Fall, Already?

This past Saturday, it was unseasonably "cold" at 71 degrees.  We opened all the doors and windows and welcomed the fresh air.  Funny thing is, we haven't had to shut them since then.  The air conditioner on the main floor has been off for almost a week.  Our upstairs is still on only because a) our bedroom gets pretty warm and b) you need pliers to turn it off.  The knobs on the air conditioner broke off. 

We've had hot drinks (chai and cocoa) a lot more than usual.  We had an amazing chicken tamale bake early in the week.  And I'm seriously considering making a pot roast before the week is out.  I think that fall might be heading our way a little earlier than usual.  Given that the winter was so warm, I'm not really surprised.

The change in weather reminds me that Miss F's first summer is almost over.  Miss F is eight weeks today, and things are still dynamic between us.  For a while, it seemed we had things figured out.  Then, around 6 weeks, she started getting fussy at night.  During the day, though, she's fairly happy.  I don't know if I'd call it colic, but it definitely isn't fun.  But she continues to grow and change.

Last Saturday, as the weather changed, we decided to change our living arrangements.  One of the reasons we had Miss F in our room, aside from convenience and safety, was because her room was rather warm, even at night.  She went into the nursery Saturday night and hasn't had to come back to our room since. 

We even got a bedtime routine down.  She gets changed, but in a sleeper, nurses, and I put her to bed with a lullaby CD.  She doesn't seem to need the pacifier to sleep that way.  We can't swaddle her because she doesn't like it, but we tuck her blanket into the sides of the crib so that her arms are free and her feet can kick.  She seems to be happy with that.

Ever since she went into her own room, she's been sleeping until 5-5:30 am.  That works out perfectly since *B* gets up for work at 4:45 and leaves by 5:15.  I'm actually starting to wonder if she wakes up because he does.  We'll find out one way or another this weekend.  But even at 5 am, I'm getting about SEVEN hours of sleep, which is wonderful.  That's what I would have gotten by going to work anyway!  I've heard of something called the four month wakeful period, so I'm not counting on getting this much sleep forever, but I'm definitely taking advantage of it now.

When I Get Around to It

Over the past three years or so, there has been a growing list of things I wanted and needed to do. We still haven't bought a heater or molding from our mold incident to fix our room. Our wedding quilt lay folded for a little over a year on my dresser. Because of body image issues, I just about refused to look at, organize, and hang my wedding photos. There are nicks in the paint in each room that I wanted to fix, but that means I'd have to cut a sample of paint from the wall and get the paint matched. The faucet in the downstairs bathroom is leaking and needs to be replaced - it took only one night to fill up the sink  I need to sort through my clothing and start a summer/winter rotation.  Since my dad is moving out of the home I grew up in, I had to clean out my old bedroom. All of these things, and many more, nag at me, but I never seem to have the time to fix them.

I'm making it my goal to knock out a big chunk of my to do list this year. *B* has been instrumental in this task. While he was home on paternity leave, he pulled out our wedding photos. While they're not as great as I would have liked, they're all I have. So I'm in the process of framing them and putting them into albums. The other night, we hung our quilt.

 

Last week, my younger brother helped me move all of my belongings out of my dad's house. I sorted through five or six totes full of tchotchkies, keepsakes, and memories from my high school days.  I put everything into piles: keep, toss, and donate.  I whittled a mass of belongings down to a select pile of things to keep.  I was able to donate a huge box of old belongings.

I'm happy to finally start chipping away at this massive list and feel productive in this year "off".

Family Home Evening

As you may or may not remember, *B* and I wanted to try family home evening a while back. We picked a night, but more often than not, it would be like every other night. We don't really have TV, just Netflix, so we tended to spend a lot of time together. We stopped being purposeful about having that night together, but our relationship didn't suffer.

Now that Miss F has come along, we find ourselves spending much less quality time together. Many days I hand her off to him and work on house work I couldn't get done with her, or space out if it's been a rough day.

The one exception has been Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, we walk to the local library, then to the farmers' market. It's a nice time, but the farmers' market isn't open year round, and at some point it'll be too cold to walk. To complicate things, I plan on going back to my part time job in a couple of weeks, and *B* starts school again soon. So one evening a week is really going to be the most we get together.

My mom took Miss F for the night on Friday, and *B* and I got to have that quality time once again.  It was amazingly refreshing.  It really helped us solidify the fact that we need to be purposeful in our time together.  While Miss F is too young for family board games, we can try to come up with things that the three of us can do together.  For a little while during *B*'s paternity leave, I would listen to him read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to Miss F.  That might be our FHE until we can come up with a new plan for FHE with a wee one.

What did you do for FHE when the kids were little?

Lost Diapers Found!

All it took was telling people, and *B* cleaning while I was out. We have a strange system for doing laundry, but it works for us. We throw it down the basement steps. For the last two weeks or so, I've noticed a tied grocery bag at the bottom of the steps. I figured it was something of *B*'s, and decided to deal with it later. Turns out there were not two but three diapers in there! One of them is a double color of one we have, so I didn't notice it. Now to find those flip flops...

Losing My Mind, Among Other Things

There is something fishy going on around my house. In some small corner, there must be a vortex sucking up our belongings. In the past two weeks, I've lost two (two!) cloth diapers, my flip flops (very important) and a gift card for the salon. I was especially upset about the gift card because I noticed its absence hours before my appointment. I'm thankful that the salon keeps electronic records and was able to still let me use it.

The diapers are driving me crazy. One is orange and the other, brown. They were in the picture from my cloth diaper post, which was taken three weeks ago. So sometime since July 15th, they sprouted legs. I've torn apart every room on my house, and I can't find any of these things. If you happen to see them, let me know :o)