Day 2625

A thing real life should borrow from musicals: the option to dance around in public when you’re happy without looking like a crazy person.

Also, dancing skills for everybody.

Day 2624

When you have a four month old, it is an uphill battle against soup brain.

Day 2623

Courses during maternity leave are not for the faint of heart.

Day 2622

That wonderful glow when...

All the adults at your kid’s school know her by name, are excited to see her, and without prompting tell you nice things about her.

When everyone at the doctor’s office is excited to see your baby because they like the other kids so much.

Day 2621

When you can hear city noises from your house... but there are also five deer napping in sight of your front window...

In other news, the dog will think you’re crazy if you give yourself a pep talk out loud. He’s probably right.

Day 2620

You might have a problem when even your bookworm four year old thinks you need to stop buying books until you have more shelf space...

Day 2619

I do not miss the high drama of early school friendships.

Day 2618

Kids messing up or combining expressions is one of my favourite things. Yes, Chinchilla. That should be the ticket.

Making up their own expressions also excellent: ‘what the pepper’ just keeps going.

Day 2617

Apparently Chinchilla has noticed that I do some of the work for him when he demands to tuck himself in. Tonight he was yelling “Help me tuck me in, mommy!” after we left the room.

Day 2616

The shattering realization that your daughter feels like you yell at her most of the time... and the overwhelming awe and pride that she is responding to that by trying to be kind and respectful, which she feels will make everyone’s life easier.

Day 2615

My poor Chinchilla has installed a dimmer switch and he is turned way down low. I wish I could snuggle him back up to his normal bright-eyed, chatty self.

Day 2614

I got Chinchilla so thoroughly convinced of the merits of getting a flu shot that he was quite disappointed that he wasn’t allowed to get one because he was too sick. Although it might also have had something to do with the fact that the nurse was, according to Lizzy, “mostly the nicest person ever”.

Day 2613

Maybe if we buy enough humidifiers and give enough snuggles, the colds will finally go away...

Day 2612

Even if you see the sausage being made, it still seems like magic when you witness your kid starting to really read on their own.

Day 2611

The baby bestowed her favour; she wasn’t absolutely terrible about sleep last night and she cooperated for naps so I could get my project done. She hasn’t wanted to support my daily endeavours to get through course material, so maybe she’s just trying to increase the difficulty level without making it impossible...

Someday we will teach her that you don’t have to be a tough guy. It’s okay to have fun.

Day 2610

Chinchilla can be so heartwarmingly and hilariously adorable... and then swing wildly into extra two. The big chunks of adorable make it a lot easier to be patient with the extra two.

Day 2609

That feeling when your kid suddenly starts speaking in full sentences in her second language...

Day 2608

We’re getting into the barest beginnings of play.
I can’t wait until Chinchilla discovers he can make his little sister laugh. He’ll explode with excitement.

Day 2607

That feeling when your daughter tells you not to make annoying noises “If I have to ask you one more time...”!

Although she did finish by saying that she would tell me arretez. Not exactly bringing the hammer down.

Day 2606

Before playing Peter and the Wolf for your kids, make sure you are prepared to listen to it all the time, forever. Or at least be ready for them to demand it.

Upon further reflection, that probably applies to every piece of music you play anywhere near your children.

Don’t even hum it unless you want to hear it hummed more or less accurately forever.

Day 2605

In which Chinchilla adopted a passive aggressive ‘by the way’ (“I’m sick, by the way”), and announces that his throat is bad.

Day 2604

Trolling your kids is the best trolling.

Day 2603

The only person who approves of the baby’s sleep schedule is the dog, whose favourite thing in life seems to be napping with his people.

Day 2602

You might be raising a pedant if your kid corrects the pronunciation of her father’s sneeze.

Day 2601

Curiously, it seems to be harder to get a two year old to stay still for a picture post-haircut than it is to get them to stay still for the haircut.

Hopefully I won’t be accused of ruining his hair quite so often now.

Day 2600

The giggles are coming. Any day now, full giggles.

Day 2599

Babies are so good about lulling you into a false sense of security. You so want to believe that you’re going to be allowed to sleep now....

Day 2598

Daylight savings happened and it looks kinda like I might be going to sleep at an almost reasonable time for the first time in weeks.

Break the baby’s nap schedule to fix the baby’s sleep schedule.

Day 2597

Submitting assignments a couple hours before the deadline feels curiously anticlimactic.

And then the baby kept me up until the deadline anyway. Apparently we had to supervise the time change.

Day 2596

Dear Baby,

I will wait longer for giggles if you let me sleep at night.

Love,

Your mother