Life lately.

Life lately has been a mixture of wonderful with a sprinkle of cranky and a large dash of tired.

And those moods don't just reference Hartley! 

Life is good. We all are well.

But for whatever reason, in the last week, we've all had some tired, grumpy, not so great days.

We've adjusted to life as a family of three but every now and then we still find ourselves learning new things. That the baby is drastically affected when she doesn't get enough sleep, that she relies heavily (so we do too) on a schedule, and that we are starting to see a ton of "stranger anxiety".

I'm learning that I need to take time out for myself. Something you never get before you have children is how sweet freedom is! I was considering grocery shopping to be my me time. But when I took actual me time on Monday, I realized I need more of that to keep my patience and stay sane. I'm also learning my walks with my neighbor and her babe are incredibly good for my soul.

I think Brian realized, after being home for a three day weekend, that Hartley can be really tiring. On a weekday, he sees her for maybe 2 hours, and it's the perfect amount of time for Hartley to be all fun and games. He realized after a couple hours, while still fun in its own way, she can be exhausting. And it was really sweet, by the end of the weekend he told me again how much he really appreciates me and what a good mom I am. But he was all sorts of worn out himself.

I wouldn't say we're in a slump but we all are pretty much just plain tired lately. The newborn stage is gone and she wants to explore but she's still to young to do much independent play time. So there's a lot of holding, bouncing, singing, talking to her and making funny faces. Lots of one handed eating, 5 minute lunches and huge laundry piles. There have been some tears - some of Hartley's and some of mine. There is still lots of love but it's now followed with me crashing by 10pm instead of staying up past midnight. And somehow waking up tired in the morning! 

I'm on the hunt for activities and schedule ideas to get us in to a more fun groove. I'll share if I figure out how to get us out of our super tired routine! And shout out to whoever is looking down on us and got her to sleep in a little late this morning. This mama needed it.