CHEZERBEY

6 months + baby stuff update!

Avery is six months old today! (She can’t believe it either!)

She had her 6-month well visit and another round of shots this morning, so today has been a little rough. It took a few tries but I was finally able to snap enough photos when she was in better spirits.

These are the same jeans she wore for her 3-month shoot, but I don’t think they will fit for much longer! (My stepdad made the “Avery” onesie. He bought a 3-pack to make her “Apocalypse Survivor” onesie so this one was a by-product.)

Behold, the power of Sophie! Look deep into my beady black eyes, Avery…

Did you get enough? Ok. It’s also been awhile since we did the last product update post, so I figured we were due.

Last time we were at the tail end of the “4th trimester” so a lot of our baby stuff revolved around sleeping and comfort. As I was taking photos this time around, I realized that we hadn’t really acquired many new products or contraptions. The one thing I did finally buy – toy storage.

Super cute, right? I saw a similar 3 Sprouts storage bin on Stefanie’s blog a while back and had to go for the squirrel (because they’re cute and creepy?). Avery’s favorite pastime (besides eating or sleeping) is to lay on the floor and play with toys/books/Bailey or anything within reach really. We had received a few toys as gifts and they sat neatly on one of the shelves in the wardrobe. And then Christmas came. All in all, everyone did a good job about not going crazy, but when you have 3 sets of grandparents, extended family and lots of aunts and uncles, it adds up. Fortunately, she got some really great toys so there wasn’t any, “oh…I’m sure this Disney Princess karaoke machine is age appropriate!”.

Avery is a reluctant sitter but an avid wormer and lunger, so floor time is her jam. It’s hard to catch her in focus.

This baby has always been eager to use her legs, so we knew she would love a jumper. I’d heard mixed reviews about the kind that clamp to the door frame (from a health and safety standpoint) but seeing as how we don’t have any traditional doorways it was an easy solution. I started doing some research and came across this jumper from Canadian company Merry Muscles. It was more than we wanted to spend, but as soon as Kyle and I watched the YouTube videos on their website we were sold.

Adorable, yes?

This jumper has a couple of different installation options, but the easiest solution for us was to simply screw the included hook into our exposed joists in the living room. The height of the jumper is determined by which chain link it’s hung from. We’ve had this for a few months now and while it took her a few weeks to get the hang of it (and be tall enough to see over the front bib) she LOVES it. She will happily spend 30 minutes to an hour in it, bouncing…spinning…appreciating the architectural decisions that her parents made. The harness part has a series of snaps to grow as the baby does and everything seems incredible well made and durable. I have not had any safety concerns since we’ve owned it. Plus, it’s super easy to take down (I just stand on the couch and slip it off the hook).

Here’s a rundown of the other must-haves or lifesavers that we continue to use on a daily basis.

Crib: Although this is an obvious daily use item, I wanted to give a quick update on our decision to go with an IKEA Gulliver. No regrets! Yes, I’m sure I would have loved the Oeuf (my second choice) but not enough to shell out an extra $900 or so. Avery isn’t into the gnawing or jumping phase yet, but so far the Gulliver has held up just fine. Here’s another thing, I used to think that the crib was important because it would be the focal point of the room. Well, it’s really not. Who knew?

Monitor: As mentioned last time, we received an Angelcare monitor that detects both sound and movement. Our house is small enough that we don’t really need the sound component, but the movement detector has been a luxury. Avery started rolling over to her tummy at about 3 months, so we stopped swaddling and relied on the monitor to ensure us that she was ok (an electronic pad goes under the mattress and an alarm goes off in no movement is detected for 20 seconds). Once or twice a week there’s a false alarm (when she’s wormed her way to the corner of her crib), but I don’t mind a few of those for the peace of mind it gives me. Now that she’s older we’ll probably stop using it soon, but I am thankful for all the shut-eye that was saved not having to go and check on her to ensure she was still breathing. 🙂

Now that I think about it, we still use and love almost everything that was profiled in that first roundup post. The only things we’ve retired are the swaddles and the bassinet. (It’s marketed as a chair too, but she doesn’t have much interest in lounging anymore.) I still carry her in the K’tan – it’s great because I can keep it in my purse or diaper bag (yeah, I got one of those too) and comes in handy at the grocery store or for going on a walk with a weaving golden retriever at my side. (It was indispensable for traveling last month!)

Next on the horizon is solids. I made pureed pears, apples and sweet potatoes last weekend. We started with pears and she loved them (so much that she dived toward the spoon rather than wait for me to bring it to her mouth!). Right now she sits in her Bumbo (another lifesaver, another item I didn’t know what the hell was before having a kid), but we need to upgrade. Originally I wanted the Stokke or OXO highchair (brown and wood!), but I just can’t justify the cost (around $250 or so) when I can get the well-loved IKEA one for $25 (which is also smaller and you can rinse it off in the shower!). Of course now I’m thinking of holding off on the high chair all together and instead I ordered this table chair (it was recommended on Lucie’s List and got great reviews on Amazon). Since the dining room table is my office these days, we’ve been eating at the island so it made sense to go this route with Avery. It will also allow her to be part of the action as I’m cooking, eating, etc. (And in true Zerbey fashion I ordered it in brown.)

So there we are, six months in! Do you guys have any must-haves or great tips? I’m guessing my next post like this will be all about baby-proofing our house. That’s going to be fun (prooooject!).

And for those of you that have made it to the end of this post and aren’t so much on the baby train, our next post is all about BIG, SEXY ARCHITECTURE. Watch out.

I wasn’t compensated for any of my reviews. Just trying to pass along good info from one design snobby parent to another.

happy new year + coming up for air

Hello!

Phew…between the holidays, travel, work and Kyle and I both getting sick it’s been a busy month. I had plans to do a 5-month Avery post (didn’t happen) a 2012 Year in Review post (oops) and a post about our trip to Oklahoma. So, here’s a conglomerate catch-up post to kick off 2013!

We thought this would be the one year where Avery wouldn’t mind sitting on the old man’s lap. She’s normally an easy-going kid, but apparently being hungry and tired and seeing Santa was a recipe for disaster. But it was hilarious and we took lots of photos anyway!

Or perhaps she was too overstimulated from the raucous carousel ride beforehand. There’s a tiny “amusement park” in my hometown that mostly caters towards the under five crowd. They were open the weekend before Christmas for festive train and carousel rides and photos with the big guy. I spent some quality time there in the 80’s so it was fun to take Avery (even though she was really too young to get it).

Avery and her cousin Holly (who is 5 months older) also had some quality bonding time – hanging out on the rug, making big plans for the future.

Unless there’s a wedding or other family event, Christmas is the only time of the year that I see all my siblings (minus one brother and might-as-well-be-sister-in-law, who are living in Italy). We spent one evening around a bonfire at my parent’s house, sipping beverages and talking about where we should get a (theoretical) family cabin. Maybe a cute place by the beach or a cabin in the mountains? We evaluated where we all live or might someday live and realized that the most geographically central location was…Oklahoma. Hmm.

We had a little scheduling snafu this year with our air travel so Avery and I ended up flying separately from Kyle. I was a little nervous at first, but she did great! (See, she’s all “I got this, Mom”.) After carrying/wearing/holding her for 9+ hours (love that non-direct flight!) I think the only thing that suffered was my back the next day.

By the time I was feeling up to doing Avery’s 5-month photo shoot she was already 5 1/2 months old. So that didn’t happen. But I did take some photos on the actual day at my parent’s house. She’s much more animated now, grabbing everything and acutely aware of her surroundings. She will be six months next week. NEXT WEEK! I’ve honestly felt that time has gone by at a normal clip since she was born, but the jump from 5 to 6 months went by way too fast. (I’ve also been meaning to do a baby product/gear follow-up since things have changed quite a bit since our last one at 2.5 months!)

Oh, 2012 year in review? How about a written summary instead:

-Converted the loft to an office.
-Went to the Grammy’s in LA.
-Started finishing out the basement.
-Won our category in Apartment Therapy’s Small, Cool contest!
-Converted the flex room to a nursery.
-Landscaped our front yard!
-Lost our kitty, Felix. =(
-I left my former firm.
-We had a baby 3 days later!
-Kyle finished the basement bedroom during part of his paternity leave.
-Started Studio Zerbey.
-Kyle left his former firm to join Studio Zerbey.
-Work, baby, work, baby, work…

So what will 2013 bring? Aside from growing our business, we have some more house-related projects in mind. For one, the bedroom. (I know, the room we gutted and remodeled 4 1/2 years ago!) The bedroom was the first space we remodeled and it’s never felt quite right. Oh, but we’ve got ideas. Perhaps we’ll also finish the basement? We renewed our building permit again (for the final time?) so there is a ticking clock. Maybe the backyard? It’s winter so the only one who really goes back there now is Bailey, but I’m sure when spring rolls around we’ll get the itch.

Happy New Year from the Zerbey’s, feels good to be back!

his + hers home offices

Living in a small house is one thing, but working in a small house is quite another. But hey, if anyone can figure out a good way to balance the two it should be a couple of architects, right?

Yeah. In terms of how our business is structured, we first established two basic rules: maintain our own projects and our own work spaces. (This is key!) Although there are only two of us, we more or less operate in the same way as a larger firm. Kyle and I both act as our own project managers, but share resources and collaborate when there’s a time crunch or we need to bounce ideas off each other. We even have Monday morning staff meetings to discuss what’s going on for that week. (Ok, sometimes we’re in our pajamas.)

Here’s another thing, we don’t divide everything 50/50. During the remodel process we learned that we work better together if tasks are allocated by what a person is interested in or good at, rather than “you install that half of the tile and I’ll do the other half”. (The same applies to doing laundry or paying bills.) It’s not for everyone, but for us it means we’re a lot more efficient when it comes to getting house projects done. Now that we’re small business owners, we apply the same strategy to Studio Zerbey.

Focusing on each of our strengths means we also have different needs when it comes to workspaces. For now, I’m working part-time and taking care of Avery, so it made sense for Kyle to take over the loft and for me to have a more mobile work station (aka the dining room table). Originally we thought about setting up my office in the basement, but the idea of schlepping around baby gear and toys (plus the baby) made that idea less appealing. We keep all of our shared resources in the loft (printers, office supplies, books, etc.) and so far it’s working out well. Everything is wifi so if I need to print something I just send it off and by the time I climb up the loft ladder it’s sitting there waiting for me. With this setup, we’re not staring over each other’s shoulders but we can easily ask each other questions or listen to the same music. (Small house win!)

And I like that we each have our own identities: Kyle with his PC and Aeron and me with my MacBook and Eames. Ok, we’re both terribly cliché, but in our own special ways.

a bit like christmas…

I have half a dozen or so partially-started blog posts, but this week has been busy so I decided to Instragram (yes, used as a verb) some Zerbey Christmas for you instead. (By the way…this has come up a couple of times recently so I thought I’d clear things up: “chezerbey” = phonetically, “shay zerbee”. It never occurred to us that it could be pronounced so many different ways or that people would assume we were the Erbey’s. Our neighbor actually coined the term – well, Chez Zerbey…and then we had the genius idea to meld the two.)

Anyhow.

It started last weekend when we bought a small Christmas tree. (I like Christmas, but I have to wait until December. Personal rule.) The first year we lived here we drove about an hour or so outside the city to buy a tree from one of those places that has a “Santa’s workshop”, hot cocoa and just a smidge of country living. (In our pre-house days, we did things like this. We also once went to a Basset Hound festival, but that’s a story for another time.) It was fun, but it was still just a big tree farm. In the years since, we’ve bought a tree from a small lot in our neighborhood. Even though we’re not trekking about the woods, I still insist that we walk the 6 blocks or so. (Besides, no one likes needles in their car!) Although Avery could care less about the nostalgia, it was special to me. And naturally, I found the cutest 4′ tree in the very back corner of the lot. 20 minutes later, we walked home in the rain, Kyle with a tree under his arm and me with a baby and a length of garland over my shoulder. I’m sure it was a sight.

One of the biggest conundrums we’ve had with our small home is where to put the tree. In years past, we put it in the corner of what is now the nursery but since I’m pretty sure blinking lights don’t encourage infant sleeping, we needed a new plan. We finally decided that it would fit in the living room if we just relocated the collection of albums (something we knew we’d have to do eventually). So we moved most of them to the downstairs bedroom (which is slowly filling up with all sorts of odds and ends and is precisely why guest rooms become large closets) and the rest are tucked into our 10+ year-old media cabinet that is embarrassing and really needs to be replaced.

We talked about taking the dormant orchid down, but sticking bendy Santa on it seemed like a better idea.

After looking for two years I finally saw this album on Amazon. It’s probably our favorite Christmas album and we’ve listened to it a lot this week.

Chuck changed up his outfit this year – instead of the necktie he’s sporting some snowflake bling.

I’ve had this little tree for years. There’s nothing particularly fancy about it – I think I probably snagged it from my mom’s excessive (in a good way Mom!) collection of Christmas decorations and put it in my room as a teenager. And then apparently, it was mine for life. I thought it would be fun to put it in Avery’s room this year, a passing of the torch.

Speaking of traditions, I also wanted to get Avery her first stocking. Yeah, I suppose I could have crafted something myself, but I fell in love with this one from Land of Nod and bought it during their post-Thanksgiving (Black Friday Weekend, whatever you call it) sale. It’s gray(!) with just a little bit of color and girliness so of course I like it.

I bought a box of these painted masonite snowflakes from Crate&Barrel two years ago and like finding little ways to add a pop of Christmas without being all CHRISTMAS!!!!! (If you know what I mean.)

Last weekend we went to an Ugly Sweater party and our friends set-up a photo booth in their guest bedroom. Apparently we need more than 8 seconds between photos (baby in arms is definitely a handicap when it comes to props and poses) but these crack me up all the same.

Happy Friday. We’re contemplating taking Avery to see Santa this weekend. This will be an awesome/terrible experience, right?

happy seventh, bailey.

Today is Bailey’s birthday! To celebrate, I’m reposting all of my favorite Instagram photos from the past year (in chronological order).

Happy birthday Bails, we love you.

Need more Bailey in your life? Check out this birthday post from two years ago that includes our all-time favorite photos.

P.S. – I would feel like a bad daughter if I did a whole post for my dog but failed to mention that it is also my mom’s birthday. Happy birthday Mom!