These Days...

These days I get a lot of questions from Samuel, questions like, "Why did God make a Rubik's Cube? YOU CAN'T EVEN PUT IT TOGETHER." Also, "Why can't we eat s'mores for breakfast?" And, "Does Milka want to stop crying now?" (I ask myself that last one a lot, too.)

These days Milka is sitting up without falling over! Hooray!

These days I've been baking things. Like this delicious chocolate zucchini bread.

These days I've been reading Nabokov's short stories. Is there a better writer than Nabokov? I think not.

These days Milka doesn't sleep well. Sometime in the last eight weeks she started waking up at night more than her usual once or twice. She now prefers to wake up five to seventeen times. FIVE. TO SEVENTEEN. So, that's been awful, and most days I'm tired and disagreeable. (The other day I yelled at Sammy for having "feet that make shoes not go on." I actually said those words.) Milka sleeps in our bed with us, something that usually helps with night waking problems, so I've been reluctant to move her to her own bed. Until two weeks ago. After countless nights of frequent waking, she then woke up no fewer than ten times, and I thought, "No. This is not good." I also thought, "WHERE DID MY BABY WHO SLEEPS NINE HOURS IN A ROW GO?" and "WHY GOD WHY?" So, we've been attempting some sort of "sleep training" with Milka in her own bed, and me counting the number of minutes until I can go into her room and let her know I didn't skip town. It's terrible. Really, I hate it. But I feel like the alternative is continuous night waking and night nursing (Raise your hand if you want someone to nurse you every fifteen minutes for five hours!), which isn't good for Milka or me. Or, really, for Will and Sammy either, but mostly they sleep through it all. So, fast forward to today: Milka is sleeping! One night she slept 11.5 hours IN A ROW without crying; mostly she wakes up once to nurse, which is totally doable, people. Apparently, she likes her crib*. And I'm liking the extra sleep. THANK YOU, MILKA.

These days my parents come to visit for the weekend and babysit the kiddos, so Will and I can go get coffee and tiramisu at Dolce Vita, our first date in six months. THANK YOU, PARENTS.

These days I get up early to write a blog post and then wonder why I didn't just stay in bed a little while longer.

Also, picture:

*Except not so much at nap time. Baby cries and cries and cries. Anyone have any tips on how to get your baby to nap in her crib without screaming like a maniac?