john's mom works

it all began so well. last night, john had some mashed banana, and he seemed to enjoy it. you could tell he was checking out the texture and the taste, and he did very well using his lips to get it off his spoon. at one point he even grabbed the spoon out of my hand (with his left hand - a tip of the hat to left-handed daddy) and accidently fed himself a bite. (i don't know if he could repeat that, but it was adorable nonetheless.) so, i thought, more mashed bananas as a part of breakfast! john had already breastfed, so he wasn't hungry and thus not super excited, but he still ate some bananas and did very well. (as an aside, i'm not sure yet if it makes me an awesome mom or an awful one, but i was singing an adapted version of rhianna's song "what's my name" while we ate bananas - "ba nana, it's for breakfast, ba nana, it's for breakfast ...") then, it all went awry. when john was done with his mashed bananas, i started to eat the ...

when john was born, we decided that ideally, we wanted him to be exclusively breastfed until he was a year old. our pediatrician was all for it, believing firmly that there's no reason to rush to solid foods unless there's a compelling reason to do so. i think the american academy of pediatrics (or similar organization, i'm no expert at this) even says that breastmilk provides everything nutritionally that a baby needs for the first 12 months of life. now i've always said that if there was a compelling reason to start foods sooner, we would - if john was really interested in food, or if he wasn't getting enough nutrition in some way. and it seems we've hit that point: my milk production hasn't increased to match his latest increase in appetite, so i just can't keep up. we had him on half-formula/half-milk for a week or two, but it seemed to really upset his stomach - he was spitting up tons. so i chatted with the pediatrician this morning, and we'r...

yesterday was my company-wide employee training day. they get all of us together in one location for one day of networking, training, interaction, etc. it's actually pretty fun, and yesterday was no exception. it didn't occur to me, though, until i was driving there, that since we were offsite, i wouldn't be able to just pump in my office three times during the day. i needed to find a place to run away during breaks so i could pump ... preferably without drawing inordinate amounts of attention to myself. (this is somewhat difficult: being in marketing, we play a pretty visible role in the training day even though it is technically put on by the training department. let's say we play a strong second fiddle!) i didn't want to pump in the bathroom. even though i have a battery pack i can use and don't need a plug, it just feels yukky to pump in a bathroom stall. i wouldn't want someone to prepare my lunch in a bathroom stall, so i guess i really don't w...

i'm waaaaay behind again. but it's worth nothing that we took john to the zoo on sunday. i know, he's only eight months, how much could he possibly enjoy the zoo, right? well i'll tell you a secret: mom loves the zoo, and john is the perfect excuse for her to walk in a park and look at cool animals. much as expected, john was more interested in the other kids at the zoo than he was in any of the animals. he did seem to like checking out a spectacled bear from the andes and he certainly liked the monkeys - at one monkey cage, he even clapped his hands. we cheered for the monkeys together. they were really quite accomplished at being monkeys. he also seemed at least moderately amused by the elephants who were swaying their butts back and forth in the direction of the crowd. john did NOT like the squawking parrots. he thought they were interesting and pretty until they yelled, then he wanted no part of them. i can't say as i blame him - i'm not the biggest fa...

so we decided at work today that i am not going to vegas next month, and you want to know something? i am more relieved than i could have imagined. i was talking to my boss about the logistics of the trip - very specific flight requirements, since i have to get back for a friend's wedding, etc. - and she asked if i thought we were forcing it too much. both she and my other coworker are unavailable to attend the conference, so it fell to me, but really i'm only marginally available myself. and ultimately we decided that the topics being covered will also be covered at another conference she's attending this year, so we weren't losing out too much. i have been storing up milk and preparing, and trying to be ready. and i would have gone and enjoyed the conference and probably learned a lot. but now that i know i am not going, i feel like a giant weight has been lifted off of me. and the best part? instead, i am probably going to attend a marketing management school i...

::waving:: we're still here. we have not fallen off the face of the earth. in fact, we're thriving. in fact, i think my not-blogging is actually reflective of why i want so badly to blog about the struggle to balance work and family. work has been crazy busy lately. we've got a lot of irons in the fire, and i've been running nonstop. as a result, i come home, spend some quality time with the baby and the hubby, then hit the hay to start all over again the next day. and somewhere in the middle of that, i have completely fallen off the blogwagon. but i'm back. so don't get used to radio silence. you're not getting rid of me that easily! and here is a testament to the speed with which babies develop: yesterday when i dropped john off for school, he was still mostly cooing and not saying any consonants. i picked him up after school, and he promptly said this: "ba ga da ga ba da da da ga." and he hasn't stopped saying it ever since. there ...

when i got to daycare to drop john off yesterday morning, i couldn't help noticing that the jumper he usually likes to sit in was turned to face out a window, not in towards the other kids like most of the equipment in the room. didn't really think anything of it, though, as i slid john into the seat while his teacher fed another baby. then his teacher said, "john, where's mr. squirrel?" and explained to me that john loves to sit and bounce while watching the squirrels run along the fence outside. in fact, he laughs hysterical as he observes their antics. he is SO my child. this was one of the first times that i have said that, since he looks so much like his daddy and has so much of his daddy's temperment. but laughing at squirrels? i would probably do that right now if i could. especially if i had an adult-sized bouncer i could sit in while i chew on something as tasty to me as john's fist clearly is to him. (steak maybe? or cake? or both?) then la...

so i've recently found out that in march, i will be traveling to las vegas for a conference for work. it will be a great conference - i attended last year in dc and got a TON out of it, and like last year, my credit union is up for at least one and possibly a couple of marketing awards, so i'll be attending the awards dinner to see what - and how many! - we've won. since a lot of what we submitted is my creative work, it's really exciting to me to see what is "award-winning." the drawbacks? 1) i don't love vegas. i'm not a gambler, and i find vegas to be a little bit of ... sensory overload. from the moment you step off the airplane, you're accosted by flashing lights, loud noises, and people desperately plunking one more coin into a slot machine. if you've never been there, know that i'm not kidding: there are actually slot machines at the gates at the airport so you can get your fix. 2) this is the biggie ... i will be away from john ...

i am way behind the eight ball lately. so much has been going on, and i've posted not a lick of it. on wednesday night, we came to the very difficult, very sad realization that my husband was devastatingly allergic to bella. to the point where he was having asthma attacks and pretty constant inability to breathe. we knew we would not be able to keep this sweet doggie. giving up a dog goes counter to everything about us. gunter was a family member, our first child! we were so excited to have such a sweet new pup in our lives. the last thing we ever thought we would be doing would be sending her away. we called her original owners, but they had "torn the fence down" and couldn't take her back. so we put the word out in our networks, including some very wonderful friends who have relationships with several of the rescue agencies here in baton rouge. miraculously, within 24 hours, my cousin ben referred a coworker of his to us, and on thursday evening brian and his ...

how you doin'? last night when i picked john up from daycare, he waved goodbye to his teacher. we haven't been working on waving ... but she said "bye, john," and there's no doubt about his response. and he's also almost crawling. i sound like your typical bragging mom, probably. but i'm not so much bragging as i am dumbfounded. how did this little critter, who live inside me for nine months, go from a couple little cells to this communicating, locomoting (is that a word?) little man? i am dumbfounded that every day he is bigger and stronger, that every day he is more capable and grown. i am also dumbfounded that the angry face he made last night as i strapped him into his carseat was the *spitting image* of his daddy's angry face. like father like son! i hope that i never lose this sense of astonishment at the development of my child. whatever his gifts and weaknesses are, however busy i may be, whatever percentage of time i must spend away f...