Weekend in Pictures

Gentle Morning

Alice was up at 4:30 with a runny nose and slight fever. She sat with me for about an hour, waiting patiently for the Tylenol to kick in. We watched the sun rise together, Alice drinking water and playing with her sippy cups. She fell back to sleep, leaving me with another hour of stillness. Time to get some work done.

A surprisingly beautiful start to the day. Happy Friday everyone!

Nightlife

Tonight, Michael and I threw caution to the wind and took Alice out for an evening walk after dinner was done.

We set our sights low - just a loop around a few blocks in the neighborhood, enough to get out and stretch but not to keep Alice up hours beyond her bedtime. It was a beautiful evening - perfect temperature with just the right amount of breeze and sunlight left in the day. The walk was lovely, quality time with the family - quiet, peaceful, gentle.

Alice is becoming a New Yorker before our very eyes. She now loves to walk from our apartment to the elevator, then from the elevator out to the front door. She navigates sidewalks very well, and knows how to wave at every passing stranger. She's in awe of nature whenever it appears - a green leaf, a piece of bark, a blade of grass. It is a shock to realize that Alice is growing up as a city kid, and the implications of such are already in play now.

Out My Kitchen Window

I just loved - LOVED - this!

Out My Kitchen Window

Too funny!

Mommy & Babe

Sunday Randomness

Alice is napping. Michael & I are cleaning, reading, baking cookies, and dreaming about our upcoming trip to Spain. Listening to the '60s radio station on Pandora.

I'm doing my best to fight off the Sunday Blues and my pending anxiety about work. I have another meeting with the Commissioner tomorrow and we have no hot water, so I'll be taking an ice cold shower in the morning. What am I going to wear? And have I done enough to prepare for our meeting?

Work will be insane until June 13th. Please pray for me - that I don't stress about things I have no control over. That I have the stamina required to maintain the focus necessary to launch this project. That we manage to eek out some fun. Can't wait to share with you all what we've been working on!

Two other items:
1. Welcome Palermosogno to my list of followers! Love how we find random connections to people all over the world...

2. We are praying for you over here, my sweet friend!

Sweetness (cont.)

The past month has been incredibly busy. Between my regular job and my Saturday job, I feel like I'm always working. Hopefully this insanity will pay off for me professionally, and things should calm down just in time for our trip to Spain. Just counting down the days...

We are doing our best to grin and bear a week of clouds, rain and general dreariness. Michael has has to get to work early every morning this week, which has required some speediness between the hours of 6 and 9 AM. And the rain is just making it hard to get spirits up.

Thankfully, Alice is just too cute for words, so she provides some perkiness to the days! She is really growing up far too quickly. She toddles around on her own, loves sitting at her little table and drawing. She's a very kind little baby. Such sweetness.

Breakfast

Walking Home

Spoons

Today, Alice learned how to use a spoon!

And this was the sweet lady as we were getting ready for bed. I thought this picture represents Alice perfectly - in motion, smiling, happy.

World Traveler!

Copy Kittens

A sweet start to the day from S's little ladies:

Chatterbox

Well, I'm pretty proud of us. It's 7:30 and we have already enjoyed family dinner, cleaned up the dishes, made tomorrow's sandwiches, given Alice a bath and story time, and put the sweet one to bed. This happens once in a blue moon, so I think it deserves a moment of celebration!

For the past couple of nights, Alice has stayed up well past bedtime, talking, laughing and playing in her crib. I can hear her chattering away while we sit in the living room reading or watching TV. It takes all the energy I have to keep myself from going in there, picking her up, and playing with her.

I've been pretty down lately. I really miss Alice and feel like there is too much going on in life. Work is more stressful than usual, and I feel like I spend a lot of time running from one thing to the next, with little or no time for myself. I'm not working out, barely keeping the house in order. I'm not getting enough time with my family.

Our sweet friend S over at Incessant Anonymity has talked about feeling like you can never quite get everything in balance. You manage to get healthy, nutritious dinners prepared, for example, but can't keep the clutter at bay. You finish your task list at work but forget to pick up dry cleaning four days in a row. You pay all the bills early but don't get your library books returned until a day too late.

It's exhausting, this running-a-household thing. And I clearly haven't figured out how to manage it. There are seasons in life, right? One of these days I'll find a way to spend my time with my family, make them healthy meals, have a rewarding career and take care of me, right?...

All Smiles

Amazing!

Growing Up