This Week’s Lessons Learned

For work, I write a lot of articles. And in those articles, there's always a section called "lessons learned." These usually end up being take-away bits of wisdom that the organization has learned recently. Blah, blah, blah... I'll spare you the details. The point is that I often have that term, "lessons learned" floating around in my head. This past week has seemed to be more full of them than usual. So here are my top ten "take-aways." It's also a good summary of what our lives have been like this week.

1. Sadie has a stubborn streak. Woe be to the person who tries to make that girl take a sippy cup when she doesn’t want it! You just might get said cup thrown at your head.

2. Sometimes putting the baby to bed early and eating take-out Chinese food by candlelight on the living room floor is just as romantic as a real Valentines date.

3. 9:00 am church is doomed to be an exhausting ordeal for the next five months. I'm ready to lobby for a change in church policy that will allow one-year olds into nursery.

4. Saying “no” sternly when Sadie drops food on the floor only makes her laugh.

5. Seeing Easter candy in the grocery store makes me long for spring. And sunshine. And it makes my mouth water. :)

6. Knee-walking is, in fact, faster (and more fun) than crawling now.

7. Hearing Sadie cry for me when I leave for work in the morning brings new meaning to the work “heartbreaking.” It’s awful.

8. The decision to go from two naps to one has saved Kevin and me from a lot of banging-our-head-against-the-wall moments. Why didn’t we do this months ago?

9. Weaning from a bottle is not necessarily an easy task when the subject decides she’d rather be dehydrated than drink milk from those awful sippy cups (see #1...)

10. Feeding the ducks is great entertainment for a one-year old (or, judging by the look on her face, maybe it's just plain frightening?)