For Hannah, because she "likes" me on facebook.

I haven't blogged in a while, I know.  My online friend, Hannah, just peer pressured me into it, but its a good thing since I have so many darling pictures from last week's Seattle trip that I wanted to share with muh peeps and the ol' bloggy is the perfect means to do so.  Its just that I've reached a weird point in life where I feel pulled both ways between connecting online with people and having total internet anonymity.  I value my privacy, but also don't want to become an internet hermit.  So yeah.

Anyway, Seattle was wonderful.  We visited every single tourist spot possible and we had a fantastic time.  Our favorite spots were the aquarium and the science center.  The Chihuly museum was also just gorgeous.  So without further ado... here are THE cutest pictures on the internet for you:

    Fodie started cutting his top molar while we were there, so you can see him having a hard time and needing a snuggle in a few pictures.  It was hard because we totally didn't realize what was ailing him until like the last day we were there.  He wouldn't sleep at night and I thought he was just overly tired from the adventure when he would fuss during our outings.  Suffice to say, there was a LOT of impromptu nursing going on in public places and we all felt a lot happier once we started feeding him a steady diet of pain meds.  Besides that, he was a great travel buddy.  He did great on the plane and Hippy and I just love that Grandma Lora could come and help with Fodie.  Plus, we just love Gma Lora.  Shes our bestie (even if she did dodge the camera, it seems).  Anyway, I'll spare every little detail of the journey, but we had such a wonderful time.  Every day should be a vacation day, AM I RIGHT?!

In closing... My favorite part of the trip was the fudge from Pike's Market.  So. Good.  Also, did I mention that tomorrow is my birthday and you should get me fudge?  Yup, go do that thing.  And then put it in my face.  K thanks.  xoxox    

I hate everything.

Its been about a week and a half since I started ignoring sweet Fodie's cries in the night and thus far, IT ISN'T WORKING.  Wahhhhhh.  I don't remember any other aspect of shaping his sleep schedule taking this long to catch on.  Ugh.  And hes gone from calling out at night, to full on crying, which breaks my heart.  I mean, I didn't even care that I had to get up once in the night, since it meant that he'd sleep in til like 9am.  Now, he wakes up in the night, cries for like a decade, and then wakes up for the morning at 6:30am, all sleepy still.  NOT A GOOD TRADE OFF.  I think I'm going to stop trying.  I just don't see the big benefit of forcing the matter right now.  He isn't happier... I'm not happier... and if he DOES start sleeping through the night in this manner, then we are both ultimately losing sleep because hes waking up so much earlier anyway.  Waaaaahhhhhh.  Waaaahhhhhh.  I wish I just knew what to do, like, all the time.  Its so hard.

A real human being

...and a real hero, a real human being.  

I'm listening to the Drive soundtrack right now and this songs seems to echo my mood.  Sometimes I consider myself rather robotic in my span of emotions.  I typically bounce between annoyance and contentment.  Nothing radical.  However, being a mother has added a depth to my emotions that I really hadn't anticipated.  I couldn't not love this little boy if I had to.  I feel empathetic to the Nth degree.  His triumphs are some of the best moments of my life.  Its just unreal how connected to a tiny  person (who doesn't even know how to use a toilet) you can feel.  I'm sure this is not a new sentiment.

Anyway, Fodie's first birthday is next month and he still isn't sleeping through the night most nights.  I've decided to change up his sleep habits for his benefit.  I want him to sleep through the night and wake up when hes ready.  Usually I get up and nurse him in the early morning, just so that he will pass back out and we can both sleep in.  However, because we sleep late, he usually only fits in one nap per day and is soooo exhausted by early evening, at yet its always too late to fit in another nap.  It seems that most babies have 2 naps/day for the the first 2 years or so.  Anyway, so I've decided that I'm willing to wake up earlier and try to fit in 2 naps and give fodie a later bedtime, if needed.  This may seem like no big deal, but messing with the sleep pattern that was HELL to establish in the first place, is nothing short of terrifying for me.  In addition, last night, hearing him call out to me at 4:30am and having to ignore him was heartbreaking.  He isn't one to cry at night... but he whines loudly until I come nurse him.  Sometimes, if he doesn't seem that into it or if hes only been asleep for an hour or 2, I'll let him put himself back to sleep and he always does without too much effort.  Its just not a big deal.  And yet doing it in the middle of the night, when I'm used to getting up, was so so hard.  I'm guessing that it was unpleasant for Fodie... but not totally foreign to him.  He was probably just annoyed that he wasn't getting his way.  There probably won't even be any emotional damage to report to his therapist in later years.  AND YET... it was hard.  Hopefully this whole process isn't too painful.

In other news, I'm still decluttering the house.  I've lost my momentum, and yet am still make progress slowly, so I'm okay with that.

Also, I'm wearing yoga pants and now listening to Enya.  On a scale from 1 to Dugger, how mommish is that, d'ya think?

Anyway, I'm done.

Here is a picture of Fodie's mouth hole being injected with water as to prevent dehydration.  Beep bop boop.

Two week-ish follow up

I'm not very good at staying off the internet.  Its just so addictive.  I honestly crave the instant entertainment.  Also, I'm like 99.3% sure that its completely ruining my attention span, one Harlem Shake video at a time.

Anyway, suffice to say, I haven't been staying off the internet... not by a long shot.  However, I have been trying to avoid the sites that demand constant attention and suck out my soul.  I still check my facebook every day, but I've stopped checking it every 5 minutes.  I'm hardly exaggerating either... it really is hard not to check in every 5 minutes, especially after you make a post update and want to see how many "likes" and comments of affirmation you were able to pull in.  Also, reddit still sucks my soul out on occasion, but I try to put some thought into avoiding it rather than spending hours clicking from post to post... for all ETERNITY.  

Hippy recently suggested that we kill the internet at the house for a while so that we can re-sign-back-up at a lower rate (if we aren't able to simply talk them into giving us a better deal without cancelling, that is).  I got ALL SORTS OF PISSY (in all caps even) about it because it'd be soooo boring around here without it.  I'd have to leave the house.  Check out books at the library, rather than download them.  I'd have to watch the bajillions of movies that we have on our computer rather than mindlessly watch HULU.  Yeah... I'm really really starting to think that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.  Isn't it crazy that my first reaction is absolute outrage that Hippy would suggest such madness?  Its like when my parent's computer crashed and my sister (I won't name names in order to protect she-who-rolls-with-spikey-hair) had a melt down over her lost internet bookmarks/cookies.  It shouldn't be that important, but we sure do make it important.

While I've been trying to stay off of certain websites, I've been spending time on websites that, I feel, are a smidge enriching.  Specifically, one called theminimalists.com.  I stumbled on this site after chancing upon one of their free ebooks.  I don't always love the authors... They come off as pretty full of themselves (but don't all bloggers, just a little??) but they have had some pretty profound points.  Here are a few that I've been thinking on:

*Make a list of things you should do.  Next, replace the word "should" with the word "must" and then actively follow through.  Until you do this, you have a list of things that you will never do.  You are "shoulding all over yourself."  

*Declutter until you feel relieved not to have so much STUFF.  Really, this is my interpretation, since they take it to a super extreme.  But look at these pictures of their old loft below and then tell me that that kind of simplicity don't tickle your nubs a bit.  Anyway, I have heaping boxes of stuff that we will be yardsaling this summer.  It feels good, man.

*Ask yourself: What am I afraid of?  This applies to throwing out some old crap that you were given as a gift 10 years ago, but also applies to walking over to the neighbors to spend some time together during the day.  Obviously, both things are harder than they sound online.  Usually the answer to the question is, "I'll look like a wiener."  But really, I look like a wiener hanging out by myself all of the time, surrounded by a bunch of old junk anyway... so I have nothing to lose.

Ummmm, I think I've reached the end of my attention span.  Fodie is needing attention.  I think we might go for a little walk.  But I'll leave you with those pictures that I promised.

Go here to see more.

 

  

The internet is my frenemy.

I don't blog as often as I'd like.  I enjoy blogging because its rather cathartic for me, not unlike a journal entry.  Also, it lets me brag like crazy and then check back for comments afterward, where people can give me the ol' digital high five!  But I haven't been blogging because every time I think of something to blog about, I end up writing like 10 words about it on facebook and then call it good.  Its like my brain goes straight to: "why find a witty way to express yourself when you can just dump a few words on your facebook friends and have them all LIKE your post?!!?  OMG!!!"  Ugh.  Its just silly.

I feel like I need a cleanse from the internet.  I made yogurt last night and it FINALLY turned out, after being super unsuccessful (not just regular unsuccessful, mind you) when I tried to make it a few days ago.  This morning when I raced upstairs to see if my yogurt had indeed been a success, my first thought wasn't to take a big dollop and try it and enjoy its flavor... my first thought was to post it on facebook in hopes that everyone would leave comments like, "OMG, you are sooooo domestic.  You are my hero, fer realsies."  I love the validation, but why have I become someone who needs it?  Its super pathetic.  Its like, I see a frenemy update her profile picture to something super gorgeous, so I feel the need to up the ante with my own new profile pic, and a braggy update.  Its just stupid.  AND, I'm doing all of this stupid facebook sneakery while I'm feeding my baby breakfast.  Its just too much to ask for me to make eye contact with my baby and have a healthy interaction with him in the morning.

Anyway, I know that blogging about it isn't much different... but I feel that blogging allows for a more complete picture of me to emerge, at least.  I try to offer insights into my feelings rather than just putting on my perfect-housewife mask.  So there is THAT justification.

With that said, I think I am going to take a break from the internet for a while.  I'll still check my email and hopefully blog a little bit... but I'm going to log off of facebook, reddit, and pinterest, etc for a while.  I'm tired of measuring myself against pretend internet personas and thinking that "if I could just craft a little more, or if I just put on make up more often, or if I went shopping and bought more stylish digs then..."  Then what?  Anyway, I want to do more things.  Real life things.  Things that might require interaction.  If any of you love me at all, feel free to email, call or drop by.  I think that the company will be much more fulfilling than just reading about your life on facebook.

Fodie found himself "stuck" in his toy basket.  If only life were always so "hard."

Like buttah, baby.

I sure haven't blogged lately!  Perhaps I have forgotten to see the entertainment in the little day to day dealings... Or perhaps I'm just lazy.  Its the lazy thing, I'm sure.  BUT, Hippy keeps telling me to blog, so here is a post about something wonderful:  Butter!

I ran into some heavy cream at my local Smith's market for a whopping $.10/pint.  It was going out of date that day, but cream tends to last (as I've learned from my mother, who always has the world's oldest cream hidden in the back of the fridge).  I bought 8 pints and have been making all sorts of goodness with it.  For example, I've made lots of butter (most of which is in my freezer for later), buttermilk pancakes, whipped cream for use on EVERYTHING, truffles, and I will make ice cream this week.  What goes better with 2 feet of snow than ice cream?!  Everything.  But it'll still taste nice, I assure you!

The Pro's and Con's of butter:

Pro:
It's awesome.
It tastes good on everything.
It makes everything taste better.


Con:
None to date
(High Cholesterol? Heart Disease? --Hippy)

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Note in this first picture the potato soup on the stove with heavy cream in it, which makes it taste roughly 1,000,000 times better than my normal canned milk recipe.  Also, note my sexy snow boots.

 Theres nothing quite like a handful of butter... Mmmm.

Anyway, besides that, life has been good.  The holidays were lovely and I had fancy prizes coming out the tailpipe.  Namely, I got a water softener, which makes my water feel like silk.  It's so glamorous.  Fodie also enjoyed the holiday, but mostly because he likes eating wrapping paper.  New Years was also great... we don't see our friends as often as we used to, so having people over was delightful.

Speaking of Fodie, he is such a little tank these days.  He has 8 teeth now, and is able to walk along the furniture.  He went from baby to toddler within weeks.  With his new nearly-adult status, we moved him into his own bedroom last month.  It was hard, but he sleeps much better now and we don't tend to wake him up with our grown-up schedule.  We had to break some bad habits, which was hard, but Fodie is sleeping like a champ these days. He isn't a big fan of napping and he certainly doesn't sleep through the night or anything... but he is doing better, which makes me happy.  I know that many people have their babies trained to sleep through the night by the time they are 3 days old... but Fodie is so active, I don't feel bad getting up in the night to help him replenish his little calorie supply.  It'll be nice when I get a full nights sleep though... someday.  In the meantime, I try to remember that these days (and nights) are fleeting, and being able to spend quiet cuddle moments in the night are going to be times that I look back on with nothing but a loving ache because I'll miss them so much someday. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that life is good.  Butter is also good.  Between the two, I've got it made.

Fodie... blowing raspberries, naturally.