100 years later

You know it's been a minute since you blogged when you go to your blog and then stare at the screen (and the most recent post, from 1.5 years ago) for five minutes trying to figure out what to do to start a new post. Ha. Am I 400 years old, or is it that after faithfully blogging for what felt like a lonnnnng time, I've well and truly forgotten how to do it?! I'll let you decide that one. Also, let it be noted that being out of the habit of blogging does NOT mean I've forgotten the thrill of receiving blog comments. Shout out to the filthy comment-bots that find a 9 year old post every now and then and helpfully leave garbled comments with hot tips about products that can increase my "manhood" and/or make me rich if only I click this link!! I ain't clicking, but I do appreciate y'all thinking of me and finding some ancient story about my deep thoughts on that day's lunch and gym exploits fascinating and worthy of your robot-time. 

At any rate, it's turned out to be a slow afternoon, so I was digging deep and trying to remember what I used to do during slow afternoons, and here we are. I highly doubt anyone is anxiously awaiting a Life Update from me, but just in case- why not. (The girls in my Zoom book club, affectionately known as Blog Friends Book Club, since we all met via blogging, regularly harass me about not-blogging, but even they do not need this update, since our monthly meetings + Instagram keep them in the know. But I digress.)

Well, since the last time we spoke here in August 2019, there was a pesky global pandemic that made life quite...interesting. (I'm going for positivity here.) So nothing about the last year+ has been normal for my family, as I know applies to everyone...just need to write it down though, so that the NEXT time I blog (appx 2025, if trends hold) I will remember the context of this year. Because I'm sure otherwise I would never remember what a very special, special time 2020-2021 was. Mmmhmm.

Kiddos

Yep, still plural there. Still can only show you pictures of one of 'em, though. As you may recall, we because foster parents in June 2019. We were quickly placed with twin girlies, who stayed with us for five wonderful and chaotic and lovely and tear-filled months. We said goodbye to them right before the holidays, and took a little over a month off to breathe and focus on our family of 3. In January of 2020, though, we said yes to our next placement, and welcomed the absolutely cutest, sweetest baby girl ever (or since Millie was a baby, obviously) into our home. We expected her to stay for a short time, maybe a few weeks, but you will all be utterly shocked to learn that she is still with us...and we hope this will be the case for, oh, ya know, forever. Fingers crossed and that's all I can say, but keep checking back and maybe in a few months or 5 years I will update again and be able to share pictures. :)

But Millie (or Camilla, as she prefers anyone not family to call her) is doing great! She's 6.5, almost done with first grade, and nothing but personality and opinions. She adores being a big sissy, though she is going to adore it more when little sis can PLAY ACCORDING TO HER EVER-CHANGING RULES. Yes, Millie is in the stage where she likes to micromanage every single aspect of play (thus sucking all potential fun out of it, if you're me)..."OK, now you take the baby and say '_____' and now you go over there and sit down and do ____" and OKAY BUT CAN I NOT PLEASE JUST MAKE A FEW OF MY OWN CHOICES AS WE PLAY HOUSE?!?! Sheesh. Anyway, I too am anxiously awaiting the day baby sis can be bossed around in play so that I can go water the plants or something. For the love.

One thing the whole family can agree on, though? Our favorite family TV show- Naked & Afraid. Haaa. But for real, we watch it together all the time, and this guides most of our outdoor adventures as well. We go on lottttssss of walks around town (shoutout to the #1 and only entertainment option of 2020!!!) and on some trails in the woods nearby, and we have all learned so much from watching that show, we spend our time discussing the best place to make shelters, whether water looks potable or not, and pondering what kinds of predators might be after us in any given place. And then we walk home and enjoy eating and sleeping in our nice, air conditioned home. It's really the best of all worlds, since the Bates fam has no desire to ACTUALLY camp or experience nature too much. So there's your hot parenting tip for today (slash this year and probably next year too)-- a show the whole family can enjoy and learn from!

Exhibit A: a bamboo forest near our home that had a lot of shelter-building potential, and MAYBE even some panda bear potential!

Since we pretty much spent the last year at home (we're the mask-wearing, scientific-advice-following, err on the side of caution type folks), we've had lots of time together as a family and are happy to report that we still like one another. And more importantly, Matt and I both ended up buying adult scooters, and with the baby on one of our backs in an Ergo, we take many "family scoot-scoots" around town and are well-acquainted with basically every human, dog, cat, flowering bush, and holiday decoration within a two mile radius of our house.

We ventured off our street for spring break and made our way down to a house on an empty beach on Cape San Blas and it was a delight. But the water was freezing.

Matt & Erika (or...you could say...Matt y Erika...see what I did there?)

Matt and I both worked from home beginning in March of last year. Matt is still working from home, and will be permanently, as it was apparently a big hit with his company. I started phasing back into my office in January with a hybrid WFH/work at office schedule, and have been full time back in the office since the beginning of April. I truly loved working from home, and even enjoyed the extremely chaotic double dip of working from home full-time while managing Millie's digital learning for the fall semester. We sent her back to in-person school in January, when my office's patience with me being home all the time ran out, haha. She is doing great at school, but I so miss getting to see her throughout the day. Kids, man. 

But MOST excitingly....

Matt and I are now both double vaxxed, post-two-weeks, and SO EXCITED! We celebrated by re-joining the YMCA last week, which is great, but not as great as my REAL "congrats on surviving being stuck at home for a year with your very loud children" present to myself, which is a very fancy (by Athens standards) and long-awaited mani/pedi with allll the extras. It's been a LONG TIME (since March 13, 2020, actually, as the first thing my coworker and I did when we got sent home from the office "for two weeks" was stop and get our nails done in case we wouldn't be able to do it again for *gasp* like a whole month or something. OH TO BE SO YOUNG AND INNOCENT.) and I am VERY excited. (Sure, nail salons have been re-opened for a long time here, but spending any unnecessary time indoors in public places is not a thing I have been willing to do until I was fully vaxxed, so NOW IS THE TIME!) I am...perhaps overly excited. It's fine. Just give it to me.

I am so thankful that relatively speaking, the last year has been bad only in a stress and inconvenience sort of way. Though many of our family members and friends got the virus, no one close to us passed away, and I am deeply thankful for that and aware that it certainly is not everyone's situation. As someone who during a "normal" year has a 9-5, lives half an hour out of town, has kids and millions of foster care-related appointments, and is fairly introverted, I don't generally have a busy social life or a group of friends I see regularly (beyond work friends and church friends). By far the best part the last year has been the close friendships I've developed with a group of girls that started with our Bachelor group text (remember how Pilot Pete's season ended JUST as the world shut down?!?!) and just kinda...never stopped. Those girls (a subset of my real-life book club-- ya know, the Bach-watching contingent of the club, haha) were my constant text companions and eventually real-life companions, too, as we started gathering masked-up around someone's fire pit for long conversations after our kids all went to bed. I imagine my feelings for them are something like what soldiers might feel for the people they went to war with. But those ladies were a life-saver this past year, and the joy we've shared as we've slowly all gotten ourselves (and our partners) vaccinated is just...priceless. I cannot wait to sit INSIDE THEIR ACTUAL HOUSES very soon and drink my margaritas WITHOUT A MASK IN MY WAY!!

I guess that sums up the last year-ish, pretty much. I should note that we had to say goodbye to sweet Lola, our beloved doggie, in February 2020 (thanks a lot, 2020). We missed her greatly those first few months of being home all the time, and know she would have been so happy to have her people home all of the time. Thankfully, we welcomed a new furry friend into our home in August, and Lucy is the sweetest little blond ragamuffin dog. She's definitely the girls' favorite member of the family, and our house is just a lot happier with a dog running around in it. 

As school wraps up and the hot weather rolls in, we look forward to more walks, more Naked & Afraid marathons, more time with friends, more time working out (hahahahaa...I mean, yes, but am I actually looking FORWARD to it? Debatable), and less time scrubbing makeup off the inside of masks (THE WORST, why do I even bother with makeup, honestly?). More importantly, I look forward to hopefully someday soon telling Millie she's gonna get to be a big sissy forever...that all of her dandelion wishes have paid off (it's legit what she wishes for, every time).

Until next time, friends.

xo

life lately

Ohhh man. It's been a minute, but let's just jump right in, shall we??

I'm still here (as in, in life...not so much in the blog world, haha) and life is good! Let's start off with our Millie girl, because that's who we all really care about, right?

Millie is 3.5, closing in on 4, and basically the greatest human in the history of the world. Also, she is 3.5 and totally normal, so that means she has a gift for being infuriating, obnoxious, and terrible, but I prefer to not think about those moments (...hours...). We'll focus on the positive for this rare blog update. ;)

She loves unicorns, mermaids ("I love mermaids, but I love unicorns the MOST, Mommy! And I love lions and dinosaurs and bad guys, but I still love unicorns the MOST."), and anything magical. 

She lives for going to the grocery store to visit this inflatable unicorn. And yes, I'm probably going to buy it for her for her birthday, because a) I am a sucker, and b) it will really complete my home decor.

She 100% believes she can do magic (with one of her many wands, of course), and most mornings, after Daddy leaves for work, she points her wand out the window and does a spell to make Daddy's hair turn purple/green/sparkly/whatever so that it "surpwises him in the mirror." It's her favorite thing. But then we always do another spell to turn it back brown later, so it's all fine. She loves doing ballet and yoga, and more than that, pretending she's the ballet and/or yoga teacher. (Hot Tip: if your kids enjoy storytelling at all, you need to check out Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube or Amazon Prime...it's SUCH fun story-based yoga, Millie is obsessed!!)

She is playing on a little soccer team this spring. It's the most precious thing ever. Matt is the coach. Again- precious. My gal has not the foggiest idea what she's supposed to be doing out there, but she generally runs around and has a good time, and she sure looks cute, so I consider the season a success. She will be quick to inform you that she prefers yoga, though.

(Also-  I have no idea where the obsession with yoga came from. I go to yoga or do it at home on rare occasion and hardly ever talk about it. I only started letting her watch Cosmic Kids Yoga after she'd been 'playing yoga' for several weeks and it occurred to me to turn that on, haha.)

She is 100% a mama's girl right now (annnnd maybe for the last year, who knows) and generally ONLY wants to do anything with/for me. It's wonderful and exhausting, as I'm sure many of you can relate to, haha. She transitions easily and does just fine at school, in the church nursery, with her grandparents, etc., but if I'm around, I'm the only one she wants anything to do with, generally. In her words, "you my BEST FRIEND, Mama. I ONLY LOVE YOU THE MOST. You my best friend FOREVER and even if I not listening, you STILL LOVE ME, and even if I REALLY REALLY BAD, you STILL LOVE ME!!!!!"...she's got that down right. But she frequently brings up the part about how "even when I ______ (insert naughty thing she's currently doing), you STILL LOVE ME!" which is definitely true BUT ALSO PLEASE STOP DOING OBNOXIOUS THINGS THANKS.

We went skating last weekend and she spent the whole time grinning up at us, screaming "this is the best day of my whole life!!!! This is the most fun EVERRRR!!!!" and I had to agree. It might have been the best day ever. Slash I might need to buy a skating rink or something. 

She has been at the same daycare with the same little group of buddies since she was a little over a year old, but changes are on the horizon. She got a spot in our neighborhood elementary school pre-k program for next school year (those are lottery spots in Georgia- pre-k isn't required and there are far fewer spots than kids, so you enter an open lottery for the spaces) which we are thrilled about. We found another daycare near the school where she can go for after-school (and the millions of no-school days that public schools seem to take...fall break, fall break 2, a month of Christmas break, twelve additional winter/early spring/mid spring breaks, spring break, late spring break, SUMMER BREAK, oh and teacher workdays every other Tuesday, etc....just kidding, but seriously, it is a lot compared to daycare, hahaha). I am so thankful for how things seem to be working out, but in order to secure a spot at the daycare for after-school (I'm not really interested in having her at the school's after-school program with such a huge number/variety of ages of kids), I had to enroll her for their summer program...so she will be starting there in just a few weeks. I know it will be good, and it'll be nice for her to meet some kids that she will actually see at her big school (she's always gone to daycare in Athens, where Matt and I work, but no other kids there will go to elem school out where we live)...but man, it's gonna be tough to leave the school we've loved so much. She can't really comprehend not seeing her buds every day, even though she tells me she will make NEW BEST FRIENDS, and I know she will. So that's a good but maybe-tough change for the near future.

Our biggest Life Update (if you don't happen to follow me elsewhere on social media, haha) is that we are moving! We're "building" a house VERY near our current house and right across from Millie's future elementary school, so no great distances are being traversed, but it's still an exciting adventure! "Building" warrants quotation marks because we aren't custom building...we just bought a lot in a neighborhood under development before they had started building on that particular lot. We got to pick the house plan (out of like three) and some basic finishes and colors, etc, but no BIG decisions about where the windows should be or how the kitchen should be oriented. So..."building." Ha. So far in the 2.5 months we've been under contract on the house all they've managed to do is build a frame for the foundation. And dig the utilities. Not even a foundation yet. It's very slow and boring and disappointing, to be honest, haha. I eagerly await the day there are boards or walls or basically anything that remotely resembles a house. In theory we will be moving there in mid-July, but given the current pace of work...that may be July of 2023 or something.

Our "new house." Very exciting. 

Our current house went under contract very quickly (we had our first offer about 8 hours after it went on the market!!) and has been mostly a smooth process, but still a giant headache, haha. We will close on our current house in mid-June and move into my in-laws' basement until our new house is ready. Good times ahead!

I guess that's about it. I spend my spare time reading and thinking about packing (not ACTUALLY packing too much), so who has time for blogging with all that going on? Ha. As always, catch me on Instagram for Millie in Real Time...she is a mess and well worth seeing more than once every 4 months when I get around to blogging, haha! 

the one with all the manatees

We had a wonderful, relaxing trip to the beach last week! It was Millie's third year going to Cocoa Beach with us, and each year gets more and more fun! 

Ever since we took our mini-vacation to Cape San Blas in April, Millie has been BEGGING to go back to the beach. Parenting pro tip: maybe don't tell your distraught daughter about your next beach trip while you are leaving from your current beach trip if there is more than about 2 days until the next one. "In July" meant NOTHING to Millie, and so it's been a lonnnng three months of telling her "not today!!" every day when she thinks we are going to the beach that day.

See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me...and no one knoooooows how far it gooooooes...

But finally the day came and we got back to her beloved "BIG water!" and all was well with her soul. And mine. But then...

But then.

Then it was Thursday. Thursday, July 13, to be exact. A day I shall forever remember with fondness, joy, and delight.

On Thursday we decided to go kayaking. Same place we've gone before- the Banana River, less than a mile from our condo. The river is where my love of manatees was born back in 2010, when I unexpectedly came upon them while kayaking. I've been a woman obsessed ever since. But I've never had as much success finding them again. Occasional sightings, a glimpse from afar...enough to keep fueling my passion, but not enough to quench it, right? But I get it. It's July. It's hotter than Hades. It's not "manatee season," even though it's a manatee zone. So I keep my expectations low reasonable-ish.

But on Thursday...

OH MY GOSH THERE IS A MANATEE RIGHT NEXT TO MY KAYAK!!!

A manatee? There wasn't a manatee.

There were four.

Four giant, lovely, fat, happy, playful manatees. They were hanging out in a little cove, doing what manatees do. Rolling around, being adorable, and BE STILL MY HEART, curiously checking out the kayakers who happened by.

THIS IS MATT TOUCHING A MANATEE!!!!!!!!!

Like, they just came up to us! They KEPT coming up to us! The swam under us and rubbed their backs on the bottom of our boat! The stuck their noses up and sniffed us!!

I GOT TO PET A MANATEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot even describe this.

Over and over and over, they came up, rolled around, said hi (with their bodies. I speak the body language of the manatees, trust.).

Millie's sweet little hand got to PET A MANATEE!! She was so brave!!

Indescribable, people. Absolutely amazing. I have videos (and videos, and videos) of the whole experience and my voice is like 12 octaves higher than strictly necessary and I am gushing and nearly sobbing and like OH MY GOSH I WAS BEING SWARMED BY HAPPY, ROLY POLY MANATEES!!!

They have whiskers!! Or "beards," if you're Millie.

They showed off with cute party tricks like this!

Oh look, it's Erika tanning on the beach a manatee tanning in the water! (P.S. I touched their bellies too, don't worry. They were much smoother than their backs and didn't have all the algae/barnacles. Very interesting!)

We stayed in that cove and just watched and played for over half an hour. They never left us- they kept swimming around us and coming up. I really just cannot believe it happened. I think I'm still in shock.

This is how we felt about the whole experience.

I am just so incredibly thankful for such an amazing, unexpected opportunity. That my parents, Matt, and Millie got to experience it alongside me was even better. You better believe none of us have stopped talking about it ever since. And now that we're home, with no upcoming beach trips on the agenda, Millie asks "when we see manatees again?" and like...what am I supposed to tell her?! At least I've got a co-manatee lover in the house with me.

July 13, man. July 13. You know, on the Tuesday and Wednesday before, I'd been sick with a stomach bug and stuck in bed (so stupid on vacation!!). But on Thursday, I woke up, felt a bit better, and figured we may as well go for a paddle down the river. What a wonderful spur-of-the-moment decision THAT turned out to be!!!

new year, same excuses

So...a happy New Year is in order, it seems?? Ha! So much for all those long, newsy, insightful blogs I'd planned for the end of 2016. What a shame. Don't worry, I don't plan to quit blogging...I'm just too busy/lazy to do it with any sort of regularity, apparently. 

Moving on! To summarize the end of 2016...let's see, there was a heartbreaking election. There were (are) terrible atrocities taking place all over the world and throughout our country. That's kind of all I remember. Maybe that's why I don't feel like writing anymore. I feel silly writing about my adorable child and generally happy life when there is so much real hurt and pain and injustice. It feels trite and trivial. I prefer to lose myself in fiction, to be honest, so that's what I spend most of my nights doing. I guess that led to one noteworthy thing: I read 31 books in 2016! Yay me. My goal was 40, so I did fall a little short, but I feel pretty good about 31. My goal for 2017 will remain 40, and so far I'm working on #3, so I'm off to a good start. (Side note for the book lovers or other people who would like to escape reality for a few hours: it seems that my reading "kick" for 2016 was books that took place in occupied European countries during WWI/WWII. I can't get enough of them!! A few of my favorites/top recommendations are All the Light We Cannot See, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Life After Life, and The Girl You Left Behind. Anyone else read TGYLB? I just finished it last week and it blew my mind and I'm dying to talk to someone about it. SO GOOD!!!!! Anyone have other recommendations in this genre?)

Annnnnyway. So I spend all my spare time reading. The end.

So I failed to blog about the super fun end-of-year holidays, which Millie found MOST exciting this year. I swear, she is SO MUCH FUN right now. She understands things, she remembers things (for better or for worse...like she remembers when I vaguely mention she can have a cookie later if she _______...and homegirl will CALL ME OUT on that!! Ha.), she anticipates things....it's awesome!! So Christmas was particularly fun.

We finally fulfilled my lifelong dream of matching family jammies!! And as it turns out, these were actually really comfy, too, so we all wear them basically all the time. Oh, and Millie will sometimes call us "mama bear" and "papa bear" now, so that's pretty much the funniest thing ever. JAMMY WIN!

We didn't make it to see Santa this year. Well, Millie sorta did...from a distance, with my mother-in-law, and she was fine checking him out from afar, but when it was her turn to sit in his lap, she (semi-predictably) freaked out and was hysterical. Thankfully, my MIL didn't make her sit in his lap and just let her leave, but for days, all Millie could talk about was "NO LIKE HO-HO-HO!!! I NO SIT ON HO-HO-HO! I CRY!! HO-HO-HO BITE ME!!" and it just didn't seem worth it to me to try to inflict that trauma on her again when she so clearly was NOT INTERESTED (slash terrified). So no cute or crying Santa pics. Maybe next year, unless he (apparently) bites her again, ha.

She was MUCH more interested in any holiday traditions that involved food. This girl. We've certainly never had to worry about her going hungry! Food is her JAM!

We've also never had to worry about her lacking in personality or opinions. Her sweet daycare teacher describes her like this: "Oh, Millie always helps us know what we are doing. She tells the other children what they should do and not do. She knows where everything is and whose stuff everything is! She is a great leader!"....well, that's such a positive way of framing it. ;) Thank you, teachers! But seriously. She knows what's going on, and she will LET YOU KNOW if you step out of line. Ha!

Her big present from Mama & Papa Bear this year (not giving credit to mean old Ho Ho Ho!) was a dollhouse. She's a big fan, and I have high hopes that someday soon she will start playing with it in a way that makes sense to me. Instead of, you know, mixing in like eighteen genres of toys and various items from around the house...here in the dollhouse kitchen we have a dollhouse refrigerator, a dollhouse grandpa doll, a green Lego, a jar of yellow paint, an empty toilet paper roll, six used stickers, a Daniel Tiger figurine, an eyelash curler stolen from mama's makeup cabinet, and a dirty sock. And I'm harshly reprimanded if I try to move any of those things, because THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT AND SHE IS PLAYING WITH THEM ALL. Excuse me for feeling slightly overwhelmed at the notion of tying all of those things in to a play storyline that makes any sense...

She is so silly and creative and (I hesitate to proclaim this for fear of jinxing us, but...) POTTY TRAINED as of very recently! I was kinda half-assing the potty training ever since about September, doing undies occasionally and pull-ups most of the time, but since we had some extended time off over the holidays, we finally really committed to the undies- even in public!!! and in the car!!!- and she's done great!! We still do pull-ups at night and naptime, but she actually wakes up dry most of the time (or wakes up and goes potty in the middle of the night) (with our help, because HECK YES she is still in her crib)! I'm so proud of her and we'll be going to collect her reward (getting her ears pierced) very soon.

Also, please note that apparently using the idea of being a "big girl" for all sorts of ideas and explanations has caused some confusion in her brain. And it's hilarious.

Exhibit A: We told her earrings are for "big girls" and that when she was going tee-tee on the potty all of the time and didn't wear baby pull-ups anymore, she would be a big girl and could get earrings (or "ear holes," as she calls it, since she understands that you have to first get special holes in your ears that you can put the earrings in!).

So understandably, every day or so, as soon as she finishes up using the bathroom, she reaches up and touches her ears, saying "I big girl! I tee-tee on potty! Where my ear holes?"

Exhibit B: As she was sitting on the potty one afternoon, I was sitting on the stool and leaning over towards her. Apparently my shirt was hanging down and exposing my cleavage a bit, so she reached out and pointed to one boob and had a slightly alarmed and curious look on her face as she asked "what dat?" "Oh...um, that's Mama's boobie!" She touched the other boob. "What dat?" "That's Mommy's other boobie." She touched her own chest. "Where my boobie?" "Ummm...you get boobies when you're a big girl." She looks up with panic in her eyes. "BUT I TEE-TEE ON THE POTTY!! I a big girl! Where my boobie??!" (Sorry, couldn't even hold it together after that one. She has inquired about/requested boobies several times since then, so I'm trying to come up with a better explanation for when she can get hers.)

Exhibit C: Sometimes you just don't want to be a big girl. Because as she's learned, Big Girls do not get pacis all the time (only at bed time! and in the car. and during breathing treatments.), and they sometimes have to do very terrible things like stop playing to go use the restroom, etc. So the other night, she very calmly sat me down and explained "I not big girl. I tiny! I need paci. I tiny!! I want dipe-dipe. Where my paci? I tiny. I NOT BIG GIRL! I no have ear holes."

Look at that tiny not-big-girl.

I mean, as fun as she was as a baby, this whole language thing is priceless. I just don't know how I ever lived without hearing her ridiculous commentary on life all the time. I've been going through some of her baby things lately (to pass down to a niece that will arrive any day now!) and it's so bittersweet, but I don't know if I'd go back to her being a baby, even if I could. She is just SO full of life and love and sweetness...I can't get enough of my not-quite big girl.

We were supposed to have a Significant Winter Weather Event last night, but I don't know, something happened and we didn't. Our whole town shut down at like noon on Friday, just in case!!!!!, and we got all prepared and I was SO optimistic I even went out and spent ungodly amounts of money on two cheap plastic sleds that were clearly marked up 3000% just for the rare event...and then we watched videos on YouTube of kids sledding...and then Millie was SO excited all night and we promised that when she woke up, we would play in the snow....and then we woke up and there was like a fraction of a millimeter of heavy frost on the grass. WOMP WOMP WOMP, biggest disappointment ever. But Millie was not to be deterred. We promised she could sled, so dammit, she was gonna sled. And she had a blast. And we went and had French toast brunch with some new friends, and the kids gathered microscopic handfuls of snow off the playground equipment in the backyard and marveled at it melting in their hands, and that's how our snow day went down today. It was pretty fabulous, minus the part where we totally got gypped on actually GETTING SNOW.

So that brings us pretty up-to-date. I'm going to save the sleds, because a) I'm an optimist at heart, and maybe- just maybe!!- we will have reason to use them sometime soon...and b) the sketchy store I bought them at doesn't do returns. ??????? and potentially c) I could always just save them and mark them up another million percent next time there's a chance of snow and turn a sweet lil profit off another desperate mama, huh? So, options. They're good to have.

So Happy New Year! I promise to try to do a better job sharing things here- but if I don't, feel free to follow me on Instagram or Facebook or- let's be honest- Goodreads, haha. If you've made it this far, I will reward you (??? haha) by asking a completely off-topic question to close: does anyone still actually balance their checkbook/somehow reconcile monthly expenses against a budget on a regular basis? I'll go first: I do. I save every receipt and have an Excel workbook that everything goes into (I update it usually twice a month; each time we get paid). But I've discovered that apparently not a lot of folks my age/stage do that anymore. I guess folks just keep a general eye on their bank balance and keep on rollin'?? So I'm just curious. Anyone else out there still carefully saving and recording every single stupid receipt like I am? It's so annoying and time-consuming and I hate it, but I can't think of another way to make sure that I stick within our budget(s)?? I have Mint, and it's really similar (but easier)...but I can't bring myself to not still do the stupid Excel thing. So please weigh in and either enlighten me to a better way or let me know I'm not alone in boring tediusville over here! 

currently: long hot summer ed.

Currently, I'm...

Listening...to a lot of podcasts. I am convinced that this is the only reason I've been successful at getting up and working out consistently for the last two (ALMOST THREE!!! yay, go me!) months...a very robust and diverse podcast list. Here are my recommendations, in case you're hunting for new listens: Hidden Brain, Ask a Clean Person, Invisibilia, Stuff Mom Never Told You, Embedded, Freakonomics Radio, 99% Invisible, Planet Money, The Longest Shortest Time, and Gilmore Guys (although I'm finally starting to tire of them...but we're/they're so close to finishing the series, I'm trying to stick with 'em). Am I missing anything fabulous? Because I also have a few very long car trips in the upcoming weeks, so I'm trying to really beef up my list.

Eating...too much of everything, ha. Where I've been successful at exercising more lately, I've been a complete and total failure at eating less/better. Wah. Oh well. At least a lot of it is fruit?? Or something.

Drinking...well, THIS I have an answer for. And the answer is margaritas. Ha. This is apparently the summer of the margarita. Matt and I have embarked on a quest to learn to make the best margs ever at home, and it's been pretty great. And even the failures are...pretty great. Hahahaha. (P.S. We aren't doing anything special in our "quest to learn to make the best margs ever"...basically just vary the amount of lime/lemon juice and the 'parts' of triple sec and tequila is all. Nothing fancy. We're not very advanced bartenders.)

However, I CAN definitively say now that I prefer mine on the rocks with NO salt. So now you know. And so do I.

Wearing...nothing special right now, but I keep obsessively looking at pictures of our patriotic outfits from the weekend!

Nothing speaks to my heart quite like coordinating family outfits. Clearly.

Feeling...excited! We are going to the beach soon, and that is making me happppyyyy! Millie is the happiest, funniest little thing these days, and I can't wait to spend so much uninterrupted time with her (and Matt. And my parents. They are also all cool.). However, tonight when we were talking about what we were going to do on vacation, she let me and Matt know that she was going to sleep in Nannie & Pop-pop's bed and go on a walk with Pop-pop. So I guess she might have her own agenda, and it apparently doesn't involve me. Wah.

with her beloved Nannie & Pop-pop on Father's Day

Wanting...it to be Friday at 5:00 already? I am normally not a wish-away-the-week person, but apparently the week before a vacation...I am. Ooh, but I also want someone to come and pack for me. That's the only bummer part about vacation. Well, and the unpacking later. One day when I'm filthy rich I'm just going to have a completely stocked second (and third, and fourth) house (in a fabulous destination, obviously) that already has all the clothes, toiletries, baby items, and everything I could possibly need already there. Then all I have to do is hop on my private jet and go! Things are going to be so much easier then. All I need are those winning lotto numbers!

Thinking...about how extremely hilarious Millie is right now. I cannot overstate it enough. She keeps us laughing from the minute she wakes up (yesterday the very first word out of her mouth was "BOW!!", accompanied by urgent pointing towards her hair accessories. We couldn't even leave the room until it was in her hair) until she finally falls asleep. And then I just spend the rest of the night laughing some more as I re-watch her videos and look at her pictures. It's a problem. But not really.

Evidence:

Dancing is one of her strongest skills right now:



She is really into "counting." And saying "GOOO!!!"



She likes to help Mommy and Daddy go night-night. And then "surprise" us with tickles!!

When she just really wanted to give the kitty a hug...but he wouldn't come out of the bushes.

Enjoying...summer. Even though Matt and I are both still working and nothing really changes (other than the TEMPERATURE, oh my gosh), I still feel like we're making it feel special and fun. I mean, just the option to spend all weekend in the pool makes the whole season worth it. Because how else could Millie and I perfect our cheerleading skills?

P.S. This baby has determination and focus many adults lack: she happily practiced doing this on two separate days for dozens of tries until she finally got it (including amazing arm placement)!! I am so proud of her!

P.P.S. The reason I know that it was HER who was determined and focused was because she so kindly kept swimming her feet back into my hands and counting me off so that I knew it was time for me to pick her up again: "Threeeeee...oonnnneee...TWOOOOO!!!! GOOOO!!!" I had no choice but to oblige!

Watching...well, besides home phone movies of Millie...not much. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for the last few nights. 

Reading...I just downloaded a bunch of new books for vacation, but I'm trying not to start them until we are on the road! We read The Kitchen House for book club last month and I really liked it. Excellent discussion, too. I picked up The Last Boy and Girl in the World on a whim at the library recently and read it last week. I felt like it had a really strong premise/set-up, but towards the end, I felt a little let down in how it all played out. To be honest, I just think it could have been a lot...I don't know...creepier? Darker? That seems weird, but I think that's how I thought it was going to be in the beginning, and then it just really wasn't? Ha. Who knows. Anyway, I picked it because the cover art was fantastic and I was in the mood for YA, and I really wasn't disappointed...it just wasn't as deep, maybe, as I thought it could be. Which is truly shocking, considering it is YA. Haha.

In case your taste in literature is a bit more toddler-esque, Millie would like to recommend anything penned by Leslie Patricelli. She is particularly enjoying Tubby and Potty right now, and she did enjoy No No Yes Yes, until her mean parents took it away because they were pretty sure it was giving her new ideas about "no no" things she could be doing...so maybe don't go for that one. Unless your kid has already dreamed up all the "no no" things that can possibly be done (writing on walls, pulling the dog's tail, unrolling all of the toilet paper...to name a few of her excellent suggestions).

And that about wraps it up for life lately! I'll gladly accept any podcast or book recommendations, along with any tips for surviving long car trips with an energetic toddler (and we don't have an iPad...or let her eat in her car seat...so take those extenuating circumstances into account!!)! Hope you are having a happy week! 

currently...kisses, cleaners, and cake ed.

(Insert obligatory tired excuses for not having blogged in 2.5 weeks...)

So anyway, YEAH. As it turns out, I'm much better at keeping things current on Instagram and Facebook these days, so if you're miserable for lack of Erika (or Millie, more likely) updates, try finding me there. Ha.

Currently, I'm...

Listening...still mostly to the Gilmore Guys podcast. I just can't stop, even though the current episodes are often 3 hours long and I spend 20% of the time rolling my eyes. I mean, the alternative is listening to NPR and thinking about politics and wanting to drive off cliffs (luckily Georgia has a distinct lack of available cliffs)...so Gilmore Guys it is.

Eating...Smitten Kitchen's Carrot Graham Layer Cake. Now hear me out. I don't bake. I mean, I can, I suppose, because I'm literate and I own a KitchenAid stand mixer. But I don't particularly enjoy it. So I just don't do it. But for whatever reason, I got it in my head a few months ago that I was going to bake Matt something really amazing for his birthday. Every time we've come across an amazing-sounding recipe for the last month, we say "THAT'S what I'll bake for his birthday!!"...and so finally the time came, and this is what I went with. I'll have to say...spending 12 hours (ish...or so it felt) in the kitchen getting every single pot and spoon I own filthy is not really my idea of a great time. (Or should I say a "grate" time? Because what kind of DESSERT recipe starts out with grating THREE CUPS OF CARROTS??) But it was really, really good. Like really good. So I guess it was worth it. But also, bakeries are a great thing and well worth the money. ;)

I know, I should be a professional food photographer. It's a gift.

Then again, maybe I should just be a baker.

Turns out, Millie's extremely pro-cake. Who woulda thought?

Drinking... LOL the only thing noteworthy I can think of is that I bought the Aldi knock-off of Blue Moon the other day. I don't know why. But it's pretty good! And way cheaper than the real thing, so...there's your money-saving tip of the day. Aldi beer. What is this world coming to?

Wearing... In general, nothing special. But since I never got around to blogging about Easter, I'll show off our Easter outfits! Please note that this was my third-choice dress for Millie. Option #1, purchased five months ago, ended up being way too big. Option #2, purchased recently at a consignment sale, fit perfectly but was inexplicably MISSING ALL OF THE BUTTONS ON THE BACK...and since I didn't happen to have 10 tiny buttons nor am I a professional tailor...that option was actually useless. So this is last minute, eleventh hour Hail Mary Option #3...most notably, it is the exact same size and brand as Option #1. Go figure.

Millie wasn't really in a picture-taking mood.

My dress

Feeling... Extremely excited. Two reasons. 1) I am mere hours away from winning my office's March Madness competition. I chose the Final 2 teams correctly, and whether or not my pick (UNC) wins tonight, I will win the office in points. I am WAY MORE EXCITED THAN IS REMOTELY REASONABLE about this. 2) Someone that IS NOT ME OR MATT is going to clean my house on Wednesday!! That's right. My lifelong dream of paying someone else to do the dirty work (literally) while we're gone during the day is coming true and it starts in a mere 36ish hours with a much-needed deep clean. I literally could not sleep last night because I was so excited.

Wanting... I'm winning March Madness (and a cool $100 haha) and a professional cleaner is coming to clean my house. What else on earth could I possibly want? Okay, fine. I want to eat these adorable, precious, painty-toes, stripey-tanned little feet.

It's only barely April. She's been wearing sandals for like...a month. What will her tan lines be like in JULY?!

Needing... to feel motivated to exercise. Ugh. I'm impressively productive from 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., but the minute that Nuggie hits the crib for the night, I am DONE. My backside and its BFF the couch hang out until 10:00, and then I hit the bed. I'm SO unmotivated to get up and run or do a workout video, but I really need to. Wah. At least I get at least 10,000 steps every day (okay, maybe 90% of the days). Does that count? (My jeans say no.)

Thinking... as always, about how incredibly lucky I am to be this girl's mama.

It's a shame we don't like each other. (heart eyes emoji)

Enjoying... Toddlerhood. Apparently it's even better than babyhood! I had my doubts, but now I'm a believer.

I love trying to drink out of cups! Barefoot, so Mommy can be distracted by my feet tan lines.

I run everywhere! Especially into the street! But I'm learning to play the "Freeze! Go!" game. But I only play when I'm the one calling the shots!

I'm fearless on a playground and I have no interest in anyone catching me at the bottom of the slide. I would rather add my 2,820th bruise to the collection on my legs!

Watching... not much. Either HGTV shows (on Netflix) or Gilmore Girls.

Reading... Life After Life by Kate Adkinson. It's really good and reeeeealllly long. Before this, I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (super cool name) and it is freaking amazing. Like, stop whatever you're doing and read it right now. And if you have a book club, this goes quadruple for you. We discussed it last weekend and it was fantastic. Even the girls that hadn't actually read the book (haha, we have liberal requirements for book club attendance...but we don't budge on bringing snacks. Mama didn't raise no fool.) were able to get into it. This is probably the most thought-provoking, terrifying (without actually being terrifying) book I've read in a long time. Since The Red Tent, I guess (although that wasn't terrifying). Anyway. Check it out.

Millie (and Mommy) would like to recommend her current favorite book, Eight Animals Bake a Cake. It's a super fun bilingual book with the BEST rhymes and pictures and a pretty fantastic Spanish tutorial to boot. Evidence: Millie can now point to vaca, gato, cerezas, pastel, la puerta, and a bunch of other stuff just because she loves listening to this book so much! Also, I think my Spanish pronunciation has gotten infinitely better in a short period of time. So like...mad props. We've had this one on loan from the library for probably...uhhh...six weeks...so we could have bought it with the amount we're going to pay in fines eventually, but I think it'll be worth it. (Also, this could have influenced my desire to bake a cake. Maybe.)

So that's life lately. I would promise to blog more often, but then I'd probably be a liar, so I won't. I can promise, though, to keep on enjoying life, taking tons of pictures and sharing them when I can, and smothering Millie with as many kisses as she can handle. And I think that's a lot more important. Til next time, friends!

PS. All of the book links are Amazon affiliate links!