Show Reviews & Life Updates

1. Dad lent us a movie he borrowed from the library, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. He randomly picked it up as the back of the box looked good. It takes place in the 1700’s in France and deals with a man with an extraordinary sense of smell and his obsession with making smell last and be perfect. We gave it a B+ - VERY interesting story-line as we’d never seen anything like it before, EXCELLENT acting throughout, a little twisted though. The movie starts with the main character’s birth and shows how his mother tried to kill him. There I was holding my perfect baby watching another thrown into a pile of fish guts- horrifying for a new mom to watch. Anyway, we recommend getting it if you have time. To watch the trailer go to http://www.perfumemovie.com/ and click on video at the top.

2. We close on our house on September 27 and will move in that weekend! We made contact with several vendors this week- the painter (who I think is quoting a very reasonable rate to paint the great room, foyer, and upstairs hall), door folks (Mom and Dad are chipping in for a new fancy front door for us as a housewarming present), and lawn care company for the sprinkler system and backyard sod. The driveway and sidewalks were poured yesterday and all of our hardwood flooring and cabinets are in now. Things are really coming along. Now if our current house would just sell we’d be in business…

3. Nicole’s daycare is going well. Doing the half day thing is a good break-in for me (she probably doesn’t care at all) in regards to giving her up and easing my way back into work. There is a lot to do here (at work) so I'm keeping pretty busy in general and not sitting and being distracted with missing her. First day I got her she was sleeping, yesterday when I picked her up she was rocking on the outside glider with Marsha. All seems well.

4. Another recommendation if you have free time on Tuesday nights – the TV show Just For Laughs. It’s a candid camera type show that keeps Jim laughing hard for an hour solid. It’s literally the ONLY show we watch on prime time.

Back in Action

I felt like I was 8 and getting ready for my first day of school this morning. I picked out my outfit the night before and tried to get some of the final details ready for this morning, my first day back at work after maternity leave.

So, how’d it go? Okay. The schedule was to be me get up at 6am, get showered and ready for work, feed Nicole by 6:45 and be out the door at 7:30. I wanted to be at the sitter’s by 8:00 so I could go over some notes with her and still be at work by 8:30. Well, I got about 15 minutes off schedule by getting up 6 minutes late, having a sleepy baby who didn’t want to eat, and battling 275 construction traffic. Oh well.

I made up a 2 page sheet about Nicole to give to Marsha the babysitter. I included items like when she’s supposed to eat (10, 1, & 4), how to work the bottle warmer, when she normally naps (12-1, 2-4), her preferences (going outside, sleeping with her hands in “touchdown” position, etc.), and her congestion issues. Blame it on me being a first-time mom, but Jim said that it was an overwhelming amount of information. I explained it as causally as possible, and Marsha and Andrea seemed appreciative of my efforts. That or they humored me; either way I don’t care.

Yeah, when it was time to leave I cried. A lot. It’s not that I don’t trust the babysitter, I do, but part of me feels guilty for leaving her with anyone other than me.

Once I got to work I did pretty well. I made a pit-stop in the bathroom to check my make-up and make sure it wasn’t running down my cheeks and then I started in on the hundreds of emails I had yet to read. Jason made me cry by asking about her, but other than that brief stint I was so busy it wasn’t bothersome to be apart.

My boss did almost walk in on me pumping though as he didn't know why someone was in the vacant office. ha!

I picked her up at 12:45 and she was sleeping in her car seat. I think this half week will be just enough to get me comfortable with leaving her. I suspect when I get into full-blown work mode it won’t be too much of a problem. We’ll see for sure in a few weeks though. :)

End of our first phase

My maternity leave is coming to an end. Today and tomorrow are my last full days off. Next week I go into work in the mornings and pick her up in the afternoon; the week after that will be the beginning of “normal” life from here out – Nicole at the babysitter, Jim and I at work.

This six weeks has gone fast. The first part went fast just because everything was a learning curve with Nicole and I was still somewhat in “non-baby” mode in thinking that I could accomplish a long list of other items during the day. I was pretty successful at doing so, if I do say so myself. However, allowing myself to continue that multi-tasking mentality I think has cost me some valuable “stop and smell the roses” time, something I had trouble with during pre-baby days but was a less significant problem than missing the “rose” time with Nicole. I’ve tried to remedy this by watching her sleep more, dancing in the kitchen with her, rocking and talking on the porch with her on a more regular basis.

Timing for my leave has been good though as I’ve been able to help some friends out - I like the fact that I could benefit some others over the last few weeks when I might not otherwise have been able to (because I’d be at work).

I’ve been frequently asked if I’m ready to go back to work and give up my time with Nicole. I’m honestly torn between hoping she’s sad about going somewhere else and getting reports of a fussy kid all day (as that might mean she misses me) and hoping she adjusts perfectly and is no worse/better off than if she were here at home with me all day. The second option is only bothersome as I’d like to think that I’m better for her than anyone and no one can do as good of a job as I can, which I know isn’t the case as I chose to send her to Marsha because she has lots more kid and mom experience than I and is probably equal/better for Nicole than I am.

I’ve only cried at the thought of leaving her once. We’ll see how I do come Monday.

The Beach and the House

We signed with a realtor the night before we left for vacation. It was a recommendation/referral from one of my co-workers who used Jack for his recent move and really liked him. He impressed Jim and I with his “partnership” approach- really focusing in on the fact that this is a joint effort between us when it comes to decision-making regarding price, etc. Anyway, he had an open house today which one person attended and we’ve had 2 other scheduled appointments other than that. As of tomorrow the house will be “formally” listed on the market for 1 week.

The vacation to Myrtle Beach was great. Work continues to call (as they do several times a week) despite my being less able to give full or accurate information over the phone. Nicole has an unfortunate fussy time from 8-10pm every night (especially unfortunate as that’s the core time she gets to see Jim and she gives a bad impression of her temperament) and we found that what soothes her is being outside on the balcony listening to the ocean. Literally once you crossed the threshold from inside to out she was calm instantly and typically asleep within minutes. We tried to isolate the variables so that we could copy the atmosphere at home – was it the heat? The humidity? The sound of the ocean? I think we determined it to be the temperature first and foremost.

If outside wasn’t immediately available or wasn’t convenient the next thing that Nicole preferred was to be in Greg’s arms. Unfortunately I can’t compete with the salary he receives at his full time job or I’d hire him to be my nanny. That guy has a magic touch with his niece and she adores him.

We played lots of mini golf while in SC and I did POORLY at it. We also played a slew of board games, including a new one that Dad got me for my birthday (September 30) but decided we needed to play on vacation so I got it early. Good game, I think the Sturgis brothers will particularly enjoy it as it combines logic, trivia and strategy.

All in all it was a good trip. While a break from work for everyone else, what it provided from me was a break for myself. With 5 other competent adults who were eager to hold and care for Nicky, I got to actually walk the shoreline and go shopping sans baby- makes for faster, more enjoyable afternoons when you know your kid is taken care of and you don’t need to worry or go through the extra effort of toting her along.

Other highlights:
1) My cousin Jonathan caught not 1 but 2 sharks while deep-sea fishing- the only fish caught by the trio of guys going out!

2) Ocean was WARM after some horrendous rainstorms

3) Mom bought Nicole a bathing suit on clearance that we played dress-up with. We also tried on the bikini that Lori bought her- she wasn't as thrilled with our antics by the time we got it on her though...

4) Dad cooked breakfast for the whole crew every morning and made me coffee daily- first coffee I’ve had in MONTHS and damn was it good

5) Went to the Ripley's Aquarium on Thursday. Not worth $19, but still a fun time. I have a new appreciation for how nice Newport's aquarium is

What's Happenin'

A few life updates:

1. Nicole is a month old tomorrow! She went to the pediatrician for her 1 month check-up and here are the stats: 90% weight (10lb, 5 oz), 75% length (1 foot, 10 inches), 35% head (34 inches). She likes (tolerates?) getting bathed, likes to be held upright on your shoulder, doesn’t like going to sleep and can’t keep a pacifier in on her own which is probably a good thing. She stares so intently at you when you lock eyes that you feel guilty for looking away! She rolled over in anger about 5X on Tuesday (Jen O witnessed!) but we'll see if she keeps it up. I did catch it on video! She got to spend some quality time with her cousin Ryann at her Grandpa T's 55th birthday last night.

2. My relationship with Jim is at it’s all-time best. We’ve, okay, I’ve, lost all modesty when it comes to bodily functions- feeding Nicole, going to the bathroom in front of him, etc. There’s just no time to be discreet. Also speaking of no time, we have some really good conversations at 3:30 in the morning – sometimes that’s the only time we do have to talk since he’s working so late and there’s so much to be done on the house when he gets home. Many times when I’m taking care of Nicole he’ll go get me stuff I need- a cup of yogurt, a burp cloth, whatever- this is often just as helpful as his holding her and giving me a break.

3. The house we live in now will be up on the MLS this weekend. We’re signing with a realtor from Coldwell Banker tonight. It’s been determined over the course of interviewing realtors that the asking price we thought we could get for the house ($149,900) was too high and that if we had asked $139,900 for the house on our own like we will with the realtor we might have been able to sell it to one of the multiple people who called about the house while it was FSBO. Key is that the house sells in general as we now have a closing date of 9-27 on our new house and want to avoid 2 mortgages if at all possible. We’re really hopeful that it will go quickly just based on the traffic we got on our own with no marketing, much less what attention someone actively marketing can obtain.

4. The new house is making huge progress. See picture to the right! All the drywall is up now and there are a few improvements that we’ve gotten that we shouldn’t have due to builder errors in our favor- one is the drywall in the garage and the other is the wall tile in the master bathroom. We really enjoy working with our project manager, Paul, and have all the confidence that things are going well when we’re not there to watch what’s going on.



We leave for Myrtle Beach tomorrow so forgive me for no updates for the week!

Hats

We leave for Myrtle Beach in a few days and knowing Nic needs some sun protection while we're down south, I decided to have her try on some hats. She's got 5, each of them is too big except for the little cloth one we took from the hospital which makes her look thugish. This one was my favorite though.


I laughed so hard when she had it on that she laughed too!

(side note: the onsie is from her hippie OR friend, Martha!)

House Progression

We just completed the pre-dry wall walk through and things look great! We're scheduled to be done 9-20-07!

Good ole Matt

Quick pic of Nicole. Jim said the flowers were way too cheesey but I like the shot of her anyway. Viki helped me take it when she was in town this weekend (Thanks again!). Nic is 3 weeks old today!

Yesterday I ran to babies r us to exchange an outfit and a car seat base when I recognized the guy who would be standing in front of me at the guest service desk. It’s one of those weird things where you know the person in line and it’s been so long you feel sorta obligated to say hello and catch up but you’ve lived the last 10 years without doing so and wouldn’t miss the interaction if you didn’t have it but at the same time are kinda curious how they turned out. (Did you follow all that?) Anyway, I decided at first to go get the other base and if he was still there when I returned I’d say hello.

He was still there.

So I waited, did my exchange, and interrupted him before I left to pick out a new outfit. He was just who I thought he was – Matt M.- co-worker from the Orchard Hill concession stand when I was 15 and my date to Date Dance sophomore year.

Good news- he knew who I was so no awkward reintroductions.

As you can imagine, he and his wife are having a baby, hence why he was at BRU. Weirdness- he married Jamie Z- a girl he went to gradeschool with, I job-shared with when I was 16, swam swim team with, and took driver’s ed with. I was honestly more interested in what she was doing with her life than him, but didn’t want to get weird but slanting the conversation to be all about her.

Anyway, it was a short dialog in general and I didn’t learn much about what he was up to before we parted. He made me all nostalgic for about a half hour though. I’ll look for our picture and try to post it if I find it…