Milestones, competition and self-satisfaction

As long as he doesn't turn out like Uncle Eddie, I think he'll be alright.

By nature, I'm not a competitive person. I never enjoyed team sports, I would rather make love than war and, though I'm proud to be the reigning champ in my fantasy football league, I'm not exactly heart-broken that I'm 1-1 so far this season, with few prospects.

My fantasy football team name and mascot.

But it's human nature to compare yourself to others, and nowhere is that more apparent or, IMHO, more detrimental than in new moms and milestones. We all know babies and children develop at their own pace. We know there is no "right" age to hit milestones. But that doesn't stop us from cheering our kids on every step of the way, and wondering why they aren't progressing as fast as others.

Harrison is a big kid. He's in the upper-90th percentile in all his measurements, and he is the size of an average 2-year-old. A lot of people assume he's much older than he is. Several times when David or I have been out with him, folks have asked, "Is he walking yet?" "Is he talking yet?" etc. And when we say no, not yet, they give you that condescending pity face and say, "Oh, well, everyone develops at their own pace." Which is code for "My baby is so much more advanced than yours, your poor, poor person." When we explain that he is not yet one year old, they usually have the good grace to be embarrassed.

But even yet, I find myself comparing him to other kids his age. I look at the posts from friends or women in my Edmonds Moms Facebook group, and I wonder, is he stacking up?

As a matter of fact, recently Harrison and I participated in the Make a Wish Foundation's Walk for Wishes, a 5k to raise money to grant sick kids' wishes. I was chatting with another mom of a small child and when I told her he was 11 months, she said, "Mine too!" It turns out they're only 9 days apart. Then, over runs this toddler, with a full head of hair, who goes on to have a conversation with the aforementioned mom about which granola bar she would eat. If that girl was 11 months old, I'm freakin' 21 (sigh). I assume the mom misheard me, but what surprised me was my immediate reaction of disbelief and self-consciousness. Even if she is the same age as Harrison, and just way, WAY advanced for her age, why should it matter? It's not a competition. And yet ...

Honestly, who cares how many milestones he's accomplished when you see this adorable face!?!

This weird pseudo-competition bleeds into other aspects of motherhood as well. With Harrison's first birthday coming up, I've learned that Pinterest is both my best friend and worst frenemy. How the hell can I hope to measure up to the picture-perfect party scenes when I honestly can't remember the last time all our dishes were clean. And the thing is, Harrison couldn't care less about his party.

But the pressure is there, to be that mom. That mom who feeds her kids only locally grown, organic, whole foods (ha ha. ha.). That mom who's home is always at least picked up and doesn't smell like litter box and chicken nuggets. That mom who throws "Pinterest-worthy" parties that are straight out of Martha Stewart Living and seems completely stress-free and serene while doing it.

I am not that mom.

Reality.

I think it's healthy that I can at least recognize when I'm starting to go down the rabbit hole of comparison and remind myself how ridiculous it all is. But I still need to do better. I need to stop worrying about what we're not doing, and start enjoying what we are. Easier said than done. But then I look at my little spaghetti face, happy as can be, and know I'm doing just fine at this mom stuff.

What's in a name?

My latest assignment in my data class was to use a data visualization tool to create a story using any data I wanted. I decided to look at baby names and, in particular, my baby's name. I went to the Social Security website's baby name section to look up the data.

First, I looked up the most popular boy names in the U.S. for 2014. Then, I pulled data from each state and found how many babies were named Harrison in 2014 for each state. Then I realized that that didn't tell the whole story, since obviously a state with 1 million people is likely to have significantly more Harrisons than a state with 1,000. So I went to the Census website and looked up 2014 population estimates by state, to provide context. Finally, I looked up the popularity of the name Harrison in the U.S. from 1900 to 2014.

Once I'd gathered all the data and made it readable (ugh, spreadsheets), I plugged it into the visualization tool, and out popped my story (well, after quite a bit of tweaking and arranging, I did have to do some work):

I think this last part, about how Harrison spiked in popularity after the first Star Wars movie came out, is the most interesting thing. Especially since that's pretty much why we named our baby Harrison (Han for short). ;)

I like that this class is forcing me to step outside my comfort zone, yet I can do it with things that actually interest me, so it's not so hard.

My baby doesn't cuddle.

When I was pregnant with Harrison and preparing for his arrival, I imagined the hours we'd spend snuggled up together in the glider, the late-morning cuddles in Mom & Dad's bed. My sweet boy loving on me for years to come, but especially when he was just a wee bairn.

Nope.

This kid doesn't cuddle, doesn't snuggle, doesn't stop moving period. He's like a Tasmanian devil from the minute his eyes open to the second he passes out. Oh yeah, and he is constantly moving in his sleep as well. Every time we check the baby monitor, he's in a different position.

David and I always resented our cats a bit because they were never snuggly. "It's okay," we'd say, "once the baby is here, we'll have all the snuggles we could ever want!"

Now I'm starting to wonder if it's us. Maybe we repel snuggles. Maybe we stink. Or maybe we just have what's known as a "spirited child" and we should get over ourselves.

Seriously, it's almost impossible to get a picture of the kid without at least one blurry limb.

Example: Our attempt at a decent Easter pic.

And what it took to get there:

But having a non-snuggler isn't all bad. He's adventurous and fearless; he loves to swing and explore new things. He shows his love in other ways — he gives us big, sloppy, open-mouth kisses constantly — and he's learning how to be gentle with us and the cats. 

 

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'll keep my anti-cuddle for now. It makes those few and far between times when he does snuggle up that much more special.

So getting back to content ...

This week our assignment in my Data Analytics class was to use Google Trends to uncover data on a topic and create an infographic describing our findings. We were put into groups and turned loose, with this as an example.

Basically what Google Trends does is show you popularity of search terms within a given timeframe/geography/category/Google site (Web search, image search, YouTube search, etc.). You can compare multiple search terms to see how they stack up against each other, popularity wise.

Though limited in what it will provide, data-wise (no hard numbers, just a scale from 1-100, 100 being most popular — I'm still not sure what that means?), it does give you a pretty cool snapshot of what's trending in search.

For example, today on Facebook, I see the trends are that horrible dentist who killed a lion, Windows 10 and a puppy with a ton of social media followers (my, we're a discerning bunch, aren't we?). If I plug those into Google Trends and look at popularity in Web searches for the past day, I see that Windows 10 is significantly more popular in Web searches than Cecil the lion or Tonkey the dog.

So, like I said, it can be useful, especially in relational values. You can also look at where geographically search terms are more popular, by country, state, metro, city, etc.

Anyway, the point of this blog is actually to show off, so let's get to it!

My teammate and I decided to research craft beer and its rise in popularity, then compare a couple craft beer brands (Dogfish Head, New Belgium) with a couple corporate brands (Coors, Anheuser-Busch).

We didn't find any real surprising results, except maybe that I expected craft beer brands to be more popular in coastal regions of the U.S., and it turns out that not only is "craft beer" as a search term more popular in four other countries than it is in the U.S., all four beer brands were most popular in the area where their headquarters are located.

tl;dr, check out the cool infographic I made!

When I worked in newspapers, I did a ton of graphic design, but since I've been at Waggener Edstrom, I haven't done nearly as much. It was fun to stretch my design muscles a bit. And I was surprised how quickly it all came back to me. 

So that's my little bit of content nerdery for you today. 

Oh, and this was me this morning:

Happy almost-Friday!

A love letter to my Honey Bunny on our ninth anniversary

Dear David -

Yesterday marked nine years since our "wedding." I think it's fitting that we had both a legal marriage that was decidedly un-fancy in one of the fanciest wedding venues around and a fairy-tale fantasy wedding in what is basically my parents' backyard. It's kinda like our relationship: So special, but in the most normal, everyday way.

I love you for a lot of things, but I especially love you for the ways you make me feel special and loved every day. I love that you put up with my wild ideas and go along with my crazy plans, even when it's so not your thing.

 

I love that, regardless of where we are, when I'm with you I'm always home.

I love that you're not afraid to be silly with me, and you know how to make me laugh no matter what mood I'm in.

But more than anything, I love that you and I continually challenge, encourage and support each other. I wouldn't be half the mother, wife or content strategist I am if you didn't encourage me to do more, be better, live up to the vows I made nine years ago, and then support me unconditionally when I do. 

Now if I could only get the homemaker part down. ;)

In the past year, you've helped me learn that my love doesn't have limits; it grows exponentially. When I watch you and Harrison, I feel like I might burst from the joy.

I know now, for sure, that I picked the right person to be my partner in life. I know we said we waited to have a baby until we were super solid in our own relationship, but I have a feeling things would be just the same if we'd had a kid right away. Because I know without a shadow of a doubt that you are who I need by my side as I navigate through life.

Thank you for picking me. Thank you for recognizing the things in me I don't recognize in myself. Thank you for giving me an awesome second family that loves and accepts me without judgement or conditions. Thank you for being the most amazing father, partner, playmate, soulmate I could ever hope for. Thank you for sharing your life with me; I can't imagine my life without you in it.

Llama.

In my family, we don't just celebrate ... we decorate.

My mom turned 60 this week, and I wanted to do something special for her. You see, growing up, she always made birthdays extra special for us. She'd sneak into our rooms while we slept and decorate them — always something new — so we'd wake up to a magical birthday morning, complete with a small present waiting on our breakfast plate.

Yeah, I had that mom. The one that makes all other mothers want to shoot themselves. And this was long, long, loooonnnggg before the age of Pinterest.

That's what I have to live up to. Sigh.

In any case, I wanted to do something similar for my Momma, and the surprisingly thoughtful little brother piped up and said, "Why don't you decorate her kitchen with bees?" (I should also probably mention my mother's obsession with bees — both real and decorative.)

Brilliant!

So I got to work, sourcing tons of decorative bees. Then I convinced my oh-so-wonderful hubby to string them all for me while I attended my weekly data analytics class.

He wasn't too excited about it.

But he's a trooper, and tied them all for me to take over and hang the next morning (at 6:30 a.m. — am I dedicated or what!?!). Dad helped me, and we had them all hung and her present set out with her breakfast (donuts and mimosas ftw!) long before she woke up.

But that's just the beginning. Because her sisters had been planning the actual birthday party for that weekend, complete with a blues band playing in my parents' backyard. Oh, and food.

Lots and lots of food.

Happy birthday to the Queen Bee!

Bonus: Video of my adorable parents dancing to the band at the end of the night. Seriously, if David and I are half this happy together after nearly 38 years of marriage, I'll call it a win. ;)

And this is what I was afraid of

It's been a week, and I haven't posted anything. Exactly why I've been hesitant to start a blog in the past: Keeping up a regular cadence of content.

When we work on content strategies for our clients, one of the things we stress the most is the need for regular, fresh content. Otherwise, you lose eyeballs. And, as a great example, let's take a look at my pageviews since I began the blog:

The first day, I had 87 pageviews. Then it died down to an average of about 42 per day. Then, when I posted my first actual post, it shot up to 251. (I should mention I also posted links to it on Facebook and Twitter that day). Then, without further content to fuel views, it dropped back down to an average of 9.

Sigh.

So, what do we tell clients is the best way to ensure a regular cadence of content? An editorial calendar!

So sexy, I know.

But, honestly, planning is the best way to ensure you've got the content you need, when you need it. And looking ahead helps you ensure that content is relevant to your audience.

So am I going to build my own editorial calendar for this little personal blog? Nah. Not yet, anyway.

But I do need to start thinking like my own content strategist. (Hey, that's why they pay me the big bucks!)

I need to recognize potential posts in the making and attempt to get at least a draft down in the moment. To that end, I've installed the Blogger app on my phone, to hopefully help me be more robust with content on the go.

I should probably also try to up my photo game, but that may be a lost cause. Thank god for filters. So, on that note, I'll leave you with a picture from my one big outing last weekend, to the Edmonds Farmers Market:

Macarons! I couldn't resist. We also picked up croissants, berries (Harrison is a blueberry fiend) and cherries. Man, I love summers in the PNW!

On Blogging

So this is it.

After 10 years working in the content business (in one form or another), I've finally begun my own personal blog. 

Why, you ask? 
The new baby that made my family complete nine months ago? Nope. 
The current political climate? Nope.
My vast knowledge of mostly useless pop culture? Nope. 
A wealth of free time? Ha ha ha Nope. 
Because I just have something really important to say? Nope. 

I'm doing it to learn about data analytics and how I can improve my content strategy chops, through my continuing education class at UW. Boring, I know (but not to me!). But, this blog can be anything I want it to be, so it'll probably include a little bit of all of the above. 

What I don't want it to be is another mommy blog. So even though I'm a new mom and my baby is pretty much all-consuming at this point in my life, I'll try to balance all the "Isn't my baby adorable!?!" posts and pics with some stuff that's a little off the beaten path.

For example: I'm currently in the midst of a Star Trek education at the hands of my husband. I've now seen every original series movie, am starting on the Next Generation movies, and have begun watching the various series I hadn't seen before (anything past Next Generation). This is seriously deep, hard-core nerdery right here. Expect at least a few posts on my reactions. (And stay tuned to find out if I love my husband enough to continue to indulge him in this little experiment.)

Now, as to why it's taken me this long to start my own blog ...

Well, when you're paid to be an awesome content strategist, you can't exactly half-ass it on your own content. At least my perfectionist self can't. And when you spend your work day crafting content for various clients, it's not exactly the first thing you want to do when you get home, even if it is for yourself.

But I have a voice, and it's rarely used in my work writing. I'd like for it to come through here, so I'm trepidatiously taking the plunge (as evidenced by my profile pic). We'll see if I will sink or swim.

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