T.V.
Dolly likes her T.V. If there is a T.V. on anywhere in the vicinity, she will find it, contorting her body in whatever way is necessary for her to see it. We refuse to let her watch it, but Jim likes to have Good Morning America on while he gets ready and eats breakfast. (I just noticed that Good Morning America needs a comma. Argh.) If Dean's in the room, however, she often forces him to turn it off by pulling stunts like these:
Heart-to-Heart
The other day, Jim was hanging out with Dolly, talking very softly and seriously to her. There was some discussion of how she needs to be careful about boys, as not all of them will be nice to her. I wish I'd caught more of the convo, but this is how they looked...
... until I distracted her with the camera. I hope I didn't make her miss out on any crucial words of wisdom from her father.
Back to Work
In other news, I made my big debut back at work yesterday. I'm planning to go into the office one day a week and then work some from home another day or two. I'm not exactly sure what my schedule will be but am aiming to work 15-20 hours a week. Our friend Trisha Wilson (wife of Jim's good friend Jeremy) is watching Ever this month, and then Karen Wilson (Jeremy's mom) is taking over next month. We are sooooo grateful to them for their help.
Dean woke up crazy early yesterday, so I did get to see her before I left for work. Jim was in charge of feeding her and dropping her off at the Wilsons' in the morning and then picking her up in the afternoon. Trish texted me an update and a picture in the morning, so I knew all was well. Apparently Dolly had a good time, and the Wilson kids were excited to have her. I stayed too late at work, however, so Jim had to keep Little One up too late so he could go to the beginning of YM. As a result, they had some bedtime issues, but everyone survived. Dolly was her happy self this morning. This is Ever's "report card" from her first day with Trish:
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| (Jim added the two later feedings.) |
Surprisingly, I wasn't terribly traumatized about going back. My firm is amazing. The people are wonderful. Nobody really cares what I do, when I work, etc., and they're willing to let me experiment with this. It doesn't seem so bad when I only have to go in to the office once a week, especially knowing that Dolly's in such good hands.
When I popped into Neil Martin's office yesterday morning, he said, "You're back! Well, I don't know who won the pool." (I worked A LOT for Neil when I was a Summer Associate and when I first started with the firm after law school. He came to our wedding. He gives me recipes.) When Jim and I got married and I moved to Oceanside, I know a lot of people thought I'd end up quitting pretty quickly. (I heard through the grapevine that one of the partners said, after hearing about my commuting/working-from-home plans, "She won't last a year.") And I know a lot of people probably expected me to take my maternity leave and then quit. I'm really glad that I keep proving them wrong. I just keep showing up.
I know this arrangement won't last forever, and I don't want to let myself take on so much work that I get stressed out, don't have time for the house or cooking or myself, etc. But I'm grateful for all HFB has done for me. I enjoy the people with whom I work. I want to help my wonderful mentor, who's in the middle of chemotherapy for breast cancer. I have loyalty issues. So we'll see how this goes...
P.S.
Dolly has been napping for over three hours. I have done a load of laundry (well, not the folding part yet), eaten some cereal, wasted a little time on the Web, paid a bill, talked to a partner and gotten a work assignment, billed a .7 completing that assignment, composed this post, and attended to a couple other odds and ends. If Dolly did this every day, I could really get some things done.
