Letters to Sylvie: 6 Months

Dear Sylvie,

I can't believe my once tiny baby is 6 months old. 6 months! You're not so tiny anymore! The little snugly baby that once curled up in a tight ball on my chest now almost fills up the rocking chair and can't hold still for a second!

When I feed you you kick and kick your feet and turn your head at even a hint of sound. I'm surprised you manage to eat enough to continue increasing the size of your adorable chubby cheeks. Nursing you during the day is becoming more and more of a challenge just because you are so curious and have to be moving all the time. I have to constantly remind your dad that his singing, while angelic and entertaining, impedes your much needed concentration.

Speaking of eating, this month you had your first taste of fruit & vegetables. After trying the rice cereal a couple times, we figured it just wasn't your thing. So far you've tried carrots, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Carrots are definitely your favorite. You weren't sure about them the first couple times you tried them out, but once you got used to them, you couldn't stop eating! You got mad at me when I didn't feed you fast enough or paused momentarily to wipe off your orange goo covered face. You haven't quite got the swallowing thing down which makes the process quite messy, but you're getting better! I can already tell solid foods are going to significantly increase the amount of laundry and bath time around here.

You had your 6 month check-up today and the doctor said you're doing great. You're up to 15 pounds 11 ounces and 27" inches long. I'm not surprised you're going through a growth spurt with all that milk you've been drinking. The doctor says you're "long and lean." I'll say. Can't believe you've grown 8 inches since you were born!

Lately your new favorite thing is grabbing both your feet and sucking on your left foot. You also put everything in your mouth that you can get your hands on. You still haven't figured out how to roll over all the way, but from the looks of it, you might skip rolling and go straight to crawling.You have, however, mastered rotating yourself around in a circle. Just this morning I went to get you out of your crib and your head was at the wrong end of the bed. How you manage to move around so much wearing your sleep sack is beyond me. Just talented I guess! You also LOVE to jump around in your Jumparoo. You bounce and bounce away and think it's great when mommy plays the piano next to you.

You will also see Sylvie successfully execute the famous Hanson "triple sneeze"

Sylvie, every day I love you more and more. You're the sweetest, funniest, most adorable little baby. You make me so happy. Every day I thank god I decided to become a mother. I never dreamed I'd be lucky enough to get a daughter like you. I love you Buggaboo.

Love, Mama

"Neither Do They Spin"

This post is a continuation of my "20 Things" series.

I’m not a worrier. Not that I NEVER worry about things, it’s just one something I’m not very good at. See, my brain is kind of weird. Anytime I have any sort of unrest… be it a problem I’m trying to figure out or a situation I’m unsure of or anything else that requires worrying, my brain goes into overload and won’t stop thinking about it. It’s very stressful and I’m just not good at dealing with stress. So, in order to keep functioning, I’ve developed a coping mechanism.

Here’s how it works:

A problem arises. First, I figure out if I can do anything about it. If I can’t, I block it from my brain. If I can, it goes on in the process and I brainstorm possible solutions.

Brainstorming is the most lengthy part of my problem solving process. If I know I can do something about the problem but don’t  have any immediate solutions, I’ll put the issue on the back burner of my brain and keep my eyes peeled for ideas in my day to day life. Solutions pop up in the most random places and if my mind is tuned in to look for them, I’ll pick up on the ideas even if I’m not actively worrying about it 24/7. For more straight forward issues, I’ll draw up a mental list of possibilities.

When all the ideas are formed, I weigh the consequences (good and bad) of each choice. Sometimes the solution is obvious. Sometimes it’s not. When it’s not, and I don’t know what to do, I just pick one. I go with my gut and choose an option and go with it. I figure once I have all of the information collected, thinking about it over and over and over isn’t going to be productive. I’m not going to get any farther so I might as well just make a decision.

Now, the final key is, once I make a decision, it’s permanent. I make up my mind and that’s it. Going back to the problem and second-guessing myself only negates all of my previous mental deliberation and toils and brings back the stress that my brain so strongly needs to be rid of. Once the choice is made I don’t think about the problem anymore.

This may seem like kind of a harsh system, but for me it’s a sanity saver. Stress is the one thing that really affects my happiness level, so when I have issues weighing me down, it’s in my best interest to get rid of them asap, otherwise I’m a mess.

These days whenever I find myself starting to worry about something, I pull up a mental chart like this one and STOP WORRYING.

2012: A Year in Books

I read 34 books last year. Well, "read" is a technical term. I physically read 13 and listened to 21. Audiobooks are a godsend to me in several ways. They allow me to read books I wouldn't normally get to because of time constraints and they keep me entertained during my commutes. They also add an extra depth to a lot of books that just isn't there when I'm reading in my brain.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a run-down of the books I read this year and let you in on the ones that were the best and the ones that were most disappointing.

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Paper Towns by John Green

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated
by Alison Arngrim

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

What the F*@# Should I Make for Dinner?: The Answers to Life's Everyday Question by Zach Golden

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla

Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality by Laura A. Jana

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep from Birth to Age 5
by Jennifer Waldburger

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

It may have been the last book I read in 2012, but it was also the best. "Unbroken" really surprised me. I don't typically like war books but this one had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Hardly a dull page in the bunch. It was the only book to garner my coveted 5 star rating this year.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the Ender's Game series. Not much of a sci-fi fan, I found both "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" very enjoyable. Unfortunately I wasn't quite as enthralled by the sequel, "Speaker for the Dead." I think maybe I'll give the series one more shot to see if I'll continue.

On the autobiography front I did pretty well. "Bossypants" by Tina Fey, "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch" by Alison Arngrim, "Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler, and "Boy" by Roald Dahl were all very enjoyable. I was a bit disappointed by "Not Taco Bell Material" by Adam Carolla. I found it depressing (even when he was trying to be funny, which was most of the time) and not nearly as humorous as his previous book, "In 50 Years We'll All Be Chicks."

I'm happy to say I read a few books that taught me a thing or two and made my brain powers increase. My favorite by far was "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. I never thought I'd enjoy learning about sciency stuff like the formation of the Earth and evolution. So kudos to Bryson on that one. Which is good because he didn't do so well with "At Home" or "Notes From a Small Island." "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell were also worthy of my time.

As far as novels go, there was a lot of mediocrity interspersed with a couple gems and duds. I really liked "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Vonnegut. Not at all what I'd expected from a classic. Vonnegut is so odd and unpredictable I can't help but love him. It was also nice to revisit "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and read the book version (not the movie) of "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding. My least favorite novel of the year was sadly the longest one; "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb was almost unbearable. It started out pretty good but tanked after that. A long drawn out mess. I was also really disappointed by "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer. I still don't understand what all the hype was about with that one.


Well, I think that about covers it. If you want more details on any or all of the books listed above, you're in luck! I wrote a review for each one that you may view on my Goodreads page. And I'm always looking for the next great book so feel free to chime in with your favorites, especially audiobooks. Have you read any of these books? What did you think?