9.30.17 - September joy statuses

9.15.17 - Friday with the girls and on-the-job joys

Clara is wearing her backpack and sunhat while playing inside at night, I suppose because it's the toddler fashion right now. Jane is watching me clean the kitchen and grinning like a maniac, as if me cleaning the kitchen is some great inside joke between us. And overall I really don't mind spending my Friday night with these two.

In other joys:

I'm in a bet with Julie where I count calories and she does a minimum number of workouts per week and has a maximum amount of sweet and alcohol per week. This is a joy because I'm losing weight but it also makes the once-a-week day off from calorie counting feel like a mini vacation.

I thought it would be harder to count calories now that I'm working from home all the time, but it's not that bad partly because I get pretty absorbed in my work and don't feel as hungry, I guess because I'm distracted. So that's pretty nice.

I'm so enjoying being able to work by myself at home. In contrast with working at Starbucks I can wear lounge clothes and no shoes, use the bathroom any time, get food and drink any time (for free), listen to my music out loud instead of on headphones, and switch up seating positions with no trouble. I also don't have to waste time going home to pump/feed Jane and coming back, because I'm already home! It is much less frustrating now that I can knock out more than 3 hours of work at a time. Also, over the summer I was concerned that when I started full time for CER there wouldn't be enough work to fill my hours, but so far there has been plenty without any problem. So that's a big relief.

And once again I am grateful for social media. I was thinking earlier today that, were it not for social media, Skype, free long distance calls, and all this technology my parents didn't have when they were my age, I would have almost no social interaction right now aside from Jack and my kids. I also wouldn't be able to do this job from home. So I'm glad for the technology we have that lets me do so much long distance.

I also want to give another shout to my Magic Bullet blender, which we use every single day at minimum for a fruit/veggie smoothie for Clara, but usually also for a fruit smoothie for me, and sometimes for other concoctions like pureeing veggies into eggs for egg muffins or blending Nutella with iced coffee. Mmmm.

Cue angelic choir

9.8.17 - GET IT

This morning as I was driving the girls to the nanny's, Clara started fussing. To distract her, I pointed at a semi truck we were passing and said "Oh wow! Look at that *big* *truck*!" She repeated "Big truck!" and giggled. Then we spent a while pointing out every big rig in the far right lane as we passed them and saying "Oh wow! Big truck!" And she laughed every time.

Eventually there were no more big rigs in the right lane, so we drove in silence for a moment. Then a large-ish pickup truck passed us and got in front of us, and Clara, delighted, pointed out the "big truck!" I could tell she was impatient for us to pass the truck as we had the other slower trucks before. She pointed out the pickup truck a few more times and then, after a moment of silence, she yelled "GET IT!" and laughed maniacally.

Best part of my day so far.

9.4.17 - Kid snippets

What was meant to be the foot of Clara's bed overlaps by a few inches with the nursery window. The nursery window has one broken blind right at that end too, so Clara can always see out the window even when the blinds are closed. Many times now I've gone to get her in the morning or after a nap and she's fallen asleep with her head at the foot of the bed, facing out the window. I like to imagine her drifting to sleep watching the trees or people walk by in the complex.

Playing "Super Toddler"

She has many youtube playlists now, and for the most part I have her watch the educational ones (animals, around-the-house vocab, parts of the body, colors, shapes, numbers...). I also have a playlist of songs I enjoy listening to that have appropriate and decently interesting music videos. Last night I put that playlist on and naturally, since it's all songs I particularly enjoy, I would sing along from time to time. In each case, Clara would be standing on the office chair, leaning against the desk, watching the music video, and whether I was sitting on the living room couch or standing in the kitchen or wherever I was, when I started singing she'd whip her head around to look at me and grin. Other times it would be a song I typically sing but wasn't singing at the time and she'd look at me as if waiting for me to sing along. I think she enjoys it because we experiencing the music together. Sometimes I will pick her up and have her sort of sit on my hip while we dance around to a song, and she will shyly smile or very softly try to sing it. Some songs she isn't shy about at all, but instead of singing along she'll just shout the parts that she likes.

Especially "Break up with him" by Old Dominion

After Jane nurses, I'll set her on my knees and talk to her, and she always grins hugely, like she's just so dang happy to see me and to have a full belly and to be alive. And in the first few moments I start singing to her after not having sang to her in a day or so, she coos as loudly as she can and waves her hands around and gets all bobble head in her excitement. We haven't gotten it on video yet, but soon.

Enjoying her bouncer without Clara interference.

She can pretty much roll to her tummy now. I mean she's all the way on her tummy, she just can't figure out how to get her arm out from under her. So far she only rolls to her left.

She's comfortably fitting in 6 month clothes even though she's not quite 4 months old. We're also transitioning to size 3 diapers, only one size below Clara (although to be fair Clara is a bit tiny).

Jane watches me switch out 3 month clothes for 6 month clothes. Clara is preoccupied with the Duplo bag.

For a long time Jane was going down to sleep the first time I put her down (after a few minutes of fussing) and then sleeping through the night save for one middle-of-the-night feeding. Unfortunately lately she's been really rough going down--2-3 attempts every night, and I think the final attempt only works because she wears herself out crying so much during the first few attempts. And for a while there she's been waking up 2-4 times a night, which is hard to switch back to after only once or none. We've gotten a new baby swing that plugs into the wall (and thus doesn't have to be turned on every 30 minutes), and it's tempting to just let her sleep in that, but it's a bad habit. Anyway last night she did sleep over 8 hours, so maybe we're getting out of this phase.

Yesterday I came home after a few hours of work to feed Jane and get lunch myself. I got there in time to put Clara down for her nap, which I enjoy doing. It's a bit of one-on-one time with reading and pointing out everything in the books she can recognize with her increasingly expanding vocabulary. She's usually a bit resistant when we first go in the room, and I usually have to tell her at least once to stay on the bed, but it works and she settles down. She doesn't pass out right when I finish reading--in fact last night I could hear her knock on her nursery door at least once--but she does eventually climb back into her bed on her own and fall asleep.

"If Kisses Were Colors" is a current favorite. I like the rhythm of it and she likes to point out the animals.

I'm so glad I'm finally able to work during the day more, because then I can come home in the evening and spend time with her and Jane. Last night I got home and Clara and I spent a good 10-15 minutes in the bathroom examining the objects I've recently taught her, especially "shower," "shampoo," "wash cloth," and "drain." It's nice to actually have time to sit with her and show her instead of trying to brush her off because I have to get other things done. And I love how happy she is to learn new words and how excited she is to point them out once she knows them. It's as if teaching her the words helps her realize those objects (or concepts) exist, and her world keeps expanding. For example she now notices all the shelves and paintings in the apartment, which she never made much mention of before. It's delightful to watch.

Also last night I was sitting with Jane in my lap on the couch while Clara watched the "mom songs" playlist and Jack worked on homework. Until now Jane has mostly been fascinated with Clara, but last night she kept staring so intently at Jack even though he was a fair distance across the room. He noticed and stopped studying to play peek-a-boo with her using his laptop. She's little enough still that she doesn't have object permanence, and she kept looking around for him when he was behind the laptop screen, then grinning when he reappeared. Jack was grinning a lot too, haha, because the whole thing was adorable.

Finally, every night when Jack puts Clara to bed, he hums or sings the end of "Rainbow Connection" to her while he either hugs her or rubs her back. Many nights now she will softly try to sing it along with him, always at least getting the "and meee" part right. It's heart-melting.