January Blues

The excitement of the holidays is long gone. I was really looking forward to this month. I thought it would be nice to cleanse, organize, and have some quiet time (ha ha). Although I LOVE Christmas, it was a lot of work this year with an infant (I'm sure it is with children of any age). Now, everything is kind of BLAH. It didn't help that I saw Marley & Me over the weekend. Oh my God! SO sad. I assumed that the dog died in the end (because everyone said it was such a tear jerker, so what else could it be?), but there was so much more. Great movie, but a little depressing. I'm still thinking about it. Then, I finished an extremely disturbing memoir about the Holocaust on Sunday night. I still can't stop thinking about that either. Monday night the Bachelor came on, so that was a little bit of a reprieve from all the sadness. But then the news starts at 10 and is there anything good to say about what's going on in the world? Please tell me something good! Were there any new baby Polar Bears born at the zoo that I can see some footage of? No? Also, Ellie has been going through a new phase (one I don't like so much) for the past couple weeks where she SCREAMS at the top of her lungs every time I leave the room. Maybe I should feel flattered, but I'm not. Even if she is twenty feet away from me while I walk over to the kitchen sink, tears start streaming down her face. It breaks my heart. I really don't know what to do. Do I embrace this phase and hope that it passes soon? What if it doesn't? Am I spoiling her by running back every time she cries or is it cruel to not go pick her up right away? Does she think that I've disappeared into thin air every time I leave the room? I can see how that may be traumatizing to her if that's the case. I'm kind of hoping the answers will just come to me.

Anyhow...on a lighter note, I did manage to snap a few cute photos yesterday. I think that they're pretty good given that I don't have a super-fancy high tech camera (but I would like one). They are the many faces of my sweet girl: