I'm joining the link up that Grace is, so lovingly, pulling together
We went to High Point for Easter so I could eat great "Gran" cooking, walk around my old stomin' ground with a 17.5 pound (yes, we weighed her this morning) baby strapped to me, and for my mom to show off her S.T.U.N.N.I.N.G granddaughter.
I really liked this dress more than expected, it had a layer of toile and we wore some gifted fancy bloomers and it made the dress puffy and un-believably cute.
I think she really wanted to hold her for the entire time, but I needed something one to make me look that extra bit of cute.
Dress: Lands End that Gran got me for Christmas
Cardigan: Gap Outlet from forever ago
Shoes: Old Navy
Necklace: PoshMommy
On sweet girl we have:
Dress: Possibly Freecycle (not sure)
Cardi: Also not sure
(Helpful, no?)
Charlie and I are super original when it comes to photo stances.
and again
We're all very excited to celebrate that He has Risen!
Sorry all hand-full of people that follow this blog, there has been a large chunk of radio silence on my part.
I'd go into the reasons I haven't been posting, but that would be boring so let us just say things have been busy and will remain busy but I'll at the very least try to bust one of these out on Saturday mornings during a blissfull Nap#1
Mary Margaret is 5 months old today!
BAM that just happened.
We are working hard hard on rolling over (no, we still can't do it), but we're making stride on the "quadripod" sit
Sweet Potato (she threw her head back in ecstasy while nom nom nomming it. clearly the biggest winner)
We are quickly running into the close of a semester (and really mean like 5 weeks away) which means our already insane life will get even more insane with Easter, Thesis finishing, baptism (?, let's hope...poor heathen daughter), beach trips, Late nights, many many Saturdays and Sundays playing with mommy while daddy researches and writes.
I lied, I'm not writing this during nap time, MM is actually in the jumper in front of me gnawing on the jumper while I ignore her and type this. Lucky you sweet girl.
Ok, I feel like I'm out of practice with this writing my stream of consciousness... but anyway it feels good to be back at it.
Hope your brackets are doing as horrible as mine is. Enjoy your basketball
1. I stayed home with Mary Margaret on Wednesday. It was glorious, other than the fact I took a mid-term that went, well, blah. It may be bad that I'm just trying to keep my head above water... but that's how things are these days. We watched The Ellen Show, took great naps and played in our new bouncey/ jumper thing. I repeat, Glorious!
2. One of my dear roommates and sorority sisters from college is coming to little Raleigh, NC from the THE city (I mean New York City). We had so so many drunken nights together, talking, laughing at each other and with each other. Things have obviously changed, and our lives are somewhat different but we are still good friends and can laugh and have a drink... which we all hope (including my lowest of tolerances) this weekend doesn't involve severe drinking. I may actually put on an outfit that is only 2 years out of style and get buzzed off 1 glass of wine. party
Can we say #tbf??
NewYorker is the one on the left, Christine
3. This week was so much better in many ways. a) I got an apology from my manager for the problems from last week and the way they were handled. 2) My interview for my promotion was scheduled and f) I was kept hyper busy which made the week go by very super lightning quick.
4. It happened. I was planning on waiting forrrrr another 1.5 months but We (I) broke down and gave Mary Margaret her first taste of real food today. I was eating my Lenten tofu burrito bowl from Moe's and after a hour and a half of odd crying and a weird nursing sesh she was doing her hourly stareatmommy'sfooduntilshecracks and I saw the cucumber sticks and thought "What can it hurt?" she LOVED it! Gummed it into submission and fed it to Buckley.
5. Our big plans tonight include, putting a endlessly fussy baby down sooner than usual, cheating on my lenten no drinking sacrifice, and watching the Tudors. Cray. Zay.
6. If I were a staying up late kinda person, I would be so so excited that Justin Timberlake is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. Being that I'm not, and will be going to bed promptly at 10:00, I may make the effort to watch it on Hulu the following day.
Charlie has had a little bitty man-crush on JTimberlake, And I have to say that I can't blame him... their hair is quite similar...
7. I've mentioned before that I am beyond excited about next weekend because b) Gran is coming into town, and to see her interact with Mary Margaret lifts my heart 4) Our very good friends are getting married [Yippee!] and @) I get to eat good food and drink on someone else's dime... yes I said it and I'm not ashamed!!
Go ahead and find Colleen and Jen for muchy much more
Always here to help Colleen I figured I would let you know about how my "Working Mom" life goes
1) What do you do for work and why do you work?
I work at Duke Clinical Research Institute. That is a large academically affiliated pharmaceutical and government research company. I personally work with the MegaTrials group which manages the trials for major pharmaceutical companies in trials that are very large, some being 15,000 subjects all over the world. I work because my husband is currently a student getting his masters in Theological Studies at Duke Divinity and if I didn't wouldn't be making any money.
2) Did your mother work?
My mother was a working mom, and is now a working grandmother. She worked with both my self and my brother.
3) Describe a typical work day.
*Alarm goes off at 5:15 am
Hit alarm until 5:50 am
Shower and Breakfast
Wake Mary Margaret at 6:15 - 6:30 am
Nurse her until 6:49 am
Everyone dresses and we rush rush rush out the door
Drop MM off at caretaker at 7:30 - 7:45 am
Get to work late 8:00 am usually
Go to Nurse at 9:00
Work work work
Lunch at 11:30 at my desk while working
Pump at 12:00
Work Work Work
Pump at 3:00 pm
Leave at ~4:00 pm
Pick up MM
Fight traffic home usually get there at 5:00 pm
Nurse again at 5:30 pm
Play until 6:15 pm
Bath and bedtime prep
7:00 pm MM down for the night
Laura and Charlie have dinner/ watch TV/ do school work
10:00 pm bedtime for mommy
4) What's the best part about having a job? Feeling like I'm using my mind and personality to work well with people. Read = making money
5) What's your least favorite part?
Driving into work in another city
Being away from MM all day
Not having complete control of her schedule
waking up early
Having to pump (vs. nursing)
6) What would make your life easier?
Working from home or at least a flex schedule where I could maybe work a half day at the office and the other half at home (after bedtime for MM).
Also working in the same city as I live would make it much easier.
7) How do your children handle their mom's career?
She has no idea
8) Do you feel supported in what you do?
I am blessed that I have a very supportive office, and homelife. Charlie would love if I could stay home, and that might happen, but for now everyone is very supportive.
9) What are your future goals when it comes to work/motherhood?
Charlie and I keep playing with the idea of me staying home, and with the knowledge that one of our sweet caretakers is leaving the area, might be the reason I step down.
On the other hand, I am scheduled to get a promotion at work, which may make it easier to pay for traditional daycare, and may make more flexibility in my schedule.
10) What are some tips that help you balance it all?
Well it really helped me feel better, that since Mary Margaret is so young. She has no idea that I'm at work all day. She is just having fun with her friends.
Also, I think being honest with your manager/boss about how you're feeling. Because if they really value your work, they will help you any way they can.
I'll start by saying we went for Mary Margaret's 4 month doctor's visit and she is a whopping 16 lbs 5 oz!
Yes, that is 95 percentile... thank you.
We also talked with Ole' Doc Wilson about sleeping and he was 100% for Cry It Out (CIO) and not the wake up - rock-nurse do it again in 2 hours that we've been doing. Imagine that...
Also, She didn't get the fever that she had the day after her 2 months shots, so that is a big plus because I hate it when she has a fever... sweet girl
-2-
Along those lines, we started (the same night) the CIO thing. And you know what? It wasn't fun... but it WORKED! We do go and check in and rub the sweet tum tum and let her know we haven't left her alone with Buckley forever (ohh and re-position the paci) but IT WORKS! And it only took like 30 mins of the back and forth before she was out until like 12 am (which is a success... I know...)
Do I feel like a monster because I let her cry? A little.
Can I get over that? YES
-3-
Right now I'm wearing a sweat shirt and sweat pants that I put on knowing good and well that they had spit up on them and smell. I really dress up on the weekends.
-4-
This is really cute, and the pug's intro is my favorite thing. I may or may-not have shed a few tears at work while watching this...
-5-
I'm getting MM one of these today, second hand of course... we're no money-bags around here. I'm so excited and I hope she really likes it and it changes our lives, like the jungle gym/ tummy time mat did for a while.
-6-
I had a ruff week this week... Aside from the CIO thing Wednesday, which was after waking up 8 times on Monday or Tuesday night. I had some grrr things going on at work, which is/was frustrating and lead to hurt feelings and then crying while I was pumping in the lactation room.
-7-
At the exact same time things were angry face/ frustration at work, Charlie was offered a full time position at St. Thomas More Academy for the fall. Which is wonderful, and made me happy that we have options for the future. Nothing can really happen until the fall, so work things will need to have to be sucked up/ gotten over until then. But excitement that Charlie is so well liked there and he will be Just a teacher and father and not a teacher, grad student, father, two-city commuter, and required night owl.
Since I a tardy with this I have lotstolink, specifically Jones who is doing this for the first time!
