Summer with Granny D

We have been so lucky to have D'Ann, Granny D to David, stay with us the past few months. When Isabel got ill and our nanny search failed, Granny D graciously offered to give up her summer and move in with us to care for David. It was so nice to know he was in good and loving hands during the day. In addition to taking care of David, D'Ann did way more than we could have ever asked- teaching David how to dance, taking him to ever possible fun thing there is to do in Dallas, including art class, book readings, the zoo, the children's museum,  the water park (or, as David calls it, the Aqua Park), various play-centers, etc., taking him to the park every morning no matter how hot it was, making friends with his soon to be teacher at St. James, becoming a Little Gym super grandma, cleaning around the house, taking care of Emma dog, babysitting when Matt and I had evening events and even taking care of Matt when he had eye surgery. We will all miss her very much!


Here are some pictures that D'Ann took of their time together this summer:

Ice Cream Cone

New Favorite Place

Last weekend, we discovered that one of our favorite places, the Dallas World Aquarium, offers family memberships. We have been the past two weekends for short morning visits. Given the recent heat wave, any place that is indoors and air conditioned is a welcomed addition to our weekend rotations (and we are open to suggestions if anyone has any). 

Here are some pictures:

I have not posted many pictures of Granny D, but she has been a Godsend this summer. It has been so nice to have her around to watch David (and do all the house picking up and other motherly things that she has been doing for Matt and me and Hayley and Emma, for that matter) and he has really enjoyed getting to bond with his grandmother. A few pictures from today:

The Mommy Track

After 22 months of fretting over how to balance motherhood with my career, I decided this week to put in my request to work a reduced schedule beginning August 1st. It is clearly not the solution to the work-life balance dilemma, but it is at least a start. For those of you who have listened to my struggle over the past years, you understand this is a big decision. I have spent the past 7 years busting my ass at the firm. In the law firm world, ass busting means working 70-80 hours a week on average, working most weekends and pulling an all-nighter every month or so to accommodate a client's demands or close a deal. This also means maintaining an intimate relationship with your blackberry and cancelling most of the pre-planned vacations and weekend trips. In my life before David, this schedule never really phased me. I got frustrated at times when I had to cancel plans, but Matt and I were use to it and I am actually one of the few attorneys that enjoys the work I do. I have done a pretty good job at maintaining my pre-David schedule after returning from maternity leave, but I have done so at the expense of not making it home in time to put David to bed and having weeks where I only saw him a few minutes each morning. I know so many women are able to make this sacrifice for their careers, but it is just not working from me personally (at least not for the time being).

So, beginning next month, I am going to try and work a much more reasonable schedule and try to leave the office by 4:30 every day. I am not sure how this is going to work with deals and clients, but I am going to give it a shot and so far the firm has been more than supportive. David is beginning his new school next month, so my plan is to be able to pick him up each day. He does not adjust to change very well (or at all, really), so I think having me there more is important. This is also an age, where, in my opinion, having involved parents really can make a difference and is very important (although this is true of any age I guess).

To most people, this probably seems like an insignificant change. I am basically trying to get to a position where I work a normal 40-hour work week. Nothing revolutionary there, right? For all practical purposes, going flex time has been synonymous with ending your career ambitions, and any related partnership prospects, in the big law firm world. The flex-schedule (aka mommy track) has not really worked for many people and especially not for corporate attorneys, where the schedule is much more unpredictable and the deadlines tend to be more time sensitive. It is the equivalent of career suicide. But despite all evidence to the contrary, I am optimistically believing that I can make it work for me. We shall see if that turns out to be the case...

Updates in David News

After the terrible month that was June, I have been spending lots of quality time with David the last week. Last weekend, Isabel and Lew came to visit David. We really enjoyed catching up with them and David was so excited to see his Isabel. On the 4th, Blair and her new boyfriend came to visit. We went to Dave and Busters for games and dinner and David was on quite the lucky streak. We ended up with 7,000 tickets, which was about 5,000 more than we needed to get David the soccer ball and monkey that he thought was so cool. Later that night, we went to Fair Park to watch the firework show. Even though it the firework show did not start until 9:30pm, David stayed awake and loved the fireworks. He jumped with joy every time one went off and yelled "boom" and "ohh aww" at the sky. It was very cute. You can see in the pictures that he also took his scores from Dave and Busters with him to the firework show.   

 




Other things we have done the last few weekends.. we went to a concert at the arboretum with Lila and her parents. The kids danced together the entire concert. It was too cute... unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I didn't get many pictures.

After Matt's eye surgery, he had to wear sunglasses when outside to protect his eyes. David thought this was super cool, so we got him his own pair of sunglasses. Now he wants to wear them all the time... and he calls himself a "cool dude" when he puts them on.

 

Spaghetti is a big favorite, but very messy:  

David is a huge fan of Mickey Mouse, so we took him to the Disney store today. He got a huge Mickey Mouse- it is bigger than he is!

Happy Early 4th

I finally closed the second deal of June yesterday ending one of the busiest month's in my career. It was not fun and I missed pretty much the entire month of June...so I have lots of David time to catch up on starting with a long 4th of July weekend.

We had a big day today that began with Little Gym, followed by a nap and then a 4th of July pool party that was so much fun. David swam, played ping pong and pretty much kept everyone entertained. Here are some super cute pictures (and yes, he wanted to wear both the headband and the sunglasses all day):

Missing In Action

I have been crazy busy at work and have not updated the blog in a while - Sorry! I am hoping things settle down by the end of the month. Until then, here is a recent picture of David demonstrating what he calls robot arm (which we thought was pretty darn creative).

Goodbye to Breastfeeding

We have officially weaning David....after only 19 months. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would breastfeed David for almost two years, I would have laughed at the thought. I remember reading articles and watching videos when I was pregnant about women who breastfed for years and thinking what an odd thing to do. Matt and I took the breastfeeding class offered by the hospital and, as most new moms these days, I planned to breastfeed for at least six months and would try to do so for a year. Then David was born and, after a few struggles, breastfeeding seemed so natural. It was also easy and super convenient, especially for getting David back to sleep in the middle of the night. When I went back to work, I complained about pumping (it is not exactly a glamorous process), but I secretly welcomed the break from work every few hours and enjoyed the conversations that Matt and I would have on the phone as I killed time during pumping sessions. I always tried to pretend I was just calling to say hi, but despite hiding the pump in my desk drawer, he always seemed to know what was going on.

As David got older, I cut out the pumping and only fed him when I got home from work, at night and in the mornings. It was such a nice way to reconnect after being separated all day and it served as the basis for our own special routine at bedtime and a good way to start the day. As much as I thought it would be weird to continue to breastfeed, as time passed, it just seemed natural. Even when he starting talking and would ask to nurse, it was cute rather than creepy. As a working mother, there are so many things that you miss in your child's life. Nursing was a great way to focus my attention entirely on David and to spend some quality time together.  As he got older, it became much less about nutrition and more about comfort and bonding.

I probably would not have weaned David without some encourage (i.e. Matt made me and rightfully so). I originally said I would do so after a year, which turned into 18 months, which turned into two years. The week before last, I had to go out of town overnight leaving Matt to handle bedtime. This was, by far, the most difficult part of weaning as David was in the habit of using nursing to put himself to sleep. That night was rough and, from what I hear, Matt didn't get much sleep. When I got back, Matt figured he was already through the worst part...or so he thought.. and he banished me to the guest bedroom for a few nights. Within a few days, David had a new bedtime routine (which included sleeping with Monkey- the stuffed animal he got while on vacation this past December) and he only occasionally asks to nurse. Even when he does want to nurse, he is easily satisfied with a quick explanation about how the milk is "all gone".

I know that only family and friends read this blog, but being that it serves as David's baby book, I thought it appropriate to document and properly lament the end of our breastfeeding times.