2016

I'm kind of turning my head to the side and squinting my eyes at the thought of recapping 2016.  This comes to mind...

I guess I wouldn't say it was a bad year since nothing "bad" happened, but in general growing a human and being a first-time parent was pretty rocky and not something I'm eager to repeat.  I guess I just feel like I've felt sick for about 99% of 2016 so it's been a long year, but I'm hopeful things improve in 2017!

Moving on to another year-end thing: me turning 27!  27 seems kind of...late 20's?  It's different than 26 I will tell you that.  Anyway in celebration of my birthday, I will share 27 scraps of wisdom from my old age.

1. I am not afraid to run the dishwasher when it isn't full.

2. You can get a lot done in 15 minutes.

3. Amazon Prime.

4. Tackling a nagging task is an instant mood-booster.

5. Going out for ice cream is also always an instant mood-booster.

6. It's ok to not like things that a lot of other people like (like breastfeeding, Indian food, museums, or the card game-Scum).

7. It's also ok to openly admit that you don't like things that a lot of other people like.

8. The key to happiness is Scott Foley.

9. Online grocery shopping.

10. Learning to enjoy cooking can bring a lot of satisfaction to life because for some reason we have to prepare and eat food every day.

11. Dominos pan pizza is a great option for when you forget about #10.

12. A clean house is a necessity.

13. Exercising daily is also a necessity.

14. Working late at night can feel like a treat when you spin it that way.  Accomplishing something uninterrupted?  Sign me up.

15. If something's really important to you, you'll do it.  There aren't very many excuses beyond that.

16. Movies take a long time to watch and are rarely worth it.  But when they are, buy twizzlers and peanut M&Ms.

17. Most things feel worse in the middle of the night.  I didn't learn this until this year since I never saw the middle of the night before.  Avoid decisions during these hours.

18. The all-natural movement will probably bring more pain, smells, and inconvenience to your life.

19. Now is probably the best time to do whatever you're thinking about doing.  It will most likely not be more convenient later.

20. People aren't mind readers.

21. Always pack a swimsuit.

22. Any day can be a special occasion.  Make a great things list.

23. Differentiate between casual and important things and treat them as such.

24. Don't go with the very cheapest hotel.  (I learned this vicariously through Scott's experiences with bed bugs, terrible WiFi, and a midnight intruder.)

25. Plan on going to Home Depot 3 extra times with any project and you won't end up disappointed when it inevitably happens.

26. Go to bed on time.

27. Get a back scratch every day.

Multi-Tasking and Rain Clouds

If you're a part of the online baby community you've probably heard about the "wonder weeks" and seen the dreaded rain cloud chart, which...pretty much resembles the weather in Seattle for months on end.

I'm not sure if I'm a believer in the exact weeks these clouds are scheduled to roll in, but yes, Ivy does have the rain cloud over her head on occasion and now is one of those times.  The goo-goo-gooing or dancing in front of her just doesn't produce the smiles it used to! Haha.

The last couple weeks have been especially interesting because in addition to the rain cloud pouring on our house, it's also busy season for me and Scott's had to go out of town more.  I'm going to call this combination a severe storm warning.  Also we're sleep training Ivy, which brings this storm warning to a hurricane alert.  My only advice to anyone in this situation is gird your loins.  The time for preparation has ended.  Haha.

Yesterday I found myself literally eating dinner while I rode my exercise bike. I do recognize that this was a weird/useless combination; but if I wanted to do both, that was the answer.  Also, I successfully put Ivy down for a nap in the middle of a conference call so I'm feeling half crazy, half super-human here in the aftermath.  Luckily with Scott out of town, I'm more motivated to work extra hours at night because...what else will I do, try to watch 26 seasons of Gilmore Girls?  I'd rather die work.*

It's obviously a lot harder to manage a baby without all of Scott's help, but in some ways I do tolerate business trips better with my little buddy here.  I was never bored! :)

Month 5 is pretty fun even with the rain clouds.  Ivy is constantly rolling onto her stomach and getting stuck (because she forgot how to do the easier roll back to her back...) and she loves to touch everything which brings a lot of laughter to our house.  As does her hair.

#hairgoals...my post-partum re-growth probably doesn't look that much different...

I think exciting times lie ahead and we'll be there with our cameras and the umbrellas to catch it all!



*Actually I do someday plan to get through them all because caring about the revival does sound super fun.  Hopefully it's still as fun 7 years from now.

Firsts

This week we experienced a lot of new things.

1. Ivy slept through the night for the first time!  No one was more thankful this Thanksgiving than me, I don't care what you say.  This appears to be somewhat of a fluke situation since the night before she woke up 3 times, but we've now gone 4 nights with no actual feedings so I feel we are turning over a new leaf even if we're still up a few times giving her a back scratch...  Where she gets this behavior from, I'm just not sure.

2. We went to Swig!  We were unimpressed!  I'm not sure what I expected since I don't drink soda...but also the sugar cookie did NOT have the "signature" crinkled edges so I'm just confused and won't be back.

3. Ivy went to her first Thanksgiving feast.  She didn't burst into tears when random people held her this time although we did see the pouty lip stick out a few times.

Cheeks!

4. Our garage door broke.  More specifically, it was the giant high-tension spring that busted and could've been kind of catastrophic, but we're all fine.  Since we can't fix this sort of thing ourselves, it was the least painful home repair ever.  We CALLED SOMEONE ELSE.  I know nothing more about garage repair than I did the day before, and it feels great.

5. I got my first prime lens for my camera and I am even more camera happy than normal.  Ivy is not as excited about these photoshoots as I am...

6. We went on our first after-bedtime date to the BYU football game.  Ivy continued to confuse impress us by sleeping well in a pack and play in an unknown location the entire time.

7. I bought a new cell phone.  Since I don't leave my desk or the house much without Scott and his functioning phone, I still honestly don't care one bit about cell phones. But at some point I need to read all my text messages, so I guess it was time?

8. We took Ivy to a wedding and a sit-down restaurant.  We're in the small window where she can sit on my lap and not grab my food so that was probably also the first and last time we're going to dinner with her.

Did you guys know Texas Roadhouse has an armadillo person that wanders around????  We've been here so many times and we've never seen this.