3.31.16 - Decent exes

3.29.16 - Other people's kids

Zoey Barkow

3.26.16 - How They Met stories

3.20.16 - Bedtime routine

It's so surreal watching Clara get older. I'm both sad that the time is going quickly, that she will never be as tiny as she was before, as she is now, again, and also joyful watching her learn new things and develop new skills and habits.

For example, I used to use a little finger baby toothbrush to brush her teeth with fluoride-free toothpaste. But a week or so ago we switched to a little toothbrush she can hold on her own and the same toothpaste Jack and I use. (The pediatrician recommended getting her kid-friendly fluoride toothpaste in bubblegum flavor or some other more kid-friendly version, but as long as she keeps goign with what we already have I'll stick with that. She's so easy-going.) Anyway, each morning and night-time I get both my toothbrush and hers ready. Then I sit on the bathroom floor next to her and start brushing my teeth while holding out her toothbrush to her. She takes it herself and tries to brush her teeth too, all the while smiling at me. From time to time she will try to put her toothbrush in my mouth but I just move my head away and so she goes back to brushing. It's so sweet to see her try to mimic and to get excited when I show excitement too. Although tonight she got distracted a little early by the hanging belts behind the bathroom door, haha.

Another way her routine has changed is bedtime stories. She used to lay passively against me while I read her books. Now she's much more interactive. Tonight I picked 5-6 books and brought her in my bedroom for story time. For the first book or two, while I was reading she'd lean against me and just watch, although between each book she'd sit up and rub her feet excitedly against the bed sheets. Once I was on the 3rd book she wanted to sit up even while I was reading and touch different parts of the book. It was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and she likes to turn the "short" pages about what the caterpillar eats. She likes to try to stick her tiny little pointer finger into the holes in the food, and after awhile she also grabbed my much larger pointer finger and tried to get me to find the same holes.



Similarly, now when we get to the end of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom she grabs my finger so she can hold on while I point to each letter in the alphabet as I sing the ABCs. I love it when she grabs my finger to try to get me to do things for her, and I love that she loves story time so much.



Finally I took her to give Daddy a kiss goodnight, and then I took her in the nursery and kissed her myself and put her down. And, just like with most nights, she rubbed her face into the mattress (belly down) and kicked her legs as she got into a comfortable position--no fuss, just ready to go to bed.

She's such a darling kid.

3.16.16 - Rough start turned around

For reasons I won't get into (because this is the Joy Inventory), my day was pretty stressful through the morning. I was feeling downright dejected by the time I posted this:

And you know what? The responses really did help. I would check back every 45 mins or so and see a few more, and getting a glimpse into the little happy moments in everyone's lives, just imagining them all over the country thinking about what makes them happy, really did make me happy. I was much comforted.

Responses included cute or funny pictures of pets and friends, as well as these:

Ellen:I'm on spring break and it's sooooo nice. I made lots of delicious food, cleaning my apt foreal, and Bryon and I are gonna see The Witch today which I'm excited about. 

Lisa: I recently bought several storage items, and several times this morning I've had the joy of picking up an item and thinking, "I have somewhere to put you!"

Mom: I'm really enjoying my little bird feeder that I hung in the Japanese maple tree just outside my home office window. Or I guess I should say I'm enjoying seeing the little finches and occasional cardinal. Oh, and I love, love, love videos of Clara Lynn!

Anthony: Leftover pizza, coffee with a friend with open minded conversation, read an awesome SPL article.

Evelyn: It is a rare day of NO RAIN in the west and I am on my way to Galway for St. Patrick's day.

Rebecca: Moving out of our apartment and having my husband home two extra days.

Whitney: Hot coffee on the morning on the train. Golden retriever temper tantrums. Annoying, but the cutest thing ever. Bandit lied down when I was trying to take him home after the dog park, so I laid down with him and we had a mini play and snuggle fest.

Adam: I recently ordered Dragonball Z T-shirts, right now I am at work mapping train tracks while drinking sea salt caramel coffee.

Jennifer B: Sleeping in :)

Jennifer L: Sharing a bacon spud and orange cranberry club with my nephew at mccalisters then off to enjoy the warm weather

Erin: I got some good adult things done in the past few days, like taxes (and getting money back!), renewing my drivers license, and applying for Heath care. Yay productivity!

Nick: My mom is making me a home cooked meal tonight. Tutoring kids to get into the Marines. Visiting my little brother. Gonna see some good friends tomorrow 

smile emoticon

Mishy: Two residents told me I was their favourite aide today.

Everett: Rolled down windows on a nice day with Animal Style by Jackal blaring from my speakers.

Dan: Working at the farm today. No burning text books but still a great day to be outside working the land.

Aaron: I had a lot of fun in my Ochem lab last week when a kid sprayed my back with a product we were developing. I smelled the shirt today and it STILL smells like isopentyl acetate. That's right, it smells like banana laffy taffy.

Julie: I got to visit the Japanese Garden at MOBot today (my happy place) with my lovely little family today.

PS - Other joys today included Pieology date with Jack (proud to be on a date with a guy in scrubs, haha) and learning how to use IF function in Excel. Actually I wrote this whole function myself and it worked! 

=IF(AQ298<20,"<20",IF(AQ298<=29,"20s",IF(AQ298<=39,"30s",IF(AQ298<=49,"40s",IF(AQ298<=59,"50s",IF(AQ298<=89,"60s-80s",IF(AQ298<99,"90+",IF(AQ298="Unknown","Unknown",IF(AQ298="20s","20s",IF(AQ298="30s","30s",IF(AQ298="40s","40s",IF(AQ298="50s","50s","double check"))))))))))))

Neil was proud of me.

Oh, and I got to Skype with Mom tonight and she was laughing a lot at Clara and she got this great shot of Ms. Goofball clapping my hands.

3.13.16 - cheap jeans and work progress

Dad finally launched the first CER video and it has gotten tons of positive feedback, making Dad eager to keep producing videos, which is great news for me. First it's great when people like you're work, and second it's great because it ensures I'll have plenty more work where that came from. One investor even said: 

This is one of the most useful things I’ve seen from anyone.  The simplicity is perfect.  The illustrations are … great.  The voice over … excellent.

 

Do more of these … lots more.

3.13.16 - talking about progress

Monica: we have started a tradition of getting lunch together on Wednesdays

Monica: our schedules just work out that way

Monica: we go to a cheap pizza place

Monica: anyway

Monica: last week he met me at the crime lab and we drove over together

Monica: and I was watching him get soda in his scrubs and I just had this moment of excitement and happiness

Monica: because he's really doing it--nursing school, and I have a pretty good internship

Sarah: ☺ that's awesome!

Monica: and even though we're swamped and money is always tight, we are really in a very progressive phase

Monica: I love that

Sarah: yeah indeed!  you are both killing it career wise!

Monica: feels good to feel like you're moving toward something

Monica: yeah :)

Monica: I mean there's always more - I want to be with Clara more and I want to get started on a 2nd kid

Monica: but we're doing everything we can with what we've got, there's some satisfaction in that

Jack in scrubs.

3.9.16 - diced mushrooms and Jack's appreciation

(Specifically Jack had told me how much he appreciates all I do to take care of Clara so that he can focus on nursing school. He had a classmate who was having serious trouble with her kids and had to make up a test, and it made him grateful for how he doesn't have to worry about that type of thing because I'm covering it. It means a lot to me that he notices and remembers that we're a team.)

3.7.16 - Don & Merlene's visit

Sadly I don't have time to write a full note, but I wanted to remember that Don and Merlene's visit was wonderful. They are always so supportive and helpful. They watched Clara pretty much every day, which saved us nannying money and meant I got to see Clara more too, because they could watch her while I worked from home so I was still around.

Merlene cooked tons of delicious meals, of course, and also made a bunch of cupcakes both for Clara's actual birthday and for a few days later when we had a little get together to celebrate.  She and Don also kept everything incredibly clean and bought anything that they noticed we could need or want, such as super long-lasting light bulbs, back up laundry detergent, and a baby walker for Clara. Merlene even kept bringing extra muffins and oatmeal and hot chocolate packets from their hotel every morning.

They also babysat on a Friday night so Jack and I could have a date. We went to see Deadpool (which was very funny) and then got a quick drink after. It was really nice.

Plus there company was great. It was nice having adults around to talk to whenever. It was kind of sad coming home to an empty apartment this evening.

I really appreciate that they make the effort to visit and do so much for us when they're here. They are very generous in-laws.

3.4.16 - Deadpool

...was hilarious. Fun date night with Jack while Don and Merlene watched l'il miss.

3.4.16 - Clara in her crib

Two joys:

The morning, when Clara first wakes up and starts fussing and I walk into her nursery and she is standing at the edge of her crib nearest the door waiting for me to come get her, and then I pick her up and she burrows into my shoulder and acts super cuddly. I love that moment, not least of all because I feel like it's been so long since I held her the night before, haha.

The night, when she drinks from her bottle by herself while I read her bedtime stories, and she gets super relaxed. When I pick her up and she cuddles onto my shoulder (instead of popping her head up and squirming and looking around), I know she' ready to pass out. I take her in the dark nursery, give her a kiss, and lay her down in her crib. For a long time she would stick her arms out straight, push herself into a crawling position and start crying, but the past few weeks she just burrows into the crib mattress and coos and goes to sleep. Love that.

Burrowing.

3.3.16 - Clara's birthday

2.27.16 - Traveling home

Dad plays with Clara before we get ready to go.

Dad drove Clara and me to the airport. I'm glad he did because it's about an hour and a half drive and it gave us a chance to visit one-on-one without much distraction. And he was in a pretty good mood and our conversation was interesting and pleasant and maybe even important. We talked about the problem of evil and politics and some of our family dynamics. I got to tell him some stuff I've wanted to talk about for awhile but just hadn't had the opportunity. It was really nice, actually. Plus he had picked up some Kangaroo Coffee before we got on the highway, which was a good pick me up since I hadn't gotten great sleep last night. Clara slept the entire drive too.

Holding my hand while she sleeps.

The flight home went fine too. Traveling with a baby is still a lot more work than not, but Clara is such a good kid. Chill throughout all of security and waiting at the gate. And even though she didn't end up falling asleep on the plane, it wasn't that hard to keep her busy with bits of different kinds of food, her 100 word book, wrappers, magazines, a bottle of ibuprofen (basically a rattle to her), just any new object really. I also held her while she half stood on the chair arm and peeked at the guy behind us, and it gave me a chance to kind of take a "break." Whenever the seat belt light was off I'd stand with her so she could see more, or I'd walk her up and down the aisle to keep her entertained.

The 100 Word book was especially cute. Recently she's started pointing at the pictures and saying "ba! ba ba ba! ba!" like she's reading the book herself. But today was the first time she grabbed my pointer finger and used it to point at the different pictures. So I'd say the word of whatever picture she pointed at, and that seemed to make her really happy. Figuring things out...

Laughing at her image in the selfie camera.

Mom-daughter airplane selfie.

She fell asleep during landing and stayed asleep until we got to Jack. I love the arrivals section of airports even if no one is waiting for me specifically. You see so many eager smiling faces and so much delight and hugs. It's very sweet. In this case, though, Jack was waiting for us, and he couldn't wait to hold sleeping Clara, which was also sweet.

And it was nice to be home. The weather was great--we drove home with the windows down. It's nice to be in my tiny car again instead of the big Highlander. It's nice to feel like this is home, and the highways are familiar and everything is familiar. And Jack had straightened up the whole apartment before picking us up, which makes the homecoming that much more comfortable. AND he had leftover pizza from a nursing meeting he went to yesterday, bonus.

Back in her own crib.

2.26.16 - Rocket snippets from the trip

2.20.16
Everett: I don't like root beer.
Rocket: Do you know what the best part of root beer is??
Everett: What?
Rocket: The BEER part!

2.23.16
Rocket: Monica, can I tell you something?
Me: Yeah.
Rocket: There's "easy peasy lemon squeezy" and "easy peasy mac and cheesy"!
Me: Hm, I'm trying to think if there's any other ones.
Rocket: No, there's not.
Me: Maybe we could make up some together.
Rocket: No, thanks. They wouldn't be real.

2.24.16
Rocket, who is 5-years-old, upon discovering Fruit Loops in the pantry: "I haven't had these in YEARS!"

Rocket: One time there was SO much snow we could make three or four...or five...or SIX....snow cones.

2.25.16
Overheard at kindergarten: "If you squish someone's heart they'll die." 
Rocket, very casually: "Oh yeah, that's easy to do."

2.26.16

I have a board book for the song "What a Wonderful World," and I often sing it to Clara before bed.

Rocket sits with us and listens in, and he is really bothered by the lyrics "I hear babies cry, I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know." The first few days he said they won't ever know more than us, and I told him there might be new inventions they learn about that we don't know about yet.

Even so, tonight when I was singing that part he just exclaimed, "That is so *weird* that you think that!"

Also, Rocket loves King Bidgood's In the Bathtub. I read it to him and he tells me that the "part is coming" where the court says, twice, "Oh, who knows what to do? Who knows what to do?" And then when I finally read that part he just grins and grins, haha. Dunno why he likes it so much but it's pretty cute. Also, since we read the story so much this trip, as I read it to him he points out details of the pictures he's noticed throughout, like that the King and Queen have little figurines of themselves in the luncheon. It's really enjoyable to read to someone old enough to be so interactive, and makes me look forward to when Clara is that interactive.

2.22.16 - Game Grumps

2.20.16 - Reading to Clara and Rocket

Tonight I was reading to Clara while Rocket was getting ready for bed, and he asked if he could listen to some stories too, so I said "sure." Clara and I were just "reading" her 100 First Words book, which is really just her looking at the pages and pointing, so I just let her keep doing that while Rocket got ready. He asked how many stories I had left to read and I told him at least four and I said I'd wait for him, and he very very quickly changed into his pajamas while he recapped how he has already brushed his teeth and taken his allergy medicine.

Then he crawled into bed with us and sat next to me with his head on my shoulder. Very sweet. Clara was sitting in my lap and resting against my belly. I read them Toot, King Bidgood's in the Bathtub, Blueberry Girl, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and It's a Wonderful World. They both seemed to enjoy it, I certainly did. At the end Rocket went to his room, then came back down the hallway to give me a hug. <3

Later, after I put Clara to bed, Rocket called to me to tell me he might just stay awake all night. I said that was fine as long as he stayed in his bed. Sure enough he was asleep in 15 minutes or less, haha.

Clara "reads" to me.

2.15.16 - Study buddies

I'm grateful for Erin, who makes me laugh a lot and who is helping me get my thesis done by arranging thesis writing sessions for us. We edit each other's work and help each other figure out specific wording and just keep each other company. It's much more pleasant than working on my thesis alone.

2.12.16 - Clara is happy to see me

I absolutely love when the nanny brings Clara home in the evening. I walk out to the car to get her, and as soon as she sees me she starts grinning hugely and babbling excitedly. It's wonderful.

Sister Mary Clara and I skyping with Ja-Ma the other night.

2015 Dates

1. Jan 7 - Into the Woods
2. Jan 12 - Elephant Bar
3. Jan 18 - Selma
4. Jan 26 - Starlite Lounge
5. Feb 2 - American Sniper at the drive in
6. Feb 8 - Elephant Bar
7. Feb 13 - McKinley Park picnic
8. Feb 18 - 3 Fires Lounge
9. Feb 24 - Yogurt Agogo and walk around Capitol Park
10. Feb 28 - Panera BreadCo
11. Mar 1 - Buca di Beppo (trying to fit in more dates before Clara is born)
12. Mar 13 - Osaka Sushi while Mom babysat
13. Mar 22 - Ju Hachi while Don & Merlene babysat
14. April 3 - Elephant Bar while Dad & Jill babsat
15. April 18 - Ju Hachi and Revolution Wine and hotel while Ellen and Bryon babysat
16. May 8 - Wrap & Roll while Julianna babysat
17. May 27 - Woodstock Pizza while Shannon babysat
18. June 3 - Elephant Bar (with Clara in tow, but she slept through a lot of it and was very chill)
19. June 22 - Starbucks and walk around Davis while Shannon babysat
20. July 15 - Jurassic World at Davis theater while Shannon babysat
21. July 27 - Elephant Bar, can't remember what we did with Clara
22. Aug 7 - Fuji Sushi (all you can eat) while Shannon babysat
23. Aug 26 - Sushi Unlimited while Shannon babysat
24. Sept 6 - Inside Out while Mom babysat, and the movie was *amazing*
25. Sept 15 - Froyo and walk around Sac State, Clara slept in the stroller most of the time
26. Sept 19 - Gunther's, again Clara slept through much of it
27. Sept 27 - Ju Hachi while Don & Merlene babysat
28. Sept 29 - Pieology to celebrate Jack doing well on his nursing test, Clara slept through almost all of it, enjoying not-smoldering weather
29. Oct 2 - Burgers & Brew for Jack's birthday, again Clara slept through over half of it
30. Oct 17 - PoPo Garden (Chinese food lunch), Clara slept again, unbelievable
31. Nov 8 - Fuji Sushi and Cream (cookies) while Shannon babysat, enjoying chillier weather
32. Nov 23 - Burgers & Brew, Clara was awake so this one is iffy, but she enjoyed sucking on a pickle
33. Dec 23 - Lewis & Clark's in Old Town St. Charles while Mom babysat