Updates from the field

It's a rare morning where I'm awake and have baby-free time to myself.  Part of me doesn't know what to do with this time.  Of course, the list of chores that are piling up is always running through my mind, but most of those are too loud or involve tasks near the bedroom and I don't want to risk waking him.  Other things I'd love to do involve updating my CV, but my computer still isn't hooked up.

Ahhh, the labor of moving when there are babies in the family....

Instead, I'm downstairs, staring out the window as the sun is rising over the world, igniting it with a golden glow and breathing.

We've been having some tougher times lately -- and I shouldn't complain at all because Linus is still a really easy kid!  Linus started crawling fairly recently, and, since then, has mastered it so that he follows me everywhere, but gets frustrated because he can't keep up.  This never used to be a problem when he would just sit happily and play while I did a few things around the house, but now that he's mobile, he wants to be part of the action at all times.  He also had some rough sleep patches, especially over the weekend when my father-in-law was visiting.  I think it was the whole, "Why is this man constantly in my house?" mentality, but Linus decided it'd be fun not to really nap, then he'd wake up a gazillion times in the middle of the night, and he wouldn't eat normal meals, so he was very cranky.  Last Saturday, I looked at the clock nearly every hour during the night because he kept waking me up.

Now that Ron is gone, Linus is getting back into his normal habits -- eating me out of house and home (seriously, this kid can pack it away!), taking about 3 naps a day, and being pretty easy-going.

Night time has been the hardest, especially when I have to do things like make the bed and put stuff away around 6 or 7 pm.  That is, apparently, unacceptable and results in loud, horrific crying.  This is most unfortunate when my husband is stuck at work late, or goes to play frisbee after work and doesn't come home until really late so I don't have a second parent to help me get things done around the house.

For the most part, though, Linus is a really easy-going kid.  He can play by himself for long periods of time, and he's really hilarious.  He's easy to take shopping because he smiles and talks to all of the other customers in the check-out line.  He's definitely learned how to get attention in a positive way.

Definitely, being a stay-at-home-mom is tough in certain ways.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love playing with Linus and watching him learn new skills every single day, but it's tough not having adult, intellectual interaction.

In an ideal world, I'll stay home through the end of the summer with him.  He turns 1 in May, and he'll be cheaper at daycare after that.  Then, I'd like to do a few things over the summer -- take a nice long trip to MN to visit family and friends, and hit my friend's wedding in Michigan in June.  So, I'm semi-keeping my eyes peeled for a good opportunity for myself that doesn't involve a horrific commute.

On a side note and unrelated, one of my favorite things to do is to put the monitor in Linus's room and just watch him play.  He's so adorable and funny and can create quite the whirlwind of mess in just a few minutes!

Today in Linus history

It's Saturday, so we packed Linus up in the car and headed to Livermore where J's step-dad's niece lives. Lisa and her husband Joe have a delightful 2 1/2 year old named Sadie.  We went out for lunch and Linus got to munch on his first pickle. I thought he'd be grossed out by the taste, but he loved it and the texture was perfect for his teething gums. Later, we got back to Lisa's house and Sadie showed us her trampoline. So Linus got to bounce on the trampoline. He had an altogether amazing afternoon.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2015! Unlike last year when I was pregnant and exhausted, we made it to midnight this year. It was a relaxing evening of deep dish pizza, playing with Linus, snuggling on the couch, and watching tv. That's apparently my kind of fun these days.

I haven't done any resolutions the last couple years because I haven't thought of too many things I've been willing to commit to change, but a couple of things have sparked my interest this year that I'd like to try my hand at.

In 2015, I resolve to:

• Not waste so much food!

I'm a horrible food-waster. I don't eat leftovers. I buy produce only to forget about it and pull it out of my fridge months later saying, "What was this?"  I'm going to start eating what I buy, eating leftovers, and cooking creatively with ingredients I have. This is part of my grand scheme of saving money since we just moved to one of the most expensive places to live in the US.

• Do some yoga .

I made this resolution today. My back is killing me because I'm constantly bending over to play with Linus, help him walk, or pick him up. It's like it's slowly starting to arch the wrong way. Not only that, but my "bad" knee has been really bothering me because I sit cross-legged on the floor all the time. It is yucky. I think yoga and some strength-training will help.

• Put my cell phone down more and just be.

It makes me sad that my son would rather play with my phone than with any of his toys. So it's time for me to stop internetting and text messaging so much. The phone can stay on the counter while Linus is awake.

• Blog more.

When I was younger, I journaled a lot.  I had paper journals, online journals, and I'd write long and rambling emails about my thoughts and emotions to my friends.  The last couple of times that I'ev tried to start online blogs, I haven't done a great job keeping up on them, but 2015 is going to be the year.  I'm not talking a post a day or anything, but maybe once a week or so, even if it's  just to post a picture of Linus and talk about what we did at the store.  I don't really have the crazy emotions of an 18 year-old girl anymore, so it's not going to be deep stuff here, but some thoughts on parenting, womanhood, or silly stories are to be expected.