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.