The Makings of a Perfect Nap

Update

I haven't written a blog post in two weeks. What's gotten into me? Hopefully this will tide everyone over until I have the time and brain power to write a real post.

• We've been painting. Maybe one day there will be pictures.
• I only work part-time now. It is glorious.
• I've rediscovered my love of cooking. Also glorious.
• Having a washer and dryer in my home makes me far more likely to do the laundry in a timely manner, or to do it at all for that matter. (Eric had been the primary doer of laundry at our last place.)
• I'm ready for my Facebook fast to be over. There are people I want to catch up with and babies I want to see photos of.
  
• I've decided we're going to skip the Easter Bunny in our house. Santa Clause, I think, can be a reasonable player in the religious aspect of the Christmas scene. The Easter Bunny cannot. (But maybe he can in your house, and that's just fine! You can have him and enjoy him!)
  
• The thought of introducing solids in about two months, and thus gradually weaning my child, makes me very sad.
• We did/do the cry-it-out method for sleeping. You might think that makes me a monster. I do not care.
• This is the latest spring I have experienced in Utah. It might mean we'll have a cooler summer, and if that's the case, it's worth it. Otherwise, I want some warm and consistently sunny weather now, please.
• I lent a whole bunch of maternity clothes to Megan. (You may recall that I borrowed her maternity clothes last fall.) I felt like I'd been officially inducted into the Mom World when I went through the box of clothes with her to see what items she'd be interested in.
  

Four Months

At four months, Ike enjoys tummy time. He loves his hands, and he now understands that they are his very own hands. On Saturday he grabbed a toy that dangles from his carseat handle and pulled it to his mouth. He also purposefully grabbed my hair on Saturday; it's the happiest I've ever been upon having my hair pulled.

He giggles occasionally and smiles a ton. Like I reported last month, he loves tummy time, and he loves to stand with our assistance. When he lies on his back, he kicks his legs and flails his arms in a very excited and adorable way.

Everyone at work adores him, but they are now seeing less of him as I'm working from home about three days per week. He's finally hit a point where he just doesn't nap well under my desk, so on the days that I do go in to work, I'll be leaving him with somebody else.

When Ike wakes up and I go get him from a nap, he has the happiest expression. It makes me glad that he's decided to wake up. He naps really well at home, but his nighttime sleep is not really anything to shout about from the rooftops. He still sleeps like a newborn; that is, most of the time he is only awake for about an hour before he's sleepy and ready to be swaddled and put down. I'm loving this time of high productivity, and I know I'm in for a rude awakening when he stays awake for longer periods of time.

Some time in the last month I gave up on my dairy-free lifestyle. Ike commenced spitting up more than usual, and I commenced cleaning it up more happily because I was finally not starving anymore.

I take lots of pictures of Ike on my cell phone and then send them to Eric. When he is having a rough day he'll send me a text specifically stating that he needs a picture of Ike to cheer him up.

Backseat

Blogging has really taken a backseat in my life lately. It's not that I don't have things to say. There are certainly things I've been thinking about and would like to write about, I just haven't had the time. (Cliche, I know.) What could possibly be more important than keeping my blog current?

• We closed on our house on Friday.
• We're packing all our belongings into boxes and moving for the twelfth time in less than six years. For those of you who are not really great at math, that averages to more than two moves every year.
• I work full time.
• Plus I have an infant.
• Plus Eric and I are watching all the past seasons of "30 Rock" on NetFlix. (Priorities, people.)

In addition to those things there have been family events, excessive basketball watching, (I guess you could say I've been Jimmered. Har.), enjoying the nice weather when it's been nice, sorting through things so we don't take junk to our new house, hanging out with friends, and fretting about paint colors (These are easily the scariest decisions I've ever made. Somebody should just tell me what to do. Even better, I should just hand over my credit card to somebody who will go to the paint store and come back and THEN tell me what to do).

I'll tell you what I haven't been doing: wasting time on Facebook, that's what.

Proud

Because we've kept this plant alive since June.

Lent

I've never celebrated Lent before. (I'm not even sure if "celebrate" is the right word.) As a Mormon, it is not part of my religious experience. I was taught (falsely, I now know) that the purpose of Lent was to help Christian observers begin to understand the period of 40 days in which Jesus fasted. I've always thought that was almost sacrilegious - as if giving up something that we shouldn't be doing/having anyway could really help us fathom any of Christ's suffering. I recently read the Wikipedia article about Lent, and it says that Lent is for preparation of Easter, through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial.

In some ways, I can really see the point. By giving of ourselves, we can draw closer to the Lord. Mormons certainly believe this, we are encouraged to fast at least once per month. I guess the problem I always had was that most people I knew were giving up something that they really shouldn't have anyway, usually in the form of a food - chocolate, coffee, alcohol, etc. Sure, this would be challenging for them, but how would it help them prepare for Easter? How would it strengthen their relationship with Jesus? But in reality, it's not my job to point out whose Lent sacrifices are worthwhile and whose aren't. Lent is a fairly personal thing when it all boils down to it.

About a week ago I decided that I needed to take a break from Facebook. It is a massive time suck for me. I go there when I have nothing to do. Then I get there and think, "Wow, I do not care about what most of these people are doing." Or else I think, "I wish somebody cool had something worthwhile to say." There are a handful of people that regularly say interesting things or share interesting links or who put up pictures I want to see, but on the whole I was finding that I was spending a lot of time on Facebook and leaving its pages very unsatisfied. So I've given it up for Lent.

Only, it's not really for Lent because it is entirely for personal reasons rather than religious. I don't expect that I will draw closer to my Savior through this sacrifice. (Unless I decided to spend all my ordinary Facebook time in service, scripture study and prayer, which, to be honest, is not really my plan.) The period of Lent just happens to coincide with a time when I need to be stepping away from pointless time-wasting things and focusing on more important things.

Plus, they say it takes about 30 days to break a habit (or is it 30 days to start a habit?). I figure that 40 days ought to be enough for me to stop habitually going to Facebook every time I'm bored.

Hopefully in the mean time I will finally write down the insightful blog posts that have been in my head for weeks. Maybe I'll get going on packing so that our upcoming move isn't 100% drudgery. I'll try to finally type up the notes I took last year on my great-grandfather's book. I'll cook more. I'll read more. All in all, I'll do things that actually matter.