Caught on film!
I’ve been playing around with Photoshop actions. These are from the CoffeeShop blog. I’d really like to learn how to do this on my own so that I have more control over the finished product. I have serious perfectionist tendencies. I don’t think I’ll ever love my photos as much as I love other people’s. But, dissatisfaction often leads to growth, so I’m not in a big hurry to be content with my work.
I may not be satisfied, but I am tired. This will have to do.
Yesterday Zane had his 18 month check-up. It’s hard to believe he’s already a year and a half old. He’s recently had a language explosion, with new words popping up everyday. While I love to check off those milestones, it also makes me sad because there’s no turning back. I can’t ever hold a brand-new baby Zane again.
Nevertheless, Zane is a healthy, happy little guy. He weighs 25.5 lbs and he’s 33.5 inches tall (66th and 80th percentile, respecitively). During this appointment I was asked to fill out a survey regarding his development. Thankfully, Zane is developing typically.
Lillia came along and was, for the most part, quite helpful (though, as you can see in this photo, she wasn’t pleased about having to wait for the doctor to arrive). When it was time for Zane to have his vaccinations, she asked to leave the room. She is a sensitive soul.
I haven’t blogged in ages, and I apologize. A couple of weeks ago I started my last undergraduate course, and I have been spending all of my free time reading for my independent study — Women in Culture & Society in Medieval Scandinavia.
I just wanted to share this amusing little anecdote. As I mentioned, I am working on turning our closet into an office for myself. But, of course, anything that mommy has, Lillia has to have, too. So, I made her a cloffice!
Her closet was easy to transform because it has just one shelf, and we already had the desk. Now she has somewhere to do her schoolwork and play WolfQuest in privacy (a.k.a. without her little brother).
Right now Lillia is working on finding her place in the world, drawing prolifically, enjoying The Lord of the Rings, and pining for winter snow.
From “The Land of Nod” by Robert Louis Stevenson:
From Breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do–
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.
“Learning to fall asleep.” I know that’s a weird title for this post, but it’s not about me. It’s about my daughter, Lillia. She’s nine years old and, up until a few days ago, she couldn’t put herself to sleep. Every night I would lay down with her until she fell asleep. As a mama that didn’t really bother me. I love to snuggle with my kids.
Lillia listening to an audiobook of The Hobbit.
However, lately I noticed that it was taking longer and longer for her to fall asleep, and by the time I got out of her bed it was almost 10 o’clock. And, then I still had to put the baby to bed! Between homeschooling and full-time mothering, I don’t get much time to myself. Okay, I get no time to myself. But, neither does my poor husband, who works full-time and then fathers full-time when he gets home. I know it’s hard for him, and with Lillia taking so long to fall asleep it was pushing his “alone time” out. He was staying up later than he wanted to during the week, and then he was tired in the morning.
I knew that Lillia would have to learn to fall asleep…by herself. And, you know what? It’s working! For the past four nights she has fallen asleep by herself. The first three nights were really hard, but we have come to a compromise where I read to her (which I always do anyway) and then I stay in her bed with her for 10 minutes. I scratch her back, get her settled, but then I leave before she falls asleep. Now she is in bed by 9:00, which allows Damian to have down time (a.k.a. sanity) without having to stay up until midnight.
Small victories.