We had a nice Christmas. Chris and I didn’t put the tree up because Max isn’t old enough to listen to us to not touch it, so we just used the felt toy my mother in law sent us. We got Max a lot of books – he loves The Little Blue Truck series and birds. He might not know colors, but he knows and can say pelican, kiwi, owl, penguin (pe-beh), crow, potoo (it’s a kind of owl), kookaburra (kooboochoo), verdin (a kind of bird that lives in the desert in I think central America area and eats spiders), and puffin. lol
I’ve been playing the Playstation game Hollowknight: Silksong. I loved Hollowknight and waited excitedly for years as the promised sequel came out. It’s hard! There’s this joke video “This game is mean,” which shows various points in Silksong that I TOTALLY AGREE WITH. Like how I’m going to gather rosaries (the currency) but they all fall off the cliff before I can get them. Or I’m almost dead and finally made it to a bench (the save point) but the bench gets stuck and I can’t sit on it.
But I’ve been really enjoying it. When Max goes to sleep around 8 PM, I clean the kitchen and then play for about an hour. Sometimes when Max naps I get in 30 mins to an hour after tidying. I also finished My Hero Academia in this way. I LOVED IT.
Honestly, I think two people should have died…their surviving was kind of stretching it, in my opinion, but I didn’t want them to die so I’m not going to complain too much. lol It didn’t end the way I thought. I’m glad things aren’t predictable. I loved the story and the ending, how all the characters played a roll. I’m glad I got to cosplay All Might in my last fight. I think he’s my favorite character.
I’ve made some new mom-friends who I’ve been hanging out with weekly. One I started doing physical training with at outdoor fitness parks while our kids walk around playing with nature. Two more have been doing jiujitsu with me! I’ve been dragging my portable mat out on the grass at the park and we get serious with it. If our kids pester us or run away, we have to pause, slide on our sandals, and run after them.
I’m sad not having a team anymore. I miss what I had at Syndicate MMA. I miss teaching kids at Tribe and I’m sad that I didn’t really get to take as many of Casey’s classes as I wanted to. My teens class pretty much disappeared without me. I miss teaching at Nomad Krav maga once a week. I miss not taking Rene’s classes at Methods. I joined that gym but it was just too far away, and then I got pregnant. I miss drilling with my friend Charlie, and I miss training with my husband Chris. I feel like such a huge part of my life is missing without all that. So it’s been sips of water in a desert to have Amy and Emily come out and do jiujitsu with me in the park. Thank you, ladies.
It’s nice making friends who are moms who have similar child-raising values as me, such as no screens, go outside to the park a lot, healthy food, exercise, etc.
Also, Beth Nitkin has been teaching me new stuff I’m not familiar with when I drive to Atlas Grapping once every other week or so. I take that and then drill it on my mom-jitsu friends. It makes me feel like myself somewhat again. I’m a social person and it’s been hard on me to be home a lot. I am NOT a homebody.
I went to Rowdy Rollers 2025 where women from different gyms in Vegas gather. You can see how thrilled I am. I got to roll with LOTS OF FEMALE BLACK BELTS and brown belts. OMG I hunger for these kinds of rolls! Very hard to come by!
Max seems to enjoy going out. He seems outgoing, from what I can tell. He goes right up to new kids on playgrounds and tries to follow or imitate them. He returns smiles of adults in grocery stores or elevators.
My husband and I decided I wouldn’t post pictures of Max online but I did some anyway earlier. My bad…. Well I’m stopping face pictures because it leaves a digital record of him before he even can consent to it. Also, AI is making porn from kids photos. So you guys can now deal with my tasteful mystery photos of the back of his head or cute little hands. AAAh he’s just so wonderful and perfect and smart and cute and kissable and and and anddddddddddddddddd
My goals for next year: participate in a jiujitsu competition.
Keep raising Max well. I’m pleased with how things are going. He eats well, he’s large (30 lbs and wearing 3 T clothes at a year and a half), is saying new words every day, etc. I also want to enjoy doing more things with my beloved husband. <3