bienvenue, again

Hi again! Remember how I said I was going to be back into blogging this year? I'm just barely making my deadline, because now I'm really back! (Really.) And moving to Paris is as good a reason as any to jump-start my favorite pastime, as it was my main mode of venting the last time we did this. I still love the ease of posting my favorite pictures to Instagram, especially since I don't take nearly as many photos as I did when it was just the two of us and I don't have a lot of photos to sort through (isn't that supposed to be reversed when you have kids?) but I'm getting a little tired of writing really long captions on my phone that are better suited for blog posts. I also need a place to put pictures of things that aren't immortalized on Instagram for my scrapbooks, like this, um, unique lamp found in one of the apartments we toured in Paris:

Oddly enough that was not the weirdest thing in that particular apartment.

I am also positive I will forget someday that a transatlantic move with two kids and a cat is not very fun (reading through my old Paris posts reminded me that I was really not excited to be there most days, which I had forgotten) so I need to write it down to remember why it was crappy and why I can laugh about it now. "It" being things like Ralph getting hand foot and mouth the week before we moved:

That was great. In the weeks before that incident our hard drive crashed and I had to spend the amount of a new computer to recover all of the data that I hadn't backed up (yes I have 100 backup services running now thanks for checking), I spent about a million dollars getting overcharged by our friendly neighborhood vet for services getting Boo ready to move overseas, and Robbie pulled a week of all-nighters finishing up his last work project in Seattle, where he was working for 6 weeks before our move date. Whee!! My parents are amazing and came to Redwood City two times in a month to help us pack up, watch kids while we ran errands, and generally be a source of support during a time that I should have been crying more. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop because I haven't had a meltdown... yet. My kids have though!

Okay but SERIOUSLY. Things are cool! Really. My kids have had a normal amount of melting down for being uprooted at the beginning of the school year from the home that they've known the longest. Kids are very resilient and I'm so grateful for Ralph and Rhoda who are not only resilient but also love all kinds of food and saying "bonjour madame" whenever possible, which are two things that French people love so they're fitting in already. TBH I'm slightly worried about Rhoda, who has developed a fair number of nervous tics in the last week since she started school (French public school deserves its own post) but she is enthusiastic, curious, and generally excited to be doing something new so I think these growing pains are going to be fleeting until they come up in therapy when she's an adult.

Enough typing. How about some pictures? I think these will accurately sum up our first three weeks here.

Amazing view from our hotel in Republique, where we stayed for a week before we moved into our current apartment (which is in the 5th arrondissement... post about our neighborhood and apartment forthcoming!)

I think we logged an average of 12,000-15,000 steps per day during our first week and I'm still napping for recovery

Some murals seen on one of my aforementioned walks, this one in the 13th

Okay, this might only be funny to me but I snuck a picture of our internet technician who came over to check the installation of our fiber setup because he looked old enough that I should be teaching him how to use the internet. Guess those early retirement benefits in France aren't as cushy as they used to be! He also reeked of cigarettes and was missing most of his front teeth. Don't judge a book by its cover because it might have to teach you how to use the internet.

The Jardin des Plantes, which is an enormous garden/museum/zoo situation just a few minutes from our house

Our apartment's parquet floors deserved a shoutout

Many people have asked how Boo has handled the move. We should have moved AGES AGO. He is so much less anxious than when we lived in California! I don't know if the trauma of the move jumpstarted his system but he's way less skittish than he used to be (he's always been super cozy and cuddly with me, but frantically ran out of the room whenever Robbie entered) and spends his days staring at pigeons outside our bedroom window. He is so, so happy.

I took this picture at the end of a day when Ralph was being a real pill and I needed to remind myself that he's still just a squishy baby

A squishy baby who can't resist the urge to climb on everything

Seine walk before dinner (this path is also just a couple minutes from our apartment)

Scooting to church, since it's only a 15 minute walk for us now! We apparently live close to a lot of things.

Last weekend we found out that there is a six year old girl named Sarah living in the apartment above us with her mom, and they also just moved here! She and Rhoda have been exchanging very cute notes and finally met in person this week.

Okay, that's it for now. Hoping that future updates aren't as much an information dump but I knew I needed to get it out there before I forgot more details than I already have!

stuff i've been doing

This picture basically sums up what I've been wanting to do ever since we got back in town

It's fall! (It's fall??!) I have had great intentions to do a big catchup post, blah blah blah, and I haven't yet because there's Too Much to catch up on. I just need to muster up the energy to do it. I have been feeling like I have a lot I want to record so while this isn't the most exciting entry ever I'm doing it for posterity. I've been reading President Eyring's biography and I can't help but think the main takeaway from his life is that I need to write in a journal more often. 

We got back from Seattle the first week of August, and then I was here (in Philly) for a week before we left again on our Great European Vacation for 2.5 weeks. Then it was hot and we don't have AC and I couldn't be bothered to do anything but lay across my bed like a starfish to try and cool down. 

The Great European Vacation deserves its own post(s) and I'll get around to that. Eventually.

After our Great European Vacation I went to California for a very quick trip to celebrate my grandma Helen's 100th birthday. Quite an achievement! Her party reminded me a little of Rhoda's first birthday party (it was noisy and crowded and she was slightly disoriented) but it was really great to see all of my family. All seventeen grandkids and many great-grandkids were in attendance and I was also able to fit in a massage with my siblings at my brother's favorite slightly sketchy Chinese massage parlor. Wins all around.

I've been catching up on the third season of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which is now on Netflix. If I haven't already told you to watch it, you should. If you're into that kind of thing. It's like Foyle's War, but instead of an middle-aged British male detective during WWII it's a sassy/slightly racy Australian lady detective post-WWI. Which means it's actually more like Maisie Dobbs but the main character is not a pain in the neck. (Sorry Maisie. I keep trying to forgive you for turning into a really annoying character.)

I'm suffering from severe allergies. A dermatologist friend told me that since I grew up in the desert I have terrible immunity for allergies, so that's a bummer. And apparently everyone I know who has ever had any kind of hay fever is also suffering big timer right now, so that makes me feel a little better. Someone please tell me when it's going to stop.

Robbie's back in school and gone a lot. Not for school, though—he's usually riding his bike. Thanks to Harry and Bruce, my brother and brother in-law, for making it more of an obsession for him than a hobby.

I'm on track to finish 52 books this year. (Yay!) For some of you this may not seem like much of an accomplishment but please remember that I have a two year old.

Rhoda's funny and awesome and talks a blue streak. She's really into singing these days. Some of her favorites include Happy Birthday ("happy to you, happy to you..."), A-B-C, Twinkle Twinkle, and Five Little Ducks. She also has a freakishly good memory for people's names so she randomly talks about friends of ours that she hasn't seen in months. She'd make a great candidate for public office. Her hair is officially long enough now that people don't mistake her for a boy (you'd be amazed at how many people were still doing that over the summer). 

the bleak midwinter

I read on a blog or Instagram post somewhere about trying to embrace the season you're in (the actual season, not the season of life, though I guess that's a good idea too) and I'm really trying my best not to be so bummed out about winter. Winter's tough! I think I skated by pretty easily while I had a regular 9-5 job—even winter with a new baby last year wasn't terrible—but this year has been harder. Rhoda's a lot more active now and there's only so much you can do with a kid inside (or outside in the cold for the short amount of time you can tolerate it) so we're all struggling a little bit. But to my credit I don't think I complain about it a lot. I've become much more of a hermit, which I kind of don't mind either. So I think we're cool with you for now, Winter, though I won't complain when Spring finally butts her way in for those blissful weeks before that attention hog Summer plods in.

We've had a busy couple of months—just a couple of weeks after we got back from California, we left for a quick trip to Utah. Then two days after we got back from Utah, we went to DC for Theo's baptism, and then brought my parents back to Philly with us for a couple of days. Somewhere in there was the coldest week of my life (sorry, Mom and Dad) and two weeks of canceled church services and the hermit tendencies really came out some more just so we can 1) stay warm and 2) get some semblance of a routine going after all that travel (we're going out of town again tomorrow and then again next week, sooo... maybe not). Rhoda's been a little confused that we're spending so much time indoors and now she wants to just take a tiny nap in the morning instead of her long afternoon nap and then be awake all afternoon till bedtime, which is wearing on me a little bit, so I took the advice of my sister and I just leave Rhoda in her crib with some books and her bunny and let her have some quiet time for a while—with varying degrees of success, but whatever. Basically what I'm saying is that this is the kind of boring thing you have to look forward to when you have kids someday.

Now some pictures to illustrate our busy month:

Waiting to play in the snow

Basically every picture these days

Outtake from the Great Friend Reunion of 2015. Some of my college besties I hadn't seen in years and this meetup was just what I needed.

All the Hamill grandkids together at last! It was nice to see Robbie's sisters and their kids while we were in Utah.

My latest sewing project—capes for a friend's twin boys' third birthday

What mornings without naps look like these days

The giant Wanamaker organ console, which is in our local Macy's—super random, but it's the largest functioning pipe organ in the world! I took my parents to hear a noon concert while they were here which was a highlight of the trip after being cooped up inside all week.

I watch my friend's son once a week while she does schoolwork, which is another nice way to break up the tedium of being inside all day. Rhoda and Sasha are just three days apart and they're finally beginning to look like they enjoy each other's company.

Rhoda likes to walk around picking up Robbie's winter gear and putting it on. Not pictured—his "mickies" (mittens).

This Monday was the Wharton Kids Club bake sale, which has been haunting me for months. But it was really successful and we raised $800! But thank goodness that's over because planning that sort of thing is a headache.

Hanging out after story time in my new favorite shirt

I always want to buy things like baby sunglasses and then I get real and remember they'll last about ten seconds on her face before she pulls them off. But Rhoda sure enjoyed those ten seconds.

Look, I'm blogging once a month! Better than nothing I guess.

these happy golden years

Well hi! I really almost forgot I had a blog because I was focused on taking naps during Rhoda's naps instead of updating my blog. I even forgot my blog's birthday (it's January 16th, in case you want to mark your calendar for next year—this year it turned 13!) and I feel bad about that. I love Instagram because it's such an easy way to keep a lot of people posted about my life, but I also love the intimacy of a blog post. Not that I've been super intimate on my blog lately—I think I was too focused on making photos and layout look nice rather than focusing on written content. But now that everyone's on Instagram and blogs are so 2006, I CAN WRITE WHATEVER I WANT!! Bwahaha.

But before I start getting intimate, here's a photo dump and life update from the past couple of months:

Rhoda being super into the planes at the airport on our way to Tucson in December. Entertained her for, oh, five minutes?

I've said it before and I'll say it again—white Christmases are overrated. (So is the movie White Christmas for that matter! I just watched it for the first time last month and I Hated It. It's all about Holiday Inn, you guys!)

Rhoda wearing her cousin Abby's Anna (Elsa? I don't know the difference) wig on Christmas Day

Hanging out in Aunt Bonny's amazing hot tub and never wanting to leave

Walking! (Finally!!!!)

Self portrait on the night this week that Rhoda took three hours to settle down for bed and I thought I was going to go crazy

I've gotten so much more fun and cool since I became a mom

One of the times this week I realized that Rhoda's no longer a baby

Rhoda getting ready for spring break and also giving her big girl shoes a test run

Now for the state of the Hamill family (the Hamilly):

RHODA

• Finally walking. The scoots are tapering off and I bought Rhoda some non-legging pants this week. Also, she suddenly decided to start climbing our stairs with no problem after completely ignoring them for months. Okay then.
• Now that Rhoda's walking, she's also decided to stand up in her crib and SCREAM HER FACE OFF for 45 minutes before she naps or goes to bed. Never have I ever had to do anything but lay Rhoda in her crib at bedtime, but this week she almost broke me. On Tuesday I spent three hours trying to get her to go to bed (see above photo) because I was home alone and this was the first time she'd cried like that before bedtime so I thought maybe she was teething? messy diaper? fever? something? Nope, JUST MESSING WITH ME. By 10 pm she was finally tired enough to just go to sleep without much protest but I'm still mad at myself for three hours of baby wrestling. The crying has slowly tapered off this week after I made her cry it out the next day but dang it, I thought I was done with this part of parenting for now! Robbie told her this week "we don't negotiate with terrorists" after the Tuesday night debacle so maybe she'll start magically understanding that. Anyway, someone please tell me that this is just a phase. Or lie and tell me that it is.
• Talks so much. She doesn't stop talking, except for when she's around strangers (understandable), and even then she warms up after a few minutes and starts it all up again. Some favorite words right now—"kack kack" (quack/duck), "hup!" (help/up/I'm not really sure, but it just means she wants your attention), "achoo" (when you ask her to sneeze). There's a lot more but those ones might be the funniest.

HANNAH

• On track to read 52 books in 2015. Let me know if you have any recommendations! The list of books I've already read is here.
• Not on track to memorize a scripture a week in 2015, which was my other semi-realistic goal this year. But I haven't given up yet. I am going to start with the New Testament scripture mastery list and go from there. Also, I think maybe I'm going to focus more on memorizing references rather than the whole thing? My spiritual take-away of 2014 is that I need to be more of a scriptorian, so there's that.
• Finally maybe adjusting to life in Philly? I like the city a lot, but it took me a little while to really get into the swing of things. The post-Christmas blues really got to me this year and it took a little weekend trip to see family and old friends in DC to really get out of the funk. But I think I'm crawling out now and trying to not hate winter and be social.
• I somehow got roped into being a co-president of the Wharton Kids Club, which isn't as terrible as I thought it would be (the club itself is fine, the leadership just didn't sound like it would be fun). But it's really nice to be in charge of something! I haven't worked and had deadlines to meet in so long that it's been good to feel like I'm contributing to something other than the running of my household. Not like I have real deadlines now either, but you know. You take what you can get.

ROBBIE

• Not in any pictures because HE'S ALWAYS GONE. Okay, not always. But a lot. The first year of business school is ridiculous.
• Went to Cuba for a week on a school trip. No one was jealous of that. Just kidding, everyone was. But he brought me back a nice art print and a dress for Rhoda so all was forgiven.
• Building furniture like a boss. Yes, Robbie decided to enroll in a furniture-building class in addition to his regular classes. So now we have a bookcase and coffee table and another table in the works that we're not entirely sure what to do with.

Everyone tells us that business school is going to be as easy as it gets and we're in a sort of dream state right now. Hard to believe that when you have looming student debt and lots of classes/obligations/hobbies taking up your time, but I'm starting to get it. We'll have been in Philly for a year soon, and then in a year after that it will all be over and back to reality.

I think that's enough of an update to tide us all over till I start feeling like I want to get intimate on my blog, eh? I also think maybe I'm using the word "intimate" too much? I promise I won't make anyone uncomfortable. Or will I..?

my buddy and me

I've been very bad about posting lately. Part of it is a technical problem (we got a new computer and it's messed up my photo sorting system and instead of dealing with it I've been pouting about it) but part of it is that I'm having a hard time putting into words what life has been like lately. It's just been good and I'm trying to soak it all in but I guess I should write it down so I can remember the good when the bad comes along.

Rhoda is a delight. Last night I went out to dinner with my girlfriends and our kids because all the husbands were out late for school. The second we all sat down—four adults, five kids, no husbands—we realized what a huge mistake it was. I mean, it really wasn't THAT bad—we only had two kids scream for a tiny bit because they were starving, and Rhoda knocked a glass of water all over me and the table, and aside from the waiter basically ignoring us for 15 minutes before he came and took our orders we left with smiling kids full of pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches. At the end my friend Katie (actually, all my friends that were there are named Katie, which makes things confusing but whatever) commented that Rhoda was being so chill despite the chaos of the restaurant. I say a million sincere prayers of thanks every day that Rhoda is such a happy and easy-going baby, and it's the hugest blessing to have her while Robbie is in school. If Robbie were gone all the time and I had a grumpy baby I think I would have a complete meltdown.

I do miss tiny baby Rhoda from time to time, but Rhoda at this age is wonderful. She's just learned to crawl and she's stopped her half-hearted scoots and is now racing around our house and the playground like a big kid. I also discovered her standing up in her crib at the end of her nap yesterday with a huge smile on her face and now she can't resist the urge to pull herself up on everything in sight. She's great at playing independently for long stretches (since all of her friends here are a little more mobile she doesn't really have a choice) but then sometimes she follows me around the house like a little dog waiting for me to pick her up. She's learned to give hugs and kisses, but I think she reserves those for me and her dolls. My favorite new thing of hers is peek-a-boo, which she always instigates by throwing her blanket over her head and pulling it off. It's fun to hang out with her now. I also feel like having a girl has worked in my favor too, because I speak that language. Rhoda loves dolls and stuffed animals and being read to and I'm like yes! I get that! I know how to play with those things and I loved them as a girl too! So I'm just going to run with that for the next little while and hope she keeps loving all those things.

I think a lot about the times I felt guilty as a new mom that I didn't have any tricks up my sleeve other than letting her hang out on a blanket or in her bouncy chair for most of the day (especially since it was basically snowing for the first six months of her life), and now she is the one prompting the playtime, and in a sense giving me pointers on what to do. I had a very happy childhood and I really want Rhoda to have that happiness in her life too—though I was also the fifth of six kids and it seemed like other people's kids were always at our house providing the entertainment. Someday, Rhoda, someday...

do you remember the time

I'm pretty sure that I forgot that I had a blog since I last posted... a month ago. I have been at my parents' house for the past two weeks, and based on my 18 or so years of experience I should have known that time ceases to exist during the summer in California. It's kind of a delicious feeling though so I'm not mad.

My readership mostly consists of people that I used to see on a very regular basis, and now those people all live far away and have no idea what I'm doing. So here's an update! I'm living with my parents for the summer while Robbie is off gallivanting in South America for school. (Business school so far consists of lots of gallivanting, by the way. They should call it an ENO program instead—Expensive Networking Opportunity.) I thought that solo parenting would be a lot harder than it has been so far which is a tender mercy. We got off to a great start when I missed my flight to California but then got onto the very next flight that departed twenty minutes later and we got an entire economy plus row to ourselves. Rhoda then surprised us all by adjusting to the three hour time difference by the next night. Thanks, magic baby! We're settling in well to my parents' garage. I'm serious—Rhoda sleeps like a champ in the room in the garage and it's pretty great to have a garage all to yourself. Though there were those two nights this week where Rhoda woke up ready to party at midnight and I had to gently remind her that I am not the parent who has the patience to get up with her in the middle of the night if it isn't to eat and to please wait until the end of July to do the middle of the night partying. 

I forgot that summer heat in the desert is really not bad at all. I have very vivid recollections of summers spent languishing on the couch because it was So Hot but I must have gotten real while living in the soupy mid-Atlantic because I'm wearing jeans when it's 85 degrees outside. You can do that here! It's incredible. Also, my parents have wised up and installed central AC since I graduated high school which probably helps a lot.

It's fun to hang out with family all the time. There is an endless stream of people coming through my parents' house. Most of my family and Robbie's family lives in California so we've been able to take our time visiting and hanging out with people because we will be here for so long. I'm also looking forward to doing things that we don't normally have time to do, like visiting parks and gardens and eating good food. I understand now why all of my mom friends in DC used to take off for the summer and come back when school started. It's a whole new world!

Obviously I miss Robbie a ton. When he went to Haiti for a couple of weeks when Rhoda was just three or four months old I was like THERE IS NO WAY YOU'RE GOING TO SOUTH AMERICA FOR THE SUMMER BECAUSE THIS ALMOST DID ME IN. A baby that small is not fun to take care of by yourself. But Rhoda is more fun and way more aware now and we make a good team. Plus I can just sit her down on the floor with her toys and she can't really move away from them yet (though she is beginning to figure out if she rocks herself forward hard enough then she can get to the first part of crawling—WHAT) and I can go do whatever for a little bit. I feel bad that he's missing out on a lot of fun times with her—like her two teeth slowly making their way in and her funny head tilt and what I think is her figuring out how to wave goodbye—but it will go by so fast, I hope. Funnily enough, my dad was in South America for about the same amount of time when my oldest sister was about Rhoda's age, and there wasn't even FaceTime or text messaging to keep up with all the changes, so I really can't complain.

Summer! It's just as good as I remembered.

turn and face the strain

Here's our last (actually, probably only) family picture in front of our DC home, on the day we packed up our moving truck and shipped out. Rhoda lived there for exactly six months, and it was the only home she knew. I'm sad to be leaving behind a big part of our married life (four years in that house!) but I'm excited for the changes ahead.

This week has been fairly quiet, but lots has happened aside from the big move. Robbie started school on Monday, and on Tuesday one of his classmates was killed in a freak accident on his way to his first class. That definitely changed the tone of a lot of the orientation activities (even though it was only the first week of school, the program only has 60 students so they all knew each other a little bit) and has had all of us feeling a little down and more pensive than usual, I guess. I really don't know what else to say about that other than the obvious—life really is so short and precious.

Rhoda has been adjusting pretty well to the move. Our new place is a HUGE upgrade from our last apartment in terms of size, so it's been a fun challenge to figure out how we want to set things up. I'm trying not to rush into filling it up with stuff and I'm trying to be thoughtful about decorating choices. I figure I owe it to myself to start decorating like a grownup. Anyway, back to Rhoda—our "second bedroom" is actually a giant newly remodeled basement. It never occurred to me that Rhoda might not be napping really well because our bedroom was so bright, because now, in the depths of the basement, Rhoda is napping much better than usual. Well, aside from yesterday's lack of quality naps—but I blame teething. Can't you blame everything wrong in a baby's life on teething?

I also decided to take the plunge and wean Rhoda from the blessed swaddle. After a rocky start, she falls asleep no problem (hallelujah). Keeping her asleep is a struggle sometimes when her binky falls out (you have a built in binky, Rhoda—it's called your hand), but she's doing really well at night and I think that's all that really matters in the end. Our next step is to get a real crib because she's currently in a travel crib with an inflatable mattress and even though I know lots of kids sleep in travel cribs full time (and ours is a pretty nice one), it is wearing on my back to be lifting her in and out while she's basically sleeping on the floor.

Hmm, what else? Haven't gotten around to much exploring, since I've had to stay close to home thanks to a predictable nap schedule and lots of maintenance workers traipsing in and out of our apartment. Also, ALLERGIES. I have been suffering big time this past week, and as it turns out, you can't take traditional allergy meds when you're breastfeeding. It has been the worst. We had our old friend Clark over for dinner last night (he has lived in Philly since 2009) and I told him at that moment I didn't feel like I would ever get to know Philly because I didn't want to go outside ever again and face the pollen.

It stings to leave a place we know and love, but Philly has welcomed us with open arms. The universe is sending me all kinds of signs that this was a good decision—like when I was exiting the freeway to drive into town on Saturday and Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia" came on Spotify randomly. And on Saturday evening our lovely friends Naomi and Andy dropped by with a couple of bags of essential groceries and I made a mental note to do the same next time I know someone is moving in (so helpful!). People are incredibly friendly here—much friendlier than in DC, which is quite surprising to me. At least once a day I get stopped by someone on the street or in the grocery store with a comment on Rhoda's big blue eyes. It's very sweet, and not creepy—like the time an ancient woman in DC asked me if she could kiss the back of Rhoda's head—I think that people just really like babies here because there's not too many of them compared to the baby explosion that is DC. Kind of a double-edged sword, since I'm enjoying Rhoda's novelty, but I'm not enjoying the lack of baby stuff on Craigslist. Student budget problems, am I right, guys??

Okay, I'm going to go enjoy the rest of nap time and drown my allergy sorrows in a bowl of ice cream. It's a pretty reliable coping mechanism these days.

these are the good times, for robbie and me*

I've noticed that my blog has turned into a place for grandmas to leave comments gushing over Rhoda. Not like that's a bad thing, but I need to start writing about more things that I used to—I don't know, my thoughts? Feelings? How horrible this winter was and how I'm basically outside every possible second right now while the weather is randomly 80 degrees and sunny? Whatever? While Rhoda has been a relatively easy baby, I'm surprised at the amount of energy that such an easy baby can zap from you and I can't really wrap my mind around what I want to talk about. Where do I start?

One of my friends with an eight week-old baby commented to me that she is amazed that I was able to do "so much" right after Rhoda was born. I don't know what gave her that impression, since I didn't really leave the house for at least a month after we got home from the hospital and sometimes these days I sit on the couch and stare at the wall because it's the activity that takes the least amount of brain power to do. But just going outside for this one friend can be a chore for her and adapting to life as a mom has been easier in some ways and more difficult in others that are different for me. But really, thinking back to when Rhoda was eight weeks old—I was on vacation in California and didn't have a schedule or obligations and Robbie was still on paternity leave, so I think I've forgotten how hard an eight week-old baby is. So, you know. Hindsight being 20/20, and all that.

A five month old, though—GEEZ. Rhoda is a busy baby. She has no desire to roll over (which is fine, in a lot of ways, since we still swaddle the heck out of her for naps and nighttime) so she has all this pent up energy and no way to release it. She hates being on her back or tummy for very long just because she wants to be up and around the action so it's not like she's practicing or anything. But, whatever. T. Berry Brazelton says that rolling over as a milestone is totally overrated so I'll just run with that. She just started being able to sit on her own which she has fun doing. We'll sit on our bed and prop her up while she is distracting herself with a toy or something and then she'll fall over a few seconds later. She sat up for like thirty seconds today, though, so I think she's getting the hang of it. Thanks to her busy-ness (I think) her daytime naps have gotten WAY better, which is great. I sometimes text Robbie and say "THIS NAP IS GOING ON FOR SO LONG I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO TO PASS THE TIME." The trade off, unfortunately, is that her nighttime sleep has gotten worse for some reason. Mostly I'm annoyed that she wakes up at 5:30 instead of 7 now and then like every hour as she's settling down for the night. Ain't nobody got time for that, Rhoda.

Anyway, Rhoda is a big girl. This is a great age. Every age, frankly, is a great age. I'm tired all the time but babies are fun to be around when they aren't screaming because they woke up early from their nap or if someone looked at them the wrong way. (For example.) I was looking through some old pictures and videos from the past month and realized that her movements and babbles have gotten somewhat more refined. It's ridiculous. Here's a little photo dump from my phone for your viewing pleasure (mixed with some pictures of people who are not Rhoda—sorry in advance, grandmas):

Rhoda and Louisa, another baby girl in our ward. Louisa and Rhoda had the same due date but Louisa came a week early and Rhoda came a week late. It's so funny to watch them interact with each other.

Rhoda hating life in a cab, thanks to a missed nap and lots of travel that day (it was the weekend we went to Philly and New York).

Hanging out on the Eyres' air mattress during our NYC visit

3/4 of the Terrill sistren take Manhattan! We were there for my niece Ella's concert with her high school choir at Carnegie Hall.

Grabbing dessert after Ella's concert

Sometimes I text pictures of Rhoda having a meltdown to Robbie while he's at work so he doesn't think I'm sitting around all day drinking mimosas or something.

Classic Rhoda pose. She loves to lounge.

Figuring out how to put her binkie in without any assistance. Close enough...

In the scary mother's room at church. This is a dress from Julie that I wish came in my size too.

Another classic Rhoda pose. After she finishes eating she usually flops back and starts making growling sounds for a few minutes. Maybe it aids with digestion.

I made Rhoda nap on me during the last session of General Conference so I wouldn't have to get up and put her in her crib. What can I say? Lazy moms need to be innovative. Though in the end it was kind of hard to get her to settle down because she's not very cuddly. It probably would have taken less work for me to just get up and walk the thirty steps to her crib.

Well, that's all for now. Expect another post with paragraphs in, I don't know, 6-8 weeks? I kid, I kid...

*a little Prairie Home Companion reference for you old souls out there