Blog - Grits in the City - discounts and faves

[giveaway] smile brilliant’s cariPRO

December 18, 2018 by Lara 18 Comments

I’m learning that nothing makes you scrutinize everything about yourself like being a parent. How you talk, how you react under pressure. Yes, even how you brush your teeth. We’ve begun emphasizing the importance of regular brushing with Q. I’m doing an okay job though, right?

I’ve never used an electronic toothbrush so when Smile Brilliant reached out with an opportunity to try their cariPRO toothbrush, I decided it was a good time to try — especially with the high volume of sweets I’ve been eating around the holidays! Over the last several weeks, I’ve been using just the cariPRO to see how it performs.

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pre-black friday sales: maternity edition

November 14, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

This pregnancy, I’ve been leaning on my Le Tote subscription but also bought a handful of new colorful items to help me from getting too bored with my wardrobe. I just noticed a number of my faves are actually on sale in advance of the formal Black Friday sales, and wanted to share for my other mamas-to-be!

I’m in love with a red BCBG tunic I bought pretty early on. I was wearing this before anyone knew we were expecting and it’s also been great with my almost third trimester bump as well! It looks super cute, is dressy and will be useful post baby as well. It is somewhat sheer, so you can wear a thicker nursing tank under it during fall/winter for it to work just fine. Right now, you can snag this in one of three colors for an extra 30% off the already on sale price on Pea in the Pod. [Read more…]

birthday dinner at restaurant serenade, chatham

November 4, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

This year, my birthday fell on a Friday. T mentioned we could do a nice evening in Manhattan but we then agreed that it would be kind of nice to instead try out a nice spot out in New Jersey. We have a few favorite staple restaurants but have yet to try any of the high end options. Now, we just had to narrow down to one! After looking at menus and reviews, I was most curious about Restaurant Serenade in Chatham so that became our winner.

We made an early reservation, so the contemporary French restaurant was still filling up around us as we ate. They sat us at a nice table, alongside the large window in the front. Our table’s location really added to the experience. I was a bit bummed to be missing out on the cocktail menu but was pleased to see they had several non-alcoholic options. The one I tried was soda, Madagascar vanilla syrup and small flowers. Still warm out at the time, it made for a refreshing start to the meal. [Read more…]

an ice cream tour of denver

October 27, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Back in August, we took our first family vacation as a family of three. We haven’t been traveling too much these days. With Q’s second birthday approaching at the time, we also wanted to travel at least once where he’d be free! One of my close friends lives in Denver so we thought it was a great time to pay her a visit and to finally meet her little girl (who Q loved). It was quite warm while we were there, so we ended up tackling the city one scoop of ice cream at a time. This kicks off the first in a series of posts on the great things we tried while we were in town. Here’s more on some of our Denver ice cream faves. [Read more…]

an extra dose of love coming this february

October 1, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

It’s an exciting time at our house as we are expecting a new addition this February! We’ve been trying to explain the upcoming change to Q, who understands in words that he has a baby sister on the way but we aren’t sure he really gets what that means yet. Luckily, there’s still some time for that to sink in.

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west village brunch at the loyalist on bleecker street

September 30, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

Recently my friend N was in town, which meant an excuse to head in to Manhattan for a fun brunch at somewhere new! This time, we chose to make it a West Village brunch at The Loyal, a spot that opened around this time last fall. It was perfect timing too as we share a birthday so brunch was like an early birthday celebration for us! They also offer reservations — always a brunch plus.

We started with an order of their monkey bread. It was delicious and perfect for sharing. It came with a cream cheese dipping sauce. I read some reviews online saying that the sauce was too much, but I beg to differ. Light and fluffy and just the right amount sweet, I found the sauce a delicious addition to this start to our brunch. [Read more…]

planning a fall-themed birthday for your child

September 25, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

There’s something nice about a birthday that comes with a built-in theme. For our son’s first birthday last year (sigh, almost a year ago) we went with just that – a fall birthday! We decided that we could let him have more of an opinion on future selections but that we were going to take advantage of a simple fall-themed birthday for year one.

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5 things that help in returning to work after maternity leave

September 12, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking a lot about returning from maternity leave – that first point in time where you’re forced to pull together you as a mom and you as a career professional into a new version of you. And it doesn’t exactly come with a manual. Lauren Brody’s site and book, The Fifth Trimester, come close (both are great and you should check them out if you haven’t already) – but nothing quite prepares you for the exact combo that is your reality.

I’m excited to share my first piece on Motherly, which went live yesterday on their site. The experience re-entering work following maternity leave was way more challenging than I anticipated. I previously wrote about here on Grits in the City but this new piece goes into what I tried to focus on during this period of adjustment. Some of these things, though they sound quite small, made such a difference for me. Take a look here.

10 tips for tackling toddler travel

September 7, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

We don’t travel often now that our family has expanded. We haven’t taken a true family vacation since Q’s arrival. With his second birthday fast approaching (yikes, a month exactly from today), we also wanted to take advantage of one trip while he is still free to fly in our laps.

This was a great plan in theory, but as our recent trip to Denver approached, we became a bit concerned. Q is in full-on toddler mode, with seemingly limitless energy and little to no interest in sitting in one place for 10 minutes. Four hours at a clip in a plane sounded like a disaster. What were we going to do to keep him entertained for that long?

I called in the “experts” – AKA my fellow mom friends from Facebook. As anticipated, they had all some great tips that helped make our trip out and back as smooth as possible. Did it go perfectly? No way. We didn’t expect that would be a possibility. We did however manage to keep him pretty occupied for around 88% of the time. And that I call a win! [Read more…]

saturday at long branch beach

August 31, 2018 by Lara Leave a Comment

There are certain things that feel like summer “must dos.” There is going to the pool. Ice cream. Lots of ice cream. And, of course the beach. We hadn’t checked off that final item from the list — until a weekend trip to New Jersey’s Long Branch Beach a few weeks back, that is.

Q has been to the beach once — last fall when we went to Wildwood and it was barely warm enough to walk on the beach and after Labor Day, when we found the Boardwalk a ghost town. This year I wanted a proper beach visit — with the sun warm and all restaurants and stores in full summertime mode.

Though there was a threat of rain, we ended up having a perfect summer day with the right amount of sun. It was warm but not crazy hot. We even lucked into one of the last public parking spaces when we arrived just after 10AM.

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