disneyland!

For our anniversary this year and because I BEGGED, Matt and I got annual passes to Disneyland. Walking around the magic kingdom with my child is so fantastic. She points at all the exciting things, laughs at the fun rides, smiles big when she sees characters...

SIKE. Her favorite things to do include pulling tissue paper out of tissue boxes and closing doors. Toddlers are simple people. The complexity of a magic kingdom is wasted on them. But that won't stop me from trying! Admission is free until she's three so we're gonna milk it for all it's worth. As you can see from this video, I am not lying about her meh.

We made a Disneyland decor related purchase which was part of the big photo re-shuffling of 2015. More to come when I'm not super distracted by my new laptop (current laptop is dying). 

yeah it's the weekend!

We survived another few stage jobs and we have a possible job coming up week after next which means next week I get to hang with this perfection in child form.

Also happening next week is that Matthew and I will be celebrating the 8th anniversary of the founding of FredrichCorp, the nation's leading marriage between an Evelyn and Matthew. What can I say about being married to Matt for 8 years? I'll tell you on the 22nd after some overly verbose musing on marriage, my husband, being parents, and a photo of our wedding day. I have a system, I aim not to deviate from it.

God willing there are a few things in the works that have put me in a ridiculously good mood. Tonight Matt has a Monsterpalooza. Saturday we have a pool date with a friend and her baby, then the LA County Fair, then a goodbye party for a friend's son who's off to the Navy. Sunday we have church and a small group. Monday we are heading down to drop our nougat off with her grandma to spend our first night baby-free at... DISNEYLAND. The following day, our anniversary, we'll be spending the day in Walt's Kingdom and dining at Carthay hopefully. Then Friday we're spending the weekend at a condo in Newport Beach.

Like I said. GOOD MOOD. LIFE IS GOOD. REAL GOOD!

if alice was starting her first day of school this week: part V

This was fun. I wanna do it again. How about Christmas outfits? 

Did you notice I put something cat related in each board? Cats are hot right now.

if alice was starting her first day of school this week: part IV

These boards are fun because I can pretend that I would buy Alice something from J. Crew. 

A $59 backpack for my kid. Ha ha ha, get real J. Crew. Get real.

I couldn't decide which iridescent sneaker I liked more but either would work.

if alice was starting her first day of school this week: part III

I literally could make about 14 of these and not get tired of it.

Hey, help me win an argument, Alice needs a pair of dress shoes for church and such right? Matt thinks she should just be in sneakers all the time.

if alice was starting her first day of school this week: part II

I thought about how if I was going to dress a girl I would pretty much dress her in things I would wear and this outfit other than the puffy vest, is pretty on point. 

If you didn't know it was toddler versions, you'd think it was just a regular outfit. Right?

if alice was starting her first day of school this week

Holy crap the little girl clothes nowadays are so cute. They are actually catering to modern moms like me with simple styles, great colors, and just the right amount of kitsch. So if my kid was starting school this week, some of these items might find themselves in her closet.

I enjoyed doing this so much I might make another board. And then another. It will help prevent me from actually buying these things.

However.

That cat backpack? Don't care how, I want it now! (-Veruca Salt)

friday night fun at the farm: s'mores and cocktails

This summer we hosted people over our house three times on a Friday night. It was mostly the same setup where we'd set up the couch with an umbrella to shield us from the setting sun

I'd put a cute tablecloth on the outdoor table and make the place generally appealing.

For the first night we did s'mores and cocktails. I made montauk mules and some summer ale concoction.

Due to lack of grill, I blowtorched the marshmallows. It was very effective.

We had my family and some church friends over.

I'd also made chocolate ice cream and put some coffee in it and topped it with whipped cream for a little bonus. It was pretty tasty.

Alice was still not walking much so we just put her in the playpen and let her chill and she was pretty content. She would hate it now, what a difference a few months makes.

Lookit my little niece Jarah. She's all, what you talkin' bout dad.

The good thing about these gatherings is that since we're home I can put her to bed and keep hanging out and just keep an eye on her with the monitor. We've gotten used to hosting at home for her sake and it works out.

So that was the First Friday Night Fun at the Fredrich Family Farm of the Summer.

a few firsts

Over the holiday weekend (and I don't know if I've mentioned how important they are but to a working mother, forget it, three days is just the right amount of weekend, two days is really not long enough) I got to spend some time with my #1 and got to experience some interesting firsts. 

I had to go into the office on Friday for a few hours so she went with me and in order to entertain her I handed her an unzipped bag of cables to play with. I think she sat quietly for about 5-7 minutes taking them out and putting them back in. It was the longest I've ever seen her sit quietly at an activity other than sleeping as she has indeed inherited my attention span. 

She's also getting really close to getting the fact that "mamamama" is me. It's pretty exciting to hear that she does like me and notices when I leave and return from a room or into our house. She does still want me around even though she can live apart from me!

I witnessed my first tantrum this weekend. I took something away from her and she was not happy about it. She bent forward, put her little hands on the ground, smacking it, and cried. I saw a few more all related to us taking things away from her that she really shouldn't be playing with. We also spent a lot of time re-arranging our living room so we could avoid future arguments but still there were definite expressions over her belief that she needed to chew on that pencil and I didn't see it that way. I don't even know what to do about them yet. The first time I saw it I was in a rush to get us out so I just ignored her, made note of the move, and then gave her a plush toy and put her in her car seat and her tantrum was over. But I could see that she is very much... a toddler. She communicates. She whines. She points. She laughs big belly laughs. She bounces around like crazy.

She also got her first cold. Runny nose. Hoarse. That's about it. She was otherwise her awesome self and full of energy and fun. Too much energy. Twice this weekend when it was bedtime she fell asleep on her bottle and then fell asleep on me and I sat there holding her as long as I could and loving it. But the cold was interesting. I was worried she wouldn't be able to sleep and then texted my mom friends to see what they did. She got vapo rub, humidifier, extra cuddles. They seemed to work because the runny nose is way down. Oh let's talk about toddlers hating to have their noses drained by a totally cool and useful nose sucking device. It's for your own good! Look at her here though, winding herself up before bedtime, bouncing all over the couch. No wonder she knocked out.

I know this toddler part is the hardest phase. What book do I need to read? I like reading books and then taking the good parts and then catering it to my abalone. I'm reading 'bringing up bebe' which is good so far but any others?

We're gonna make it through toddler-hood Alice, we are. Let's hang in there together.

how we do the childcare thing

Been in the mood to talk about motherhood and kid business as a sort of state of the union type thing. So here's the state of our union aka Fredrich Corp. 

I was home with Alice for four months after which I went back to work full-time as a freelance production coordinator. My work was mostly steady with a few days and some weeks off here and there. While I went to work, Matt was home with Alice and has remained her primary caregiver since. Which is really strange to write because for 9 months of gestation and 9 months after that I was her primary source of comfort and food. Now daddy makes the bottles.

When I'm home for extended stays Matt takes freelance work but by and large we're depending on my income. I'm very blessed to have a job that supports us and allows one of us to be home with her. Sometimes I wish it were me that was taking her on weekly outings but I'm happy that she gets one of us at least and I get to be the example of working woman in her life.

On weekends I take the reins of taking care of Alice and sometimes Matt gets a break and we go on outings just the two of us and sometimes we meet up with the family.

The parts that get tricky are the breaks. I work all day, then rush home and spend as many seconds as I can with her before she goes to sleep. Then on weekends I spend all day with her, trying to get my fill so I can survive the week apart. But that means that when I'm working, I don't really get a break. I'm on for the whole time. On the weekends though Matt doesn't get a break much either, while I'm doing a lot of the heavy lifting, he's still there helping.

It's not that we need a break from our baby but babydom is pretty mind-numbing and you need to recharge your brain and your energy so you can keep going and give that baby your best. And in the end that's what we want more than anything is to give her the best we can. The best of each of us.

We're still figuring it out, it's very much a work in progress. What it means to be a working mother, a stay at home father. What it means to put a little person first.