You guys, let me just tell you the sweetest cutest thing. Duke knocks on doors now. And also, he picked up saying "hello!" yesterday.  Never a question - always an announcement.

So, knock knock knock. "Hewwo!"

Now, hang with me here because I know that sounds pretty uninteresting, and I totally admit to being that mom. But seriously. I try to wake up a little before Duke and Ryan just to get a few minutes to myself and drink some coffee without anyone asking to share my cup. Anyway, I'll hear that little taquito climb out of bed, plop to the floor, and book it straight to the bedroom door. Then the finiest little knock knock knock and it's basically morse code for "chick, come get me."

Side bar: it's 5:32 am just now and as I type this, I heard the knock knock and my immediate thought was nope. I just got up 7 minutes ago. Not yet.  So you know, everything - including cuteness - in moderation and preferably after 7:30am.

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In other news, I've had a really actually kind of not that big of a deal variety of first world problems in my life lately. Things that are annoying but don't actually matter because my life is not in danger. Perspective-- trying to set it. But anyway, it has me thinking a lot about the difference between needing a break and needing a change.

I don't really have an answer to that, obviously. I'm just thinking about it a lot because I think I need of them. Just not sure which.

I really stopped writing in the last year, and Duke is almost two, so I can't blame it on him. I just lost the inspiration to write and felt the weight of limited time. And you know, it's so much easier for me to flip on Sex and the City and pop a bag of popcorn and scroll Pinterest for the bazillionth time. Easier than putting my phone down and staring at a blank word document and forcing myself to be creative.

That approach feels like eating mac and cheese every day, you know. Easy and convenient and it's pretty good actually, but after a while, I just miss a good meatloaf with mashed potatoes and too much butter. And I guess I miss peeling the potatoes, and mixing the meatloaf with my hands too. I miss the process as much as the result.

So this week, I set my alarm for really early to give myself an hour or so every morning to make meatloaf. I think I really need to. I'll probably also really need a nap, but you know, problems for other days.

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Happy Sunday and happy Father's day. Beer and brats for everyone!