What I'd tell my younger self

For my 21st birthday I had asked for a special gift from family and older friends. I asked them to give me a list of lessons they had wished they'd known when they were in their 20s. I'm a BIG believer in learning from others rather than learning things the hard way and I figured so many people say "if I had known then what I know now" and I wanted to avoid as many of those moments as possible. I plan to give them (with my own additional notes) to my girls when they are 20. Until that moment, I'd like to write down things here on what I'd tell my younger self:

• Do NOT worry so much what others think. In fact, most of them aren't even thinking about YOU, they are so wrapped up in their own stuff that they don't notice you have a hair out of place, or a zit on your chin. They get zits and crazy hairs too.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to ask questions to understand something, ask WHY all the time!! And don't be afraid to say no, as long as you have a good reason. Don't just say it because you don't feel like doing something or talking about something. 
  
  
• Learn to plunge the dang toilet the right way!!
  
  
• Quit spending SO much time in front of the TV. You'll realize you wasted WAY too much time of your life in front of that box! Find a hobby!
  
  
• Do not take classes based on what your friends are taking. Take classes in subjects you are interested in because you'll meet people who have similar interests and you'll make new friends!
  
  
• Speaking in front of others can be scary, unless you pick a topic you are generally interested in. Being proud of your work really helps make it fun to talk about!
  
  
• Take care of your skin right now! Right now! It's going to look haggard so early and you'll be so thankful later if you just take care of it now.
  
  
• Working out does not have to be a drag. Find exercises you like and add in some cardio and you'll be so happy for the endorphins.
  
  
• Don't worry so much about being skinny or a certain number on the scale. Just be healthy and happy. Don't diet...that's a waste of time unless you plan to stick with it forever and we all know you won't! (You know you'll make excuses to have sweets...so don't torture yourself).
  
  
• No one is intentionally mean. Most things are misunderstandings. If you think someone said or thought something mean, doesn't mean they did. Go up and talk to them about what happened. Clarify, don't attack! Let them speak their side before you go on the defense. Also, Identify how you feel and then let them say their side

That's not ALL of them, but they are probably the most important ones. I'll definitely be adding more (luckily I have a bit of time before Cara turns 20). 

Having Your Best Friend Nearby

So my best friend from my teenage years and I have been apart for a long while. I mean, really it's only been like 6 years, but we didn't take advantage of how close we were before those 6 years. Then she had her babies and moved to Texas and then to Georgia. Then I had Cara and Gwen and we just did our best to communicate via text or Marco Polo. 

Then 2-ish years ago she moved back to Idaho (where her husband's family lives) and we realized we really need to take advantage of only being a few hour drive away!

I first drove up in September (9/16) for her oldest son's birthday. It was just a Saturday-Sunday trip with the older girls and we stayed in a hotel room...I learned the hard way that was a bad idea! I figured it would be easier because I was still pumping for Lucy (which I knew I'd need to dump while I was up there that time), but trying to get the girls to go to sleep when we were all sharing a room was way too difficult and I don't think I'll be doing that again until they are MUCH more used to not being in cribs (it was Gwen's first night out of a crib and we all ended up in the same bed...VERY exhausting). However, it was nice to celebrate her son's birthday, be at the party, and have the girls play with the boys. We also stopped for the zoo and lunch before I drove home (the zoo up in Idaho Falls is tiny, but the kids had fun and I found a Groupon discount for it so it was worth it).

I then went up in November (11/6) just for a Friday through Sunday visit. She has a couple extra rooms so I stayed at her house this time (the girls in one room, me in another), which made it MUCH easier! The girls could nap there and I didn't have to leave early to put them down for bed. We could put the kids down and then hang out, just adults. We mostly played games and talked, but it was so fun! I originally went to help her organize some spaces in her house that needed it (she's always doing crafts for me so I help her organize), but we also made cute shirts for the girls because she found a new fun machine to try out (we made them spaced themed!). We also did some Christmas/Winter Crafts with the kids, which they seemed to like. We even had a girl come babysit the kids for a few hours and we went shopping (the girl was so cute she even dropped off a gift bag full of kid stuff for us). I think I ended up coming home with more than I left with because in cleaning out the areas she made a huge "give away" pile and a lot of the stuff I knew the girls would love.

Most recently, I was up this past weekend just because it had been a little while since my last visit and we knew the rest of the year might be a little iffy. This might have been the most fun trip so far. It was just a Saturday to Monday visit, but we went to the aquarium (where they got to feed/hold LOTS more animals than is possibly at our aquarium), we made fun treats, we went out to lunch and got ice cream, she helped me finish some boxes I had been working on for a few weeks. We had some real parenting moments, we played lot of games (again), walked some shops (the kids got to watch movies in the van and they LOVED it). It was a GREAT trip and I'm SO glad we live closer and our kids can get to know each other and play!

Having a friend that you've known so long and made all sorts of fun plans with as kids be so close you get to do all the fun things you imagined together is SO much fun!

Lucy is NINE Months!

 I am NINE months old!

 

I like: being held all the time (we call her koala baby), eating real food (more than her bottle or baby food), Cara (seriously gives the most smiles/laughs when she sees Cara over anyone else), splashing in the bathtub and chewing on all the toys

I dislike: being put down for any reason than she asked to be put down, being fed baby food or a bottle if we show her our food

I am now: still in 6-9 months clothes, but we're switching over to 9/9-12 month sizes, she's 16 lbs (and I think 12 oz), and still in size 2 diapers. She's really long and skinny it seems. But her head is smaller than the other girls so that might be good.

A Typical Day looks like: 

We usually wake her up around 7:40 ish

 

7:40-9:30 - I feed her a 4 oz "jar" of baby food with her her probiotic. I then lay her down with a  oz bottle and change her bum. After she finishes that she'll crawl around and play with whatever is near her or wait for Cara to come visit her. Dad will lotion her up and put clothes on at some point after I head up to work (around 8:15)

9:30-11  nap time in her crib

11:00 - diaper change and the next 6 oz bottle. Around 11:30 we'll do lunch and give her some finger foods like puffs or veggie straws. We'll also give her bites of our lunches.

11:30 - 12:30 play time (sitting, crawling, playing, etc.)

12:30-2:30 nap time.

2:30-4:15 - next 6 oz bottle and diaper change then play time

4:15 - 5:00/5:15 nap time.

5:15 - 5:30 - Play and hang time.

5:30 - 6 we do dinner. She gets baby food and tastes of our food haha.

6-7 doing whatever for the night (aka free/play time)

7-7:45 we start our show for the night, at 7:05 she gets her last 6 oz bottle of the night and just relax at this point. If it's bath night (Sunday and Thursday for her), that starts at 7:30 ish

7:45 get ready for bed. We change her diaper, put Vaseline on her dry spots, put on pajamas, take her upstairs, read a book, lay her down and give her the binky.

This Month: Lucy developed such a silly personality. She makes funny faces, she crawls and pulls up to stand on EVERYTHING, but can't figure out how to get back down. She loves random things, still not always one things that will make her laugh every time (except Cara). She loves random sounds, but they have to change up each time we do it haha. She's starting to kind of give kisses and says mama and dada, but she knows baba, num nums, uh-oh, and yay. 

She absolutely LOVES real food over anything else. She hates seeing our food, but getting fed baby food. Although we did give her sweet peas one night and she gobbled those up!

Lucy is even more silly. She is much more happy and playful. She still loves to be held, but she is exploring more on her own as the days go on.

 

We celebrated her first St. Patrick's Day and Easter and she had so much fun watching my sisters celebrate and get ready. Speaking of watching, she LOOVES observing and watching things. I feel like it's her way to figure things out for when she's big enough to do them (like watching her sisters run around in anticipation for when she can run around. Or looking around the house so she knows where certain rooms are for navigating to later).

She's starting to walk more with our fingers and is adjusting well if I hold her and move around. She seems to be most content if I do things upstairs and have to put her down for a minute (maybe because it's new?). 

She got a new tooth, her 3rd, but it's an upper tooth to the side of her front teeth. Still no front teeth on the top, just bottom, so she looks a little like goofy, but a cute version haha. 

It's funny watching her eat as she HATES seeing us eat our food without her. She needs to be being fed OR have big bites of our food to feed herself. She's also still got a tiny bit of stranger danger, but I think she's starting to warm up to people. I can't tell if she's this way because of being inside a bunch due to COVID or that's just her personality type or a little of both. But both girls had that stranger danger phase so I assume it'll pass.

Either way, she's such a cutie little girl and I'm loving seeing her come out of her shell more. I can't wait to celebrate her first birthday...I've got some fun thoughts on what we're going to do and it'll be a great one.

Update on last month's goals:

• Work on crawling - she can crawl with the best of them!
  
  
• Work on pulling up and getting ready to walk soon - she likes to pull up, but doesn't know how to get down and doesn't ever want to be on our sit to stand walker so we need to help her with that more.
  
  
• Get her used to the outdoors - it hasn't been warm enough yet, but hopefully soon.
  
  
• Working on words and sounds - oh she babbles non stop! This girlie will be a talking machine once she figures out more words haha.
  
  
• Have a fun Valentine's Day - We had a really great Valentine's Day and I'm getting SO excited to do more holidays that are coming up!!
  

Goals for next month:

• Work on getting down from pulling up (and being okay with being down)
  
  
• Work on walking more
  
  
• More holidays (St. Patrick's Day and Easter)
  
  
• Get outdoors more
  

Living in a Pandemic - 1 Year Later

So we've officially been "quarantining", or whatever you call it, a whole year now. It was a year ago today that I was told I needed to start working from home (I didn't realize it was because COVID was declared a global pandemic, I thought it was just because I was pregnant and they were looking out for people who could be in a higher risk category). I made a joke that it would be funny if I didn't come back until after my maternity leave and when someone asked if I really thought we'd be out that long I laughed and said "no. I'll probably be back in April." I had no idea that it would go this long! I will always remember that first weekend running to 4, maybe more, stores looking for milk, canned foods, bread, or anything else to hold us over for a couple weeks (THAT was the only time I really kind of panicked). I was comparing pantry stocked pictures with family and friends as a joke. It was a very weird time.

While I know most people are having a hard time with the changes, it has been so ideal for me! I have LOVED being home with my family. It's been so nice not HAVING to get dressed in the beginning when I was 7 months pregnant, not having to commute during awful hours, having lunch with my family and helping dad out! Not to mention I liked being home when I went back to work after my leave to help Larry out with the girls so he could concentrate on Lucy more.

I also feel very fortunate that Larry and I have been able to keep our jobs, we haven't had to take a pay cut, and it's all felt like normal life for us (the only change being that I work in a bed instead of a cubicle).

I'm not sure if/when I'll be back in office, but I am so soaking up all the greatness that has been being home and seeing all the moments I missed before. In the beginning it was hard when everything was closed and I wanted to run errands to get things done, but now that more things are opening and we just have to wear masks it hasn't been so bad. I'll admit I absolutely HATED the idea of being forced to wear a mask, but now I feel as long as I can go shopping and walk stores, I'll wear the dang mask! I still haven't bought reusable ones, I know once I do they'll stop making us wear them haha. 

I feel bad that people can only see how negative this last year has been, but it's really forced us to figure things out that we didn't realize we could do (hello long lines at Costco and worrying if things we needed would be out of stock) and how to handle stressful situations and I'm happy that Larry and I tend to come out stronger from those moments. I'm also glad I never ran low on toilet paper and had to deal with that panic haha.