Today was my last midweek break. I've been taking Wednesdays off to spend more time with Lukas so that I was only away from him for 2 days at a time instead of a week. This was the last one. I'll still be working 4 day work weeks because I have 4 summer Fridays to burn, but this will be the last Wednesday. I'm going to miss it. He probably won't remember these days, but I will. It's not like we did anything special. In fact, it was a lot like the days I had on maternity leave. It's just hard since he spends about 9 hours a day at daycare and we only get to see him for about 3-4 hours a day during the week.
Today, we started the day off with a stroller walk with the parents group we belong to. Then, I thought I had a conference call with the client that got cancelled which was a bit frustrating because I stayed up until almost midnight working on a presentation for it. I'm having a tough time at work right now. The work itself is OK, but I'm finding it really hard to work with someone that I don't respect. I love my boss and the team is great, except for one person- my boss's boss. I think it may be time to look for something else. I really loved my job for the first 6 months, so it's sad that it's come to this. It's funny- most of the time, it's bad if your boss is telling you to find a new job. However, this time, my boss told me I should be looking because there is no future at this company and that she's looking too. I guess I should be thankful that she's looking out for me. I remembered thinking to myself that I should enjoy this job as long as I can because it usually doesn't last. Unfortunately, I was right.
After the stroller walk, Lukas and I had lunch with Shannon and Katie. Katie was born on the same day as Lukas. Shannon is her stay-at-home dad. They recently moved to Alameda and Edwin met them on the one time he was able to come to a stroller walk. They moved from NYC and his wife Heather is from OH and works at an agency, so we have some things in common. Then, Lukas and I ran some errands like grocery shopping, dropping off dry cleaning, getting gas, and getting cash. I think I really need one of these days at least once a month. Seriously, we had no bread, eggs, or milk in the house. We had food in the pantry, but no staples.
Like I said, I'll miss these lazy days with Lukas. I could tell that he was happy to be spending the day with me too. He was laughing a lot. He behaved by taking his naps and we got to play together. I'm glad that I'll have Fridays off in August, but it's going to be hard working 4 full days of work in a row. Wait- am I transitioning Lukas into daycare or weaning myself off of maternity leave? Hmm... probably both. What am I going to do when I have to work 5 whole days in a row? Let's not think about that. I know. I'm totally spoiled.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Bliss
Now I don't want to brag, but Lukas is a great baby. We've been trying to get him sleep without a swaddle. Why would we do that since we have been extolling the virtues of the swaddle since his birth? Well, last week he started rolling over. A lot. In fact, it was the first thing he would do after waking up and I found him one morning wedged against the side of the crib unable to move. So even though it was great for months, we decided to wean Lukas off of the swaddle or maybe he just convinced us that he didn't need it anymore.
On Friday, he cried for almost an hour before falling asleep. On Saturday, he also cried for a while before falling asleep. It was terrible. We would try and give him his pacifier or pat him, but he would just get angrier. On Sunday, he fell asleep in his carseat and slept there all night. Last night, I put him in his crib awake and he played for a while and then fell asleep with any crying. It was beautiful. Tonight, he went down again without a fight. Lovin' it.
Last weekend, I got a fever on Friday. I was able to just sleep early on Friday and it pretty much went away the next day with the exception of a little sore throat. I was glad that Lukas didn't get sick at all. I tried to stay away from Lukas except to feed him. Surprisingly, it's good for me to breastfeed him because I give him the immunity through the milk so that he won't get sick. Weird how that stuff works.
On Saturday, we took it easy since I was still recovering. We also attended a Red Eggs & Ginger Party for our cousin's twins. This is the first one I have attended. We thought about doing something to celebrate Lukas's first month or 100 days, but I didn't know what to do, so we didn't do anything. It was fun. It was kind of like a wedding banquet with 10 courses at a Chinese restaurant. They were even advertising for newborn red egg parties. I guess that's the trend now.
On Sunday, Edwin helped the Schneiders move into their new house. YAY! It reminded me of when we first bought our house and sleeping on the ktichen floor for a week and trying to get setup. Stressful, fun, and exciting. I can't believe that we have been in our house for almost 2 years now. Then, we had dinner with a friend from out of town. Vic is a friend that I have known for almost 25 years. Yikes, there's not that many people I can say that I have known for that long and still keep in touch. He was the emcee at our wedding and always makes us laugh. It was great catching up with him and our mutual local friends Will & Chiao. Lukas loved meeting Vic. He wasn't quite sure in the beginning and would look at me to see if it was OK, but then Vic started making him laugh and it was all over. They are best buds. It certainly helps that Vic is an experienced Dad with 2 kids of his own though I'm glad to see that Lukas loves Vic as much as we do. I'll post pics if I can get it from Vic. We also got to visit Vicki who was also in town, so we got to reminisce about growing up in Cleveland. None of us live there anymore, but there is something to be said about how we have managed to keep in touch. It was so nice to see them again. Reminders of who we are and those who helped us become that way.
On Friday, he cried for almost an hour before falling asleep. On Saturday, he also cried for a while before falling asleep. It was terrible. We would try and give him his pacifier or pat him, but he would just get angrier. On Sunday, he fell asleep in his carseat and slept there all night. Last night, I put him in his crib awake and he played for a while and then fell asleep with any crying. It was beautiful. Tonight, he went down again without a fight. Lovin' it.
Last weekend, I got a fever on Friday. I was able to just sleep early on Friday and it pretty much went away the next day with the exception of a little sore throat. I was glad that Lukas didn't get sick at all. I tried to stay away from Lukas except to feed him. Surprisingly, it's good for me to breastfeed him because I give him the immunity through the milk so that he won't get sick. Weird how that stuff works.
On Saturday, we took it easy since I was still recovering. We also attended a Red Eggs & Ginger Party for our cousin's twins. This is the first one I have attended. We thought about doing something to celebrate Lukas's first month or 100 days, but I didn't know what to do, so we didn't do anything. It was fun. It was kind of like a wedding banquet with 10 courses at a Chinese restaurant. They were even advertising for newborn red egg parties. I guess that's the trend now.
On Sunday, Edwin helped the Schneiders move into their new house. YAY! It reminded me of when we first bought our house and sleeping on the ktichen floor for a week and trying to get setup. Stressful, fun, and exciting. I can't believe that we have been in our house for almost 2 years now. Then, we had dinner with a friend from out of town. Vic is a friend that I have known for almost 25 years. Yikes, there's not that many people I can say that I have known for that long and still keep in touch. He was the emcee at our wedding and always makes us laugh. It was great catching up with him and our mutual local friends Will & Chiao. Lukas loved meeting Vic. He wasn't quite sure in the beginning and would look at me to see if it was OK, but then Vic started making him laugh and it was all over. They are best buds. It certainly helps that Vic is an experienced Dad with 2 kids of his own though I'm glad to see that Lukas loves Vic as much as we do. I'll post pics if I can get it from Vic. We also got to visit Vicki who was also in town, so we got to reminisce about growing up in Cleveland. None of us live there anymore, but there is something to be said about how we have managed to keep in touch. It was so nice to see them again. Reminders of who we are and those who helped us become that way.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Back to the Old Grind
So I went back to work last week. It's been OK. The first day was definitely the hardest. More for me than for Lukas. He was fine going to daycare. For me, it was hard to leave him all day long. It was the first time I left him with anyone except Edwin for 10 hours. We had a little scare last week when I had an allergic reaction to a new type of shellfish called periwinkle. I woke up congested and coughing. I thought that I was sick. I couldn't believe it because I didn't get sick while I was pregnant or in Lukas's first 4 months, so it's been over a year. I thought that maybe I had caught something on my first day back at work.
I was having a tough time getting to sleep because of the congestion. I woke up to get a drink of water and saw my reflection in the bathroom. My lips were completely puffy. That was when I realized that I had an allergic reaction to dinner. Luckily, the reaction only lasted one day and I was able to take Claritin and it cleared up. Now I know what I would look like with collogen- not good.
We are still trying to get the logistics of getting to work down, but it's tough. Lukas's daycare closes at 5:30 and I feel like we're racing against the clock to get back to Alameda in time. That's the toughest part. I really like our daycare provider. She was a little more expensive, but I think that she is worth it. I had interviewed several home daycares and many of them seem to have older children that play a little rougher. Some of them had the TV running while I was there and I found the caregivers paid more attention to me than the children. There was one that had a really clean house, but no toys in sight. What kind of daycare doesn't have toys?
Work itself has also been tough. There have been a few rounds of layoffs while I was gone and a lot of my coworkers were moved to another building. It is very depressing to see all the empty cubicles around me. I used to be able to say that I had fun at work and liked the people around me. Now, the work is OK, but I can't stand my disorganized project lead. It really goes to show that work is really impacted by the people that you work with. If you have good people, it makes bad work tolerable. If you have good work, but bad people, you can still be miserable.
Last weekend, we spent most of it at the new Schneider house in Castro Valley. We painted, helped organize the kitchen, and picked up food. It reminded me of how hectic it was when we first moved in. While we are mostly settled now, there are still some things Edwin and I still haven't gotten around to doing. I feel like we are always cleaning the garage. We also managed to lock ourselves out of our house this weekend. After painting/hanging out until 1AM, we got home and realized that we had left the keys in the house. Our next door neighbor has our spare keys, but we didn't feel comfortable waking them up at 2AM to get it. Jeannette also has a key, but we couldn't reach her either. So we ended up having an impromptu sleepover at Show's since she was also a fellow painter. This just shows that we need to hide a key. Edwin and I keep talking about doing that, but we haven't.
I was having a tough time getting to sleep because of the congestion. I woke up to get a drink of water and saw my reflection in the bathroom. My lips were completely puffy. That was when I realized that I had an allergic reaction to dinner. Luckily, the reaction only lasted one day and I was able to take Claritin and it cleared up. Now I know what I would look like with collogen- not good.
We are still trying to get the logistics of getting to work down, but it's tough. Lukas's daycare closes at 5:30 and I feel like we're racing against the clock to get back to Alameda in time. That's the toughest part. I really like our daycare provider. She was a little more expensive, but I think that she is worth it. I had interviewed several home daycares and many of them seem to have older children that play a little rougher. Some of them had the TV running while I was there and I found the caregivers paid more attention to me than the children. There was one that had a really clean house, but no toys in sight. What kind of daycare doesn't have toys?
Work itself has also been tough. There have been a few rounds of layoffs while I was gone and a lot of my coworkers were moved to another building. It is very depressing to see all the empty cubicles around me. I used to be able to say that I had fun at work and liked the people around me. Now, the work is OK, but I can't stand my disorganized project lead. It really goes to show that work is really impacted by the people that you work with. If you have good people, it makes bad work tolerable. If you have good work, but bad people, you can still be miserable.
Last weekend, we spent most of it at the new Schneider house in Castro Valley. We painted, helped organize the kitchen, and picked up food. It reminded me of how hectic it was when we first moved in. While we are mostly settled now, there are still some things Edwin and I still haven't gotten around to doing. I feel like we are always cleaning the garage. We also managed to lock ourselves out of our house this weekend. After painting/hanging out until 1AM, we got home and realized that we had left the keys in the house. Our next door neighbor has our spare keys, but we didn't feel comfortable waking them up at 2AM to get it. Jeannette also has a key, but we couldn't reach her either. So we ended up having an impromptu sleepover at Show's since she was also a fellow painter. This just shows that we need to hide a key. Edwin and I keep talking about doing that, but we haven't.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Happy 4th of July!
Last weekend was a busy one. On Friday, we went on our weekly stroller walk. Lukas and I have been walking along the Alameda shore every Friday morning for the past few weeks with a few other new parents. This time, Edwin got to attend with us. It was a gorgeous day to be walking. Then, we all attended Freeman's first birthday party. Of course, everyone had a great time and it was a beautiful day out. Pictures will be posted later.
On Saturday, we attended the Alameda Parade. It's like a little slice of Americana. Lots of homemade floats, families with kids, local businesses, and marching bands. Lukas was of course a little too young to enjoy it, but as usual, he likes to be outside and seeing people, so he was happy. We walked to the parade from our house with our neighbor Leilani, Darryl & Susan, and the Schneiders. This year's parade seemed a little more crowded than last year, but it was still fun.
We also hosted a BBQ. The day was such a blur. We had a great time on a gorgeous day. This year, we had the BBQ in the front yard along with all of our neighbors. We had a little buffet table with 3 types of tri-tip, pineapple sausage, veggies, salad, apple pie, choc chip brownies, chips, fruit, and fresh lemonade. On Sunday, we did a little shopping and then went to hang out with the Schneiders and Banerjees because we simply don't see them enough.
Lukas had his 4-month check-up last week. He's now officially 16lbs. 2 oz. and 25.5 inches long. He is growing like a weed. We haven't posted any photos or videos in a while, so here are some recent ones of Lukas and Daddy playing "Stinky Feet" and Lukas in his new favorite toy, the "Jumparoo."
On Saturday, we attended the Alameda Parade. It's like a little slice of Americana. Lots of homemade floats, families with kids, local businesses, and marching bands. Lukas was of course a little too young to enjoy it, but as usual, he likes to be outside and seeing people, so he was happy. We walked to the parade from our house with our neighbor Leilani, Darryl & Susan, and the Schneiders. This year's parade seemed a little more crowded than last year, but it was still fun.
We also hosted a BBQ. The day was such a blur. We had a great time on a gorgeous day. This year, we had the BBQ in the front yard along with all of our neighbors. We had a little buffet table with 3 types of tri-tip, pineapple sausage, veggies, salad, apple pie, choc chip brownies, chips, fruit, and fresh lemonade. On Sunday, we did a little shopping and then went to hang out with the Schneiders and Banerjees because we simply don't see them enough.
Lukas had his 4-month check-up last week. He's now officially 16lbs. 2 oz. and 25.5 inches long. He is growing like a weed. We haven't posted any photos or videos in a while, so here are some recent ones of Lukas and Daddy playing "Stinky Feet" and Lukas in his new favorite toy, the "Jumparoo."
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