Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Jounaling my Life Away

I am painfully aware of how long it has been since I posted a blog, and that my last one was sad. I was sad at the time. It happens. And several times, I have opened up Microsoft Word to start typing, and I usually get as far as this…”So…back at work, not much going on.” Aaand that’s all I got.

I was talking to a girl at work this morning who has twins. They are about 15 months old, and she just figured out how to NOT work full-time and is going to stay home with her boys and work 2 days a week. JEALOUS!! I know, I know…quit complaining. I guess all of her friends are stay-at-home moms and so they are super excited to hang out with her…go to the beach, McDonalds (strictly for the playland), etc. I am hinging my stay-at-home status on Obama improving the economy…so get to it Mr. President!!

My friend in Jasper had a baby girl yesterday. She already has two boys, and had to practically negotiate her right arm to her husband to try for a third. She really wanted a girl. So I am super excited for her. There are two points to my story.

For all of you Indiana readers, have you ever noticed how everyone knows someone from Jasper? It’s the biggest small town you’ll ever visit. There are thousands and thousands of people who live there, but you can’t drive down the street without someone honking at you, which makes you turn and look and run a red light and almost get in a car accident. Except you don’t, because people in Jasper don’t drive like people who regularly drive in Chicago, or people who drive with people who regularly drive in Chicago. (I’ll use that as my excuse for my *ahem* "assertive" driving) I met my friend in college, as there are people in Jasper who go away to college, and then promptly move back when they graduate. A girl I work with also met her Jasper acquaintance in college. I think my boss has the same story. (although, to be fair, her friend is from Seymour or French Lick or someplace like that, which is definitely NOT Jasper, but close) I used to love going to Jasper because we could go out to the bars and I could act like either a) a total ass or b) a crazy drunk and everyone would look at me like, “Who IS that girl?” and I didn’t care and would have a great time. I have definitely left my mark on Jasper.

The other point about my story is something I posted on facebook. (which BTW…if you aren’t my friend, you should look me up, and if you aren’t on facebook, you should join!!) I asked if it was OK to spend my entire paycheck on baby clothes. I’ve kind of bought everything that I think is cute at Penney’s, so my next stop is Kohl’s. But I have a list of things that just MUST be bought for baby Kami. It’s going to require stopping at 4 stores at the minimum after work today, provided that Workaholic gets home on time. But I am SO EXCITED for her!!!!!

Speaking of shopping, one of the things that I am looking for is a journal. (Thanks to my BIL who bough me a Borders gift card for Christmas, I am going to spend more (or all) of it today.) Anyway, Matt’s aunt gave us a calendar when Samantha was born. It had both sides of the family birthdays and anniversaries in it, as well as tons of stickers for momentous occasions such as sleeping through the night, rolling over, first time on an airplane, finding fingers, and so forth. It’s for the first 12 months of her life, conveniently it started in January. It’s pretty damn cool…a keepsake, for sure. I’ve been pretty diligent about it, also writing in visitors and other little things. Plus, I have her baby book that I’ve been trying to keep up on; I just wrote in the page for her 3rd month…because starting today, she is beginning her 4th month of life. (can you believe it???)

Anyway, I was talking to my friend in Texas about these things, and she lamented on how with her second child, she just couldn’t keep up on baby books and such. So she started a journal. (she went back and did one for her older child too) She writes it to the child, and began with the story of their birth. (Oh boy, I had better hide mine from Samantha until she is of legal age) Every couple of weeks or once a month or whenever something cool happens, she writes it down in the journal. And I thought to myself, “Self…that is an excellent idea!” If you only have blank pages to fill, you can share what ever you want without having to define it as an Accomplishment or New Discoveries or writing about New Foods when your babe is 2 months old and not trying out any new foods. And there is room for pictures if you would want to put them in (or not) and you can write 3 pages (instead of 2 lines) on the first time she rolled over or how everyone fawned over her on the airplane or how she cried all day the first day back to work and Grandma watched her. You can write every day if you want, or once a month if you want. I want to start this now for a couple of reasons… 1) I think a girl would appreciate it so much more than if I'd had a boy 2) She is my first and 3) Even though I am notoriously terrible at journaling, if I don’t feel I have to write down deep thoughts and can just write 2 sentences about my daughter and how awesome she is, I am a helluva lot more likely to do it.

There is a blog that I follow where every month the mom writes a letter to her daughter about that month. Sometimes it is pretty personal and you feel kind of weird about reading it, until you remember that this woman and her husband are supported completely by her blog and she just wrote a book about her life (I imagine it was easier to write considering she had her blog to look back on) and maybe her husband does work, just not outside the home. And I thought that it would be pretty cool to do something similar, now this way I don’t have to bore all of you with all my baby obsessions. (with Fonz details in there too…because he’s right there with us!) I’ll let you know if this works out, it’s going to be pretty hard to journal in the beginning, because I have 3 months to catch up on!! I’m excited just to do the “How You Came Out” part. (and yes, I am fairly certain that my MIL has journals from her pregnancy and she told me all about them and at the time, I didn’t think it was a great idea…but now that she is here, it’s genius!!)


I think that I am going to pre-write the birth story, because if I don't, it'll come out all jumbled and the timeline will be all off and it'll just sound dumb. Off to journal!!

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