Currently: October 2021

The fall months are ticking by at a rapid pace! I'm trying not to think about what comes next (winter). I love the holiday season but not the weather that comes with this time of year, but maybe we'll luck out and have another mild winter like last year? Fingers crossed! Here is what is currently going on in our world. 

Reading: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason on my kindle and the hard cover Beautiful Country. Sorrow and Bliss has a very wry, witty tone but deals with the heavy topic of mental health. Beautiful Country is a memoir by a Chinese immigrant about her childhood. It's a reminder to be thankful for the many things I often take for granted, like a warm home, never knowing hunger, being treated with kindness, etc. 

Loving: Will's stage. He is so happy and smiley! He adores his brother and has really found his voice over the last month. He refuses to crawl and instead kind of scoots around on his butt. He wants to be standing all the time so will get a little fussy when I set him down on the blanket with toys. 

He's always looking at his brother this way!

Feeling: ready to be done pumping! But I just have one month left! I don't know how I exclusively pumped for Paul. I hate it so much! I was able to stop pumping at 10 months since I had enough milk to get him through 13 months. At most I've pumped 3 times/day and now I'm down to once/day. I'm really limping to the finish line as I'm only pumping about 7 oz/day. I have some milk frozen from this summer when I was producing more than enough so that's covering the gap (he's drinking about 12 oz/day at daycare). But I am going to run out of frozen milk pretty soon. I emailed his doctor and she said to not worry and that 7 oz is enough for those final weeks, especially since he's eating so much food and still nurses in the morning and at bedtime.

Anticipating: celebrating my first holiday with my side of the family since Thanksgiving 2019! Crazy huh? We celebrated Christmas with Phil's mom in 2019 and then Covid hit in 2020. We'll be at the lake with my parents and 2 siblings and their families. Since Thanksgiving is pretty close to Will's birthday, we are doing an early, low-key birthday celebration for him. I think we'll make some cupcakes? Paul is lobbying for cookies because he is a cookie monster but I think cupcakes will make it a little more special/festive.

Struggling: with the usual things... challenging toddler behavior, Paul's adjustment to the big boy bed, getting enough sleep, etc. I try to remind myself this is part of this season of life! New challenges lie ahead, of course, but having young kids is physically exhausting at times! 

Grateful: that I have a strong partner to lean on and laugh about things with. Yes we have our moments where one of us is grumbling (like a bed that came with entirely too many pieces and instructions that were very long) but all in all, we are lucky to have each other.

Working: on setting up my new planner! I've used a bullet journal since 2017 but I've been feeling the urge to go back to using something more structured. One of my favorite bloggers, SHU, has introduced me to all sorts of planners through her blog and planning podcast. I decided to go with the Wonderland222 Weekly planner. It's quite a change from my very basic bullet journal planning, but I think I'm going to love it. I have been putting pressure on myself to know exactly how to use it from the get go - can you tell I'm a perfectionist? Even though it's a 2022 planner, it starts in November 2021 so I am using the first 2 months to figure out how to use it the various pages, like the Overview and Review pages below. There is also a gantt-style habit tracker that I will use for tracking my reading among other things like work outs, days I hit 10k steps, etc. 

Still need to figure out what to do with the boxes to the right

I have one empty box to potentially fill on the bottom left

Listening: to Brandi Carlile's new album! She is SO TALENTED! I have been a huge fan for the longest time. She has become such a popular artist - she's won multiple Grammys and was on Saturday Night Live last weekend! I did not stay up to watch it but enjoyed watching her set the next day on Youtube. 

Watching: the new season of the Great British Baking Show. I adore this show so much! New shows release on Netflix every Friday. If you need something happy and uplifting, I highly recommend this show. It's a competition but everyone is so positive and encouraging. 

Wishing: for mild winter weather in the months ahead! I don't mind the snow, especially now that Paul loves to sled! I'm just hoping to avoid the super cold sub-zero temps for as long as possible!

Bonus Paul and Will Photos:

Playing with one of the trucks my parents got Will in their Halloween package. I keep reminding him the trucks are Will's (he takes toys away from Will all the time!)

He loves walking around the house in our shoes.

This is Will's favorite toy these days. He always has a quill in his mouth!

Have a Happy Halloween weekend! I'm taking the boys trick or treating with a neighbor and her kids and Phil will stay home and answer the door. I'm guessing we will only make it to the houses on our block, which will yield more than enough candy for our little guy! Last year he would only eat m&ms. We'll see what he'll eat this year. There will certainly be a hefty dad tax. ;) 

What are you doing for Halloween? What are you anticipating, struggling with, and grateful for?