sleep baby sleep

Thank Jesus that Alice has been a good nighttime sleeper from early on. I've mentioned before I didn't really try to get her on a schedule and she sort of naturally fell into one that evolved and improved by and large. And while she has been a great nighttime sleeper, she has always been resistant to napping and we've rounded a corner even with that. So let me tell you about her daily sleep habits because well, it's kind of a big deal. 

She wakes up most of the time around 8-9am very quietly. I only know she's awake because I hear her seahorse going off. She loves that seahorse. She wakes up and plays in her crib with her plushes for a few minutes before she starts making noises and starting to demand attention. It's not uncommon to hear the seahorse and wait for things to escalate and find myself waiting over 20 minutes. When she's ready and she's grunting then I'll go in there and get her and change her and give her the morning bottle. If I go in there before she's escalated in noise level, I'll reach out for her and she will refuse to come to me. It's like she needs her quiet time in the morning alone before she's ready for people. The bad thing about this is that I have to leave for work around 8/8:30 and if she's not up then I won't get to see her until I get home from work. But... it is nice that she sleeps in for her daddy and me on the weekends.

She naps twice a day for 1.5-2 hours. Naps were a legitimate nightmare around here but we stopped giving in to her and she got the message. We would rock her forever and then put her down and she'd start crying and whining and nothing was wrong. Eventually we just let her cry and it never got insane, she'd fall asleep when she was ready. It sucked though, I hated the feeling of please stay asleep please stay asleep as I was laying her in her crib and then her waking up and crying. Who wants to hear their baby crying? Nobody. In the past few months, when it's naptime we go in there, change her, give her the paci, turn on the white noise, and hold her a little bit then put her in her crib while she's still awake only now, she will just lay there quietly without whining and will get herself to sleep. Miracles happen ladies and gents. For a long time she would cry and whine even for a few seconds before she'd fall asleep and now she just stays there quietly, no complaining. I thought these days would never come but they finally did. I would hear stories of 'oh i put him down and he just goes to bed' and think well, that'll never happen to us. And it does now! Hurrah!

Naptime gets trickier when we're out. We try to time things so she's in the car seat during peak naptimes and sometimes she'll sleep. She's also gotten used to napping in the stroller but she's not now nor ever will be that kid that knocks out and just sleeps. She fights it as much as she can and when she's in her room with lights off in a crib, she is just out of options so she sleeps. In a stroller while at a park or wherever is just too many excuses to play or smile or manipulate people into entertaining her enough to stay awake.

I'm sure we're going to be dropping a naptime at some point but right now she needs them both. The early one's signs are so obvious now but the afternoon ones are a crapshoot. Sometimes she'll start at 4 and sleep 'til 6 and be good to go for bedtime but sometimes she fights it til 5 and sleeps so long we have to wake her so she'll sleep at night.

We put her to bed around 8 or 9 which is a little late and she definitely shows signs that she needs to be in bed closer to 8 but I get home by 7 on good days and I want to be able to see my baby at least once during a day so I keep her up. This is probably why she sleeps until 8/9 and I have to leave before she's up but at least I get a few hours with her in the evening instead of just minutes in the morning.

They say to make your baby's schedule work for your lifestyle and that's what works for us and know what? Everyone is happy. Alice is a perfect wonderful little human and we're happy.

Happy. Happy. Happy.

blogs, grams, pins, and mags

I just had a particularly disappointing read of the Summer '15 issue of Domino Magazine. To be fair, I didn't so much read as I did skim for images that interested me and then would read if the images interested me enough. Unfortunately I wasn't that into anything I saw and then googled "Domino Magazine Sucks" and found a forum of people talking about how weak the new iteration (not the pictured excellent issue with Jenna Lyons's old Brooklyn joint) of the magazine was. Maybe I'm not their main market which seems to be women that live in New York and like to paint my walls white and hang up expensive art.

This made me have a little think on my current magazine subscriptions, how I rarely read blogs anymore, the increased influence of instagram, and PINTEREST.

Blogs are weird now. There's advertising on them in a way that is really bothersome. I don't mind the sidebars with ads on them and I don't usually mind sponsored posts when they tell me up front that it's a sponsored post. Lately though... the people sponsoring are corporate garbage like Coffee Mate creamer. On a decorating blog. UGH. Don't pee on my shoe and tell me it's raining. I get if you collaborate with Target and West Elm and are selling me some cheap benches. Sometimes free stuff provided some solid content if it was styled well. But if I want to see a commercial for effing creamer and lightbulbs I would I dunno, WATCH TV. I just feel like these bloggers should use a little more restraint and not do anything for a buck and collaborate with people that match their site, right? It's a business I get it, you gotta support your family and such with advertisers but: discretion please. Anyway, I've been feeling a little uninspired by blogs lately and find myself reading very few of them nowadays whereas back in the day I would read a bunch daily.

The main reason for that is that I'm finding Instagram to be lazily convenient. I can scroll, scroll, scroll and look at pretty images and if one strikes my fancy, then I go read on the blog more about it. I like the ones that are for reals decorators who post photos of their projects and portfolio, it's just pretty images and a nice jolt of inspiration while I'm sitting on the toilet. And don't act like you don't do it! We all do it!

Of course, Pinterest has been convenient like that for a long time but again, it's gotten pretty advertise-y. So has Instagram actually, no place is safe. I've been mostly using it to make wishlists and ideas of things I like or want to buy. It is really important however that whatever image I pin has to be able to be linked back to some solid blog entries so blogs are still important in generating good content. Pinterest is great, I love it. You can see all the bloggers at once too, what they're into and what they're doing in a BLAM image.

Nothing compares to magazines though. That is still the best content. They have professionals working with more professionals, not amateurs no matter how good they get, professionals are just that. I'm down to Sunset Magazine (forever and ever), Better Homes & Gardens, and Martha Stewart. I still get physical copies of Sunset and BHG but I read most of everything on the iPad. It's great. Why wouldn't I pay money to people that know what they're doing so I can see well photographed and well-written articles? Yes, please.

Anyhow... that's my two cents for free. No refunds.

you want projects i got projects

We've recently re-evaulated our home living plan and Matt and I are so happy in our home that while originally I entertained the notion of this being our house that we were in for 10 years and then trying to move, now I have no desire to move on up to the slightly fancier neighborhood because I'd rather spend the money fixing up the house we're in. We're sitting on a bunch of potential projects which is fantastic because then I'll never be bored. I'm convinced the front and backyards will never be quite finished so just add them to the constantly evolving pile but aside from them I want to eventually re-model the guest bath, the master bath, master closet, kitchen, living room, and then when all that is done and the day comes when our lovely tenants want to move (we love you, stay as long as you want) and we can afford to not have renters I will have my own little mini house to remodel which is pretty much a longtime fantasy of mine. Many little rooms to fix up! 

I came across this image and it seems so perfect for that area with that minimal hipster look that I'm into right now (rustic, industrial, whatever, it's all hipster to me). 

This is still my favorite two images for the kitchen remodel because I think it's so small, it could use some color in there. Plus the layout is for a small kitchen and it would indeed be small. Just imagine having my own little mini kitchen guest house for when I'm working in there. I can boil my own cup of tea and have snacks and invite ladies over for tea time in my little house.

I love this slim fridge too and all the color but I'd probably keep the walls neutral. 

Of course after the guest house is done and I'm out of projects, I can always buy a vintage camper and fix it up. I'm good for projects people, I'll be entertained for awhile.