Maternity Leave

I've given it a lot of thought and ultimately decided that I don't want to share much of my daughter online. I mean, I'm blowing up Instagram, but I have a private account and feel slightly more secure about that. I don't plan on blogging about her a lot.

As soon as she was born, I became very protective of her, and was immediately aware of how curious people become once you start a family. I want to be more mindful about what I choose to share online, especially regarding my family - Maylin, specifically. I feel like once you become a parent, you see the world differently. It's such an awesome place, with so many great things to offer, but at the same time, it's is terrible. And I want to protect her from that for as long as I can.

That being said, I've been on maternity leave for the past five and a half weeks and Maylin has literally been my life, so I haven't had much else going on to blog about! She is such a great baby - we really lucked out. She is almost six weeks old, has been sleeping through the night (with very few exceptions) since day one, and we are all completely obsessed with her. She is the sweetest, most calm baby, and she has been smiling for about three weeks. There is seriously nothing better in the entire world than that little girl's smile. I've become the biggest mom cliche out there! But seriously, parenthood is the best. I'll be going back to work soon, but Devin and I have worked out a great schedule, so it's easy for me to be excited about working again! I have missed my job and co-workers, so I am really looking forward to getting back.

Maternity leave is the best and the weirdest. I really struggled with it at first. It felt so wrong to just stay at home and hang out with my baby all day. I felt guilty, like I should be doing more. I definitely had some bad Postpartum Anxiety, but it steadily got better and better as time went on, and I've been feeling so good! I feel like everyone told us that having a baby would turn our world upside down and nothing would ever be the same, and it would be tireless work, and I would be exhausted and I wouldn't ever have another minute to myself for the rest of my life. And I'll admit, there are moments where it does feel that way! But maybe we just got lucky, because Maylin is so great. I remember when Devin and I got married, I expected it to be this giant, life-altering change. And I waited for it to happen, and it never did. We just very subtly and naturally slipped into our roles as husband and wife and it became the norm without us even noticing. And the exact same thing has happened with parenthood.

So, once I am out of the maternity leave bubble/alternate universe, and I get into a real life routine, I will resume blogging. Kind of. But until then, I'm going to soak up all of the smiles and day-long-snug-sessions and wearing-the-same-clothes-for-three-days-and-getting-away-with-it that I can!

thursday

I know, I know. [insert all the excuses as to why i haven't blogged in what, a month? and why i'm about to blog dump on you now]. It's just life, guys. Life interrupts my blogging a lot. It's probably the other way around, but that's beside the point. The point is that I've got a few things to tell you:

+ momentum lehi opening date has been SET! November 15th, I hate and love you so much all at the same time. Please take it easy on my husband.

+ drinking diet coke from a bottle gives me the most obnoxious hiccups. discovery made approximately 2 hours ago. or maybe it's the whole drinking diet coke for breakfast thing that i should be more concerned about...

+ um, hello MID AUGUST. half of me is all "I hate you, where'd my summer go?" and the other half is like, "let me kiss you, you fall-greeting, season-changing time, you!" guys, i have a confession: i'm not really a summer girl. it's fall. it's always been fall.

+ one last thing: we're not moving.

I KNOW.

we were so excited. we were SET ON IT. we were searching high and low and in and out and never found the right place. or the right price (why you gotta be so expensive, lehi? why???!!!) so we signed our lease for one more year. it's really the right move though, not moving. we have a nice set up where we are. a garage for devin's tools, a backyard for coop. devin has a stake calling, so that's a good reason to stay, too. our commute isn't bad and we'll be able to carpool some mornings anyway, and our rent didn't go up too much. i was so excited for a new place, but i think i can hold out another year because.... our goal is to buy a house next year. key word here is goal because who knows what our lives will look like a year from now, but with this new position for devin, things are lining up perfectly right now, so we're just gonna go with it. i love our tiny herriman house, so we'll be okay.

so:

blog posts coming your way this weekend include, but are not limited to:

all about our annual grey's river trip
my birthday
and a giant photo dump, because it just wouldn't be the mockingbird blog without one! (plenty of photos of coop, too!)

#heynataliejeanxmastrees and other christmas things

first of all, how cool is it that natalie (hey natalie jean) posted my christmas tree photo? you can see her post here with all the christmas trees everyone's been tagging. mine is about 10 rows down on the far right - coop's cute little self is perched by the tree. i loved clicking on the hashtag to see everyone's trees. christmas is just... auh. the greatest.

this year hasn't felt too christmas-y yet, which hello, it's December 23rd, Katie. I'll figure it out, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to all the time we get to spend with our families, especially celebrating with our nieces and nephews. holidays are a lot more fun with kids around! anyway. that's all. 

Starting Over

wahoo! a whole new blog! i'm so excited about this, and it's been in the works for just about ever. i literally spent at least 6 hours in one day just putting this whole thing together and it's such a relief to get it live!

the point is: i loved my old blog. i'd had it for like... 5 years (with at least 1 year of posts deleted due to... lack of relevancy. i guess you could say.) and i had really gotten into personalizing it and customizing every little detail. the only problem was i did all of that with ZERO knowledge of anything relating to CSS, HTML or the like. which translates to: i messed it up. big time. i guess it looks fine from the outside, but if you ever saw my HTML, you'd shake your finger and say "tsk tsk" because it's an embarrassing mess.

and so: i don't want to and will never delete that old blog (i've even got a link up top for easy access to it). i have actually heard there are ways you can turn them into books? which maybe i'll do that, maybe. we'll see. but it will still be there, for your archive browsing pleasure, and my own. but i needed to be able to just start over. and it feels pretty awesome. i actually knew what i was doing this time! and i'm pretty happy with the way everything has come out.

thanks for sticking with me in the switch! i'm glad you're here.