Mark put up a new Now page, so I feel like I need to catch up with him!
Family
Rory and I hung out all this past week together, just the two of us, since the boys went to Michigan for Christmas. It has been sooo much fun, she is truly a sweetheart. Every morning, she wakes up and either cries or sings or both, and then settles in for a little cuddle before literally jumping down off me to start her day. She’s a year and a half now so she’s settled into a lot of routines now – she helps get herself dressed, she points to her diaper and says “poo” when she needs a diaper change, she likes to wash her hands with soap, and she’s still obsessed with putting on her socks and shoes. She hasn’t been saying a lot of words so it’s been nice to have a little 1:1 time with her and really see her expand her vocabulary intentionally like pointing to the fridge and saying “yogurt.” She surprisingly has a few big words like “applesauce” and “Pikachu” (which she immediately will try to run around the house and collect as many Pikachu stuffed animals or items of clothing as she can). And of course, she’s still obsessed with books like her brother.
Logan has been loving junior kindergarten! His favorite part is science class – he was sad that they had winter break because he wouldn’t get to see his science teacher for so long! It’s wild how fast they learn to write – he’s been writing his name all over the place (first and last!!) and he can write most of his letters now. He very earnestly told me that we needed to learn our letters so we could write stories like the books that he reads, it’s so fun to see him get excited and connect all those dots. We’ve gotten a few “books” that he’s written at school where the teachers write most of a sentence and he fills out one word and then draws pictures to match. His drawing skills have skyrocketed too, and it’s been fun to see the things he creates (and I just put up hooks to display his artwork). He’s still obsessed with wearing all things Pikachu or video games. We recently have been buying bulk legos and sorting all the legos by color, and he’s been recreating scenes of things that he’s learned in science class like volcanos and lava rocks transitioning to an ocean. He’s still in singing class and had his first recital earlier this month where he sang Do Re Mi with two other kids. Logan’s favorite place to eat is Noodles and Company and we probably go there once a week. Logan and I have a weekly tradition of picking him up from carpool on Fridays and going to McDonalds and then Costco together — I do my best to do it every week, but sometimes have to skip if there’s work obligations, but it’s just a really fun time for us to hang out and for him to try new foods via Costco samples. Four and a half is a really fun age because he’s exploring and interacting with the world so much.
Like my last Now entry, Mark is still at OpsLevel, still likes it, still isn’t super stressed out. He goes to a lot of local coffee shops, and has been able to continue biking there since the weather hasn’t been super cold yet.
Work
Same for me, too, as my last Now entry! It’s funny how life moves a lot slower as an adult. I’m pretty happy where I am right now even if I’m not writing as much code as I was before — I feel like I spend a lot of time negotiating down the scope of projects so we have to write less code to achieve similar results. Work isn’t too stressful and again, a ton of my friends work there, so it feels nice and relatively stable, even though I know they’re going to shake things up in the new year. I’m trying to find the right balance of where I spend my time at work – I have so many meetings and just can’t write as much code or be involved at that and I definitely feel insecure that my technical skills are waning. I’m not unhappy about it though so I’ll see where it takes me.
Reading
GoodReads tells me that I read 88 books this year! I’ve been really loving reading more this year. I try to do a mix of nonfiction (mostly parenting books) and fiction but definitely skew more towards fiction. My lowest rated book this year also happens to be the longest book I read, which goes to show you how hard it is to put down a series after you’ve invested so much time into it, even when it starts going downhill fast. I’ve gotten really into book boxes and have a few too many active monthly subscriptions that I should probably pare down, but it’s just so fun getting book mail and reading things that someone else picks and curates.
Watching
I just finally finished Ted Lasso season 3. We keep up with the Avengers movies/shows still, and I deeply loved The Marvels for all the representation that I’ve always wanted in a mainstream film. I haven’t been enamored with Loki or What If or some of the other shows as I have been with the previous shows, not quite sure if I’m burnt out on it or what. I took Logan with a bunch of friends to see the Taylor Swift concert movie, and it was far too long for him but he did love getting to sing Anti-Hero at the top of his lungs, and giving out bracelets to every kid or stranger he was brave enough to go up to (including rolling down the window and tossing one out to a stranger). We’ve been watching Lego Masters Australia together as a family and that’s been really fun. I don’t get to watch as many romcoms in the background at work since I’m in so many meetings, so that’s been a little bit of a bummer!
Creativity
Still channeling creativity into party planning — the wedding we hosted in October was really cute and fun and came together very nicely. We had a Halloween party that honestly could not have been better — the kids had a blast with the bounce house and the candy/pokemon ball hunt and the two pints — I definitely went overboard but have no regrets at all. I really loved how many adults showed up in Pokemon costumes! We’re planning a NYE party where folks either bring a cocktail to share or a charcuterie board or some other board. I spent most of this past week finally hanging up all the things in our house that have been languishing in closets or wherever. I’m still using my Cricut a lot – I recently made mugs for my team with our team logo, and before that, I made tumblers with the Stitch Fix logo on it. I also made mugs with all the teachers names on it for the holidays. I think I want to revive a monthly craft night or something — a friend suggested a watercolor night and I did watercolor painting and it wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be so I’m hoping to flex that creativity muscle some more.
Travel
Since the last time I wrote, I went to Baltimore for a wedding which was really lovely and relaxing. I also went to San Francisco for a work trip and got to meet all my non-St. Louis coworkers in person!!! It was so great to just hang out and hear people’s proposal stories or hear about their kids or pets or whatever. I hope that they decide to prioritize a few more work trips in the future. After coming back from San Francisco, we immediately went cabin camping, and let’s just say that it’s still not my cup of tea. I unsurprisingly collapsed my lungs again, and it was just really miserable. We stayed in town for Thanksgiving, and then the boys travelled for Christmas, so it’s been relatively quiet on the travel front!
Random Bits and Pieces
I’m unfortunately getting my tonsils out in January – I had waited 6 months for an ENT appointment and almost cancelled the day before because I was finally feeling healthy for once, but my doctor convinced me to go and establish myself as a patient so I could get in faster the next time I needed it. The ENT I saw was honestly a badass, just whip smart and compassionate, and she laid out her analysis of the past year and it was pretty rough — I got swabbed for strep more than once a month for the past year, and had it at least 5 times — I was well past the clinical cutoff for the low end of tonsil infections, so it was a pretty clear cut case that I should get them out. Of course, the way my brain is, I have been convincing myself that it was a fluke and I turned the corner and maybe it was just a yearlong infection that I needed to shake and I finally did it, but lo and behold, guess who has a tonsil infection right now? Yeah, those tonsils need to go.
I’m still working on trying to find myself outside of work and being a mom. Slowly incorporating more and more girls nights and dinner with friends, and trying to figure out what I want to work towards that’s just something for myself that brings me joy or grows me in a way that I want.
Okay, that’s it for me!