Under water...

I'm swamped. I just got back from being in Austin, TX for work last week. I'm heading into tech this week for my Akvavit show (are you coming?). I also have sewing for Lilla Barn to catch up on. Needless to say, I've got a lot going on.

So...until I get back up and on my feet, here are couple of little lovelies from DUNS Sweden. Their clothes are organic and bright and super cute. They're also on the mini social this week.

Baby spoon

Tonight when I got home from rehearsal Jo was having a hard time. She just wouldn't stay asleep whenever our sitter put her down in her crib. So I took Jo into our room and we snuggled. Ever since we started the weaning process she has begun to love snuggling. It makes sense. She curls up in my arms with her back against my chest and we spoon. She's my little baby spoon.

We were in bed for a bit and then she rolled over and grabbed her baby doll and pulled her close. We were just lying there in bed; Jo holding her baby and me holding mine. Then she reached her hand back to touch my face, to make sure I was still there. And we stayed like that for a while. It was so simple and so perfect.

And then she fell asleep. 

Friday Family Fun!

My sister-in-law (Kristen) and my sister (Sarri) recently started texting each other making really ugly faces. I'm glad they are such good friends. Anyway, it caught on, and somehow now Kristen's fiance (Dan), Sarri's husband (David), Nick, and I are also on board. It's super crazy and awesome and funny and I laugh out loud daily. Our text chain has been going on for almost a month now. Man, can we make some ugly faces. Kristen even had the great idea to make a photo book. Perfect for the coffee table.

Here are my favorites. Enjoy!

You're welcome!

A treat for me

I recently got a check from the last commercial I shot. Most of it went into savings. I took a little bit out for a few treats for me.

Treat #1: Manicure

Backstory: I got a set of Incoco nail appliques in one of my first Birchboxes ever. I decided to share them with my sister, Liv, since she is super awesome. Over Christmas she had the Incoco nail polish on and I was so jealous, so I went online to order my own.

Last week I applied the color Runway (seen below). The application was actually really easy and I did it with Jo running around. I had a little trouble filing off the excess paint -- I couldn't get a smooth line at the top of my nail. But then again I'm a huge perfectionist. I think I'll look for tips online. One thing that I love is that the polish goes on sooooooo shiny! It's supposed to last for up to 14 days. We'll see.

Day 1

So, the verdict. This stuff is so great! Seriously. The polish actually lasted 8 days with minimal chipping at the tips of my nails and I was typing and washing dishes and doing laundry and more. The only reason this manicure lasted 8 days instead of 14 is that I started picking the polish off. I'm a picker. It's a nervous habit.

Days 2, 5, 8

And I ordered a bunch more.

Here's my new fave:

Sleep is for the weak?

I love sleeping. I really love sleeping. Back when I was single (Nick's definition of single = before kid) I reveled in going to bed late and sleeping in. Like sleeping in until 10am on weekends. I used to need at least 9 hours of sleep a night to function well during the day (10 was preferable). Sleeping was my favorite.

Wow, has that changed.

Don't get me wrong, I still love sleeping, but I'm learning to get by on less. Jo has never been a great sleeper. It's not a huge deal to me since overall she's such an amazing kid. It's just a pain as we continue to adjust to her ever-changing habits. I've learned to survive on as little sleep as possible between her late nights and early mornings.

Jo has never slept all night. And by "all night" I mean all night-go-to-bed-in-the-evening-and-not-get-up-until-morning. We put her to bed in her crib and she usually wakes up a couple of times before Nick and I go to bed. Jo has a hard time putting herself back to sleep and we aren't using a cry-it-out method so either Nick or I have to get her back down. It's not really an issue between 8pm-11pm. It just takes some of our time. Fine by me.

The hard part is when she wakes up after Nick and I have gone to bed. It seems like it's much harder for her to fall back asleep during these later wake-ups. Plus Nick and I tend to be groggy or cranky from being woken up. Usually at that point I just bring her into bed with us and nurse her back to sleep. That always works. Always. And she just nurses off and on throughout the night. Easy peasy.

But now we're starting to night-wean. I'm ready to be done nursing. We had a good run, but it's time. So the night-weaning changes just compound the non-sleeping issues since Jo really has come to expect that when she comes into our bed at night that she gets to nurse herself back down. It's a comfort thing. I get that. But I also know that when Jo spent the night with Grandma she didn't have any problems falling asleep on Grandma's shoulder. So I know it can be done.

So what are we doing? Well, Nick has been amazing and has taken the "early" shift between 8pm-midnight getting up with her most nights. The idea being that since she can't nurse with Nick she'll get used to going back down with just a little parental help. Overall it's been up and down. If Jo really doesn't want to go back to sleep Nick's fail-safe has been to sleep with her on the couch. For some reason being wedged in between Nick and the couch instantly puts her back to sleep.

When she wakes up again after midnight I take her into bed and she nurses. At least that was the routine over the past few weeks. The next step is to cut out a few more hours of nursing. If we can get to 3am with no nursing, that would be swell. Then we'll go from there.

The past few nights have been really hard. Jo has woken up a number of times and after her 11pm wake-up she just doesn't want to go back down. Last night Nick was up with her for an hour on the couch and then I took over for another good hour. This was all between 11pm-1am. You'd think she would be tired enough to just sleep.

Perhaps the universe is taking care of me: I saw this article about sleep, gratitude, and parenting in my Facebook feed today. After digging around on the Evolutionary Parenting site I like this article even more. Good timing, right? I also recently joined a group on Facebook that supports the "Wait It Out" Method where the group description is:

"Wait it Out" is defined by each family. Some of us co-sleep. Some of us do no-cry sleep training. Some of us swaddle. Some of us nurse our children to sleep. Some of us use pacfiers. Some of us formula feed. What we all have in common is that we don't believe that babies need to be "trained" to sleep with tears.

This group is great for support when things seem rough. Like this week when I haven't slept much at all and things seem really hard. And when Nick is frustrated and when I'm frustrated and we're both tired and cranky and nothing seems to be working at night and we're living on coffee during the day and we all have bags under our eyes (even little Jo). It's nice to know that others struggle with this too. And we all make different choices based on what is best for our families.

I have to remind myself to be patient. It doesn't help me to get frustrated and it certainly doesn't help Jo. I have to remind myself that we can't push. We can't make Jo sleep. She WILL eventually sleep all night. Night-time parenting may always be a part of our routine, but it will certainly evolve. She WILL eventually sleep in her own bed. We'll get there.

In the meantime, Nick and I just splurged on a new king bed. If we're all going to be up in the middle of the night we might as well have a big bed to play in, right?

Zulily Alert - Pears & Bears

I haven't posted anything from Zulily in a while and was delighted today by these lovely little dresses by Pears & Bears. The vintage styles for little girls (and boys) are so sweet and the colors are perfect for Valentine's Day coming up. Although I would dress Jo in red all year long. In fact, I would probably wear these dresses too. Matching mama/daughter outfits!!

Light pink & red bow dress | Red geometric dress | Red corduroy dress

Pears & Bears founder, Kayce Hughes, got her start at Ralph Lauren. Now she has seven kids and an amazing clothing line. Yay!

What's up with your show?

That's what a lot of people are asking me right now. Well, thanks for asking. Let me give you an update.

My theatre company, Akvavit Theatre, is fortunate to present Chicago premieres of 3 of Jon Fosse's plays: A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream, & Winter. This is a big deal. Jon Fosse is a contemporary Norwegian playwright who is well-known and frequently produced everywhere except the United States. He's never been produced to Chicago. We commissioned three new American translations and are producing the three plays as part of a triptych we're calling Gjenganger: 3 plays by Jon Fosse. I'm even in one of them. Hooray!

We've been in full-force fundraising mode and just launched our Kickstarter as a way to help raise money. There's a pretty sweet video so definitely check it out even if you can't give at this time. Just so you know, producing a full-length play in Chicago can cost anywhere between $10,000-50,000 (that's a storefront budget, not a Steppenwolf budget). That money goes to paying for rehearsal and performance space, hiring designers & crew, buying costumes and set materials, getting marketing materials, and so many other things. Most of us don't even get paid for the work that we do. If we do, we don't get paid much. Anyway, if you feel so inclined and are able to give, every dollar helps. Tusen takk! (that's Norwegian for thank you!)

We just started rehearsals for all three plays (with three directors and three casts) and will open February 28th! Stay tuned.

Just for fun, here is a promo pic for Winter (the play that I'm in).