Life with a baby and a toddler is certainly a roller coaster! Sometimes it feels like we are in the thick of it and every single thing is the last thing I can possibly handle and other times, everything feels good and happy. Mostly, baby sleep really stresses me out and I’m just trying to remind myself that we will make it through this stage eventually and I should focus on the fun things happening outside of the baby sleep realm 😋 We have watched some good things, read some good things, ate some good things and had a lot of quality time outside. Transitioning into summer mode, I think!

In the Kitchen:

Getting dinner on the table is no small feat these days but I want to give myself a pat on the back because amidst the insanity of the evening, I’ve been making us some good things! This week, we had Italian Herb Tofu Wraps — I’ve been making a lot of steak fries lately! — and Wild Rice Burgers, plus Strawberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies! Tried to get Dempsey to make those with me and he ran away as soon as I pulled out the hand-mixer 😂 He kept wanting to eat the dough then wouldn’t eat the actual baked cookie 🤷‍♀️ Oh well, more for me and Joey!

Media Consumption

Trying to accept that these are just not my reading years. I really have to put in a concerted effort to read these days because free time just does not exist. It’s better now that I’m in the office a few days a week and can hold a physical copy of a book, but at home, it’s harder and you know what? That’s just how it is and it’s okay. I did finish Ali Smith’s Companion Piece and have been reading The Book List for my upcoming book club meeting and both were/are good. Also trying to accept that I’m not taking these in or thinking about them in the way I could before having kids. C’est la vie! In TV land, we finally finished Beef and I just loved it so much? Thought it was so interesting and unique and was blown away by the performances across the board but centered by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. Highly recommended!

Life in General

Didn’t mean to post a bunch of pictures of the back of Dempsey’s head but they do show off his great hair so there you go. These two little people have been both driving and keeping me sane. If you’re a parent of young kids, you know what I mean 😅 Dempsey is happiest when he’s outside, so we have been loving the warm weather and we even got the porch swing up this week. He’s been climbing up next to me only to immediately ask, “do you need another push?” and getting back down. I love it, honestly. Miss Lyds continues to be happiest in our arms and she’s also practicing sitting up, using her voice and getting cuddles from Big Brother. My absolute favorite time of day is 3 PM when I wake Demps up and the three of us chill in the nursery for a bit 🤍🤍🤍 Last but not least, I am forever grateful for my mom. Literally don’t know what I’d do without her help. She took us all (plus my sis!) to the Butterfly Pavilion on Monday then came and watched Lyds on Wednesday, so Dempsey and I could go to the library. She is everything and more to me and my kids are so lucky to have such a wonderful Grandma!

I hope you all have fun plans for this Memorial Day Weekend. I am desperately trying to balance me time with mom time and not feel guilty about the former or resentful about the latter, so I will be on that journey this weekend 😅

Hello and Happy Monday. Only a few pictures and a few words from this weekend because we had a nasty virus run through our household. Lydia and I dealt with it most of the week, then Joey got hit with it on Friday. Dempsey had a low grade fever a few weeks ago so I’m hoping he was the originator and we don’t have to deal with him having it after Joey!

This was the look of our Friday night. Luckily I was feeling better and had enough energy to put the kids to bed. We watched Top Chef then went to bed ourselves.

Plans to go buy flowers and get the backyard in shape for Memorial Day Weekend were scraped and instead we watched a lot of TV and ate whole wheat waffles. Mid-morning, Dempsey and I took a trip to Target and dropped off a quiche my mom had made for Lauren and Adam who welcomed a new baby boy to the world last Monday! We’re being cautious, so only Joey has met him so far but I’m really really hoping we’re all well enough to go over later this week. A cousin for Demps and Lyds!

The rest of the day was pretty low-key. Joey’s big task was figuring out a replacement for himself in the Colfax Relay. We were all hoping he’d make a turn for the better but by this point it seemed clear he wouldn’t be able to run 6 miles. Luckily, Wayne stepped in for him! 🙌 Briefly got to see him and my sis, plus Lori and Chad so they could get their bibs and baton. After, I made us a corn pasta, which sounds weird but is super good! And we let Lyds sit in her high chair for a bit. She seemed into it! Joey and I started How to Blow Up a Pipeline after the kids went to bed, but with 40 minutes to go, I had to call it quits. Too tired!

Dempsey and I’s Target pick up was black out curtains for our room — too many 6 AM wake ups for our little lady! — and it worked because she slept in! Joey was revived enough to go pick up biscuit sandwiches for us and we got updates from all the relay runners. I think everyone had a good time. Made me kind of sad we weren’t there, even though we hadn’t planned to be there even if Joey had run it 😋 Played outside a little (the air quality in Denver is soooo bad right now 😢), Lyds took a two hour nap (!!!!), made salads and finished our movie. I’d heard good things but thought it was just okay. Had leftovers for dinner, put the kids to bed, watched Succession and went to bed. I’ve been SO tired at night.

Hopefully we’ve all got our sicknesses out of the way and are on the up and up, just in time for MDW and the Bolder Boulder!