Life Lately #19

Reading: Still working on Spaceman and the Babylon Bee book. Clearly I have been in a huge reading mood lately. Hahahahahahahahaaaa. I don't know how people do it, those who read like 5 books a week. I used to be able to do that. When I was a teenager and Netflix wasn't a thing and, like, I didn't have a baby. Toddler. Whatever. She isn't walking yet so until then, she's a baby in my mind.

Watching: Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's completely stupid, but in a good way. Along the same vein as The Office (though nothing will ever truly measure up to that show, RIP), 30 Rock, and Parks and Rec. It took me a good 5-10 episodes to really get into the show, but now I'm hooked. Those who watch, who's your favorite character? Mine is a tie between Captain Holt and Gina.

Listening to: Lots of toddler-friendly music. The Happy Song by Imogen Heap, lots of Elizabeth Mitchell and Raffi, and lots of Disney soundtracks. Beauty and the Beast 4 Ever.

Wearing: Pajamas, because I just put Imogen to bed, took a shower, put some purple dye in my hair to test it out, and now I'm sitting on my own bed typing this blog post out.

Smelling: The aforementioned hair dye. Lovely smell.

Eating: Nothing, but I could go for some chocolate ice cream right about now. Have you ever tried Halo Top? It's hit or miss with the flavors, but if you handed me a bowl of their plain chocolate and told me it was Tillamook, I'd believe you.

Loving: This workout shirt from Old Navy. It fits well and it's cute. And on sale! I have the olive and I'm tempted to snag the white and black as well.

Not Loving: Being back in Sitka. Granted, the temperatures are hovering right around 60 and it's been sunny and looks like it'll stay that way for the next week or two (hallelujah), but nothing compares to the 80 degrees that Seattle has been seeing lately. All you summer haters can bite me! Fall is great and all, but just once I'd like to go outside for more than a day or two without a jacket. I wore sandals every single day while on vacation, and I haven't been so happy in a long time. Sadly, those sandals will now probably see nothing but the back of my closet until next summer.

Annoyed with: The cost of groceries in Sitka. I will never stop harping on this topic, and I apologize. The other day I bought the following: One bag of Kirkland Signature frozen hamburger patties. One bunch of asparagus. Two packages of mashed cauliflower. One container of baby cereal. One container of black pepper. One bottle of red wine vinegar. One head of cabbage. One small box of baby spinach. One small container of blueberries. Two packages of kielbasa. Two packages of lunch meat. One large package of sliced cheddar cheese, and one bag of shredded cheddar. 

I bought zero treats. Zero junk food. Zero anything we don't need to, you know, eat and survive. Half of what I bought was either on sale or the generic brand, as long as it was cheaper. I spent just over $140. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLARS. I about lost my you-know-what in the checkout line.

Thinking: That we might try and transition Imogen to one nap soon. We had a horrible, horrible month and a half of her fighting naps, fighting bedtime, and waking up early, all at the same time. I started stretching out her naps and cutting them shorter, but nothing was working. Just in this last week or so, she's started to go back to normal - she's never been a 12 hour sleeper (how I wish!), and on a good day we'll get 10.5-11 hours out of her at night. Her naps hover right around 1 hour each. At this rate, we've stretched out her awake time as much as we possibly can, and I'm not willing to cap her naps any shorter because she's a cranky monster if I do that. The next step, I know, is switching to one nap, but that means keeping her awake from 7am (or earlier, usually) all the way until 12 or 1:00 in the afternoon. Usually she's tired by 10:30-11am. Good luck to us. I'm PRAYING she starts taking 2.5-3 hour naps like I've heard some kids do, once we switch. Two 1-hour breaks during the day is nice and all, but I would love a little bit longer of a break. These days it feels like once I do a chore or two, by the time I sit down it's time to wake her up again. I've read that the average age to switch to 1 nap is somewhere around 15 months. Did anyone else's kids switch around 13 months instead? Tell me your stories!!

Wanting: A gym membership. We have a treadmill, but we also have zero closet space and no garage, so half the time our treadmill is buried in stuff - usually the supplies for whatever house project we have going on at the time. We have some dumbbells and a kettlebell and I have yoga mats, but I am having a really hard time getting motivated to work out at home when I only have two 1-hour chunks of alone time during the day to do so. I really would like to be able to get out of the house and go work out when Isaiah's off work, but a gym membership here (there's only one) is SIXTY DOLLARS a month. And it's not even a super nice gym. They have like, three treadmills, a few bikes and ellipticals, and a few stationary weight machines. When I lived in Seattle post-college, I paid $35 a month to go to a two story gym with a TON of equipment. As usual, everything in Sitka is inflated beyond what's even reasonable.

Laughing at: This dude on America's Got Talent. I don't know why it made us laugh so hard, but it did. TELE-KIN-EZISSSS. (Sidenote: Mel B drives me insane. I don't know if she's actually dumb or just plays dumb, but she's always irritating.)

Contemplating: Quitting blogging. I know, I know...I do this at least once a year. Sometimes I actually leave, and inevitably come back to it. But lately, I just really haven't been feeling it. Often I'll sit down to write a blog post, type out a sentence or two, think to myself "screw it, I'm bored" and delete the draft. I'm much more drawn to Instagram these days - I love that I have a smaller following of people I actually personally know, whether through blogging or elsewhere, so I don't have to censor myself as much. Everyone who follows my blog follows me on Instagram, and lately I feel like my content has been redundant. Do I really need to blog about things like vacation or taking Imogen to the park or baking something new at the same time I'm posting pictures of the things we're doing?

I'm so vain, I probably think this blog is about me...

Raise your hand if you remember the Sunshine Award!! We're throwing it back to old school blogging today with a questionnaire from the lovely Callie at Through Clouded Glass. I never thought I'd see this award resurface - thanks, Callie!

1. What is a favorite childhood memory?
At least once every summer, my parents and sister and I would drive 6 hours from where we lived in Washington to spend a week or two in Bend, Oregon at my grandparents' house. They had an irrigation ditch that ran through their backyard, and more often than not, there would be a duck family living in the area, complete with little ducklings. My sister and I would spend hot days swimming in the ditch, digging up handfuls of mud and smearing it all over ourselves and declaring we were at a spa getting "mud mask treatments." My grandparents also had old bicycles and wooden stilts, and we would spend hours riding bikes around their cul-de-sac or practicing our stilt walking. One time, we were sword fighting with some sticks we found, and my sister accidentally hit me in the arm hard enough to give me a small cut. To this day, I have a small scar on my arm from that cut. I don't know how, since it barely even bled and certainly didn't need stitches, but nevertheless, it's a reminder of fun times in my childhood.

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
This is a tough question, because I haven't been a lot of places in the world. At the moment, if someone offered me the chance to move anywhere, I would move back to Washington. If Washington was not an option and I had to choose somewhere more exotic, I guess I would choose Iceland (mostly because besides there, I've only been to Canada and Mexico). Barring my opposition to their political views, it's a gorgeous country with a really neat culture. The only thing not my favorite is that they don't get hot summers.

3. What was the last book you read?
I'm in the middle of two books at the moment - Spaceman by Mike Massimino, and How to Be a Perfect Christian by the Babylon Bee.

4. When you have spare time, what do you do with it (besides blogging, of course)?
I usually either bake something, macrame something, or play with Imogen. I never have baby-free time other than when she's napping, so all of these things are things I can do while keeping an eye on her.

5. With whom is your longest friendship?
I'm actually still friends with a girl named Katie that I met in 5th grade. She and my sister took harp lessons from the same teacher, so that's how we met. We aren't super close these days, though she was one of my best friends in junior high and high school, but we still keep in touch and stay mostly up to date on each other's lives.

6. Favorite summer beverage?
For sure iced coffee. Give me a giant glass with a packet of Stevia, a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream, the strongest cold brew you have, and a ton of ice and I'll be happy. Sometimes I'll throw in a splash of vanilla extract if I'm feeling extra.

7. If you had the opportunity to attend your own funeral, what would you hope to hear people say about you?
I hope people would say I was a good and Godly mother, wife and friend.

8. All you ladies are married - how did you meet your spouse?
I went to college in Oklahoma with a girl from Alaska, who was married to a guy originally from Oklahoma, and the two of them happened to be best friends with Isaiah (who still lived in Sitka). After college, I was living back in Washington, and my friend - who had moved back to Sitka -decided to play matchmaker. She kept trying to get me to send Isaiah a message on Myspace (LOL) and I distinctly remember telling her that if she could get him to send me a message first, then I would send him a friend request. He actually did, on March 20th, 2009. We spent many days messaging each other, which turned into Skyping and phone calls, which turned into me moving to Alaska in May of 2009. On March 20th, 2010, exactly a year after our first internet chat, we were married.

9. Finish the sentence: "In high school I could have been voted most likely to..."
Immediately forget all about high school the minute I walked off the stage at graduation. (Fun fact: I hated high school with a fiery, burning passion.)

This is how 17 year old Angi felt about high school.

10. Tell us something we don't already know and wouldn't think to ask you.
I was a waitress for 3 1/2 years during junior high and high school, and 4 1/2 years right before, during, and after college. For those keeping track, that's a grand total of 8 years of waitressing. In junior high/high school, I worked at an upper class retirement center, in their main dining room. In college, I was a server at Chili's in Oklahoma. Right after moving back to Washington after school, I worked at a restaurant called Claim Jumper (it was the worst waitressing job I've ever had and I quit after a month). To this day, despite being 12 years removed from working in restaurants, I still have a hard time not being super judgmental of restaurants, servers, and food that doesn't live up to basic standards. I've about lost my mind several times in this one particular restaurant in Sitka that doesn't bring silverware when they bring our water, because I'm so sick to death of getting my food and having to ask for a dang fork to eat it with. I'm obsessed with any show featuring Gordon Ramsay screaming at some poor restaurant owner who doesn't think it's a big deal to put raw chicken on a shelf above cooked chicken in a refrigerator, and I think Isaiah's about sick of hearing me say "If I owned this place..."

I nominate ALL OF YOU.

These Are My Confessions #4

Hello from Packwood, Washington! Imogen is napping, and Isaiah and I are sitting on the back deck of the cabin we're renting, typing away on our respective computers while listening to the rush of the creek a mere 20 feet away.  It's approximately 75 degrees out at 10:00am, not a cloud in the sky, and I'm drinking an iced coffee and wearing short sleeves. And not freezing to death. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Anywho, I didn't really want to write out another Life Lately post yet because I feel like I just did one, but I didn't really have any other topics to write about that would take an entire blog post, so confessions it is.

+ I feel like I live in the stone ages when I don't have cell phone reception. I know this is totally a first world problem, but we do live in a first world country, and you would think we would at least have roaming out here. Nope. This area only uses Verizon and US Cellular, and apparently AT&T contracts with neither of those. So, unless we're on the (very spotty) WiFi at this cabin, our phones are basically bricks. I was able to download offline Google maps so we can at least find our way to the hikes we're going to do, but other than that...SOL. It's a bit frustrating, and even my computer has been dropping the WiFi about every 3-4 minutes. We'll see if I can even publish this today...

+ I love my daughter. I love her to pieces. I wouldn't go back to pre-Imogen life if you offered me all the treasure in the world. But sometimes - SOMETIMES - I get a little frustrated that we're still dealing with a two-nap schedule, and even though she's generally a really flexible and easygoing baby (toddler?), there are things we can't really do that we could do before that I really want to do. Did that sentence make sense? For instance, there are a lot of hikes in the area that are like 8-10 miles long. Pre-baby, we would have gotten up early, left in the morning, hiked all day long and not cared how long a 10 mile hike would take us. Post-baby, we have to consider...how long will this hike take us? Can we squeeze it in between two naps? Will she nap in the car or the backpack (probably not)? Will she be okay if she just skips her afternoon nap and goes to bed early (probably, but we can't do that very often or she gets overtired)? It's just a lot to think about and even though she is TOTALLY WORTH IT, sometimes I do kind of miss the carefree schedule we used to have when we went on vacations. Even once she's on one nap, it's still going to be a little complicated, because her nap will be smack in the middle of the afternoon and she CAN'T miss that nap if we're out and about doing stuff, since it will be her only nap.

+ Imogen's first birthday party turned out so well, despite the fact that we were supposed to have 15 people and ended up with seven. All the food and decorations turned out perfectly and she looked so cute in her little birthday dress...I posted a few photos on Instagram, but is it terrible that I have zero desire to write an entire blog post about her birthday party?

+ I still hate Disqus. The end.

That's really all I've got...I'm on vacation, we just spotted a coyote making his way down the riverbank, it's nearing 80 degrees now, and I'm going to go put on some shorts.

I have thoughts #7

+ Imogen's first birthday is in four days. FOUR DAYS. She has the best personality, and I can't wait to see what that personality looks like as she gets even bigger (not that I'm wishing time along or anything!). She's sweet and silly and loves to make us laugh. She will grunt and squeal at strangers until they have no choice but to look in her direction so she can give them a big toothy grin and wave at them. She will try a few bites of almost any food we give her, but isn't a very big eater and makes me a little worried about what will happen when we start swapping out formula for milk soon. She has been a decent sleeper for the last couple of months, but in the last few weeks, her sleep has gone to absolute crap and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fix it. Despite only getting about 9 hours of sleep at night and 2 hours of naps during the day, she's still the happiest baby and is rarely cranky.

She has 8 teeth and reddish blonde hair (just like Isaiah's mom and my grandma) and we joke that the reason she's obsessed with blueberries is because she needs to eat a lot of them in order to keep her eyes the color that they are. She isn't walking on her own yet, but she's getting braver by the day and is finally willing to use her walker to go back and forth in the kitchen without sitting down after only a couple of steps because it makes her too nervous. She loves to climb the stairs (praise God for baby gates) and chase the cat and she can even point out the kitties and doggies and ducks in her picture book.

Sometimes, I can't believe it's been a year since she was born. Most of the time, I REALLY can't believe it's been a year since I spent 27 hours in labor.

+ With Blogger/Google being stupid and not fixing the comment issue so many people are having, it seems many people are turning to Disqus to solve the problem instead. Confession: I hate Disqus with the fire of a thousand suns, and I can't bring myself to comment on blogs that use it. I hate having to sign in, I hate that it doesn't work half the time and/or I can't remember my log in, and to be honest, I really don't like my comment being replied to right there in someone's comment section. Reminds me too much of Facebook and it feels a lot less personal.  I've had some really good discussions about various topics with people via email, spurred by something they said in the blog, and I feel like that relationship aspect of blogging is basically shoved aside when all you get is a quick response right below your original comment.

+ Isaiah bought me a new laptop for my birthday a few weeks ago! I've been using my Macbook (that he also bought me for one of our first married Christmases) for something like 7 years, and while it's held up fairly well considering, it was just getting slower and slower and not functioning like I wanted it to, even after taking it to the computer doctor in town and having it cleaned and updated and more memory installed. Not to mention, I've been wanting to go back to a Windows computer for a while now. I like my iPhone and iPad just fine, but I spent all day every day on a Windows PC at my job the last 15-ish years, and a lot of Mac functions just don't work the same way that Windows functions do, and the way I'm used to. I was tired of not having an actual "delete" button, I got tired of the function/control/option/command buttons all doing weird things I wasn't used to, and I find it a lot easier to organize folders on a Windows OS as well. So...hi, Hewlett-Packard, nice to meet you.

Also, hey Apple, how about a print screen button? Who even remembers shift + command + 4 every time they need a screenshot? (I had to Google it AGAIN just to add that line to this post.)

+ My mom is flying up day after tomorrow for Imogen's birthday, will spend a few days here afterward, and then we're all headed back to Washington together for a little vacation. Imogen and Isaiah and I are headed to Mt. Rainier where we've rented an Airbnb cabin on the Cowlitz River, and the plan is to 1. relax, 2. hike, 3. relax, 4. hike, and 5. relax. I could not be more excited about this plan. I've been obsessively searching Instagram hashtags like "packwoodwa" and "mtrainiernationalpark" in preparation for this trip.

+ I feel like July is the new IT month for us. July of 2016, we went to Iceland. July 2017, we had a baby. July 2018, I finally get to do some hiking at Mt. Rainier - which you'd think I would have done having grown up in Washington, but I haven't. I'm starting to like July a little bit.

Life Lately #18

Reading: Nothing. It's terrible. I started Spaceman WEEKS ago and haven't even touched it since the first chapter. It's not that it wasn't interesting - it actually grabbed me right away - I just never think to read during Imogen's naps, there are so many other things I'd rather be doing these days. At this rate I'm never going to meet my reading goal for 2018. Although we are going on vacation in a few weeks, and maybe I'll get some reading in then.

Watching: America's Got Talent on Hulu. Does anyone else watch this show? Isaiah and I have a theory that they let some of the awful people be on just so they can have someone to kick off every now and then. We're also suspicious that they're planted because some of these people are just so. bad. Last night there was a (very cute, I will admit) elderly couple from Cuba who were "dancers." I was expecting some amazing ballroom dancing routine. Nope. All they did was bump and grind (badly) to "Talk Dirty to Me." It wasn't gross, but it was...awkward?? AND THEY GOT THREE YES VOTES. You can watch it here if you want to see their "dance routine." I do think Mel B was a little too offended. I'm not really a fan of hers. 

Listening to: The new Snow Patrol album!! Also Isaiah's heavy breathing because he's working out in the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. That's how small our house is.

Eating: Next to no carbs. I've done pretty well, but the other night I was craving ice cream like my life depended on it. Thankfully it was 10pm when the craving hit and mama ain't going to the store at 10:00 at night, no thanks.

Loving: My new lavender hair! No picture, sorry. I'll think about posting one on Instagram soon. Get this, though. Nobody in town sells purple shampoo for blonde/silver (or lavender) hair. There's only one store I haven't checked, but it's a really small grocery store so I seriously doubt they have it. Even our drug store didn't have any. So, I had to do a quick Ulta order and hopefully my hair doesn't turn brassy before next week when my shampoo is supposed to get here.

Annoyed with: Movie and television plots that force female heroes just so they can say they had a female hero. I'm fine with strong female characters, obviously...but I don't appreciate my gender as a whole being used as a pawn for some social justice cause that doesn't even exist.

Creating: Multiple DIY projects for Imogen's birthday party. We don't have the luxury of a Target/Walmart/party store/Joann/Michaels or anything of the sort here, so I'm having to order literally everything online. And it's cheaper just to make certain things myself than have to buy them. So, like, a three tiered cupcake stand...gonna hit the thrift store, find a trio of mismatched yet coordinating china plates and (hopefully) some pretty candlesticks, grab some epoxy, and make my own darn cupcake stand.

Laughing at: The show Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's really stupid (and nothing will ever measure up to The Office as far as I'm concerned) and it took me a while to get into it, but the last few episodes we've watched have actually been pretty funny. We're still on season 1, so hopefully it continues to get better.

Disappointed with: The latest season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The first couple seasons were so funny. I don't know if I even laughed once watching this most current season. It's just gotten really weird and like they've kind of run out of jokes, they make a lot of references to people and things that I don't understand, the characters have just gotten really weird...meh. Probably won't even bother with the show anymore, to be honest.

Feeling: A little scattered lately. There's just a lot going on with life and family right now and my brain doesn't feel like it's functioning at 100%!

Hoping: That it works out for my mom to still fly up for Imogen's first birthday, because she hasn't even seen her since Christmas. The aforementioned "life and family" stuff involves my dad (for those who don't know, he has Alzheimer's) and there are a few things that need to fall into place quickly, both for his sake and so my mom can take a break from the stress and come up to visit us for a little bit. 

Anticipating: Opening my new Etsy shop next week! Keep an eye on Instagram, I'll post about it there when the time comes. Hint: It has nothing to do with crocheting.

I Have Thoughts #6

First, if there are a lot of typos in this post, I apologize in advance. I am tired. Isaiah gets up for work at 5:45am, and there's no going back to sleep for me after that. Also, we've finally finished night weaning Imogen and as a thank you she's been waking up regularly between 6-6:30 instead of 7:30 like she used to. Her bedtime is still the same so I don't know what gives. It's probably not the weaning thing (because let's be real, she's almost 11 months old, she doesn't need a bottle at 5am); I'm thinking it's more a developmental phase combined with teething. She has been working on four - yes, count them, FOUR - teeth this last week or two, and it's been off and on hellacious for all of us. Three of them have finally broken the surface, thank the Lord above, so we only have one left and please, Jesus, make it come quickly.

She's also been fighting her afternoon nap like it's her hill to die on, and while she usually does eventually fall asleep, it's kind of stressful for me to sit there and listen to her jabber away and play with the zipper on her sleep sack for 45 minutes to an hour. And yes, I've tried putting her down a little bit earlier and a little bit later for the nap, and neither has made a difference. I know she's not ready for one nap yet, and I've read that there's a nap-fighting stage between 10-11 months, so I'm just trying to weather the storm over here.

Anyway, like I said, I'm tired, and I've been letting Imogen watch far more Little Baby Bum on Netflix than I'd like to admit. At least it's educational???

In other news, I'm starting to plan Imogen's first birthday party (who am I kidding, I started thinking about this months ago). The more I think about it, the more I want to cancel it, and we haven't even invited anyone yet. My mom's flying up for her birthday, which will be awesome, but I really just want to have some family time and not have to think about food and decorations and who we're going to invite and blah blah blah. Let's be honest, people don't have 1st birthday parties for the baby, anyway. It's just for the photos and the baby book. And Facebook, if that's your thing.

In reality, there's no way I could get away with NOT having a birthday party for her, not with in-laws who live here and a grandma flying up for the occasion and friends who have parties every chance they get. I would be the scourge of the family. A plague on both my houses. So, I'm researching inexpensive party decorations and trying to decide exactly how much DIYing I'm willing to do.

The other problem is location. It's not like we're inviting an army, but we'll probably have at least 15 people (ughhhhhhhhhhhh) and our house is flat out too small. There's a small building in town that would have been absolutely perfect and they normally rent it out by the day, but it's unavailable in June and July. Of course. Our only other options are to beg someone to let us have it at their house (nahhhh) or to have it at a covered campground or something outside, and I literally do not remember the last time it didn't rain on the 4th of July. Rainforests, man, always raining.

I'm probably putting way more thought into this than I need to be, and I seriously wish we could just invite her aunts and uncle and grandparents and be done with it (even though that would still be 5 too many people) but I already feel like I'm putting my foot down by saying no, we are not inviting half the police department. Like I told Isaiah, the people you invite to your daughter's first birthday party are people YOU want to spend time with, because the baby couldn't care less. She doesn't have "friends" yet.

Enough about the birthday party.

Did you hear that Ireland just made abortions legal? I shed literal tears when I read the news. I happened to have Imogen sitting on my lap playing with her blocks at that very moment, and the thought of someone murdering her before she was even born had me weeping and hugging her. Screw anyone who thinks unborn babies are not alive. To me, she's been alive since the second I saw that second pink line on my pregnancy test and nobody will ever be able to convince me otherwise. The fact that people were sobbing with joy and celebrating in the streets makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. They're literally celebrating infanticide. Crying tears of happiness because they're now legally able to murder babies whenever they want. If that doesn't disgust you too, there's the door.

On a lighter, less depressing note, has anyone here ever tried the keto diet? Normally I'm not a huge fan of fad diets - I figured out what works for me in terms of eating habits a while back and as long as I stuck to that, I was able to maintain my weight pretty easily. Post-baby, though? Nope. What worked before has most definitely not been working. I used to eat semi-low carb and that worked fine, but the same ratio of carbs to fat/protein has not been working anymore. I was talking to my sister-in-law a week or two ago, and she and her husband have been following the keto diet since last September and she's lost almost 40 pounds. And she doesn't work out. Like, not even a little bit.

Now, I'm not really a fan of NEVER working out, because I like to be fit in order to be able to go hiking on tougher trails and not feel like I'm dead before I've started. But I was intrigued, and since my previous eating habits were doing nothing for me and I have nothing to lose (ha ha) I thought I might give it a shot.

Let's just say I've lost 6 pounds in about two weeks. I know a lot of that is probably water weight, but that's fine - at least something is happening, whereas previously the scale wasn't budging no matter what I did. I still have about 20 pounds I want to lose, but my jeans are getting looser and the scale is going down, so I think I might stick with this for a while. It's simpler than I thought, too, even though when I'm tired I crave sugar and that's not an option with this way of eating. It seems counterintuitive to eat a lot of fat in order to lose fat, but I can't really argue with the science behind it. I don't want to talk forever about this because I know it's super annoying when people blab on and on about their diets and weight loss and whatever, but if you're curious about it, let me know and we can chat about it.

Also, the first person that says "Tee hee, I can't relate because I never had to change a thing after I had my baby and I was back in my size 4 skinny jeans only six weeks after having him/her! But good for you for figuring out what works for you! Tee hee!" gets a loaf of bread thrown at their head. I can't eat it right now anyway.

On Mother's Day

I get tired of feeling like I have to post disclaimers to the things I write lest someone think I'm passive aggressively singling them out, but here it is anyway: This post is not directed at any one specific person, so please take none of this personally. 

First of all, a belated Happy Mother's Day to all of you! I hope you all had a wonderful day full of love and joy, whether you have kids or not. This was my first Mother's Day with Imogen on the outside, and it was pretty great. Even though I wasn't thrilled about having to spend the day alone at home with a baby, Isaiah went above and beyond to make sure the day was special for me anyway, and it was very much appreciated.

That said, I've had something weighing on me the last few days that I have to get off my chest. I noticed a weird, somewhat disturbing trend this year on Mother's Day that has been bothering me ever since.

Have you ever noticed that there seem to be trends in the online world relating to attitudes toward certain situations? For instance, on a very basic level, it's very popular in the blog world to be omginlove with the fall season. If you aren't posting daily photos of your boots amongst the crunchy leaves or publicly drooling over your apple cider, you're the odd one out. Me, I like fall, but it's not my favorite season. You'll probably never catch me blogging about how much I love mustard colored cardigans (even though I do) or Instagramming my own hand holding a Starbucks cup in front of an orange and yellow leaved tree.

Snarkiness aside, it's totally fine to enjoy joining in with other people following popular trends like that. Sometimes.

I've also noticed that there are certain attitudes toward kids that seem to be growing in popularity over the last year or two, and it honestly has started to really upset me.

It's somehow become okay (popular, even) to call your toddler an "asshole." There's even a book with that as part of the title. It's somehow become trendy to go on and on about how all you want for your birthday/Mother's Day is an entire day away from your awful, needy children. It's somehow become the popular thing to do to only speak negative things about your kids, and never say a single positive thing about them. I have to be completely honest - there are some things I've seen online that have literally made me wonder why some people chose to have kids if they hate them so much.

Before you tar and feather me, I'm sure everyone actually loves their kids. But how is anyone supposed to know that if people don't act or talk like it?

I saw one Instagram account this week (nobody who reads this blog, calm down) where the mom could not stop talking about how overjoyed she was that her husband was taking her son out of town for the weekend so she could be away from him for two whole days. Ever since she had her baby, she's done nothing but talk about how difficult motherhood is, how it's nothing like she imagined, and how it should be "okay" to talk publicly, as women, about how much we love our kids but also how much we hate being a mom. Hashtag "brave" or something like that.

I make no apologies when I say I do not feel like that's okay. Are there hard days as a mom? OF COURSE. Curated Instagram accounts where a woman with an immaculately cleaned and decorated house has five kids all perfectly dressed in matching frocks who never whine or cry or throw tantrums or spill all their food on the floor are not real life. I don't think anybody who's a parent can take those kinds of accounts seriously and, if someone who's planning on having kids does, they're in for a shock when life really looks nothing like that.

But I also can't get on board with oversharing the negative side of being a parent and having kids. That's what husbands and your best friend are for - to vent about those hard days. It really shouldn't be the new popular thing to complain 24/7 about your kids on social media. It's not funny to call your toddler an asshole, because your toddler ISN'T an asshole. He/she is a toddler. They need a mature adult to parent them and teach them how to handle their emotions properly, how to be nice and sweet and not hit people, and yes, they need to be disciplined so they don't turn into actual assholes when they're 20.

It just makes me sad. Sometimes I think, what if our parents had Instagram and Facebook and wrote blogs and never had a single good thing to say about us when we were kids? I would be devastated if I cracked open my baby book and all my mom wrote in it was that I was a little asshole and the best Mother's Day she had was one she didn't have to spend with me.

Is it okay to want a break from your kids sometimes? YES. It's totally okay, and totally normal, to want to get out alone or with your spouse or friends for a kid-free date. That's why babysitters were invented. But when I log onto Instagram and it seems like everyone this year is rejoicing because they were able to ditch their kids for the day/weekend, it's a little upsetting. Mother's Day is, yes, a day to celebrate moms and all the hard work they do. And if getting out alone for Mother's Day is what makes it a good day for you, that's fine! What's not fine is to imply your kids are the worst part of your life and THANK GOD ALMIGHTY you're getting rid of them for the day.

I just think we all need to start making a more conscious decision to speak good things over our kids. Instead of calling them names, let's start choosing to share the good things about them. Take a look at your Instagram account or Facebook posts or blog entries - is it 90% negative and 10% positive, or the other way around? I believe words have power - it is in the Bible after all - and if you call your kid an asshole or a little terror or a jerk, they're probably going to start acting like one.

I feel like this was a super ramble-y, disjointed post and I'm not sure I even adequately expressed myself. All I wanted for Mother's Day was for my husband to have the day off so we could celebrate my being a mom to the most beautiful little girl, and instead he had to work. But instead of complaining about single parenting and lamenting the fact that I had to spend yet another 13 hour day alone with my daughter, I woke up that morning and chose to thank God for the blessing of being her mom, and what better way to spend Mother's Day than with the little one who made me a mother in the first place?

Children are a heritage from the Lord; offspring a reward from Him.

Psalm 127:3

Life Lately #17

Reading: I just recently started Spaceman by Mike Massimino but I haven't gotten very far. Life and all that fun stuff. 

Watching: Isaiah and I have started rewatching House lately after Imogen's in bed, and we also completely blew through the new Lost in Space series in about a week. I really like rewatching 

Listening to: Imogen rolling around in her crib* and talking to herself instead of falling asleep like she should be doing. It's the most talkative she's been all day, of course.

* she did finally fall asleep!


Smelling: The coffee I just made. Bless it.

Eating: No-bake peanut butter chocolate oatmeal bars I just made. I shouldn't be eating them because I made them for Isaiah to take to work and Lord knows my hips don't need them, but he doesn't know about them yet so...

Loving: The aforementioned cookie bars. Here's the recipe, they were stupid easy (which makes them extra dangerous).

Not Loving: All the issues we've been having with the USPS lately! Isaiah ordered a knife online, and the company accidentally put some other city/state/zip code after our correct address on the shipping label, and the post office delivered it to Kentucky. I'm not sure HOW they delivered it considering it's highly unlikely there's a house in Kentucky with the same house number and street name as ours, but they apparently delivered it somewhere and it wasn't to Sitka.

Then, a week ago, I ordered something online from Vistaprint that was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but around noon the tracking said "Held at post office per customer's request." Huh?? I didn't request for it to be held, but now I have to wait until Monday to figure out what they're doing with my package. My guess is they forgot to put it on the truck and scrambled to make up a reason why it wouldn't be delivered the day it was supposed to be. 

Then, over a month ago, Isaiah ordered something from an Etsy seller. The last tracking update was April 10th and said "in transit to next destination." It's May 6th and there are no more tracking updates and the item hasn't arrived. The seller is thankfully sending us a new one, but what is with the USPS and their losing packages, delivering them to wrong addresses, holding things at the post office when I never requested them to be held...??

Annoyed with: Anyone and everyone who is anti-second amendment or thinks I don't have the right to own weapons to defend myself and my family.

The house right down the drive from us is turning into a legitimate drug house. Three well-known drug dealers (and users) in town have ALL been hanging out at the house the last few days, Isaiah has arrested every one of them at some point, and my guess is they've already figured out that we live next door. Another guy whose truck Isaiah confiscated recently as evidence in a drug-related crime has also been showing up at the police department demanding his truck back and just the other day demanded to know Isaiah's home address so he could "come talk to him in person." 

Guess which house THAT guy has also been hanging out at? Yep, the one next door with the drug dealers. If he hasn't figured out we live here already, he will soon.

I literally have to either look up Facebook pages, or have Isaiah text me mug shots of these people so I know exactly who they are if they come to our front door.

THIS is reason #2348023 why I am so pro-second amendment. Nobody but nobody can tell me that I have to sit here all day alone with my baby daughter while drug dealers come and go from the house next door, planning who knows what, and if they decide to come up here and threaten me I have to hope to God they don't try anything while I wait 5-6 minutes for the police to show up. If you think that drugs don't make people violent, think again. We had a shooting here a few weeks back over a drug deal gone bad, and another stabbing just last week because some dude was on a meth trip and thought his "friend" had given him bad drugs. This isn't Pleasantville.

So, screw anyone who thinks I shouldn't own a gun. 

And yes, I'm a little bit passionate on the topic. 

Creating: A new Etsy shop and small business, and that's all I'll say at the moment, and I'm not trying to be purposely mysterious but...oh wait, yes I am. Smirk.

(Side note: Does it annoy the crap out of anyone else when bloggers are super mysterious and act like they don't want to talk about something and then it's like, well why did you even blog about it then?)

Wanting: A bigger house. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond grateful that we were able to afford to buy a house in this town at all, but a 900 square foot two bedroom house with completely inadequate storage and living space is simply not enough for two people and a baby-almost-toddler. I'm getting a huge urge to do a giant purge (I'm a poet and I know it) because I feel like I'm about to be crushed by all our stuff. There isn't really a lot I can get rid of that belongs to Imogen because we only have things she needs and/or plays with, but if we're going by the KonMari book and deciding whether we love things and/or whether they're useful, there's a lot I could do without.

Laughing at: This new book release from the Babylon Bee. I've been previewing some of the pages on Amazon and cackling.

One of the marks of a healthy church website is the frequent use of heavily filtered stock images that perfectly encapsulate the aesthetic you need to truly worship the Lord. If the church site you're checking out has pictures of people with a realistic level of attractiveness, close your Internet tab right away and try again. Ideally, the church you target will feature several images of young, unrealistically attractive models smiling and raising their hands as if worshipping with reckless abandon or desperately trying to wave down a passing car.

I mean...that's funny.

Wishing: It didn't rain more than it's sunny around these parts. I get all excited because we'll have like 2 days of sun and then it's back to solid rain for the rest of the 15 day forecast. I'm bored, Imogen's bored, and then I end up doing things like making no-bake cookie bars for Isaiah's job and eating them myself instead.

Anticipating: July. Isaiah's taking a couple of weeks off work and my mom will be here for the first little bit because she's coming up for Imogen's first birthday, but after she goes home we're debating where we want to go to get out of town. So far we've thrown around the ideas of a road trip to San Diego, a short cruise out of LA, flying to Hawaii, driving to Montana to see Glacier National Park, or a road trip around Europe, ending in Norway, the next country on our bucket list. We scratched off Europe just because we decided it'll be more fun maybe next summer when Imogen isn't on such a strict nap schedule. I'm not really wanting to take a 6 hour plane trip with a one year old so we probably won't do Hawaii. That leaves one of the USA road trips and we need to decide where to go soon so I can start working on an itinerary!

These Are My Confessions #3

Well, it's been a hot minute, hasn't it? I don't know why but I've been in a blogging rut lately and haven't even wanted to do my "life lately" posts because of the funk I've been in.

Wait, I feel like I'm doing this wrong...hold on...

OMG YOU GUYSSS. I'm so so SO sorry, I disappeared for a while but I'm back now!!!!! I hope you all didn't miss me too much, I'll do my best not to let my real life get in the way of my blogging from now on!!!!! Again, I'm SO sorry!!!!!

I crack myself up.

ANYwho, what better way to pull myself out of the funk that I've been in for a solid month now (I blame the weather, single parenting while my husband works 2394723410923874 hours of overtime, and just Alaska in general because why not?) than a bunch of pet peeves and gripes that I've been keeping track of in my phone for a post just like this? Onward!

Oh - and before anybody gets their you-know-whats in a wad, none of this is directed at anyone in particular. Nobody is on my mind THAT much. Well, except my baby, but she'd be on your mind 24/7 too if it was your leg she was trying to climb all day, every day.

+ The phrase "two kids under ____." I totally get the "two under two" or "three under three" notion because that's a lot of toddlerhood all smashed together, but the other day I heard someone make the comment that they had "two under three." As far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty normal spacing of kids, is it not? I was just shy of 2 1/2 when my sister was born, and I know a lot of people who have a two-ish year old when they have a new baby. What's next...two under five? Three under seven? It's like the "my baby is ____ months old" thing. After 24 months, just say how old they are in years, for the love of teething biscuits.

+ The term "girl boss." I don't know why this one gets under my skin, but it's just as annoying as "boy mom" or "girl mom." Hooray for breaking glass ceilings and all that, but there's literally nothing a man can do that a woman is not allowed to do these days, and one of those things is being a boss. How's this for a mind trip - starting at age 15, I've only had ONE job where my boss WASN'T a female. WHOAAAA.

+ Instagram gifs. I get it. They have their time and place. But every freaking Instagram story these days has multiple gifs splattered across the screen and I'm so over it. Enough with the dancing people and bouncy hearts!

+ The term "living my best life." I honestly don't know why this phrase annoys me, but it does. I think maybe because it's overused and applied to seriously mundane situations. "I'm eating a donut right now...living my best life!!" Seriously? Talk about low standards. You can hashtag your Instagram photo when you're doing something actually cool, like scuba diving with sharks in Costa Rica or summiting Mount Everest. Drinking wine next to a swimming pool doesn't qualify.

+ The thumbs up emoji. I'm seriously considering blocking the next person who replies to a text message from me with JUST the thumbs up emoji. How lazy are you, that you can't say "great!" or "sounds good!" or even just "OK"?

+ People who poke/touch babies' faces. Unless you're me or my husband, HANDS OFF. Someone (who shall remain nameless but who I'm related to by marriage) was literally flicking Imogen's cheeks the other day, Imogen was clearly not enjoying it, and yet they wouldn't stop. Add to that the average of three people every time we're at the grocery store who want to walk up and poke her in the face and I'm literally about to start doing it back to these people. Let's see how they like their cheeks flicked, poked and pinched.

+ Baby milestone comparisons. I don't really need to elaborate too much on this one because if you're a parent you already get it, but my goodness. Who cares if your kid pulls themselves to standing at 6 months or 9 months? Who cares if your kid walks at 12 months or 18 months? Who cares if your kid claps or dances or feeds themselves before so-and-so's kid? When mothers do this it always feels like it's more about what your kid isn't doing as opposed to what their kid is doing, and I'm so over it.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Time for coffee #3 and a quick edit job before the kiddo wakes up from her morning nap. Did I mention she's starting to cruise around the furniture now and has been dancing to music for the last week!? No, I didn't, because NOBODY CARES.

Really leaving now.

Baby Recommendations: 7-9 months

After doing recommendation posts for my favorite baby products for 1-3 months and then again for 4-6 months, I would be remiss if I didn't do another update for things we've been loving between 7-9 months!

As usual, some of these are more in the "need" category, while others are definitely more in the "want" category, and of course what works for us might not work for everyone. But, these are some of the things we've been loving over the last couple of months, and I know *I* love posts like these, so I hope you're enjoying them too and aren't super annoyed that I'm back with another one!

No sponsored links below - just good old fashioned links to products I love. I should also note that you can probably/maybe/definitely find a lot of these items cheaper at Walmart or Target, but the below links are all Amazon just because that's where I do the majority of my shopping. Definitely shop around and do some price checks if you end up buying any of this stuff!


Feeding

Disposable place mats. I may get a few eye rolls regarding these, but when you have a baby who a) likes to chew on the edge of restaurant tables and b) likes to feed herself pieces of food we put on the table in front of her but doesn't yet use an actual plate, these are actually really handy. I keep a pack of them in the diaper bag to use when we go out to eat and they work really well. I know there are lots of brands/styles of disposable place mats, but these were some of the least obnoxious looking ones I found. Imogen also likes to smack her hands on them over and over when we put them on a restaurant table and heck, it keeps her occupied, so...bonus.

Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cups. I'm sure you've seen these cups all over the internet, but they really are awesome. I really wanted to try and get Imogen used to drinking out of a regular cup as soon as possible rather than out of a cup with a spout, and these have been perfect for that. It's a little hard to explain how they work, but essentially there's a silicone "lid" that fits tightly enough that liquid doesn't spill out the top, but is loose enough that when a baby puts the cup to their mouth and sucks, they can get the water (or whatever) out. They're not completely spill-proof - if they hit the ground hard enough, a little water does splatter. But overall, they keep Imogen mostly dry while she's drinking - and she learned really quickly with these! It took a couple of weeks of offering her the cup on a regular basis for her to figure out that she needs to actually tip the cup up and can't just lean over it and suck on the edge, but once she figured that out, she's been good to go ever since. I even ordered a Hello Kitty one for the diaper bag (raise your hand if you're an '80s child and had HK stuff).

Munchkin 2-Piece Snack Catcher. Now that Imogen is needing snacks a lot more often, and really loves feeding herself, these snack cups have been really fun, and a great distraction when I need to get something done without her clinging to my leg or trying to bite my feet (what is that, anyway?). For the first couple of days, she thought it was a drinking cup and she just kept putting it to her mouth, but after a few times of me sitting down and doing it with her, she's finally figured out how to stick her hand in and pull out her puffs. It keeps her busy for a while, and if you have a baby, you know that even 5 minutes to unload the dishwasher is hard to come by sometimes.

Happy Baby rice cakes. All I can say about these is that Imogen actually eats the entire rice cake (and sometimes more than one). She's in a weird phase where she'll put just about any food in her mouth and chew it, but then she sticks her tongue out and wants to pull the food back out and squish it in her fingers. After extensive Googling I've determined it's a phase and it will pass and she will eventually eat enough solid food to be done with formula, but in the meantime, anything I can get her to actually swallow is a miracle. She actually swallows these. Enough said.


Clothing

The Kidizen app. If you're in the market for good, used baby clothes, then this is the app for you. I can't even put into words how much I love this app - it's basically like going to a consignment shop except you can sit on your couch with coffee and cookies and do all your shopping. It's for both buying and selling (I've even sold a few things myself!) and I've gotten some seriously good deals on clothes for Imogen, from brands I normally won't splurge on brand new.

I do have a referral link for the app so if you're interested in signing up, let me know and I'll send it to you (the link above isn't the referral link). My referral link will get you $5 off your first order! No strings attached, other than I also get a percentage of the purchase price but I wouldn't really consider that a string. If you sign up, you get a $5.00 credit and a whole month to browse and use it, and that's that.

Burt's Bees Organic Zip Front Hoodie. Sometimes this brand can be on the expensive side, but sometimes I find great deals on their clothes (their zip pajamas are awesome) and this hoodie is one of them. I was looking for a simple, neutral colored, lightweight, zip-up hooded sweatshirt for Imogen for the summer, and was having trouble finding one that wasn't terribly boyish until I came across this one. The peplum-esque bottom half makes it a little more girly than just a plain gray hoodie, and if you zoom in on the picture, it's got a really cute texture as well. I ordered her the 12 month size so it'll fit her (hopefully) all summer, and I would say it's true to size. If you, by chance, decide to buy the same hoodie, keep an eye on the price. At the time of this post, it's a $20 hoodie, but I only paid $12.75 for it a couple of weeks ago. Amazon and their weird price drops/increases, am I right?


Bathtime

Burt's Bees Baby Shampoo and Wash (original scent). I think I'm just a big Burt's Bees fan...between their clothing and bath/baby items, you really can't go wrong. I absolutely love the scent of this baby shampoo/wash, and they make a baby oil with the same scent and it is HEAVENLY. All I want to do is sit around and smell Imogen whenever I put it on her. It is funny, though - like Isaiah pointed out, we want our baby to smell like honey but she can't actually eat honey yet. Heh.

Boogie Wipes. For the longest time, I honestly thought that Boogie Wipes were a gimmick and basically a glorified baby wipe in a smaller package. NOT SO. I didn't realize it until a friend told me, but these actually have saline in them so they really help get those crusty boogers out and off of little noses. I normally don't like to spend extra money on very specific products (i.e. if a baby wipe can do the job, why buy both?) but these were a lifesaver the last time Imogen had a cold. She HATES her nose getting wiped, but these are a lot more gentle than a tissue or a baby wipe and the saline helps her nose not dry out so badly.

Gorilla Grip bath mat. I know there are a million bath mats out there and I'm sure the majority of them are equally good, but I ordered this one now that Imogen's using the regular bathtub and I've really been liking it. I didn't want one that looked too childish since we share the same bathroom, and I wanted one that was machine washable. This one fit the bill, and I love that it comes in a few different (adult-ish) colors. We put it in the tub for her baths, and then hang it to dry, roll it up, and stash it until her next bath rolls around. It's nice and long, too, so I can actually cover up the tub drain so she isn't constantly trying to pull out the hair trap. I ordered the color green, and it's a LOT brighter than it looks in the photo, but it's fine. It's a nice turquoise color that goes well with our mostly white and gray bathroom.


Diaper Time

Sposie Booster Pad Diaper Doublers. We don't change Imogen's diaper at night (unless she poops, of course) - we haven't for a long time. But with a bigger baby and bigger liquid intake comes larger amounts of pee, especially now that she drinks one of her biggest bottles of the day right before bed. We tried the usual trick of sizing up her diapers at night, but that wasn't cutting it - she was waking up with soaking wet pajamas every single morning. She's also an exclusive belly sleeper, so that doesn't help, either. I went on the hunt for a solution, and found these, and they've been amazing. We only use them at night, and they've basically stopped the soaking wet pajama problem. They're kind of funny because they look like the giant maxi pads you get at the hospital right after you have a baby, but hey, they work.

Extra large changing pad liners. In my 1-3 month recommendation post, I recommended these changing pad liners for saving your changing pad sheets from needing to be laundered five times a day. And they were great, I'd still recommend them - they're cheap and they work! However...they're small. Too small for my 9 month old, because they started bunching up underneath her any time she squirmed or kicked. So, I went on a quest for bigger changing pad liners and ended up with these, and we're loving them. They're big enough that they stay flat underneath her while I'm changing her diaper, and they've held up perfectly in the wash.


Playtime

VTech Baby Little SmartPhone. I recently went on a mission to find a few more interactive toys for Imogen, and since she has one or two other toys with buttons and lights and loves them, I wanted something similar. This little cell phone isn't very big, isn't crazy loud or obnoxious, and it's really cute with the puppy/kitty holograph on the front. The buttons teach both colors (only pink/purple/red, but still) and numbers, and there's an off button on the side which I REALLY like so if I don't want to listen to it for a while, I don't have to.

Touch and feel books. In the last few weeks, Imogen has gotten majorly into books with textures on the pages. She couldn't have cared less previously, so I don't know what switch was flipped, but all of a sudden she is all about anything furry, soft, bumpy or scratchy. We have several touch and feel books, but these are two of our favorites: Tickle, Tickle, Peter! and Pooh's Honey Trouble.

The First Years Stack Up Cups. Out of all the bazillions of toys we've managed to accumulate already over the last 9 months, these stack up cups remain one of the only toys that never really seems to bore her after a while. She loves it when we stack them so she can knock them down, she likes to "drink" out of them and smack them together to see what noises they make, we play games where we stick them on her feet (or head) and she has to pull them off, I put other, smaller toys inside of the bigger cups for her to try and get back out again...there are endless possibilities, really. I even just ordered a second set to keep upstairs in the bathtub because they're so inexpensive!

I have thoughts #5

The view has changed a bit...

Imogen is almost 9 months old. NINE MONTHS, guys. How? When? I mean, the first three or four months were probably the longest of my life (I cannot relate to people who say the first few months fly by. For me, they didn't. At all.) but the last six? I feel like just the other week she was barely able to roll over, and now she's crawling, able to put herself into a sitting position instead of relying on us to help her, pulling herself to her knees on everything she can get her hands on, eating all kinds of solid food (except purees, don't you dare try to put a spoon of puree in her mouth!), trying to share that food with us, waving hello/bye...at this rate she'll be walking next week. Just kidding, I have a feeling it'll be a while before she walks - she's still reeeeally wobbly when she tries to stand up.

We didn't really have a plan when it came to introducing solid foods to her at 6 months old, although I had grand plans of making all kinds of fun and fancy purees at home. Of course we ended up with a baby who hates purees. She'll eat from a pouch, but try to put a spoon in her face and you're likely to get it flung back at you. I always liked the idea of baby led weaning and although we haven't followed the rules to a T, it's been the method that's actually seemed to work the best. She feeds herself all kinds of food now, and will take just about anything we try to put in her mouth as long as it's a piece of food and not some mush on a spoon. The only food she doesn't like so far is berry flavored yogurt drops - I think they might be too tart (thought she devoured some orange slices the other day, so who knows). I even gave her a bite of asparagus the other day and she didn't hate it. Which is good because it's one of my favorite vegetables and I would have been so sad if she didn't like it.

A little blurry, because she never stops moving!

We're now "those parents" who have purchased a giant baby gate for our living room. We knew the day was coming because we installed a wood stove the winter before she was born, but now it's a reality. It works. I don't love having a giant metal fence in our living room, but I know it's not forever, and it really helps me not have to monitor her SO closely when she's playing by herself. I will say it'll be nice when the day comes that she understands "no", but that day is not today.

She's also SO tall! I don't know how in the world we got such a tall baby, but she's been in mostly 9-12 month (and some 12-18 month, because Zara runs ridiculously small) clothing for several weeks already. I might have mentioned this, but Isaiah is 5'9" and I'm barely over 5'4", so we have no idea where her height is coming from. Her 9 month checkup is next week and I'm interested to see just how long she's gotten.

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a baby-only post, so let's switch gears.

What are your plans for Easter this year? Isaiah has to work all day, so I'm flying solo. Well, solo with a baby. I guess they're having a potluck at the police department, and Isaiah asked if I wanted to make/bake something for him to take, and since it's not like I have much else going on, I said sure. I'm thinking some kind of broccoli salad and vegan cupcakes (one of his coworkers is lactose intolerant). I don't know why I'm even talking about this. This is how exciting my life is, guys! I'm blogging about the food I'm going to make for my husband's Easter potluck at his job. Eye rolls.

Here's something annoying...for some reason, a lot of companies like to treat Alaska like a 3rd world country, and offer no other shipping options other than either FedEx Smartpost or UPS SurePost (same difference). Both take at least 3-4 weeks to deliver here. There are a few companies I'll still buy from, simply because I like their stuff enough that I'm okay waiting (H&M is one of them, I just make sure not to buy any baby clothes that won't fit Imogen by the time they arrive).

But I've been ordering from Ulta for YEARS. I have several staple items that I've always bought from them, because I either can't get them in Sitka, or they're cheaper than in town (mascara, for one). Up until recently, I've always just used their standard shipping, which generally takes a week or so to arrive. APPARENTLY they've made some changes, and now they're using FedEx Smartpost unless you pay $10 for expedited shipping up here. It just took 3 1/2 weeks to get my Ulta order. It's not the end of the world, it's just really, really annoying.

I feel like Amazon shipping has gone downhill, too. I can't expedite things I used to be able to expedite, things they do allow me to expedite cost an arm and a leg (I'm not paying $50 in shipping for a box of diapers, forget it), and Prime shipping has gotten suuuuuper slow. Things are taking over a week just to ship these days and I'm having to majorly plan ahead for things like diapers and formula.

First world problems, I know, but I live in a first world country for a reason.

Annnnd Imogen just bumped her head and started crying, and that's my cue to start the bedtime routine. Mama out!

Life Lately #16

I have my computer back!! Repeat: I have my computer back! I never realized how much I depended on it until I didn't have it for two weeks. But the guy who fixed it was really nice and gave me a huge discount off the labor cost due to having to wait so long to get it back. Praise the Lord, hallelujah, I can type like a normal person again instead of having to use my phone/iPad for everything. 

Reading: Why I Hate Green Beans by Lincee Ray. I'm about a third of the way done with it and my goal is to finish it by the end of the month! I'm a slow reader these days. Mostly because when Imogen naps, a lot of the time I'm too tired to read and I end up zoning out messing around on my phone instead.

Watching: At the moment, Paddington Bear. I would rather be watching something else, but the smallest Clark is in the room and therefore all shows, even though she isn't really watching, must be relatively kid-friendly. After she goes to bed, though, everything changes.

Listening to: See above. Also waiting with bated breath for the new Snow Patrol album. ALSO loving a new artist I discovered called Portugal. The Man. Yes, that's his (their?) name. "Portugal. The Man." Look up the song Feel It Still. Catchy as all get out.

Wearing: Jeans and a sweatshirt, but I'll tell you what I DIDN'T wear when I took Imogen out for a walk today - my winter coat! I started out wearing it, but it was 54 degrees today and a mile into our walk I was overheating and took it off - and even pushed up my sweatshirt sleeves! I don't think I've done that since, like, last August. 

Eating: A lot of protein. I'm still counting my macros and I'm trying to get about 130 grams of protein every day and let me tell you, it's pretty difficult. I feel like I eat nothing but chicken, Greek yogurt, and protein powder. It's for a good cause so I'm fine with it, but it's a struggle sometimes.

Loving: Watching how fast Imogen is changing. It's hard to be sad when she's turning out to be such a smart and funny little kid. I'm sure this is technically nothing special but today I was trying to point to something in a book and she wanted to see something on the page underneath my arm, so she shoved my arm out of the way so she could see better. It seems like every day she does something new that leaves me scratching my head and wondering how one day she's barely able to control her limbs and the next she's purposely shoving my arm to get it out of her way.

Not Loving: How fast she grows out of her clothes! Her 9 month appointment is coming up in a few weeks (how!?) and at her 6 month appointment, she was still in the 75th percentile for height. I'm interested to see if she's still actually long for her age, or if I just feel like she is. I don't know, is 28 inches an average length for an 8 month old? According to the WHO online calculator she's in the 86th percentile still? WHO knows (ha) but she's already wearing some 12 month clothing just because she needs the length, so...

Thankful for: No shots at the aforementioned 9 month doctor visit! I'm also thankful that we only have a few months left before we can start transitioning Imogen to whole milk instead of formula. I feel like my bank account is dying a slow and painful death. Formula ain't cheap.

Creating: Something for a friend having a baby, and I'm starting to attempt to design Imogen's first birthday party invitations. I *only* have three and a half months to get that done, after all. (Honestly, I'm only starting now so I have a ton of time to work on it.)

Wanting: A different hairstyle. I still love my short hair, but I'm getting bored of it. It's been almost two years of the exact same haircut. My hair is thin, though, which is why I keep it this short. I've toyed with the idea of growing it back out but then I remember how much I hate it when it gets long and is so obviously thin. And by thin, I mean thinning. Not like I just have fine textured hair. Like I've had postpartum hair loss all day every day for the last 10 years.

Laughing at: All the lip syncing segments on Jimmy Fallon. I've been watching them on YouTube and cracking up on a daily basis. The one with Emma Stone is one of my favorites, even though it's several years old. Girl can LIP. SYNC.

Feeling: Happy that spring/summer is within spitting distance. I mean, "summer" is a relative term, but I'll just be glad when I can consistently leave the house without my winter jacket and when I can start wearing my fun shoes again (TOMS! Vans! Chucks!) and not be a slave to my boots.

Buying: Some new toys on Amazon for Imogen. She's very much past the stage where she finds things like rattles and teethers to be exciting for more than .6 seconds, and I'm wanting to get her some more developmentally appropriate toys. I'm about to pull the trigger on this, this and this. I know the shape sorter toy won't be used properly for quite a while, but I figure it'll be new and interesting anyway and she can grow into it.

Anticipating: Isaiah's upcoming mini vacation. He very rarely actually takes time off from work, and never just to stay at home, but he's taking three days off next week which, because of how his schedule works, actually gives us 10 days off to spend as a family. I'm a little bit excited about it. Even when he takes time off to go to Seattle, he usually switches shifts with one of the other officers so it's never really an actual vacation. AND, we're usually headed to Seattle, which is great and I love visiting my family, but it's not family time for US. This is 10 whole days of just the three of us, and our 8th anniversary is in the middle of it, so it's nice timing.