Why does iTunes hate me?

I had all of my music on there. Not just on there, but sorted into playlists and duplicates erased. It was great. I go to add new music and what do I find? ALL OF MY MUSIC IS GONE!!! Why do you hate me iTunes? I didn't do anything to you. Granted, I don't use you a ton but I do want you to behave yourself when I need you. Now I'm sitting here waiting for all of my stuff to re-appear (aka, adding everything back onto iTunes). And thinking about all of the work it is to put the CD's back on you and then get rid of any duplicates. Fun.

Then I can look for new music...but let's face it. By that point I'll be fed up and not do it, and then later I'll be upset that I didn't do it and get frustrated at you all over again. Yay me.

The Haircut

I was content to cut Monkey's hair all the same length. 5 minutes, a quick once over to even it out, and a trim along the neck. That's it. Ben was not happy with this plan. He said he wanted his son's hair to have "personality." Fine. You asked for it, you got it, buddy. Today we tried to do a "high fade." You know, short on the sides and in the back, blended up to a longer length on top.

I told him it wouldn't be easy. I told him that a 15-month-old will not sit still well enough to do a REALLY good job...it's nearly impossibly to get it even when the kid moves unexpectedly all the time. But he insisted. So I tried. At first, I knew that I hadn't cut the sides/back short enough. Now it looks like Monkey has no hair because it's a lovely color where one second it's there, the next it's not...it's a great optical illusion. His hair also still does the baby swirl right at the crown, so it splits in funny places.

Then Ben said I hadn't made the fade high enough. So I raised it. Then he said it wasn't even...I hadn't blended enough. Now he says that it makes Monkey look younger than he is. He's 15 months old...kind of hard to make him look younger with a haircut.

I think it looks OK...for a first go. Sure, the line isn't completely straight...but that was never going to happen. It's my blending I think I need to work on. It will look better in a week or so, when it's grown out a little. Apparently I now have visual representation of my learning curve...in the line of my son's hair. Until then...he'll wear hats.

I didn't realize this...

But I miss coffee. A really good cup of drip coffee with enough cream/skim milk/whatever to make it look like a latte and enough sugar/sweetener/whatever to make it taste like one. I miss it. Before Monkey came along, I went, oh, just over 2 years without caffeine (except on the occasions where I was so stressed/tired/PO'd that I broke down and had a diet coke or a mocha). Because, as *we* (we being the ladies who have to do a little more than think about sexy time to get pregnant) know that caffeine=bad for baby-making.

Then we found out Monkey was on his way...OK, no caffeine for 9 more months. Once he was here, for the first couple months I was too tired. Yep, that's right, too tired to remember to make coffee. On the days where I did remember to make a cup, by the time I got around to drinking it, it was ice cold. Not exactly what I was looking for.

After that stage, I was so excited to get sleep and feel rested that it was the "hey, I don't need it!" phase. And now I'm so used to rarely having it that it just doesn't really cross my mind. Until recently. Recently I've been craving coffee.

As I sit here, drinking a ridiculously good cup of coffee I just made, I thought "Oh buddy, how I have missed you. You are a friend." Coffee has been sadly neglected (by me, not by  Ben. He remembers every day...).

Then I think, "hey, if/when we want another baby, I'll have to give up caffeine again." I'd better not get too used to this. It will probably backfire and then I'll go into withdrawals...you know headaches, shaking, being so snarky that even I don't want to be around me. That's not fun. So I'll stick with missing coffee and having a cup once in a while just to remind myself that I do, in fact, like the stuff!

Rent Vs Own...

We're settled in living in our new state. I can't help but start to wish we could buy a house...that it were a feasible option for us. It's just not. We move so frequently that I cannot imagine a) having to sell one house and buy another every time, especially when there is no guarantee that it would sell or b) becoming a landlord...no thanks!

So, we rent (or, in our case now, live in on-post housing because it's pretty much the only option). In the meantime, I dream about painting, replacing flooring, remodeling entire bathrooms and kitchens, and hiring decorators to help when I just can't get it quite right. And I thought about building a pro & con list of renting/owning. Here we go...

Thinking about a change...

I'm thinking about switching my blog over to WordPress. Not that I don't like blogger, I just think it's not as user-friendly as WordPress. Who knows. Maybe I just need a different venue...or to delete this blog altogether. I'm also not super sure what to blog about on my "personal" blog anymore. I don't do as much crafting as I used to, mainly because there isn't a craft store within an hour's drive of where we now live. That and I still don't have a job to financially support my crafting addiction. And, let's be honest, I'm not that good at it. I look at examples of other people's crafts online and I just don't think I'm up to par. Maybe I'm not cut out for blogging at all...I'm constantly trying to think of what to write about, so there's no concise theme. I don't do anything exceptionally well, so nothing ever looks all that great. I'm constantly second-guessing myself, from the title of the blog, to the title of the post, to whether or not my rants and raves are even interesting to anyone else. Maybe I'm just annoying and need to stop.

Then again...I have to release it all somehow. There are things that just feel better when you write them out, and I don't particularly want to "write" them out (my handwriting tends to get messy). I read blogs written by my friends and my first reaction is always "How great! They did an awesome job! I bet I could do that!" And then I realize that they took the idea and ran with it, and it would just be redundant for me to write about the same thing.

Ugh.

My Kid Sleeps Through the Night, Why Can't I?

For the past few weeks there had been at least one night a week that I max out at a whopping 2 hours of sleep. I try everything I know...go to the bathroom, get something to drink, read...nothing that has worked in the past works to get me to drift back off. So here I am, 5am, and I've been up since 1am.

It usually starts by hearing Monkey cry out in his sleep...but he goes right back down, I don't even have to check on him. Then I start thinking of things that HAVE to get done...put the car seat back in my car if it was in Ben's, take Monkey to daycare so that I can go to the gym (and pray that he finally has a good day while he's there), plan out dinner, groom the dogs, etc. Then my brain is on, and no amount of coercion will convince it to turn off again and let me sleep.

The good news? Middle of the night is a great time to catch up on my DVR'd shows that Ben doesn't want to watch and that Monkey won't let me watch because I have to, you know, be an involved parent (or something like that). But now all of my DVR'd shows are over, other shows aren't on demand yet, and if I go to sleep now I'll be even more tired in 2 hours when Monkey wakes up. That would lead to me taking him to daycare and (instead of going to pilates) coming home and crashing...setting an alarm for when I have to go pick him up again.

So, aside from the gym, I'm thinking that today will not be all that productive. Just a hunch.

Update Time

New Year, New Look! I don't know about all of you, but after about a year (sometimes more, sometimes less) I start to get stir crazy with the look of my blogs and have to do something different. Hence the new background.

Anyway, on to life. I'm convinced Monkey has hit a growth spurt. He went from flat out refusing at least 2 meals and/or snacks per day to eating ALL DAMN DAY LONG! I'm happy that he seems to be more interested in food than in his bottle (or sippy cup, since the only actual bottle he gets now is at bed time), but it's really pushing me to think creatively. Especially because he tends to be a little bit of a picky eater. He likes veggies, but only when they're off of an adult's plate. He flat out refuses fruit unless it comes in pouch form.

These are buddy fruits. Monkey would not get fruit in him if it weren't for these.

Plus, I want him to have a well-rounded diet. Meat is a whole different animal. half the time it needs to be in a sauce, and even then he will suck the sauce off of the meat and then spit the meat out. Try try again, wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm starting to feel the boredom pull at me. I love being home with Monkey, I do...but I want to feel productive again. I haven't had a chance to really set up my sewing station yet, there's really nowhere to do it that I can leave it set up. Plus I need to get out of the house, and Monkey needs go get socialized and get used to not being with me all the time. I don't need the 4-year-old who has never left Mommy and then freaks out at school. Not fun.