On an arrival.

Welcome to our world, Elliott Rose, my darling girl.

On Wednesday July 22nd, at 5:53pm, our little peach made her way into our bursting hearts. She was 7 pounds 10.2 ounces & 20.5 inches long, with a head of sandy blonde hair & deep blue eyes.

Her birth story is the most amazing, joyous, exhilarating series of events I have experienced in my life so far. After 19 hours of labor & just 15 minutes of pushing, her little cries filled the room. They placed her on my chest & the entire world stopped; Eric & I looked at each other in complete disbelief. She was here, with wide eyes & a quiet curiosity. It sounds cliche, but there's a reason women say their hearts just crack open. I am so overjoyed that I was able to have this experience. The intense relief, the outpouring of love, the face of my husband as he laid eyes on his daughter for the first time - all memories I have relived over & over, to never forget.

headed home :).

She is beautiful & perfect & the most precious thing. I have spent countless hours watching her sleeping face, taking in every detail, every expression & change in breath. I'm completely enamored with her, & I'm guessing this has to wear off eventually or I'll never get anything done!

Also, my phone has become a shrine to Elliott photos ;).

Week 1 & 2:

• She loves to be swaddled & won't settle properly without being wrapped up like a burrito.
• She is s u p e r chill! Loud sounds don't bother her & she gets mad for all of 5 seconds. I hope I'm not jinxing us.
• She doesn't really like a pacifier. She'll take one when she's upset, but spits it out pretty quickly.
• We're getting used to baths & I think she's starting to like them a bit. She likes the water a bit warmer, & lots of chit-chat about how great she is. A bit of an egomaniac, this baby of ours ;).

& now she's waking up to be fed again, so I've gotta run!

Take care, guys.

xo Chlo.

On a nest for our little peach.

We've finally gotten it all done! Here's a peek at our nursery, all ready for baby Elliott Rose.

I'm so happy with how everything turned out; it's a bit nerve-wracking to order furniture & pick out all the pieces without really knowing if it's all going to come together in the end. But I think we did alright.

We are so excited & anxious for her to get here. Our official due date is July 29th, but it's looking like she'll be coming a bit earlier than that. She's already almost 7 1/2 pounds! She's going to be so squishable, I can't stand it. Just gotta hang in there a few more weeks. Wish us luck :).

We'll keep ya posted!
xo Chlo & Eric

Life Lately.

Hey guys! Just a few snapshots from life lately. We're not doing a whole lot besides getting prepped for Elliott & relaxing (this pregnancy thing gets tiring!).

Yes, that's a picture of Eric with his new chainsaw. He climbed on the roof (!) & trimmed our tree. I wasn't having a heart attack or anything.

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary last week! It's amazing to look back at all of the things we've done together, & how much we've grown since we were 18 years old, haha! Life really couldn't be sweeter.

Hope you're all having a wonderful start to summer. The countdown is on to meet our Elliott Rose - just 6 more weeks.

Take care,
xo Chlo.

On happy birthdays.

Last week was Eric's birthday! We had a relaxing weekend of family dinners & time together. Enjoying the dwindling days of just the two of us.

Man, I can't tell you how amazing it is to share life with this guy. This is our 11th birthday celebrating together - the first as best friends, & the last 10 leading to today (married, with a baby on the way, can you even believe that?!). We have done so much together in the last decade. The picture above pretty much spans that time: our first apartment together, traveling to Japan, an early winter, first sonogram, our wedding day, Eric's first trip to Australia, concerts, California wine tours. It's been an incredible whirlwind of growing up & adventuring, trying new things, challenging ourselves to accomplish goals we're not really ready for (buying a house at 21/22, anyone? Ha.). & through everything, it has been an absolute blast.

Eric, you still fascinate me everyday. As I type this, you are sitting across the desk from me acting like one of those raptors with the frilly necks from Jurassic Park, spirit fingers & all - you make me laugh constantly. Your silliness & pure joy in life is something I will always try to treasure, & can't wait to see you share with our daughter. I think she is going to agree that you are the craziest, weirdest, most supportive, & most generous person. Here's to the many, many, many decades that we get to enjoy you.

I love you for always,
xo Chlo.

On what's in a name.

Sweet girl, we cannot wait to meet you.

xo Chlo & Eric

Life Lately.

 I realized today that I was so busy through my birthday & this week that I barely took any photos! What a dork. At the very least, I had a wonderful & full birthday weekend :). Let's see:

Thursday / 9th: We met Jenna & Marc at Smoke in Plano for dinner. E & I had been to the Dallas location quite a bit, & the new digs do not disappoint. It has the same ambiance, & the same amazing food. Jenna's brother is a bartender extraordinaire, so go visit & get a good cocktail.
Friday / 10th: We had a free day (gasp!), so we ran some errands & took some much needed couch-time.
Saturday / 11th: I got to join Liz's gorgeous family for brunch at Mercat Bistro, which is always so much fun. Those ladies are just so cool. We kidnapped Liz for the afternoon & hit up the Old Monk before dinner with E's family for my b-day. That was my first time at Whiskey Cake, & it was prettyyy good! If you go & you are alcohol-free, ask Dave to make you a Jessica Wabbit - carrot juice, ginger, mint, & some other delicious things that made me feel like a grown-up.
Sunday / 12th: E & I slept in a bit & took it easy during the day. We met up with Liz before she had to fly back home (wahhhh!) & had a quick dinner with Mum. Full-on exhaustion at this point, haha!
Monday / 13th: I woke up to coffee & breakfast in bed :). Along with presents & lotsa love. We headed over to Mum's in the afternoon to hang out & then out to dinner with those awesome, pesky little brothers (heh). I picked Cheesecake Factory, for a huge helping of Chicken Bellagio & lemon raspberry cheesecake. It was a great end to 27, & a yummy hello to 28.

Thank you, everyone, for making this birthday a special one. It's one I think I'll always remember - the last before little one arrives.

Since then, we've just been hangin' tight, getting ready for peach. I had my glucose tolerance test today, so the past 2 weeks I've been keeping an eye on my sugar intake & making sure I'm not giving in too much to the sweet cravings (they are intense!). I'm still at least 10 pounds down since I got pregnant, so I'm not doing too bad ;).

We had lunch at Braindead Brewing in Deep Ellum on Sunday, & I had an amazing BLT. I had to take a picture of it. Just thought I'd share, it felt wrong to keep it to myself.

The painters are coming on Wednesday to get our nursery done; I am STOKED. This means all the organizing & decorating is coming up, which is the fun part, right?

Hope you guys are having a wonderful April.
xo Chlo.

On Sunday confession.

Real talk: I have a bad habit of running over past conversations in my head, wondering if I said the wrong thing, or upset someone, or shared something I shouldn't have. I have a small dose of social anxiety, paired with a nice tall glass of judging myself a bit too harshly. I have two fears: representing myself inaccurately, & leaving another feeling judged or criticized.

When I have a full day of conversations with friends & family, I also have a full night of reliving those conversations & dissecting if I've said something stupid or thoughtless.

We all have times when we can't express ourselves effectively, or we accidentally say the wrong thing, or everything just becomes misconstrued & you're left trying to correct yourself with a bad taste in your mouth.

It's ridiculous, right? We all have these things that go bump in our heads. We all have shortcomings, things we're working on, things that make us want to be better. I'm just thinking about this now because my day-to-day conversations are becoming so much more embroiled with opinions about raising our daughter, & I'm entering into conversations with other women that I would have avoided like the bloody plague before. As much as I want to continue avoiding them (please, just let me smile & nod), I can't get any better at it without practice. So, I suppose my point is - please ignore the foot in my mouth. It's sort of lodged there & I have an appointment with my communication skills to have it looked at. Also, your hair looks great.

xo Chlo.

Life Lately.

A few snapshots from the past couple of weeks :). We've been getting ready for spring - gardening, cleaning, organizing, the usual.

I'm in full-on nesting mode; I didn't think that was actually a thing, but I am FEELIN' it. I've never been a super-domestic person, but I'll be damned if I can't stop cleaning. Not complaining, our little house is happy & I'm feeling pretty productive. Since a vacation isn't really in our future, at least getting ready for bub doesn't feel like such a chore.

Today is rainy & a bit chilly, so I'm taking the day off with a Charmed marathon. I can't wait until next weekend; Liz is coming into town & then it's my birthdayyyyy! It's going to be a special one.

Happy Easter, everyone! Eric & I don't really celebrate, but I can see lots of egg hunts in my future ;).

xo Chlo.

On sweet gifts for our little one.

Hey guys! I've gotten a few questions about a registry for bub & I just wanted to update you on where we are with that.

We've decided that we aren't going to have a baby shower before little peach's arrival. We are so grateful for the love & well-wishes we have gotten, & we have been so fortunate to receive gifts from our parents & the luxury of planning financially for our little one. I may regret this once she's here & the one thing we need more of is EVERYTHING, but for now, we're happy to go with the flow & try not to accumulate for the sake of it.

However, I know that gifts for her aren't just about what we need. Trust me, I spend every day trying not to overdo it! So we've setup a wish list on Amazon & Etsy, for things that we still need & things that are just too cute to pass up, haha.

It is our goal to instill in our daughter a good balance between material & sentimental possessions. In order to do this, we want to keep her belongings to a minimum & keep our focus on what's important - family, friendship, kindness, & a happy life. So, if you feel so inclined, we would love a donation to the Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County in lieu of gifts. We are big fans of the mission of the CACCC, who bring so much support to children in our community who need it most.

We are so grateful for everyone's love during this time, & that's just everything that we could possibly want.

xo Chlo.

On a Sunday night pizza party.

Eric discovered this monthly subscription service called Mantry, which we have gotten for a couple of months now. Let me just say - awesome. They send you a monthly crate of curated artisan foodstuffs from all over the United States, & everything we've gotten so far has been so good & so so cool. Last month's crate contained the ingredients for a pizza party, which we just got around to making. It included Classic Red Sauce from Jar Goods in New Jersey, Pizza Flour from Hayden Flour Mills in Arizona, & Smoked Pepperoni from Vermont Smoke & Cure in, you guessed it, Vermont. Not to mention, this all comes with a bunch of other delicious bits & pieces, like Lemon Sugar Cookies from Grey Ghost Bakery in Charleston, a jar of Pesto that Eric has demolished on breakfast sandwiches, & Proscuitto from Daniele in RI.

We had a lot of fun making these pizzas. Mine was Hawaiian (don't tell me you don't like pineapple on your pizza, blasphemer!) & Eric made his with pepperoni, basil, & avocado.

They turned out DELICIOUS! I think homemade pizza night is a new thing around here. & of course, Eric enjoyed with a favorite beer :).

Did I mention that everything in the crate is full-sized? None of this pansy sample-size nonsense. It's a bit on the pricey side, but so worth it if you enjoy making really good food at home. & hey, you're supporting hard-working, quality, made-in-the-USA artisans. Not too shabby.

Digging my first attempt at food photography, haha! Yeah, I'll keep practicing. Palm, meet face.
xo Chlo.

Life Lately.

Just here to share a few snapshots from life lately :). We're still getting the house ready for bub, investing in some spring plants to spruce up the front yard, hanging with the furballs, & planning for the many amazing things in our near future! P.S. I don't know what Wolf is thinking, but climbing on the patio table is his new favorite thing. Picture me shaking my head over here.

I freshened up this space earlier this week & I'm thinking I really like it. Posts are categorized & should be a bit easier to follow, so I hope you enjoy!

So excited for spring sunshine. I'm hoping it'll make it a liiiiittle bit easier to be patient with this whole pregnancy thing - I don't know how I'm going to get through the next 4 months waiting for her to ARRIVE ALREADY. I'm trying really hard to pick up some extra hobbies, dust off the old camera, & stay positive about these strange things happening to my body along with it's many restrictions. Hey, at the very least, the universe is teaching me a whole lot about patience.

What was it Joan Rivers said? "Life goes by fast. Enjoy it. Calm down. It's all funny."

Take care, loves.
xo Chlo.

On building a nest.

For the past few months, we've been getting our home ready for our little one. Of course I've scoped Pinterest for nursery inspiration, & we've talked at length about the environment we want to create for her. We're finally getting to the nitty-gritty; we have (or have at least ordered) all of her nursery furniture, picked the wall color, called the painter, & are ready to get this mama-jama done!

Some inspiration rooms, we're going for a mix of the two - not too girly or fussy, lots of whimsy & imagination.
Sources: Left, Right

We decided we wanted to put bub in our office space & move our office into the guest bedroom. This is for a few reasons: that room is central to the whole house & doesn't tuck her away, it has a HUGE window with beautiful natural light, & it has glass pocket doors that lead into the kitchen so she'll always be able to play & enjoy her alone-time while we know she's safe. I know this arrangement won't always work, but it's a start. We're taking it one step at a time, as we're not sure how long this little house will be able to handle a growing kiddo.

Eric rewired our office last Sunday (that was a big job & he's a genius). We've officially moved our office into the guest room, & I'm really liking it! It feels more...office-y, haha. It's nice to have it a bit more secluded from the rest of the house, not staring me in the face every hour of every day, like "Chloeeee, you have so much worrrrrk to doooooo." We're still getting the new bookshelves built (thank you, IKEA, for the budget-friendly, last-minute shelving solution), & really moving everything over & organized is taking some time. But it's happening! It will be so great to see it all done & dusted, but I'm trying my best to be patient & take it easy - pregnancy be damned! When a woman needs all of her wits & energy, they're burgled by a tiny growing gremlin.

As for everything else, it's a spring-cleaning, closet-organizing, ransacking, donating, boxing-&-space-bagging rampage at Esakoff Castle. We've still got 4 months to go, but I'm sure it won't be long before I just can't get around the belly & what a travesty that'll be! Maybe Eric will feed me bonbons on the couch & do all the actual work ;). I say that like it already hasn't been the case; I know I say it all the time, but I thank my lucky stars for that man every day. Universe, way to go.

Hope you are all having an amazing March. Catch up soon.

xo Chlo.

On returning after a long hiatus.

Hey, guys! Damn, it's been a hot minute. The Esakoff's have been busy this past year! I promise I'll get back to posting more frequently, as I'll have so much to talk about come July...

A not-so-secret anymore, Eric & I are expecting a sweet little girl! She is due July 29th; we're taking bets on how accurate that'll be ;). We talked & talked about waiting before we tried again, but it was just the right time for us. We couldn't be more excited. I'll post later about this experience for us (but spoiler, it's been really great).

This was our little announcement picture.

I noticed I haven't updated since May of last year, so I have a quick rundown of what we've been up to since then.

New car! Isn't she gorgeous?! My little EOS was NOT going to fit a carseat.

We went to Oklahoma for a short lake trip. We do this every other year with E's dad,
it's always a complete blast.

A little staycation in Dallas. We stayed at the awesome Belmont Hotel, a huge recommendation
for anyone looking for a night away. It is so unique.

Shane-O came for a visit! We love having him here in Dallas, but now that he's done with his documentary, I fear we'll never be able to bribe him back.

Beach trip to Port Aransas for mum's birthday. So much swimming, so much beach hair <3.

Weekend in CA with Stephen, for a quick getaway. Can't wait to visit our favorite winery again.

& we treated ourselves to a first class trip to CA for a little "babymoon". Thanks for the cheese, Virgin ;).

New puppy! I think we may have been crazy to do this, but he's now 9 months old & so sweet.

This is our little one, at 20 weeks. She is already a handful & never stops moving. Wish us luck ;).

& last but not least,

my 20 week bump. I can still see my toes, so all is well.

I pinky-promise to update more. I'm sure it'll get easier when I can't really get around much anymore, haha! We're working hard on the nursery & moving the house around. Nesting, right? I'll share more on that later.

Sending much love, take care.

xo Chlo.

Just a little sidenote: It has come to my attention that someone has been magpie-ing from this blog. As much as I try to think of this as flattery, taking the very personal words from my post regarding the loss of our baby is entirely inappropriate & super uncool. Not to mention, your actions constitute copyright infringement. I think it's clear where I'm going with this. I wish you all the best, but cut it out.