A COMPILATION OF STUFF THAT YOU MAY OR MAY NOT FIND INTERESTING

Well, there's a title to grab you.

I don't have one thing to talk about in this post and I'm feeling a little to contemplative to do a blog post without sounding preachy. So instead I will just give you an overview of the things I'm pondering.

Converse sneakers
Lauren has a little red pair of classic Converse sneakers. They are huge. Or I thought they were. Lauren's feet were a tiny size 2 for what seemed like forever (hey, she didn't even fit size 1 shoes for months and months after she was born). I was so excited when she finally fit her size 3 shoes because they were ADORABLE... and that lasted for a week. Now she is in 4s and she is standing around everywhere. She puts those little Converse sneakers on (read: I wrestle them onto her feet while she does her best ballerina en pointe to make it totally impossible to get them on) and stands with attitude. They make her so much more confident because of the stability that they provide - either that or she knows just how dang cute they look!

Sleep Training

I visited with a friend on Thursday who has just suffered through sleep training with her beautiful little flower. Talking with her gave me the encouragement to do it again (I think this is sleep training session number 4). Last night, I started putting Lauren down at 8:30 and we danced the waltz of put you down, scream your brains out, stare at the monitor for five minutes, calm you down, repeat. She tapped out at 11pm. It was a long period of screaming but she didn't vomit and then she only woke one time all night. You might not have heard me - ONE TIME! That is like a freaking Christmas miracle! At 4:30am I was not walking like a drunk down the hallway to get to finally crawl into bed. At 4:30am I was sleeping, Matt was sleeping and, best of all, Lauren was sleeping.

Life

In the span of 5 minutes today, I found out that a family friend died and one of my best friends was in labor. It was kind of mind boggling that both things were happening at once and I found it sort of overwhelming. Death is so much more real to me now and the beauty of birth is still so real as well. I'm super excited to say that now, for the first time ever (mostly because I'm not Catholic or European), I'm a godmother. It is very exciting. Little Noa was born only hours ago. I can't wait to see photos (he is in Switzerland so it will be awhile before I meet him, but I love him already). Congratulations to the beautiful Bracale family!