Writer's Block (or something like that)

I have to give credit where credit's due and thank Ben for keeping the blog on life support for the last several months. As I'm sure it is with everyone, there's just not enough time in the day to do everything! As Lily gets older, she's getting more fun. And while she's sleeping more these days (goodbye 10pm, 2am, and 5am feeding sessions!), we're now moving on and have bigger and better fish to fry - we're rolling around wrestling on the floor, reading board books, eating three "real food" meals a day. Babies sure are labor intensive, but it's all good - better than I ever imagined (see yesterday's video of Lily laughing)! And now for some highlights of late from the Handfelt Hacienda...

Speaking of wrestling, Lily's preferred wrestling move is to sit on your neck while you're laying on your back and do a combo thang of bouncing up and down and drooling on your face. It's wonderful. She also enjoys being held upside down for a sec and getting her underarms tickled (but probably not both at once). Good times.

The Hammer in action, pinning Dad down

Her nicknames have evolved to focus on the letter "T": Toonces (yes, like the Driving Cat), Tootie, Toots, Tootsie...and the old fave of Beans gets tossed around a lot too. Miss Linnette, our daycare provider, prefers the more conventional Lily Belle.

Beans has a boyfriend at school named Liam...with a young whipper-snapper named Henry also fighting for her affections. They all get VERY excited when they see each other. It continues to crack me up/amaze me that the babies can become attached to one another like that at such a young age! In any case, she is already far more social, outgoing, and popular than either of her parents ever were!

Since the beginning of June, we started slowly giving Lily pureed and mashed foods. We've now worked up to servings of cereal, veggies, and fruit a day. I'm making about 60% of it homemade myself and the other 40% comes from prepared baby food. It's really quite easy and I'm enjoying the process of making it for her and seeing what she likes or doesn't like. So far we're a big fan of vegetables (sweet potatoes and peas, in particular) and not so much of the fruit. Apparently, like her father, she's "not a big sweets guy [gal]." (Which reminds me of the time when Ben ate the top layer of our wedding cake and tried to hide it from me...but that's another story, for a WHOLE other post. The tale gets people cracking up. If you haven't heard it, you're missin' out.)

A re-creation of the wedding cake in question

Ben and I have been trying to make it a priority to get out occasionally, just the two of us. Last weekend we actually played hooky (legitimately) from work on Friday and spent the day eating good food, seeing a movie (just like old days), and wandering hand-in-hand through the Art Institute, especially spending plenty of time checking out the new Modern Wing of the museum. We also came across Transformers 3 being filmed downtown. Then on Saturday we had an adults-only afternoon in the bleachers at Wrigley. I, of course, filled Ben's ears with my color commentary of the game. It was SO hot and steamy that after the game, we were forced to grab some "refreshments" at Gingerman and then fill our tummies with grub from Wrigleyville Dogs. Read all about our discovery of W. Dogs here. As you can imagine, they don't serve sweet potato puree at this fine establishment!

Other than that, it's just work, Lily, and sleep...repeat. While I'm enjoying my job and loving the challenge and responsibility, I wonder why the working world can't be a bit more life-friendly. In today's society and with current technology, how hard would it be to allow more flexible options in the workplace? As in, we possibly get home before 6pm? Is this just city life? Now, I'm not oblivious and know I'm not the first person, man or woman, to ever say this stuff. Obviously. But after talking to others about it, there's clearly a demand, a want...an actual need. Work is great and interesting and a very important aspect of who I am (which I couldn't do without, BTW), but it's not my life. It's not who I am as a whole. Maybe I'll get flamed for saying that. But my thought is that maybe if more people pushed for these "benefits," we could change the face of the workplace.

Now that we have Lily, I just feel a need to slow down and focus on the most important and most basic of things. A return to simplicity. Doesn't everyone feel this way to a certain extent? Anyways, having Lily just makes me want to be better, make the world better for her, and for myself to be a more well-rounded human being. (See: making homemade baby food, visiting museums, etc.) Ah, I just read over what I wrote and suppose this makes me sound a little granola-y Earth Mother-esque (Think: Maggie Gyllenhaal's character from the movie "Away We Go"). Oh well. Anyways, if anyone has any thoughts, leave them in the comments! I'm generally much more guarded in telling people my thoughts and feelings, but in this case, I'm trying to be more open and am interested in hearing what you have to say. This has been a hot topic between a few of my coworkers and I lately, so I'd like to hear other perspectives as well.

Along with our conversations, some of my coworkers and I have taken a self-assessment test included in a book called StrengthFinders 2.0. The purpose of the quiz was to discover our true inner strengths. The book claims that to improve yourself, you should focus your efforts on what you are naturally good at, rather than try to cultivate the areas in which you are less talented (which is what most people try to do). For example, a very talented baseball player can succeed far more with less practice than someone who's skills don't come so easily, but is highly motivated and puts a lot of time into practicing. Does that make sense? I had never thought of strengths and weaknesses in that way before and found it quite interesting. Hey, maybe by uncovering my true talents and brainstorming with others, I can come up with a creative idea to how to develop my own line of work that would fit my value system, satisfy my personal interests, AND allow me to spend more time with my daughter. Oh, the working mom's wish...

We'd like to spend more time at the beach, thanks.

How could anyone say "no" to this face?