currently

I know a "formula" post is probably the biggest cop-out ever for someone who can hardly pull it together to write once a month, but...here we are. I always like reading these when other people do them, so maybe you do too!

Listening...to Amazon Music Playlists. I seriously just discovered these a few weeks ago and I am totally hooked! People have thought of playlists for every imaginable mood and genre, and I highly enjoy tailoring my listening to my mood at work all day long. One of this week's favorite playlists has been "50 Great 90s Alternative Songs," which makes for great conversation when coworkers come in for a chat...

Eating...everything in the world, which is unfortunate. But I must say we've done some good cooking at home lately. If you're looking for new go-to summer dishes, I recommend Roasted Sweet Potato Rainbow Salad with Lime Crema and Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing. Cannot get enough of those two recipes!!!

Drinking...lemonade! Not all the time, but after almost 10 years of marriage, Matt decided to reveal that he knows how to make Chickfila lemonade (he worked there for 9 years prior to our marriage). Uhhhh yes. So now we have an unfortunate habit of buying bags of lemons so that Matt can make us fresh lemonade at night. Tasty, but not exactly what my thighs were needing this summer...

Wearing...I am REALLY going to lose most of you here, but maybe there is someone else with the feet of a 70 year old that can benefit from this info. So over the last few years I've developed the WORST plantar fasciitis. I've gone from the typical having bad pain in the mornings and late evenings to some days being in excruciating pain all day long. It's miserable. Anyway, after spending a billionish dollars on inserts, special braces, tools, and all other kinds of nonsense (not really nonsense- some of it really works, glad to share my tips if anyone needs them, haha), I discovered that wearing specifically PF-designed shoes is the key to breaking the cycle of awfulness. I bought these Vionic flip flops a few months ago and they are a GAME CHANGER. I wear them ALL of my non-working hours (NEVER going barefoot- not even to walk from the shower to the closet, etc.), during my lunch hour, and sometimes (on the worst days) even all day at work. Sorry, not business casual, but it's either that or I can't come in because I can't walk. They have made a HUGE difference. Then I bought a pair of Vionic's work-appropriate wedges, and just last week I got a pair of these cute summer sandals that are appropriate for both work AND play. These shoes are more than my normal Target-budget, but have been SO worth it. So there's my plug for the similarly afflicted sistahs (and brothahs?)...get you some good old lady shoes!

Feeling...excited for summer. The extra daylight, the plethora of outdoor opportunities, the vacations on the horizon...summer is the best! Millie had a BLAST on our recent beach trip and she can't stop talking about going back to the "BIG ocean to PWAY PWAY PWAY!! [play play play], so I am super excited for our next trip. In like 3 months, haha. But still.

Wanting...time to slow down. Cliche as all get out, but I just LOVE the stage Millie is in right now and I want it to last forever!

Enjoying...life. See above. I just couldn't ask for more.

This picture is oriented correctly. :) We were laying in the hammock. Lately Millie likes to pretend she is a baby kangaroo and I am the mommy kangaroo and she gets in my "pouch." She walks around requesting to get in my pouch because she "so safe and so warm dere!" See what I mean? Never change, Millie!!! (It is less cute at 3:00 a.m. when she is crying on the monitor "I need seep in Mommy's pouch!!!")

day in the life

So it's been...awhile...(*ahem* like 1.5 years) since I've done a riveting Day in the Life post. Mainly because these posts are A LOT OF WORK. And I'm essentially lazy, when it comes down to it. But I'm finally getting around to doing it, because let's face it: my life is fascinating. HA.

So in case you want to pre-game, my previous DITL posts are from January 2013 and September 2014. Sorry, 2015. You missed out. 

I'm going to keep it really real and just keep using the ugly graphic I created in 2013. Ha. I'd been at my new job for like three weeks and therefore had been using Illustrator for about...three weeks...and this is what my graphic design looked like back then. A treat, for sure.

January 27, 2015

I am 33, Matt is 32, Millie is 17 months

6:23 a.m.- My alarm goes off. In the interest of full disclosure, this 'day' actually already has some undocumented moments that took place in the middle of the night. I didn't look at a clock, so I don't know when or how long it lasted, but Millie was evidently unsatisfied with life for a bit...so Matt and I were both up with her for like 10 or 53 minutes...hard to say, what with middle-of-the-night-grogginess. At any rate, she eventually went back to sleep, but 6:23 hits me hard. I hit snooze, as per usual. 

6:26 a.m.- Sike. My little darling thinks it's a great time for her to wake up. Sometimes she wakes up around this time, sometimes she manages to snooze until we wake her up closer to 7:10. Today is apparently an early day for her! I get her from her crib and bring her back to our bed to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy for a few minutes before we crawl to the bathroom to get ready.

On her "early days," Millie gets to drink her milk and play in the pack-n-play in our bedroom right outside our bathroom door while we get ready. This usually works out pretty well and today was no exception.

(P.S. Her bed head is not normally this impressive. Ha. She didn't get a bath last night (Tuesday nights are hectic because we have small group and get home late), so this is the remnant of yesterday's ponytail.)

Since I shower at night, it doesn't take me too long to get ready. I curled my hair today, which happens approximately 10% of the time...but I figured I'd bust out of my normal bun/ponytail/braid tradition since I knew I'd be taking lots of pictures today. While waiting for my eyeshadow primer to set, I run to the laundry room to continue the diaper washing process I started before bed last night. Around 7:00, Millie starts frantically waving her hands in the air and bouncing around, which means she wants to dance. There's nothing like Kidz Bop blaring at 7:00 a.m. to get your day going, right?? I finish getting ready, accessorize, and make the bed before heading to the kitchen to get Millie breakfast. Matt has already dressed, walked Lola, and made coffee while I got dressed. 

7:12 a.m.- Breakfast and coffee.

We eat (peanut butter toast and blueberries for me and Matt, cereal/banana/blueberries for Millie), drink SUPER DELICIOUS COFFEE (see how happy I am?), and take my morning medicine. I'm trying to get over strep and am on day 3 of antibiotics, but I still feel like crap, so it's easy to remember to take them. Ha. 

7:27 a.m.- Matt heads out the door to work. Millie and I finish up breakfast, clean our dishes (well, I clean our dishes...and as you note, I mostly eat on a paper towel, so this doesn't take long.), and I start the final rinse on the diapers. Then we head to Millie's room to change her diaper and get her dressed.

Getting Millie ready goes surprisingly fast this morning and we're basically ready (including having her teeth brushed!!!! Miracle of miracles!!) by 7:40 a.m. I packed her bag for school last night (diapers and extra clothes), so we have some time to play. Usually she wants to play in her room with...ya know, toys. But today she only wants to play in the laundry room with the shoes Matt and I left on the floor. Because clearly. But I let her play while I attempt (and fail) to get a full-length picture of myself in the mirror. The outfit pic is a no-go, but Millie comes in and is happy to pose in the mirror with me, so it's kind of a win. Then she helps me unload the clothes from the dryer so that we can put the diapers in. She's pretty proud of herself and especially loves closing (slamming) the dryer door when we've loaded it up with the dipes.

8:07 a.m.- We're ready to hit the road. While Millie played, I threw a few things in my bag for Matt and me to eat for lunch. We load up the car and Millie escapes to the driveway (normal, haha) where I snag a picture in the daylight. I strap her in, give her her beloved paci and blankie, and cue up my podcast (Gilmore Guys episode 603) for the commute to Millie's school. 

8:31 a.m.- We get to school, get her signed in, and walk down to her classroom. She happily greets everyone she sees with a wave and a smile, and I love that pretty much every adult in her school knows her by name. When we get to her classroom, her teacher squeals as Millie reaches out for her to hold her and calls her her "little caterpillar Eskimo"-- caterpillar because of her two "antennae," (pigtails) and Eskimo because of the (adorable) winter coat/hat/hood that she wears outside on cold days. She does look like a little Eskimo. And now that I've written that three times, I'm starting to wonder if it's acceptable to say Eskimo anymore. I may or may not Google this issue before I publish this, but if I don't, feel free to let me know if I've offended anyone. At any rate, it's a term of endearment from Millie's teacher, because she looks adorable when she's all bundled up (which thankfully isn't today- it was a balmy 50 degrees or so, so no jackets were necessary for the short walk from the car to the classroom). Millie heads straight to the table to sit down for breakfast and is happy as a clam as I put away her diapers and kiss her bye-bye.

8:47 a.m.- It's a quick drive from daycare to work, so I roll in with a few minutes to spare before I need to get started. Since we have an indoor walking track, I head there to walk before I settle into my chair for the day. I like to have 2,000 steps done before I start work and I'm already pretty close today. I make these photo collages while I walk, and by 9:00 I already have 2,300 steps!

9:00 a.m.- Get my Pandora station (Harry Potter soundtrack) going, start checking emails, and chat with my coworkers in the break room as we get our coffee.

9:15 a.m.-12:20 p.m.- Work. Nothing particularly newsworthy here, except for the fourteen-ish cups of coffee I consume.

12:20 p.m.- Matt arrives, which means it's time for lunch!

Today we dine on leftover Zuppa Toscana (a regular on the wintertime meal rotation), blueberries, and some impulse-purchase granola bars I bought while waiting for my prescription to get filled on Monday. They're Girl Scout cookie-flavored...so I have this idea that if I get Samoa granola bars, it'll mean I won't feel compelled to actually buy (and consume) Samoas. This 'healthy alternative' idea is totally not going to work, but whatever. It's still a good lunch dessert! After we eat, we head to the track. It's nice enough to walk outside, but I still feel bad, so I'm feeling too lazy to walk all the way outside. I try to have at least 6,000 steps done by the time my lunch break is done each day, and today I succeed at that. Step goal 2 of 3: met. After Matt heads back, I spend a few minutes uploading these collages and jotting down all of the fascinating details about my day.

1:20 p.m.- Back to work.

5:00 p.m.- Done with work! Head to my car and drive to daycare with quite the sense of urgency- I am anxious to squeeze my Millsie Lou! Sometimes Matt picks her up, sometimes I do, and sometimes we both do (because we're both too anxious to see her that no one is willing to wait another half hour to get home). Today it's just me- Matt is heading home to get started cooking dinner.

5:15 p.m.- Arrive at school and get lots of hugs and squeals from my girl. She had a good day at school and is actually still wearing the clothes I sent her in this morning- no small miracle. Her daily report informs me that she napped for about an hour and a half, which is on the low end of normal. I'd assumed that since she was up during the night and woke up early, she'd be extra tired. She seems extra tired right now, though, so it's no great surprise that she falls asleep approximately three seconds after I strap her into her carseat.

5:42 p.m.- We arrive home. Millie is asleep when we get home, which happens about 90% of the time. The tricky part is getting her to stay asleep as I try to transfer her to the crib. That happens about maybe 50% of the time. Today isn't one of those days, though. She wakes up as we get into her room and she starts frantically signing "food! food!", so I take her to the kitchen for a snack. Matt is already working on dinner, so he supervises snack time while I change clothes.

5:56 p.m.- She's finished her snack and is yawning and rubbing her eyes, so I decide to take another stab at getting a little nap out of her. This time it works, so while she naps and Matt cooks, I fold the clean laundry from the morning, then work on stuffing the clean diapers.

6:23 p.m.- Annnnd she's back up! Not a very noteworthy nap, but it's fine. It'll give her enough energy to stay happy til bedtime, and dinner is ready.

6:28 p.m.- Dinner! Millie starts getting frantic as soon as I put her in her highchair- she doesn't like that there's like a 20 second delay as Matt and I get our drinks, bring our food over, etc. When it's time to say (sing) our blessing, we ask Millie if she wants to hold hands or fold hands (she usually feels strongly about one or the other). She's not game for either, tonight. She yells "NO NO NO NO NO!!" while Matt and I say the prayer by ourselves and try not to laugh slash try not to let her get struck by a bolt of lightning. Matt made Pad Thai tonight and it's delicious. Millie agrees- once it's FINALLY eating time, there's pretty much no noise coming from her as she inhales her bowl of food! She even picked up and ate the leaves of cilantro, which I think is pretty impressive. She's a good eater, our Millsie!

6:47 p.m.- Done eating. I work on the dishes while Matt and Millie go play in her room. Apparently Millie wasn't totally satisfied with Matt's dinner offering, so she went to her own kitchen to whip up a second course. When I finish the dishes, I join them and she plates my food. Apparently she thinks I need to go back on Whole 30, since she gave me a depressing meal of steak, chicken, and fish. Waaaah. 

7:20 p.m.- I head to the bathroom to start getting ready for Millie's bath. Matt and I alternate nights taking a bath with her, and tonight it's my turn. 

Bath time is always one of Millie's favorite parts of the day, and apparently my Bath Game was on point tonight. She babbled and giggled and scream-laughed the entire time.

7:45 p.m.- Millie decides bath time is over and screams "DAAAADAAAAAA" and "MAAAAAAA" ("Matt" hahaha...she notices that that's what I holler when I want his attention!!) (even though Matt is sitting there in the bathroom with us, approximately 18 inches away) to let her daddy know she's ready to get out. Matt takes her to get a diaper, jammies, and her milk. I dry off and finish stuffing the diapers and put them away. While they finish up her milk, I get her school bag ready and pick out her clothes for tomorrow (tough job, but someone's gotta do it).

After she finishes her milk, we play with Lola and some magazines in the living room for a few minutes.

8:10 p.m.- Head to her room and start her breathing treatment. Since she's healthy and not wheezing today, we only have to do one steroid treatment tonight, which is fantastic. I hold her (and her blankies and her baby) and Matt reads stories, since I've lost my voice (strep, remember?). 

8:22 p.m.- She falls asleep and Matt is kind enough to finish reading the story just to me, haha. Then he cleans up her room while I hold her and the breathing treatment finishes. She doesn't wake up when I pull the mask off, so we decide to forgo teeth brushing (once a day is a great accomplishment anyway, in my book) and just put her straight to bed. She never wakes up, so it's the simplest bedtime ever tonight.

8:30 p.m.- Park myself on the couch to write this post. Before settling in, I consider trying to finish off my 10,000 steps goal for the day. I'm at 8,559 steps...I know that I could reach my goal by walking in loops around the house. I do it often. But it's boring and I'm exhausted and sick and really need to work on this post, so I decide to pass. Which is what I've decided to do most nights this month, let's be honest. My house is really small. Walking in 'laps' for 2,000 steps is incredibly obnoxious. Plus: sick card. Play it when you've got it, right?

9:10 p.m.- Finish up this post. Making the collages from my phone throughout the day REALLY helped this be much quicker and less obnoxious. And the time stamp on the pictures really helped, too. Maybe I'll do one of these things more often! Hahahaha.

Instead of actually tracking what thrilling events take place between now and when I go to sleep...I'm just going to guess at how it'll go so that I can finish writing this and call it a night.

9:30 p.m.-ish- Go eat a piece of banana bread for dessert. I'll read a chapter or two of the book I started the other day. Swallow a delicious teaspoon of my codeine cough syrup, in hopes I don't spend the entire night coughing.

10:00 p.m.-ish- Take a shower.

10:20 p.m.-ish- Go to bed. Pray Millie doesn't want to party in the middle of the night. Try not to hack up a lung coughing. Sleep.

millie's guide to toys

With Christmas almost upon us, I know everyone's scrambling for presents and gift ideas. Since I've already received my most-wanted wish list item for the year (hint: she got here early...in August), I figured I'd do everyone a solid and consult her about what baby toys she recommends this season. 

Actually, that's a lie. I didn't really consult her or even ask her about this. She just told me with her face. So now I'll tell you.

What Babies Like:

Monkeys. Particularly hanging over their changing tables. And extra-particularly if the baby also has coordinating monkey jammies in which to "play" with their amazing and hilarious monkey toy.

Please note the blur at the bottom of these photos. That is because monkey toys are so amazing that they cause baby legs to flail and kick at approximately the speed of light. And you can't even imagine what kind of facial expressions monkey toys cause.

Well, now you know.

In conclusion, babies (or at least this baby) like monkeys. Do the baby in your life a favor and get them a monkey for Christmas. This particular monkey came from a yard sale, so...feel free to go pre-loved with your monkey toy. It gets the Millie Stamp of Approval.

What Babies Do Not Like:

Dolls. Dolls turn babies into cannibals, apparently. Or maybe zombies. Hard to tell.

And then they cause babies to make sad and distressed faces.

In conclusion, Millie suggests that you stick to monkeys. She certainly plans to, but you can draw your own conclusions:

P.S. Not to hijack Millie's post, but I figured since she's helped YOU make a tough decision, now maybe you can help me. Matt and I are trying to decide between Google Chromecast* and Amazon Fire TV Stick*. Anyone have experience with either (or both)? Yall were extremely helpful during the Great Highchair Debate, so I figured maybe someone had equally passionate feelings about this get-your-computer-onto-your-TV situation...lemme know if you have any thoughts! 

P.P.S. Millie also recommends baths. And she says you're just doing it wrong if you don't follow baths with a hooded cat towel.

*Amazon Affiliate link

day in the life: maternity leave ed.

It's been a long time since I've done a 'day in the life' post- in fact, it looks like my last (and only?) one was in January of 2013. Ahh...so young, so refreshing. So much healthy food. Ha- that's January for ya. I've been wanting to do one to capture my life on maternity leave with a baby. I'm sure one day I'll be wistful for the days of staying home and cuddling an infant all day (I mean, I'm already wistful for them...and they aren't even gone yet!), so I'd better capture a play-by-play now, before I forget that it wasn't all baby-cuddling...it was also a lot of laundry and dishes. And bottle making. And washing.

So. There's a chance this whole (extreeeeemely long and detailed, sorry!) post could be of zero interest to you, but I always love seeing an occasional glimpse into the minutiae of other people's lives, so if that's you-- buckle up, cause here we go.

Friday, September 26, 2014

(Erika & Matt are 31, Camilla is 7 weeks old)

5:37 a.m.- Millie wakes us up with grunts and squirms that inform us she is ready for her next meal. Since her last feeding was a 'dream feed' around 11:00 p.m. (followed by a diaper change), this meant Matt and I got about 6.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep- can't complain!

Matt makes her bottle, I feed her, we change her, and it's back to bed for us all. Other than Matt running to the kitchen for the bottle, we do everything else right there in our bed- less disruptive for everyone. We put Millie back into her Rock 'n Play and she goes right back to sleep.

(at some point around 7 a.m., Matt gets up, dressed, and goes to work. I sleep through this.)

8:00 a.m.- I wake up and head to the kitchen to get a head start on the day. If I stay in bed until Millie wakes up, I'll feel 'behind' (and also lack caffeine) for a few hours. Better to get up and prepped for her while she's still snoozing.

I prepare my coffee (Matt brewed it before he left and leaves it on the burner for me) and Millie's bottle. I go with half a packet of Stevia, a generous splash of almond milk, and a Christmas mug. She gets 2 ounces of Similac mixed with 3ish ounces of breast milk. I put her bottle back in the fridge for when she's ready. She'll drink her bottles room temperature or cold, so I try to always have her 'next' one prepped so that she never gets hysterically hungry and I have to try to make it with one hand. That never goes well. 

After bottle prep, I put away the clean dishes from the night before, feed the pets, and take Lola outside to relieve herself. Normally Matt does that before he leaves, but apparently Lola was 'too tired' and wouldn't leave her bed this morning. Spoiled dog.

You're welcome, neighbors, for this classy ensemble. And you're welcome, blog readers, for this picture of my dog peeing.

8:30 a.m.- Breakfast and internet. 

Breakfast is toasted sandwich thins topped with peanut butter, honey, and flaxseed meal. YUM!

I set up a little 'station' in the dining room where I can eat, watch Millie on the monitor, and take care of important online business (like reading and commenting on blogs). While I'm doing this, I get the notification on my phone that my day's TimeHop is available.

Apparently it's been exactly one year since we announced our first adoption match. Bittersweet.

8:45 a.m.- Assemble the ingredients for dinner in the crock pot.

I'm making these Taco Chicken Bowls. I made them a few weeks ago and they were delicious and easy. A friend just had a baby and I signed up to take them dinner today, so I thought this would be a good way to make sure it happened with minimal freaking out on my behalf. Plus it makes enough to feed us, too!

9:00 a.m.- Noises and the video monitor confirm that Millie is ready to get up! I put her on the bed to unswaddle her and she treats me with the adorableness of a big stretch.

The bottle is ready and so is she. She eats on the couch. Sometimes she drinks her bottle very neatly, efficiently, and politely.

Yeah, this feeding wasn't one of those times. This was more a 'I haven't eaten in 20 years!!!!' gobble-fest. The kind where she sucks so hard she drowns herself in milk, then spews it all out over both of us as she coughs...it's a real treat. We both needed showers after this breakfast, but neither of us got 'em. That's what baby wipes are for!

After her breakfast we went for a diaper change. Here's the thing- she hadn't pooped since Sunday. Now, she normally goes 3 days between poops, but this is more like 5, which is impressive by any standards. We've been waiting and waiting, but this morning I knew I'd need to pull out the big gun: the mint green diaper.

I don't know what it is, but every time we put this diaper on her, she poops. I think it's because it's my favorite diaper. I love the color. LOVE it. So I always save it for a time when I can appreciate it the most- like if she'll be wearing a dress with no bloomers, or an outfit that particularly matches the diaper? It's a special one. I just don't put it on her any ol' time. But we've started to notice that 99% of her poops happen immediately after putting on the green diaper. It's uncanny. So I barely get to even enjoy the cuteness of it! She immediately poops it! It's terrible and also hilarious. So Matt and I had decided that if she didn't poop overnight (in her disposable diaper like a good little baby...), we'd bust out Mint Green first thing in the morning. So I did.

This all sounds like superstition and coincidence, but I kid you not- five minutes after putting it on, I hear the tell-tale signs.

I'm telling ya, ol' Mint Green is batting a thousand. If your child is a poo-crastinator (HAAA, see what I did there??), I can lend you this diaper for a nominal fee. Just let me know.

Anyway, I'm no novice anymore- I know better than to change a dipe at the first sound of a poo. I put her in the swing to let her finish her business.

9:30 a.m.- Millie's still swinging and pooping, so I start a load of laundry and begin washing bottles. When my Spidey-senses tell me she's done, I change her. We play on the changing table for a few minutes while I re-dress her, but all this activity has worn her out. She starts yawning, so we head towards the bedroom for a nap.

10:00 a.m.- Millie gets a swaddle and she's back in her Rock 'n Play for a nap.

Bye mom, see ya later!

As long as we catch her in the early stages of getting tired, she's happy to lay down and will just stare and put herself to sleep without a fuss. It's awesome. But if we wait too long...it's much less peaceful.

While Millie naps, I get dressed, put on some minimal makeup, make the bed, and move the laundry to the dryer.

10:20 a.m.- Work on my Bible Study homework.

I'm taking advantage of my temporary SAHM lifestyle by doing a women's Bible study on Wednesday mornings. We're three weeks in and I'm really enjoying it!

10:45 a.m.- After I finish my 'homework,' I spend some time responding to emails and writing thank you cards. And I make some hot tea.

Email responding and writing cards are both tasks that pile up and overwhelm me quickly, so I do best if I methodically pick away at them. I made a good dent in the inbox and got three cards written before Millie started making sounds like she was going to get up.

11:15 a.m.- Her eyes are open, so I sprint to make her bottle, put away some clean and sterilized bottles, and put my shoes on.

11:20 a.m.- False alarm; she fell back asleep. I take advantage of this by sweeping the floors in a few rooms, responding to more emails, and writing another thank you card.

11:45 a.m.- She's still sleeping, so I go ahead and make my lunch (ham and cheese sandwich and tortilla chips) and eat it. Better to eat while I have the chance!

12:10 p.m.- Still sleeping, so I move the finished laundry to the bed and start folding.

12:20 p.m.- Annnnd nap time is over! Millie is up and ready for lunch!! We dine al fresco on the porch glider.

This time she eats much more neatly. Clearly she doesn't want another wardrobe change. After she finishes her bottle, we do some aromatherapy. I know. You didn't know I was so fancy, didja? Each day, usually multiple times a day, Millie and I indulge in some aromatherapy. This involves walking out the the eucalyptus trees in the front yard, standing amongst the branches, and me running my hands over the leaves and then holding my hands up to her nose so that she breathes in the smell. It's quite delightful, really. She seems to like it- it's been known to entertain her for as long as 45 seconds, so...that's saying something! We also do this with the lavender plant, but that's harder- we have to kneel down to reach it on the ground, and the scent doesn't come off as readily on my palms. So mainly we stick to eucalyptus. This is like my poor man's spa day.

12:45 p.m.- Take a walk around the neighborhood. 

This is also something we do multiple times a day. I get tired of being stuck in the house and being a slug, so this is an easy alternative. It's 1.2 miles around the neighborhood and the weather was cool and cloudy, so we had a delightful little jaunt.

1:10 p.m.- Work on folding laundry while Millie watches.

She loves sitting on our pile of pillows and staring out the window. We call it her 'throne.' She only made it through about 10 minutes of throne-time, though, before she let me know she was getting sleepy and wanted her swaddle. I let her start falling asleep there while I finished up folding. I love watching her fall asleep.

1:40 p.m.- Finish putting laundry away, transfer the sleeping babe to the Rock 'n Play. Spend naptime working on uploading pictures and starting this 'day in the life' post.

2:25 p.m.- She's wiggling, making noises, and wide-eyed. I get her up.

2:30 p.m.- She isn't happy. She isn't sure about life. We rock, we try a variety of pacis, we do some more aromatherapy. We take a walk and look at the flowers outside, we change her diaper, she swings in her swing. None of these things do the trick. Finally I put her back in her swaddle and she falls asleep against my chest. Oops. Apparently I shouldn't have gotten her up at 2:25...false alarm! She settles back in for an extended naptime. I lay down on the couch with the laptop and keep working on the blog while she naps on my chest. My sister calls and we chat for awhile. Millie keeps napping.

3:30 p.m.- Still sleeping, poor tired baby. I get up and lay her down so that I can make her next bottle. When she wakes up, she'll probably be starving. After making the bottle, I return to my computer and the couch.

3:50 p.m.- She wakes up! Bottle and a diaper change.

4:15 p.m.- We head to the front porch to glide, enjoy the weather,  and read a few books.

Then I spent a few minutes trying to get her to smile at me. It went mostly like this:

Not amusing, Mom. Try again.

4:40 p.m.- Time for another walk around the neighborhood. This time I wear her in the Ergo. She falls immediately asleep and I perfect the art of walking while texting and scrolling through Facebook. When you walk around the same neighborhood as many times a day and week as I do...the scenery ceases to be entertaining.

5:05 p.m.- We return home from our walk. I put Millie down for her nap and I do some picking up around the house. Then I pack up the meal and dessert to take to my friend.

5:45 p.m.- Matt is home from work- and he brought me flowers! Happy Friday to me! As soon as he walks through the door, I leave to deliver dinner. I started to slack on my pictures, clearly- you'll just have to take my word for it. I dropped off dinner, stayed to chat (and hold the teeeeeeeensy baby (5 lb. 10 oz.!!)) for a few minutes, and then ran into Aldi to pick up a few groceries.

7:15 p.m.- I arrive back home, put away the groceries, eat dinner (I saved half of the crock pot meal for us to eat), and do some dishes. Matt has been taking care of Millie since he got home, so I have no idea what she was doing at this point. Probably napping. Or hanging out. Or maybe eating. You know...the only three things she really does.

7:45 p.m.- Fun diversion- our next door neighbors came over so that I could notarize some contracts that they had to sign! This is definitely not something that happens frequently, but I'm glad I could help them out! They hung out (and signed stuff) (and I stamped and signed and notarized) for about half an hour and kindly paid me in homemade cookies!

Notary stamp + cookies. Excellent.

8:35 p.m.- Bath time for baby! But not just any old bath. A bath with Daddy!

We recently discovered the extreme fun and cuteness of letting Millie 'swim' in the big bath with us. She loves it and we pretty much just squeal with glee the whole time watching her. Everybody wins.

9:00 p.m.- Millie dons her jammies and hat and we settle in to read a Bible story together as a family on our bed.

9:10 p.m.- Bedtime for Mills!

9:30-50 p.m.- Yeah, not so much on the bedtime. Millie treats us to a few meltdowns and lots of unhappy growling. We rock her, feed her, walk her, and ultimate realize it's some serious gas giving her issues. A few gas drops and she's back to being a happy (and sleepy) baby. Nighty night!

10:00 p.m.- We're planning a weekend trip in the mountains with Matt's siblings/siblings-in-law/nieces/nephews this fall, so we had a marathon group text session as we all browsed different rentals on VRBO, shared links, and debated the merits of various cabins and cities. We finally decided on one and I sent an email to the owner to get some clarification on a few things- if all goes well, we will hopefully book it!

11:30 p.m.- I take a shower, we wake Millie up for a quick 'dream feed', put her back down to bed, and hit the hay ourselves. Another exciting Friday in the books!

If you made it through all of this, you are a saint. Or possibly just very bored. At any rate- now my very exciting day of maternity leave has been immortalized for the generations to come (ha- bored generations, maybe) and I will never have to wonder just what did I do all day??

no mas vacation + menu mockery

Our vacation was delightful, if too short. Then again, even if I'm gone for two weeks, it still feels too short, so...I guess it's a hazard of having an unquenchable appetite for sun and laziness. Or something.

I will greatly miss eating beach food. You were delicious, shrimp slaw thingy. And boozy lemonade in a mason jar. My granola bar and peach for lunch today really are not going to measure up.

But I don't want you to get the impression that everything about vacation was perfect. It was almost perfect. But then my eyes were assaulted with this cocktail menu at a popular local breakfast spot.

My apologies to those of you who find their retinas burning.

PROBLEM #1: Unnecessary apostrophe usage. Apparently their menu designer doesn't realize that you never need an apostrophe to make a word plural. NEVER!! NEVER!!!!!!!! So like..."mimosa's"??!?!! You are killing me, menu.

PROBLEM #2: Curlz font. On the WHOLE MENU. For real? FOR REAL?? Has seeing something written in CURLZ ever in the history of the universe actually ENTICED someone to buy something? No. I checked, and the answer is NO. Therefore, no one should ever use it on a menu. You can't argue with science.

What's even funnier is that on the flip side of that menu was the beer menu. ALSO IN CURLZ. Haaaaaaaa. I mean...if you're using the logic of trying to have your font/design kind of match/complement what you're advertising...I can almost understand why they may have been tempted to use Curlz for the mimosas. Mimosas are what cute young girls drink! We'll pick a really cute font that will appeal to underage coeds...like...oh, Curlz! How precious!! (It's NOT precious, but obviously this menu writer doesn't know that.) But like...Curlz to advertise your beer?? Because big burly men (the target audience for the beer menu, I'll assume...although I myself am much more likely to order beer than a mimosa) love adorable fonts like Curlz? That's hilarious.

If you think I'm overthinking this, you could be right. But this is what I spend my 9-5 doing, so forgive me if it trickles over onto my vacation.

In conclusion, if you are about to go print menus for your new restaurant, please do us all a solid and DON'T USE CURLZ. Or unnecessary apostrophes.

Also, in case there was any doubt...I did not order anything from the cocktail (or beer) menu. I can't support nonsense like that.

We came back home Saturday after a layover in Augusta to pick up Lola, who spent our vacation bonding with her grandparents. She did just fine, minus the nightly storms and fireworks that prompted my mom to send me frantic texts saying Lola is really scared of storms!!!! Is there anything I can do to help her??!!?! Poor scared baby. No. The only solution is more cuddles (which my mom graciously gave her).

Matt's family all came to town (while we were out of town) for the Fourth, so we spent Sunday hanging out with them. That meant I got to meet and spend some cuddle time with my newest niece!

I swam and sunned, she contemplated life and/or her finger.

Today isn't off to the greatest start. We woke up this morning to discover that we'd accidentally left the fridge cracked open last night...so it's nice and room temperature in there now. And so is all the food. The food we just bought at the grocery store last night. Uggggghhhhhh. So I'm choking down my coffee black and tearing up at the thought of my boring and half-completed lunch, since I can only eat the non-refrigerated portions of it now. Oh well. At least the fridge isn't broken. That's something, I guess. And the freezer stuff is fine. So...looks like a big grocery run is in our near future.

This afternoon we're going to a prenatal appointment with J! I'm excited and nervous. She's 36 weeks now! We don't think she'll be getting an ultrasound today, but it will still be nice to meet her doctor and see the hospital she'll be delivering at. And hopefully hear the baby's heartbeat! (Also, I feel like I should point out that I just spelled that heartbeet. Which is awesome and hilarious. So those of you that comment that you feel really paranoid leaving comments/emails because you think I will judge your grammar...please know that I just wrote heartbeet.) (But I corrected it, and that's what counts.) (I feel like heartbeet is probably some kind of heirloom vegetable someone would sell at the farmers' market for like $9/lb. Organic, of course!)

Have a great week!