Da Da Da Daddy!
Okay, I will finally admit it. Samantha has a first word - Da Da Da Daddy. She says Daddy from the time she wakes up until she goes to sleep. You can see for yourself in this short video, it isn't her best performance but it is hard to get her to do things on demand! I've also posted some new pictures of our little Valentine. She is really fun these days and when she isn't saying Daddy, she LOVES to look at herself in the mirror, she continues to be obsessed with dogs and she has started saying HI!
A Great Gig
The question I get most often these days is "How is everything working out with your job?" I have heard horror stories about returning to work, about employers with little flexibility and the perils of being a working mom. However, I am happy to say that my experience has been nothing but positive.
I will admit that, back here, I was feeling a little sorry for myself having to return to the working world. I enjoyed my maternity leave and the special time I had with Samantha.
I can't say enough about my wonderful mom who has been my saving grace but I also want to give credit to my employer. Return Path, the company I work for, prides itself on putting employees first. The incredible thing is that it isn't just "talk" but a foundation that the company stands on. My boss Leah was extremely considerate when we set my schedule of time working in the office and at my parents' house. This has allowed me to continue breastfeeding (and spend my lunch breaks with my mom and Samantha). My role was also modified to better fit my new schedule of working 80% with my Fridays off.
The important thing to note is that because of the understanding and kindness I have been shown, I have been re-energized in my role and am excited to work hard, make a difference and shine for the company. After four years with the company I am even more passionate about my work than the day I started. A core belief at Return Path is that happy employees make for happy clients which makes for happy investors. I am a living example of the very happy employee and based on the continued success of the company I think the theory works.
I will admit that, back here, I was feeling a little sorry for myself having to return to the working world. I enjoyed my maternity leave and the special time I had with Samantha.
I can't say enough about my wonderful mom who has been my saving grace but I also want to give credit to my employer. Return Path, the company I work for, prides itself on putting employees first. The incredible thing is that it isn't just "talk" but a foundation that the company stands on. My boss Leah was extremely considerate when we set my schedule of time working in the office and at my parents' house. This has allowed me to continue breastfeeding (and spend my lunch breaks with my mom and Samantha). My role was also modified to better fit my new schedule of working 80% with my Fridays off.
The important thing to note is that because of the understanding and kindness I have been shown, I have been re-energized in my role and am excited to work hard, make a difference and shine for the company. After four years with the company I am even more passionate about my work than the day I started. A core belief at Return Path is that happy employees make for happy clients which makes for happy investors. I am a living example of the very happy employee and based on the continued success of the company I think the theory works.
Copy Cat
I always give my friend Sara a hard time about copying me. One day I'll be telling a joke or a funny story and the next day I overhear Sara telling the same thing to someone else as her own! Well, I realized a few days ago that both knowingly and not, I have been copying Angie. The funny thing is, I have never met Angie. She is my good friend Jessie's sister. When I originally decided to write this blog, Jessie passed on Angie's email to me because Angie also has a blog. I'm now an avid reader of her blog, we email about motherhood and random things and I admit it, I copy her.
She just posted her 25 Random Things to her blog which I am about to do here, I also copied her idea of writing a blog in the first place. Just the other day I remembered that I got the fabulous idea to walk down the aisle to "Here Comes the Sun" when Jessie told me years ago that her sister did that. I am such a copycat!
Many of my friends(like Angie) are writing a list of 25 facts or random things about themselves and posting to Facebook, below is mine. Stay tuned as I copy more from Angie in the future. Now that it is out in the open, I won't be afraid to post baby pictures of myself, share books I'm reading and discuss wage discrimination. I truly believe that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", I guess that means I need to let Sara off the hook.
1. I love the Beatles. I walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Sun”. In my opinion, the White Album is their best.
2. I am a laundry spaz. I like to wash, dry and fold my clothes in a particular way. If I don’t get all the laundry in the house done by Sunday night, even if we have been on vacation, I have been known to call in sick to work on Monday.
3. I have always been a huge fan of musicals. Favorites are West Side Story, Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge and My Fair Lady.
4. My “happy place” is Target. I spend at least an hour a week there. I think it is very calming to slowly browse through the store.
5. I have won big on slot machines twice despite not being a big gambler. The first time was almost $500 in Costa Rica when I desperately needed money and the second time was over $900 in Vegas on my way out of the casino to get a taxi to the airport.
6. I have a blog. At first I wrote about pregnancy and now I mainly write about Samantha and being a mom.
7. There is nothing better than taking a steaming hot bath. On average I take about 4 baths a week.
8. I love having a sister, and am enjoying her more every day. She is 15 years younger than me.
9. I consider myself a professional Internet researcher. I like to be challenged to find something random or strange via the world wide web.
10. Because of a book my CEO gave me, I have become an “inbox spaz”. I get anxious if I end the day with more than 10 emails sitting in my work or personal email inbox.
11. I love my daughter more than I could have imagined. I often question whether I could really love a second child nearly as much. I think every parent has a favorite and she is mine!
12. Dave and I met when we were 14 years old and had our lockers right next to each other when we started high school.
13. We didn’t date until college after he came to visit me in Costa Rica while I was studying abroad.
14. We got engaged at sunrise in Placencia, a sleepy little beach town in Belize.
15. I have a very spoiled pug named Javier. I can’t remember how we came up with his name but I had the name picked about three years before I got the pug.
16. I am oddly fascinated by the show “Big Love” and polygamy in general.
17. I am not much of a cook. Sometimes I wish I was just a little bit more domesticated.
18. As long as I live I will have a crush on John Elway. Since he retired I will admit I just don’t love the Broncos as much.
19. Many of my closest friends and favorite people to this day, graduated from Boulder High School in 1996.
20. I was born at Boulder Community Hospital, so was my husband, so was my daughter.
21. I lived in Tucson, Arizona from the time I was 7 until 13 and I still miss and love the desert.
22. I do not appreciate bathroom humor. I have never thought farting, burping, spitting, etc. is funny in any way.
23. I turn into a monster when I am overly tired or hungry. When it hits, I often can’t distinguish whether I am hungry or tired.
24. I hate, hate, hate working out. But I love the way I feel afterward so I force myself to do it a few times a week.
25. I think I am quite funny. In fact, I crack myself up many times every day. What do they say about people who laugh at their own jokes…?
She just posted her 25 Random Things to her blog which I am about to do here, I also copied her idea of writing a blog in the first place. Just the other day I remembered that I got the fabulous idea to walk down the aisle to "Here Comes the Sun" when Jessie told me years ago that her sister did that. I am such a copycat!
Many of my friends(like Angie) are writing a list of 25 facts or random things about themselves and posting to Facebook, below is mine. Stay tuned as I copy more from Angie in the future. Now that it is out in the open, I won't be afraid to post baby pictures of myself, share books I'm reading and discuss wage discrimination. I truly believe that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", I guess that means I need to let Sara off the hook.
1. I love the Beatles. I walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Sun”. In my opinion, the White Album is their best.
2. I am a laundry spaz. I like to wash, dry and fold my clothes in a particular way. If I don’t get all the laundry in the house done by Sunday night, even if we have been on vacation, I have been known to call in sick to work on Monday.
3. I have always been a huge fan of musicals. Favorites are West Side Story, Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge and My Fair Lady.
4. My “happy place” is Target. I spend at least an hour a week there. I think it is very calming to slowly browse through the store.
5. I have won big on slot machines twice despite not being a big gambler. The first time was almost $500 in Costa Rica when I desperately needed money and the second time was over $900 in Vegas on my way out of the casino to get a taxi to the airport.
6. I have a blog. At first I wrote about pregnancy and now I mainly write about Samantha and being a mom.
7. There is nothing better than taking a steaming hot bath. On average I take about 4 baths a week.
8. I love having a sister, and am enjoying her more every day. She is 15 years younger than me.
9. I consider myself a professional Internet researcher. I like to be challenged to find something random or strange via the world wide web.
10. Because of a book my CEO gave me, I have become an “inbox spaz”. I get anxious if I end the day with more than 10 emails sitting in my work or personal email inbox.
11. I love my daughter more than I could have imagined. I often question whether I could really love a second child nearly as much. I think every parent has a favorite and she is mine!
12. Dave and I met when we were 14 years old and had our lockers right next to each other when we started high school.
13. We didn’t date until college after he came to visit me in Costa Rica while I was studying abroad.
14. We got engaged at sunrise in Placencia, a sleepy little beach town in Belize.
15. I have a very spoiled pug named Javier. I can’t remember how we came up with his name but I had the name picked about three years before I got the pug.
16. I am oddly fascinated by the show “Big Love” and polygamy in general.
17. I am not much of a cook. Sometimes I wish I was just a little bit more domesticated.
18. As long as I live I will have a crush on John Elway. Since he retired I will admit I just don’t love the Broncos as much.
19. Many of my closest friends and favorite people to this day, graduated from Boulder High School in 1996.
20. I was born at Boulder Community Hospital, so was my husband, so was my daughter.
21. I lived in Tucson, Arizona from the time I was 7 until 13 and I still miss and love the desert.
22. I do not appreciate bathroom humor. I have never thought farting, burping, spitting, etc. is funny in any way.
23. I turn into a monster when I am overly tired or hungry. When it hits, I often can’t distinguish whether I am hungry or tired.
24. I hate, hate, hate working out. But I love the way I feel afterward so I force myself to do it a few times a week.
25. I think I am quite funny. In fact, I crack myself up many times every day. What do they say about people who laugh at their own jokes…?
Influenza
Despite all of us getting the flu shot this year, Samantha has influenza. I myself have only had the flu once in my life and it was absolutely terrible. It is even more terrible to watch a sweet little baby suffer through it.
The worst of it was Thursday when Samantha had a fever of 103. She was completely lethargic and just moaned all night. We are now on Day #5 of her being sick and she is still very congested and has a nasty cough. Because she is so young, they don't prescribe anything for her. The only thing we can do is give her baby Tylenol and Motrin.
The doctor was concerned she also had pneumonia and ordered blood tests on Friday. The inexperienced "girls" at the blood test center were awful and pricked and prodded at Samantha trying to find a vein to get blood three times. I wanted to kill them! So to make matters worse, she has ugly looking bruises on her arms to go along with this infection.
I am hoping we are on the road to recovery, any idea how long the dreaded flu lasts?
The worst of it was Thursday when Samantha had a fever of 103. She was completely lethargic and just moaned all night. We are now on Day #5 of her being sick and she is still very congested and has a nasty cough. Because she is so young, they don't prescribe anything for her. The only thing we can do is give her baby Tylenol and Motrin.
The doctor was concerned she also had pneumonia and ordered blood tests on Friday. The inexperienced "girls" at the blood test center were awful and pricked and prodded at Samantha trying to find a vein to get blood three times. I wanted to kill them! So to make matters worse, she has ugly looking bruises on her arms to go along with this infection.
I am hoping we are on the road to recovery, any idea how long the dreaded flu lasts?
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