may (mostly in parenthesis)

Well, May has certainly flown by...sheesh. It's been a blur of working and running (I've continued running 5 days a week since April 25...so that's almost a month...so that's like the most I've worked out in two years, easy) and cuddling and working and bubbles and painting (we've decided not to move and are instead updating/remodeling/adding a bunch of stuff to our house. We started with repainting the kitchen/dining room/laundry room in our "spare time"...it was soooo fun. NOT.) (Isn't it great how that life update was summed up in a parenthetical statement? In ye olden days, that would have been a week's worth of posts and pictures, but now you just get a sentence in parenthesis. HA.) and like...stuff. I need a nap. And/or to crash on the couch with my new favorite (incredibly stupid and ridiculous) show Young & Hungry (I'm embarrassed to admit that). Oooooh also I recently fell in love with (and learned to make at home!!) margaritas. I feel like that may have something to do with how much I enjoy Y&H sometimes. Ha.

But enough about me. You really wanna hear about The Beloved One, don't you?

No worries, she's as cute as ever. Except she kinda looks like a teenager now. WAAAAH.

I act like a teenager sometimes, too!! I have lots of emotions and ALL of the opinions! 

 I enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day. It's a bittersweet but incredibly happy day for me now.

My gift to you, Mommy, will be that I will look adorable and glance in the direction of the camera occasionally!

 We've taken in some sporting events at UGA. Millie is a big fan. Or maybe she's just a fan of ballpark food, but that's the same thing as being a sports fan in my book.

REAL sports fans don't waste time taking SELFIES during a game, Mommy. Sheesh. 

No but for real. That's really how she feels about selfies. This is how it usually happens:

How about NO, Mommy?

One of her greatest life passions remains swinging, or as Millie calls it, "WEEEEEEE!!!!" That is both the sound she makes while doing the act of swinging, as well as what she calls the swing itself.

Do you see my face? Do you think I like it when you stop pushing me so that you can TAKE ANOTHER PICTURE???!

But she's not exclusive with the swings. She appreciates a variety of playground equipment. We are looking forward to getting a swing set for our yard sometime this summer!

She can legitimately hang there like that all by herself. It's crazy!

So we are busy having lots of fun, but I need to reiterate what we are NOT busy doing: vacuuming. Remember how we got a Roomba last month? I'm back with my one-month update, and it is this: YOU NEED A ROOMBA. It is basically the best purchase ever. It has changed my life, and I'm really not even exaggerating. My stress level is way down, just because I don't have to come home to fur tumbleweeds rolling across my floor. I don't have to sweep. I don't have to vacuum. The rugs always have vacuum lines. And most importantly: I don't get grocery store feet from walking around my own home. And if you clicked on that link: you're welcome.

(In the interest of fairness, I don't know if it would be as life-changing an item if we weren't all out of the house all day. Since we're at work/school, our house stays relatively neat and picked-up. I can quickly Roomba-proof (pick up any toys, close the door to rooms that I don't want him to enter, etc) the house before we leave in the morning, and I come home to a perfectly clean house (he's programmed to run during the day). If Millie and I were home all day, a) the house wouldn't stay optimally Roomba-ready, and b) it would probably get annoying having to walk around him while he does his work. BUT- actually, it still probably would be worth it. As long as you leave the house for a few hours a few times a week...or you could just run him at night, which sometimes I do anyway just so that my house gets cleaned TWICE IN ONE DAYYYYYY!!!!!!)

Anyway. It's probably dumb how obsessed I am with a vacuum, but it's the most recent purchase I can think of that instantly improved my quality of life (and probably my health...goodbye years-old piles of dog fur/dust hiding under furniture that I never move to vacuum!), so forgive me for being zealous. :)

Are you done talking about the wo-bot Mommy?

Well, it's sad but true, but my show is calling me...so thus concludes another riveting periodic life update. Ha. I dedicate this post to my my long-lost friend and former coworker Ellen, who moved away last summer and yesterday told me she "religiously stalks my blog" and then made a really sad face as she told me I need to step it up. I really hate to be a disappointment, so here we are. Thanks for the motivation, friend!

millie-isms: part II

Our little bug has been under the weather for a few days. Nothing terrible, just generic fever+cough+snot. I hate when she feels bad, but I sure don't hate the extra snuggles.

Luckily she has felt good enough to continue being her normally hilarious self, which means I have content for my second installment of millie-isms: the hopefully endless list of the funny things she says (or does, as the case may be in this pre-verbal-fluency stage).

1. I've known for a few weeks that her favorite song is If You're Happy and You Know It (and also Itsy Bitsy Spider, and also Wheels on the Bus, and also Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Just so the record is clear.). When we sing it, I normally just sing the usual verses- clap your hands, stomp your feet. But yesterday I decided to sub in some other actions at the end- and it turns out she can follow pretty well! So now when she's happy and she knows it, she can express it by patting her tummy, wiggling her ponytail, shaking her booty, sticking out her tongue, jumping up and down, and doing a flip (aka turning in a circle). I then further discovered that I can use this new game to my advantage, both to get her to do something she doesn't want to do, and to get her to STOP doing something that I don't want her to do.

Exhibit A: When I got home from work today, I said "Can you give Mommy a hug?" and she says "noooooo." So I sang "If you're happy and you know it, give Mommy a hug!" and she runs over and gives me a hug. WIN!

Exhibit B: She was fake-crying about something ridiculous. So I sang "if you're happy and you know it, stop crying!" and she stopped crying. EXTRA WIN.

2. Tonight I was reading her a story and she likes to point to and talk about things on all of the pages. We were looking at this page...



...and so I pointed to the slide and said "Millie, what do you say when you go on the slide?" and she replies "Weeeee!"

"Millie, what do you say on the swing?"

"Weeeeee!!"

Point to the picnic table. "Millie, what do you say when you eat a picnic?"

"MINE!"

Yup, that's about right.

things that are amazing

My stream-of-consciousness, no-particular-order list of things knocking my socks off lately.

1. Robots. Let's just be honest and start with the SERIOUSLY MOST AMAZING AND LIFE CHANGING THING EVER (well, almost ever) to come into our lives: a Roomba.

WOBOT, Mama!!

We've owned this guy a little under a week, annnnnd...I dunno, maybe it's the honeymoon period or something still, but I can't really overstate how amazing he is. We can sum it up like this: I come home from work and there are not tumbleweeds of dog hair and dust frolicking across my floors, and I don't have to lift a finger to accomplish this. SOLD! Also, I finally understand this scene from Gilmore Girls. It is truly mesmerizing to watch Humphrey do his magic- even Millie and Lola agree! (Well, Lola is down to being only about 40% terrified, so we'll go ahead and consider that mesmerized.) My apologies to everyone who has the pleasure of knowing me in real life, as they are no doubt extremely sick of hearing about how amazing my life is now. And being forced to watch videos of my house being vacuumed. I should probably get a hobby or something.

2. I got up early and went running every single (week)day last week! And I've practically broken an elbow with all this patting myself on the back...but seriously. That was a major accomplishment for someone as lazy as me! I'm aiming for a repeat performance this week, although I'm also trying to be realistic and sustainable...even if I could keep up with three days a week or something, that would be a huge improvement. 

3. Speaking of amazing feats of athleticism...Millie started swimming lessons this week! She's taking them with her good buddy Garrison, which is just the most heart-burstingly wonderful thing in the whole world. 

Neither baby is 100% sure that being in the water is exactly what they want to be doing on Saturday mornings, but the mommies and daddies seem pretty sure that it's a good idea, so we'll see how it goes! Plus, I mean, what could be more fun for grown ups than wearing a bathing suit and getting in a pool with 6 other adults (whom you mostly don't know, unless you're me and Amanda) and splashing around and singing goofy songs with your screaming babies all before 10:00 a.m.? Nothing, that's what. (Note: they should seriously consider selling adult beverages at this place. I feel like this could make the whole thing a lot less awkward.)

On the super plus side, though, Millie's 2016 bathing suit collection is on fleek, as the kids would say (if they still say that, which I'm not really sure about), and this is a fabulous way for more people to get to appreciate it. Silver lining!

4. I'm not kidnapped.

I know that might seem like a strange thing to find amazing, but it's not. I am truly thankful. I read A House in the Sky last week (Google Amanda Lindhout if you have no idea what I'm talking about) and it was horrifying. I have seriously spent at least...I don't know, half an hour, maybe, each day since then just sitting and thinking about how thankful I am to be not kidnapped in Somalia. And thinking about how to make sure I stay that way for the rest of my life (step #1: don't go to Somalia. Should be pretty easy.), but also trying to figure out how much money my family/friends/country could raise for my ransom if I did happen to get kidnapped. It's something to ponder. But thankfully, for today at least...I am finding it pretty amazing to be free. Ha. (Maybe this is a good thing to think about if you're reallllly struggling to find something to be thankful for in life, ha! I'm not at the moment, but I've been there...when you can't think of basically ANYTHING to be happy about? So there's always this one: at least you aren't being held for ransom by insane people in Somalia. Life's pretty good.)

5. Finally and most obviously, Millie.

Perusing the coupons before she starts her weekend.

Being so cute I just can't stand it. Note the toenails that match the jammies!

Helping Mommy get ready.

This is how I found her on Sunday morning...bound and determined to put that other shoe on all by herself!