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Pour yourself a fresh cup of coffee, get cozy, and let’s take a well-deserved break and catch up about February 2022.
My Recent Buys
- As I mentioned in last month’s post, I was in need of some new jean shorts for summer. A lovely reader (Courtney) suggested trying out the AGOLDE denim shorts. (They have a bit of a cult following and rave reviews online.) I ordered about 10 pairs from Nordstrom in a variety of sizes and colors because I have no idea what size I am anymore and Nordstrom has free returns. I ended up keeping this pair. They’re pricey, but really really good. And guess what?! My mom and sister ended up grabbing two of the same shorts in different sizes and colors. I sent the rest back to Nordstrom and now all three of us have cute new shorts.
- Remember my quest for the perfect side table for our living room? Well, I found it! Actually I didn’t find it, but a lovely reader found it and sent me a link to the last one on Amazon. It arrived within a few days and I absolutely love it! Now, I can’t seem to find the black one anywhere, but here’s a link to the same table with a brass base. It’s lovely.
- We were a tad worried about our the flight to Florida with two little ones, so we focused on our in-flight entertainment for Rory. A friend gifted us an Amazon Fire tablet and we gave these headphones to Rory for Valentine’s Day. We loaded up the tablet with Rory’s favorite “Ready to Read” class from Big City Readers (Rory is obsessed with the teacher, Miss Beth) and she had a ball watching it throughout the flight. Plus, she ate all the snacks during the flight!
- I’m planning to talk more about my recent House of Colour appointment in my next “Year of Casey” post. But, in short, it was an amazing experience (I went to Laura Harcar) and I found out that I’m a “Summer”. That means that cool tones look better on me than warm tones and I’m excited to add some new pieces to my wardrobe. In the meantime, my hair has been looking a tad too warm/brassy, so I got this purple shampoo that my friend Bridget raves about. Whoa, it works so well!
- Finally, I just finished the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Wow, best book I’ve read in a long time. A must-read for every woman out there.
Fave Black Businesses to Support
In lieu of Finn’s Favorites, I want to share some of my favorite Black-owned businesses in honor of Black History Month.
I also asked one of my amazing partners, Equilibria Women, if they wanted to do something special for Black History Month. I’ll be donating 50% of my sales commissions, and EQ will be matching the amount, to My Block, My Hood, My City. It’s a fantastic non-profit, helping the youth of communities here in Chicago. If you’ve been wanting to try out CBD for yourself, use code DIYPLAYBOOK for 15% off your first order.
The Click List
Finn Family Updates – February 2022
We kicked off the month with a birthday brunch for my mom and sister. Now that we have so many family members, we like to combine birthdays with everyone within the same couple of months. It was nice to get together and I loved seeing everyone fit in our dining nook.
Ellis turned five months old and is just about the sweetest guy ever. He is a big boy (not sure his exact weight, but probably around 18 lbs) and he just feels more dense than Rory was at this age. He’s a great sleeper and eater and likes to sit up and watch all of the action unfold.
He is happy to be out of his harness and now he loves having us wear him facing out, on our walks, so he can see what’s going on. I’m excited to start food with him in March, as I have a feeling he will be a big fan.
He did give us a bit of a scare right before we left for our Florida trip. He had a low-grade fever for more than eight days and after multiple trips to his pediatrician, they sent us to the Emergency Room for more tests. We were there for six hours, just us two, and it was stressful and scary. Luckily, he just had a viral infection and it passed after a few more days without any more intervention.
Rory constantly amazes us with her confidence and wit. Finn and I always talk before bed about the funniest things she said that day. Rory is one smart cookie; she loves to be quizzed and challenged; and she is still obsessed with all things Frozen.
She loves school and says “hooray” when Finn parks the car before going inside. It’s been really great to see her adjusting and having so much fun outside of our home. It’s also a tad bittersweet, but overall it’s a relief!
For Valentine’s Day, Finn and I did a Winter Olympics-themed date night and it was a ball. If you’ve been here a while, then you might remember the similar date night we did four years ago for the 2018 Olympics. This time around, we took things up a notch with our own versions of curling, ice skating, hockey, and bobsledding. Pardon the fuzzy pictures as these are just screenshots of the video.
It was hilarious and we had such a fun night in. If you want to watch the entire challenge, you can view it in this highlight on my Instagram profile. Oh, and I ended up taking home the gold at the very end, which meant I got to choose our rom-com and takeout for Valentine’s Day!
Finally, the big excitement of the month…our recent trip to Seaside, Florida. We just got back yesterday (and I’m planning an entire post recapping our trip), but it was absolutely incredible. It was so nice to get away from the cold and snow for a week to be outside with our family.
The kids loved the beach and going on walks around the adorable little town. I have so much to share in my upcoming blog post, so for now, I’ll just share a few more pictures…
We are hoping to make this an annual family trip. It was such a fantastic family-friendly getaway.
And I must share a little bathroom update… Here’s a look at our main bath, all gutted. My contractor spent all of last week demo’ing both the kids’ bathroom and our main bath and now they’re slowly putting it back together. I’ll have a progress blog post coming to you next week. I’d say we have about ten more days of work to finish both up and I can hardly wait!
Casey
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