hannah ananas

There are certain tasks that my daughter does with my husband (when he is home and doing them, that is), like mowing the lawn. It’s a ride-on mower, and she loves driving it with either of us. However, those things are kind of random and not easy to plan around. For this time that my husband is home, I planned, essentially, one activity per day for him to go do with her and without me, away from home. That way, I can nap or do whatever on my own for a couple hours, and they get solo time together, as well as his getting to parent on his own some, but not too much.

However, tomorrow seems to be an odd combination of his wanting to do multiple things that normally involve her doing them with him. On top of the play date I scheduled for the two of them early afternoon. So, it seems like they might be together for two big chunks of the day tomorrow. His initial reaction took discovering this was not a positive one. And it had me worried that I was pawning her off on him or something. But I realized that it isn’t actually all that much (especially compared to how rarely I get breaks when I’m on my own with her), and remembered that I am literally sick and trying to recover and be able to function again, and this might be one of the only days that I have him even around this week. AKA this is my chance to rest all day and get well. And I have no doubt that I would do the same for him, if the roles were reversed on this. So, not too concerned after all. Also, I didn’t plan for him to have all the things together. I just planned the one thing. It is coincidence that they get so much bonus time in the same day. And that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with them spending more time together without me right now.

Post-a-day 2026

I heard someone talking about her “push present” yesterday, which was not cheap, but diamonds. Today, however, it suddenly hit me why that seemed so weird to me (aside from the whole thing being dumb and slightly weird to me in the first place for women, essentially, to demand an expensive gift from their husbands after giving birth).

Why did it land as odd for me? She didn’t even push anything out(!!!!!).

And no, it wasn’t for medically necessary reasons in the least. It was a scheduled c-section for her convenience. Yes, really.

And, while I fully allow that this is an available option to people, it does not, however, feel appropriate to have a “push present” when one doesn’t actually do the pushing referenced. Sure, the surgery was real and so was the recovery from it. So, call it a surgery present. Or a pregnancy present for carrying and growing the baby all those weeks. But don’t call it something it isn’t. As with everything else inaccurately named, that really bugs me. And it adds, especially in this case, and bit of disrespect for those who did do the pushing and didn’t get a present. Do you know what I mean?

Anyway, the whole thing bugs me, anyway, so what does it even matter? It’s just weird. So weird…

Post-a-day 2026

My husband tends to see a certification that isn’t being actively used, and mostly for the purpose of financial gain, as a waste. However, I like to gain certifications as a means of learning for myself. If I have an interest in something and I want to learn more than just a little about it, I like to do genuine training and education in that something and to get a certification for that training. It doesn’t mean I plan or aim to earn money with said certification. For me, the certification is an acknowledgement of my own education and growth. But I think he sees something like that as wasteful.

Which is valuable for me to recognize, as those are two very different viewpoints.

Post-a-day 2026

It feels harder than ever to give feedback to companies. The irony of it all is that, in their refusing to accept feedback, they open themselves up to public defamation – social media is the only option for folks to express their frustrations and needs. And that’s a super stupid plan.

Yet, somehow, the majority of them seem to be following it now. So dumb. Just so dumb.

Post-a-day 2026

I’ve worked extremely hard to do Duolingo lessons every single day for years. I used to be able to have the Duolingo Streak Society icon for my app’s icon on my phone. Tonight, Duolingo removed that feature. Just putting more crap on top of all of the other horrible changes they have made to prove that they are into money way more so than the free education they used to tout. Clearly, their original goal has gone to trash, a lot like the quality of their lessons (this AI stuff has been awful in the lessons). I already have stopped recommending it to most people, and this now has me on the edge of never using it again. It may seem petty, but it really bothers me that there’s a random icon with a towel on its head and cucumbers over its eyes, instead of the one that I earned a few years ago and was proud to see every single day.

I hope the folks in charge of this get diarrhea on their way to work every Monday now until they resolve this.

Post-a-day 2026

Tonight, my husband took our daughter with him on some late-evening errands, after having had her outside with him for an hour or two beforehand. So, I rested a bit at first, then I did some chores, had my dinner, and showered and got ready for bed when I felt ready for it… all on my own. It was awesome.

I wish I could get ready for bed when I truly wanted every night. Got some thinking to do on this…

Post-a-day 2026

Walking around Costco to expend energy not in the heat, my daughter started pushing the cart. My husband even stood on the cart, and she still was able to push it, quite impressively. I shared a video of it, and a friend complimented my daughter’s butt sticker.

I know. It was this huge thing that covered her whole bum and bottom portion of her dress. But what was this sticker in the first place? It was the watermelon perishable sticker, but it had my husband’s birthday on it, so he stuck it to her after she got out of the watermelon bin.

Yes. Exactly.

Haha. Great times together today at Costco.

Post-a-day 2026

Sometimes, we will have a family something at a restaurant. On some of these occasions, my daughter gets fussy and wants to run around instead of sit at the table (and so gets even louder than she was already fussing), and I start to stress about the disturbance.

Oftentimes, though, on these same occasions, another family appears in the restaurant with a screaming child. Which, while annoying in its nature, gives me an immediate sense of ease as I realize that my child is nowhere near that level of disruption and things aren’t actually as bad as I was starting to feel that they were.

Yes, she’s fussing and causing me trouble, and even some annoyance at our own table. But she isn’t actually loud enough to be an overall disturbance in the restaurant. Because that kid over there isn’t even all that bad of a disturbance, yet he is clearly screaming intensely in his fit.

Haha.

So dumb, but so true. It’s always a quick reminder that things are actually totally fine and I can chill. Kids are kids, and I’m not doing a horrible job of parenting, let alone doing so in public.

God, please keep my husband and our daughter and me safe and well and whole. Grant is rejuvenating sleep each night and safe travels always. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2026

I forgot to take her 18-month photo. I have avoided thinking much about it, but I know that I am deeply upset about it. I’m not sure there really is a remedy at this point. On the day, I forgot until late in the day, at which point I was exhausted. I said that I would do it the next day, and that would be fine. And it would have been. Except that, on the next day, a kid hit my daughter in the face with the corner of a board book and cut her face. So, she then had a cut-turned-scab right next to her nose and eye for maybe a week. By the time it healed, I’d kind of forgotten about the photo. Only remember it again well after the mark had healed, and it already felt too far into the month. So, I avoided thinking about it. Thought of it again yesterday and today, several times. Still trying not to think about it, because I know I’m crushed at having missed it. Because she has been changing a lot lately.

So, I think the remedy is just to do 19 months and to be okay with that.

I’ll sit with that and see how I feel tomorrow.

Thank you, God. Please, keep us safe and make us well and whole. Especially my husband and daughter, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2026

She cries and says, “Mama? Wha yu do?”

“I’m going to bed,” I declare, both exhausted and  frustrated. I am beyond done with this night and with her constantly acting like she’ll go to sleep and then popping up and running off to do yet another something.

Just so tired…

Silver lining is that I didn’t yell at her or curse and scream tonight. So, that’s something very good, at least.

Post-a-day 2026