I'm just going to get right to it.

A story, titled "Things I've been doing instead of blogging in 2018"

1.) Sleeping sometimes. Duke still doesn't sleep through the night which makes it extra fun to hear about six month olds who do. If I could write sound, I'd insert a nice cacaphony of "gahs" and "ughs" because I know that every blog post for a year and a half has started this way and all of us are bored of it, right? Whatever though, I got a kid who doesn't sleep and I've just got my fingers crossed that I got this in exchange for like, a kid who does drugs or something. Maybe two-ish years ago when God was up there doing his dealer's choice with some genes, and it came down to those two, and he was like "I got you girl. Trust me, this one is better."

2.) I finally bought Duke a big boy car seat. I should be embarrassed about how long I had him in an infant seat, but I've given birth so I can no longer feel shame. Anyway, that decision took a good two months, so you can see my time has been well spent.

Speaking of Duke, here's a quick breakdown on what 18mos looks like

• "That" and "hot" are his primary words, so it's like Paris Hilton circa 2006 at the Hodges' Ranch. 
• He can climb out of bed now, so when he wakes up in the morning, I literally hear the pitter patter of his jammied little feet running down the hallway. The best is when he stands at the top of the stairs and calls "mama!"

3.) I casually started painting randomly unpainted parts of our house. And please, take me seriously when I say random. Like, the one piece of trim in a fully painted hallway that we must have just been like, fuck it, I'm tired (2 years ago!!!) or something, because why else would it be left bare? And that strip on the edge of an otherwise totally painted wall. And then I start getting crazy like, well here's a spot of dirt that I don't want to clean and there's already paint on this brush, so you know, swish-swish.

4.) Successfully keeping Duke from climbing on my table.
Just kidding. 

*Keeping him from climbing on tables -- kitchen, end, coffee, etc. -- is my new and very low paying full time job.*

5.) Here's a good one. My friends and I got stuck on Mackinaw Island for a few days. For the record, there's three ways onto the island: ferry, and in seasonal lieu of that, ice bridge and airplane. The ice bridge was on the outs when we got there so we took a tiny plane, which felt very adventurous to a group of 30-year olds. Our kids are at home, our backpacks are full of booze and we're riding on a small engine - WE CRAZY! We woke up the next morning with a flight booked in the afternoon to go home and - surprise - wind. When an airplane is about the size of a tin can, and make similar sounds, apparently they won't fly it when the wind is snapping trees.



And for the record, it was my first time leaving Duke overnight ever. I had an internal meltdown that I tried to be cool about, but when I got home Duke was so not concerned. I walked in and he was like Hey mom. Oh, my cars.

6.) I bought a milk frother which has me feeling very fancy.

7.) I gave up Instagram for Lent. That left me with Facebook and maybe as a consequence, I kind of accidentally realized that I don't even like FB anymore so I've mostly been social media free since February, which I'd like to say frees me up to do things like read and clean the vents or something, but oddly enough I find other ways of distracting myself.

8.) And you know, just living. And trying to embrace the season and enjoying the heck out of a little boy who is definitely at my favorite age right now. And vacuuming and the occasional load of laundry. Making summer playlists for the beach and grilling on the deck and cocktail hour because it feels good, like packing two weeks early for a vacation.