Breakfast with Violet

It's hard to ever have a bad day when you start out seeing this face.

Me time

Last Tuesday was my birthday and I decided to take the day off for some me time. The plan was to take V to daycare and then have a nice relaxing day to myself. I had a running list of things that I'd been dreaming about doing for a couple weeks. I kept adding to and reprioritizing my list as it turns out there wasn't really enough time in one day to do everything that I wanted to do. Of course now I know that Moms don't ever really get to take a day off, but I had a great day regardless. As always, flexibility was the key.

Violet, eager to be the first to wish me a happy birthday, woke up at 5am ready to GO! Worried, that she wouldn't get a decent nap at daycare and wanting to go back to bed myself, I decided to sacrifice the yoga class I'd been hoping to make and keep her home in the am so we could have a nice breakfast together and then work in a 2 hour nap. The plan worked and it felt really good to get that nap. Then we got up and dressed and out the door. My modified plan was to go for a walk after I dropped V off. It was such an unbelievably beautiful day though and I was just planning on walking instead of running, so I took her with me on a nice stroll around fresh pond. Finally, I dropped her at daycare at about 11 and then sped off to the mall to do a bit of shopping.

I ran through the mall somewhat crazed, but ultimately successfully fulfilled my shopping list. I had to be home by 1 in time to pump (can't take a break from that!) and shower for my spa appointment. My day was turning out to be pretty hectic with all I was trying to fit in (such hardships, I know), but I did get some quality relaxation time in at the spa where I had a mini-massage and an express pedicure. I picked V up relaxed and with freshly painted toes, took her home and fed her dinner because hanging with her was definitely another thing I wanted to do on my birthday. At bedtime,Violet went right to sleep, happy and content.

Once she was asleep and the babysitter had arrived and was also fed, I met up with some wonderful friends in Harvard Square for dinner. We went to a cool new spot I'd been wanting to check out and enjoyed the gorgeous summer evening. Having had a serious illness and now a child, my perspective on birthdays is that they are very special days to be celebrated and certainly not feared or groaned about. This year will be remembered as one of my best birthdays ever.

While Mommy's away...

The project that I've been working on for the past 18 months - other than birthing little V and growing her to 24 lbs of pure love and joy- is about to be released. Violet, I hope that in the huge section of the time pie that I spend away from you, I can contribute in some small way to making the world a better place for you to grow up in.

10 months

Dear Violet,
Today you are 10 months and 5 days old. I weighed you on the bathroom scale tonight and you were 24 lbs! You are getting very heavy to carry around! Luckily, you are crawling more and more these days. You don't quite have the hang of getting up on your hands and knees, but you can get around pretty quickly when you want to. You really like me to be in your sight at all times and sometimes you get angry if I have to leave the room for a few seconds. I promise, I'll be right back. You love people and to laugh so much that sometimes you don't want to go to sleep at night. The other night when we were in Virginia, you didn't want to go to bed so I let you stay up and you played slap the table with your Granddaddy and laughed for about 20 minutes. It was just what you needed, because you slept well after that. Today you didn't want to take an afternoon nap so I took you down to Riverfest along the Charles River. You looked and looked at all the people and smiled and waved at them. They smiled back. Then you finally got tired, put your arms up over your head and took a snooze right there in the midst of a large dance party. I was so proud of you. You are starting to like to feed yourself more and more. Tonight I made you some cereal with squash and broccoli, but you didn't really like it so I gave you some avocado, tortilla, and banana pieces on your tray which you gobbled right up. You have enough hair now to just fit in the worlds smallest barrette and hints of curls are starting to form on the back of your head. I tell you often, but I'll tell you again that you are such a good girl and I love you very much.
Love,
Mom

A Saturday in Cambridge

Recently, I joined the Donor Sibling Registry because I was curious, but mainly because as I consider a second child (!?!) I wanted to know if there were extra vials of our donor out there and knowing about half siblings seems relevant. There was just one child born to the donor when I first consulted the registry. It turns out that there are now 3 children in addition to Violet born to 3 different moms. One family is a 2 mom family who lives in Salem, Ma and has a daughter a year older than Violet and a son just born in March. The other family is a single mom who actually lives on the next street over from us here in Cambridge (!!!) with a 5 1/2 year old daughter and another baby on the way.

So we all met up on the Cambridge Public Library lawn on Saturday. It was a little odd seeing how much the kids resemble each other and comparing notes with the other moms. Our discussions were a funny mix of talking about kids in general, but also some undercurrents of constantly wondering about the genetic similarities of our kids and piecing together what the donor must be like. The 5 1/2 year old is fascinated with the Simian crease on her left hand and loves the fact that the 2 year old and Violet also have these single lines on their hands. Now I have one of these too (as do 1 in 30 Caucasians) but then Violet has them on both hands --one of the mom's pointed out that perhaps that means she gets it from both sides :). The 2 year old definitely has a similar build to Violet being in the 95th percentile for weight and height and I think really looks a lot like her. It's cool that they're so close in age.

We sat under some trees and talked for a while while the kids played. We joked that it was such a stereotypical Saturday afternoon in Cambridge. Not really what I would have ever imagined.... and who knows how much we'll see each other going forward, but I actually hope we do get together from time to time and will become friends. I really enjoyed talking to all of the moms - they were really nice people and we seemed to have similar values - or at least we share a love of making organic baby food and compost. The 2 moms from Salem actually also used to live in the neighborhood - just around the corner from us the other way. It seems like it would be fun for Violet to have half-siblings around growing up. It would also be nice to have more family since we're already down a couple members and it's great that they're local.

Work Life Balance

I want a bigger piece of the pie

Violet's time in a typical week: