Magic Cookie: Pitch Perfect

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Monday, 21 May 2012

Weekend

Posted on 18:45 by Unknown
Friday night: Left work early to attend a potluck at school. All the tables were kid-height, which meant that for the first hour, I was running around attempting to keep X from shoving his hands into every tray and smearing pasta into his hair while K alternately played with his friends and looked sad because I wasn't paying attention to him. It got a lot easier once Daddy joined us. We danced, I ate a delicious ice cream sundae, and K proudly pointed out the picture he drew of me for the Mother's Day wall.

Saturday: At the party, someone had mentioned that they took their baby to the Children's Museum, and of course he was sick within 48 hours. Somehow only the first part of this registered (ATTENTION: FORESHADOWING) and around 9:30 when the kids were starting to get antsy, I announced that we were all going to the Children's Museum. I woke JW up, packed the diaper bag, and off we went. The kids had a great time, especially in the Peep's World room where K played with water and X dipped a spatula in and drank some before I could stop him (FORESHADOWING #2). We ate lunch in the cafeteria, and then JW took the baby home for a nap while K and I stayed on and took the T home later. In the evening we all ran around outside.

Sunday: I jolted awake at 4:30 when I heard loud coughing, and then dozed off again when all seemed quiet. A little before 5, X woke up screaming. He was inconsolable, quieting down only for a few moments here and there when I fed him his bottle and held him. I pulled his jacket on and took him out for a walk. He was okay while we walked around the neighborhood. After a while my arms got tired and I decided to take him out in the stroller. He slumped in the seat, looking exhausted. I hoped he would fall asleep. Instead, about a mile from home, he spewed cottage cheese all over himself and the stroller. I cleaned him up as best I could, held him for as far as possible while pushing the stroller, and then wrapped him in my fleece sweatshirt and put him back in. He fell asleep almost immediately, and was much more cheerful after a half-hour nap. (In the garage, where I parked him after we got home. I washed his jacket in the sink, while looking out the window at him sleeping in the garage. Which I guess is one advantage of our odd kitchen layout.) As it turns out, we all got lucky. X ended up sleeping for most of the day, but he didn't throw up again and seemed to be in a good mood. I thought we were in for it when he went down for a nap at 4 p.m. and was still sleeping when I went to bed at 11, but he slept a full 15 hours until 7 a.m. Monday morning and woke up happy (and ravenous).

As for the rest of us, we took a family trip to Home Depot where we bought some plants and patio furniture. We finally have a table and chairs in our backyard! We celebrated by having dinner out there. K had a playdate with a friend from school who is moving away this summer, and the neighbor girl came over to color at our new table. In the evening, K and I drew robots.

Monday morning: I PLANTED my plants. First I woke up at 5:30 and went running, a habit I'm trying to re-establish. (It's only been a week and a half, but it's a start.) Everybody was still asleep when I returned, so I grabbed a shovel and planted my azalea. And then I intercepted K as he was coming downstairs, and we went back out and planted the marigolds. He kept saying, "Gardening is fun! It's like playing, but it's real!" I am terrible at anything involving plants, and when I didn't get around to planting them yesterday I thought they would just sit on our front steps until they eventually died. I was so proud of myself that I accosted a neighbor who was innocently walking her dog, and made her come back and look at my plant.

Life is SO much better when the weather is nice and we can be outside.
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Sunday, 20 May 2012

MILP Roundup #253

Posted on 18:20 by Unknown
The Weekly Mothers In the Legal Profession Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at the Butterflyfish, PT Law Mom, Attorney at Large, Attorney Work Product, Today Advocating Tomorrow, The Reluctant Grownup, and Magic Cookie blogs.

This week in MILPdom...

Attorney at Large reminds us that it's a privilege to represent clients. (Also, she has an exciting side project that may turn into a book.)

Speaking of clients, Frenchie of Mommy and the Sin City has a helpful hint for hers: Your lawyer knows more about the law that that friend of yours who also applied for a green card.

Dinei of Nonsense and Frippery is in the unusual (for her) situation of not having anything unusual to worry about. Fingers crossed that it lasts.

Cristy of Lacefields in Love was polite to a stranger who critiqued the effect of her dietary choices on her unborn child.

Butterflyfish's babies are starting to get along.

Suzie of In a Minute... made her first appearance in federal court.

Lag Liv went to a parent-teacher conference and a preschool celebration. I am purposely linking to this post and not her posts about bug infestations, which literally gave me bad dreams.

Kate of Today Advocating Tomorrow spent her one free week... being sick.

Congratulations to The Reluctant Grownup, who celebrated her law school graduation, and Izzie of Only Three Years. Izzie had to miss her ceremony, but she is celebrating the baby getting a little better at sleeping through the night.

-R- of And You Know What Else received a bill from her improperly staffed, regulation-violating daycare for failing to give proper notice before pulling her kids out. Time to pull out one of my favorite lawyer tricks... the threatening letter.

Cee of Wild North West Litigator had the universal mom bad day -- not enough sleep, baby crying, big kid clinging, and yet can't imagine leaving them and going back to work yet.

Mommy on the Floor has an opinionated 2-year old.

YouWillHaveABrightFuture looks back from the precipice of parenthood.

Decisions on Margaritas is getting some time away.

Mommy Madness is adjusting to changes of an unspecified sort, and running.

Finally, over here at Magic Cookie, I posted about the (remedial) fashion and beauty lessons I've learned over the past few years, and would love to hear what you've learned.

If you would like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.
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Thursday, 17 May 2012

Fashion lessons

Posted on 08:33 by Unknown
I got through high school without knowing about basic fashion and beauty things like the existence of face and hair products (other than 80's style hairspray). And I wish I could go back and educate my college self about eyebrow grooming.

I was thinking about some "advanced" fashion lessons I've figured out only in the past few years. ("Advanced" only in relation to my previous level of ignorance.) For instance:
- Chunky necklace to cover up a slightly low neckline.
- Bra that is sufficiently padded to prevent any unwanted bumpiness under a thin shirt.
- Nude, not white, camisole under white shirt.

And I definitely still have many areas of ignorance, including:
- Anything relating to hosiery or shapewear.
- Accessories, even though I learned how to wear a long scarf as part of my New Year's resolutions.
- Hairstyles and hair products other than various creams/gels that make your hair more manageable.

Have you learned any fashion and beauty lessons as an adult?
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Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Advanced negotiation

Posted on 14:38 by Unknown
Me: We can't agree to this provision. It exposes us to too much liability and I've never seen this in an agreement before.
Opposing counsel: We have this provision in all of our agreements and we require it.

We argued for a minute, but we both realized that Yes-No doesn't get you anywhere and tried to move on. I proposed an alternative, which he said he could think about, but was pretty certain they wouldn't accept.

In my experience, if you can't come up with an alternative, you just go on negotiating around the issue, and at the end whoever wants the deal more loses.

Any tips on this situation?
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Monday, 14 May 2012

Mother's Day

Posted on 11:20 by Unknown
I had a lovely Mother's Day. K was excited to give me the photo card that JW had made and he had signed. So excited that even though JW told him to wait until Sunday, K kept trying to secretly show it to me on Friday and Saturday. K and X had each made a picture at school, with a handprint for K and footprints for X. After a morning spent hanging out in the backyard with the little girl next door, we went for a family hike. ("Hike" is a little generous. More like a walk in the woods.) We had to coax K out from under the bed because he was scared of bears, but he ended up having a good time. He even laughed, instead of glowering like I expected, when I said my Mother's Day wish was for us all to get eaten by bears.  X was fussy at bedtime, so I took him for a walk around the neighborhood. He pointed up to the tops of the trees, and touched the tree trunks and laughed when I lifted him up to touch the leaves. He looked up and pointed at the power lines and the squirrels. It's been a long time since I walked around and just looked at things.

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Friday, 11 May 2012

The value of a stay-at-home spouse

Posted on 11:55 by Unknown
JW and I each considered being a stay-at-home parent, and we each decided against it. We both value having a career outside the home, and to be frank, we both lack the patience and desire to care for the kids 24x7. So we choose to be a double-income family.

The past year has been unusual for us. I was home for six months on maternity leave, and he was home for six months between jobs. I have learned what a luxury it is to have a spouse at home. My life has been so easy for the past six months. I say goodbye and walk out the door in the morning without worrying about whether the kids are dressed or have had breakfast. I come home at night, dinner is on the table, and the kids have already eaten. He runs errands, grocery shops, does the laundry, cares for sick kids, goes to all the appointments, makes phone calls, does repairs, handles the insurance company, talks to the teacher. I go to work and that's it. (And obviously, when I was on maternity leave, our roles were reversed and we were both happy with that too.)

I wish I could communicate this to the men I work with who have stay-at-home wives in a way they could understand. They have never really had to prioritize their kids over their work, except maybe on the odd birthday or major school event. They have never had to come home after a full day of work and have an entire evening's worth of household chores ahead of them. They have never had to worry about a never-ending to-do list of home and family items competing with their work to-do list. Life is so much simpler when someone else is managing the household and the family, and I think many of them not only take it for granted, but can't understand the pressures that the rest of us are under.

JW goes back to work on Monday. Today he got a call from his manager informing him that they're giving him a Blackberry. I'm bracing myself for our return to the old craziness.
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Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Flying solo

Posted on 09:15 by Unknown
The boys are coming home today.

We all went to visit the in-laws last weekend. Sunday night, I drove home alone. JW is bringing the kids home tonight.

I missed them, but I have to admit I love the time to myself. Life is more serene when they're not around. I clean up and the house stays clean. I can take a leisurely shower and get dressed in the morning without trying to keep the baby from eating garbage or arguing with K about socks. If I feel like practicing piano, or taking a walk, or I realize the Mother's Day cards need to go out today, I just do it. If I feel like sitting around and reading a magazine, I can do that too. I can even leave the house whenever I want!

I didn't go out on the town or do any crazy projects or anything. Last night I got take-out and watched "Back to the Future." And it was awesome. It's amazing how luxurious it feels to just go about your life and do whatever you feel like without worrying about anybody else.

I did realize that my kids keep me from being lazy. I had all these ideas about working out and cooking and doing all sorts of productive things. I ended up on the couch watching TV instead. It's easy to use them as an excuse, but the truth is that I could fit more productivity into my schedule even when they're around.

It was a nice break, and I will be glad to see their squishy little faces again. And to get my husband back.
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