*waves*

Oh, hello! Remember me? The one who posted here (fairly) regularly for the past four years? Seriously, I cannot believe I’ve been blogging for that long. I was just commenting on someone’s blog and telling them that one thing I’m thankful for is all my bloggy friends! Most of those friendships have lasted a few years (a few have bit the dust), and I consider myself extremely lucky to know you all!

Enough sentimentality. We’re like friends who can not see each other for a long time, then when we do see each other, it’s like no time has passed, right?

Soo…let’s see. Much to tell you!

Ethan: has two teef! He got them on the same night, with pretty minimal fussing. I’d say, What a trooper! except for the fact that he’s been extra fussy lately which I can only assume is more teething since we’ve been to the doctor and it’s not an ear infection. It’s hard (on the parents) to go from a super mellow baby to a (somewhat) fussy baby! The past few days have been pretty good, though, so I think we’re on the downward slope of that.

He sits up and can do this inchworm thing that can get him where he wants to go amazingly fast. Like, I would think with the way he’s moving his body, it would take him an hour to go from one end of the living room to the other. No, instead it takes 30 seconds and all the animals scatter when they see him coming.

HE SAID MAMA TODAY! I’m not positive he knows what he’s saying, but he said it more than once today. And no, he hasn’t said dada yet. I think he knows he owes me since he smiled at dad first.

Ethan was a skunk for Halloween!

I have pictures of him happy and not crying, but they’re not nearly as cute.

We went to Hawaii, and Ethan didn’t like the ocean the first day, but when we put his feet in the ocean again on the last day, he loved it. We were in Hawaii for my husband’s father’s 70th birthday (which was on 11/11/11 — thus the party in Hawaii), and some of his friends very thoughtfully bought him a cake. When they picked it up, they found out that 70th had somehow become 78th, so the cake showed he was 8 years older than he actually is:

All we need now for this to be a great Cake Wreck is for them to have misspelled his name. UnFortunately, it’s hard to misspell Tom.

The only things I can manage these days is to take care of Ethan and work on my business. Meals are sporadic, sleep is still not great because I have to work in the evenings and Ethan is waking up at night (after sleeping through the night for a few months), and reading is nowhere near where I want it to be (I can’t even read one book a month). But I love it. I’m loving life.

A few more pictures:

(This was the view standing in our living room in Hawaii.)

(Ethan on Thanksgiving.)

(After I attempted surfing. I got up on my knees, that was it.)

Today is the day that I dislike the most out of the whole year. Today starts eight months of struggling to get to sleep at a decent hour, of trying to wake up when I’m supposed to, and dealing with the exhaustion that weighs on me because I can’t get into a groove with sleep. I hate springing forward!

Conversely, I love falling back. That’s the one day of the year I wake up and I start singing.

It’s the MOst WONderful time of the year. Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmmmmmmmmm. It’s the MOst WONderful time OF THE YEAR!

(I don’t know any of the lyrics other than that first line, which is why those words are stuck on repeat in my head.)

When I wake up in October November to an extra hour, my body rejoices. I’m instantly able to get into a good sleep groove that lasts until the time changes again. One of these years I’m going to make the fall back weekend a sacred holiday, something similar to what Rebecca does. And one of these years I’ll take the whole week off following spring forward to give my body a chance to adjust (the idea for which was inspired by my friend Becky).

I know that as difficult as it is for me to spring forward, for some people it’s just as difficult, if not more so, to fall back. Amanda ends up with 4 months of insomnia.

So which side do you fall on? Do you love to spring forward or fall back?

I didn’t think I’d have any particular goals this year, other than the ones I normally make throughout the year. My reading time is slim, so I didn’t want to make any reading goals, such as the number of books I’ll read. While I want to continue reading deliberately, I also have to realize that there’s going to be more fluff in my reading than there normally might.

So after I read this quote that I’ll paste at the bottom of this post (over at Smoothpebble), I realized that there’s been something pinging around in my brain for a while, and I took it out and decided to make it my inspiration for the year:

Harder

I want to live harder, love harder, write harder, read harder. You could replace harder with ‘be more passionate’, I suppose, but I like the feeling that harder invokes. Sometimes I take a child and hug them as hard as I can. I make a joke out of it by grunting and turning red. They love it. So instead of joking about it, I’m going to do it. I’m going to hug harder. I’m going to love my husband harder. I’m going to write harder.

And this was all inspired by this:

“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.” — Alan Watts

One of the new blogs I discovered in 2010 was MWF Seeking BFF. She didn’t end up on my best of list for 2010 because she gets her own post. I think that’s fair.

Rachel moved to Chicago recently from another city, finding herself friendless. Not that she didn’t have friends she’d left behind, but friends you leave behind when you go to a new city aren’t exactly the people you call up to do a TV marathon with on a lazy Sunday. You need new friends for that. So Rachel decided to get some new friends, and that’s what this blog is all about.

The great thing is that Rachel explores all aspects of friendship, from disappearing friends to work friends to having a famous friend. I don’t think there’s a rock she hasn’t looked under when it comes to friendship.

Not only that, but she’s put herself out there so she’d make friends. She’s gone speed friending, taken an improv class, and started a book group.

Here’s some of my favorite posts of hers:

• She paid someone to spend time with her.
• She talks about friendship chemistry.
• An ode to book clubs! With a limerick!
• A post about online friendships, which made me think of quite a few bloggers I’d love to live closer to.
• How babies change friendships (oh, boy, do I know this all too well).
• Would-be friends.

In addition to making me think about nurturing the friendships I have, she’s inspired me to be on the lookout for new friendships. I’m hoping with to make some new mommy friends so I can have play dates for my baby and mommies to commiserate with. But it’s going to take some work, and putting myself out there, but reading Rachel’s stories make it seem a lot less daunting.

Rachel’s got a book coming out in 2012 called MWF Seeking BFF, which will be published by Ballantine. In the meantime, I encourage you to follow her on her journey as she finds a new BFF. Be sure to subscribe to her blog, follow her on Twitter, and friend her on Facebook. I have!

In the meantime, why don’t you tell me about your BFF? I recently reconnected with an old BFF and it’s like the years melted away. It’s too bad we were out of touch for so long, but we picked up right where we left off. I think those are some of the best friendships you can have.

This post was written at the request of Booklicity, which I was happy to do because I’ve been a fan of MWF Seeking BFF since early 2010.

Everyone’s heard of a bucket list: things you want to do before you die. But that’s so morbid. Somehow I stumbled across Mighty Girl’s Mighty Summit, which is “an annual retreat structured around the idea of creating a better life. We’re asking all of our attendees to draw up Mighty Lists — lists of about 100 things they’d like to do in their lifetimes — and share them with each other over the course of the weekend. Too often we move forward in our daily lives without making time for our passions. Mighty Summit is about establishing life goals, reflecting, relaxing, and networking with others doing the same.”

I was inspired! One hundred things I’d like to do in my lifetime? YES! One hundred things to do before I die? Hrm. Well, since I procrastinate, things could get kind of interesting in my 90′s.

I’ll be applying to go to the Mighty Summit for 2011 (I mean, it’s held WHERE I LIVE. Either I’m meant to go or that’s just a cool coincidence.), but in the meantime I also wanted a Mighty List. Things that I always think, I’d love to do that, or, That’d be cool! You know. That stuff.

So here’s my list. I’m not at 100 things yet, but I’m getting there. I’ll add to this as I think of things. Maybe one day I’ll even display it like this.

1. Have at least 2 children (1 down, 1 to go!)
2. Help a child that’s not mine learn to read
3. Rescue an abandoned dog
4. Visit France
5. Visit Italy
6. Become proficient enough in French to carry on a conversation (again)
7. Visit 100 wineries in Sonoma County
8. Sew a quilt
9. Learn to photograph only in manual
10. Learn to pick a lock
11. Go camping with my family
12. Leave 100 inspirational notes around my city
13. See a firefly in real life
14. Do a pinup and boudoir session with Ambitious Misfit Photography (inspired by this session)
15. Create a yearly tradition of a Girls Weekend
16. Buy an original piece of art (in addition to the one I already have)
17. Buy a house
18. Collect a full set of vintage dishware that I love
19. Go on a hot air balloon ride
20. Learn how to shoot a gun
21. Attend a Super Bowl or a World Series game
22. Earn a black belt in Karate
23. Plant daffodils in a field
24. Go swing dancing again
25. Attend the MightySummit
26. Volunteer in a classroom
27. Donate a fixed monthly amount to a charity for one year
28. Send a birthday card to every friend whose birthday I know about for one year
29. Learn how to repair an old watch/clock
30. Visit all 50 states (see below for progress)
31. Win a poker tournament
32. Have a room that only has books in it
33. Buy something someone needs anonymously
34. Leave a server a $100 tip
35. Own a sapphire
36. Have a snowball fight
37. Send a card to 10 friends for no reason
38. Go on a horseback ride
39. Grow my own garlic
40. Befriend a quilter I admire
41. Go parasailing (again)
42. Climb a mountain (Mt. Whitney)
43. Finish electrolysis
44. Learn to do the splits
45. Experience a white Christmas
46. Make a mosaic
47. Earn enough money to need a financial planner
48. Eat beignets in New Orleans
49. Learn how to do stained glass
50. Participate in a watermelon seed spitting contest
51. Learn how to do blown glass

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Washington DC
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

What’s on your Mighty List?