do everything yourself - walking instead of being carried, using your spoon instead of being fed, carrying things at the grocery store - you are very independent. You're very social, not even the tiniest bit shy, and such a chatterbox.

Happy 16 months (and one day), big E. You make us laugh and bring us joy every single day!

Spring is just around the corner. I know this not because the days are getting longer, not because there's a bouquet of tulips on my desk, not because the snowbanks are extra filthy, but because I have been getting emails from different retailers EVERY DANG DAY, chockablock full of adorable spring clothes. Pinks and lavenders and greens, ladies frolicking around in cute cropped pants and flats and crisp white shirts. I die. Get me out of these Sorels and into some capris RTFM.

Spring fashion is tricky, especially here in Nova Scotia, where we don't really have spring. We have winter, winter, winter, and then it rains and smells like pig poop for a day or two and then it's blazing hot. This transition happens sometime in June. So traditional springtime things like Easter egg hunts are difficult. Last Easter we had a snowstorm. It's rough.


But a girl can dream of a magical place where there are four seasons, and seasonally-appropriate new outfits for each season, right?

This year's spring wish list looks a bit like this:

1. Cropped jeans - I have been on the hunt for a pair of mint green jeans, which I think would be great with a white or chambray shirt. I don't know, am I too old for mint green jeans? I have the same question about mint green nail polish. Is there an age limit for these things? There are also some print ones I've seen that I like, but drawing attention to my lower body is something I've been trying to avoid for the past TWENTY YEARS so we'll see.

From Gap

2. A striped shirt - Yeah, posted here about my obsession with stripes before, don't care, I take it all back. More stripes, please.

From Banana Republic

3. A new umbrella. I hate umbrellas. Little flashback for you: let's talk about my first umbrella I received as a wee pup. I waited and waited for a rainy day so I could use my new umbrella. It rained, I went outside, I struggled to get the umbrella open, and when I finally got it open, IT STOPPED RAINING and I cried. One of my dad's favourite stories. He tells it a lot better than I do. Anyway, I would like a cute umbrella to help me get from my car to work and vice versa without looking like a drowned rat.

From Asos

4. Something with a ruffle. Nothing too flouncy, just a simple little ruff (we're calling them ruffs now, got it?)

From Old Navy

5. A couple simple dresses. In spring and summer, nothing's easier than throwing on a shift dress and heading out the door. You're good to go in 30 seconds.

From J.Crew

From H&M

Sephora