Pre-Vacation Post

We are getting ready to head to the cool weather in San Fransisco tomorrow morning for a week long vacation and visit with friends, but I thought I would post the few pictures on my camera before we head out. I should have more pictures since I have been able to spend much more time with David since going flex time, but I seem to forget my camera more often these days (not to mention we have been staying indoors due to the 100+ degree days). The flex system is not perfect yet, but, for the most part, I have been able to get home to see David by 5:00 pm most days. Even better, Hayley and I started our new get fit plan at the beginning of August and we have been able to exercise at least 3-4 nights each week and, with my extra time at home in the evenings, I have been cooking a healthy dinner each night for everyone. Since we started, Hayley has already lost 7 pounds and I have lost 4. Yay for us!

David is really quite the ham. We recently found a series of books called "No, David" that are a big hit around the house right now. Favorite foods at the moment include broccoli (he calls them trees), macaroni and cheese, sweet peas, carrots, peanut butter toast and almond milk. He doesn't really care for meat (and by doesn't care for, I mean will not eat in any form), so we have been trying to have more meals with tofu, beans and nuts to make sure he gets enough protein. I have never been a huge meat eater, but Matt is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy so it is funny that David is so carnivorous. Like most toddler behavior, it is probably just a phase.  Speaking of toddler behavior that we are hoping will pass-- David has recently decided that telling us he has gone poop is not sufficient, he must show us as well. He literally sticks his hand in his pull-up, grabs a handful of poo, walks up to one of us and says I went poo in my diaper. It is disgusting.

We have been working on ABCs, counting and colors.. all the normal stuff.  In addition, David is obsessed with the States. This likely started because we put a U.S. map above his table in the breakfast area and would show him where family lived (i.e. Papa Bruce and Granny D live in Oklahoma, etc.) and point out states during his meals. It turned into a game and he got good at learning them, so we keep moving up from states where we have family. He can now identify more than half of the states on the map, in random order. It is pretty amazing. Sorry for the bragging, but I figure it is only family that reads this blog anyway so I can get away with it!

A few weeks ago, David had a blister pop up on his toe after a trip to the aquarium. Luckily, it went away on its own within a day or so.  

Because of his eczema, we don't get to take bubble baths very often. I found some bubble bath for sensitive skin and, as you can tell, he enjoyed it.

Aunt Hayley had a box of jewelry that she brought over for D'Ann and I to look through before she took it to the resale/donation place. David got in the middle of it and started putting on everything- necklaces, bracelets, etc. I am sure he will eventually hate me for posting these pictures, but it was too cute...

David after getting into my mascara:

David's newest fascination is money. I have no idea how it started or what this says about our child or our parenting skills thus far, but the kid will do anything for coins. Anything! We were working through the ABC book a few nights ago and we told him he could have a dollar if he would finish all the letters. He did and we upheld our end of the bargain. He carried the dollar around the entire evening and insisted on sleeping with it. Around 2am or 3am, we heard him wake up and start looking for his "money." He found his dollar and went right back to sleep with the dollar in hand. So I had to get up and take a picture of that! 

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!