Mark turned me on to the idea of a “Now” blog post where you do a lightweight blog post about what’s currently going on in your life. I built it up in my head that I had to catch up on the last few years of missing blog posts, but it feels a lot less stressful to just do a snapshot in our current life.
Family: Rory (6 months) is currently being sleep trained. It seems to be working – she’s able to cry and then self-soothe, but sometimes she acts like she’s starving and her little belly rumbles so we sometimes feed her in the middle of the night still. She wakes up around 7ish in the morning, and by the time I get to her crib, her big brother is almost always there trying (and succeeding) at making her stop crying.
Logan (3.75 years old) is also being sleep trained, but in a different way. He likes for us to read him 2 books, give him some bedtime milk, and then sit with him until he falls asleep. He’s much better at falling asleep with Mark than me, and he just wants to play and stall for time and it can sometimes last over an hour. Today, we started a system where he can hold a physical poker chip “coin” or two, and he can trade a coin in to leave his room if he needs something from us, but if he holds on to them until the morning, he can get a sticker on his sticker chart and eventually earn cars. We’ve been preparing him for this switch, and he is so freaking excited (I had to wake him up from nap, and one of the first things he asked was where his coin was). Today worked well, so crossed fingers it lets us reclaim our nights again.
This year, we got a tree and stockings with our initials on it for Christmas. Logan was thrilled to open presents after being very patient for an entire month of seeing all these shiny boxes under the tree. Most of his presents from a variety of people were Paw Patrol themed, and he’s especially happy that the newest Paw Patrol member is a cat named Rory.
Work: Still at Stitch Fix and I love it. My small team is working on a large-scale tech debt project, and it’s been a great exercise in rewriting something while maintaining the current functionality, and slowly releasing the new stuff in a controlled way. I love it – I have so many friends who work there, and it’s just fun to hang out remotely with my friends and build stuff together. We have occasional happy hours since many of the people live in St. Louis, and that really just makes up for anything I’m missing while being remote. I am really really hoping that 2023 doesn’t involve negative changes at work because it’s a lovely source of stability for me.
Reading: Finally Focused was a book recommended by a coworker who has a kid with ADHD. I’m only a few chapters in, but the research is super interesting, and we’re going to look into magnesium supplements after reading up a little more on the data around it. I think everyone in our family has some things that they’re working on whether it’s building systems or just learning to regulate emotions so I’ve enjoyed talking to others about what works for them.
I just finished Legendborn (gifted by another coworker, thanks Jordan!), and it’s my favorite kind of fantasy novel where it’s someone learning about their powers and falling in love and so on and so forth. This one was particularly great because it had deeper emotions than just “good vs. evil.” Can’t wait for the second one to be available!
Watching: The OC. I love Seth Cohen.
Creativity: I am struggling to remember how to be a person outside of just “mom” so I’m trying to carve out time once a week to do the stuff that I enjoy. I’m making some shirts for my team at work. I’ve also made personalized mugs for both sets of teachers for the kids. I want to eventually paint the background wall of my office to make it more cheery so I hopefully start working in it and not on the couch every day.
Upcoming: We are hopefully hosting a murder mystery dinner for New Year’s Eve. In January, Logan gets his last covid shot, Rory gets her second covid shot and second flu shot, and I need to find a new PCP. I’m going on a girl’s trip to Cancun in February, and hopefully a spring break trip with some friends to Cancun again in March. Logan’s already planning his fourth birthday party in March, and he’s torn between a dino theme and a Lego theme. Crossed fingers that nothing drastic changes our plans!
Okayyyy, I’m sure I could write more but I’m just proud of me for upgrading all the things behind the blog, paying the yearly fee, and actually writing a post
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