Uncategorized

I have no words really. Only sadness for the many, many people who have been touched by this horrible senseless act. And such utter gratitude that Sara picked up the phone when I dialed. It breaks my heart to think of the 13 families who didn’t get an answer when they dialed…

Well, its been a busy month, to say the least. Since I started a new job two and half weeks ago, I’ve had trips to both Belgium and Seattle. Belgium was amazing and I had a great time learning about my new projects, seeing old friends, and seeing Antwerp on the day that I wasn’t working (thanks Amy for showing me around). Seattle was also beautiful, even though I didn’t get much free time to see the city. It made me miss the Northwest though; fresh air, trees, hills, houses that don’t all look the exact same, good microbrews…

This weekend we celebrated Miss Livi turning two! Can you believe it, because I seriously can’t. When we asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she kept alternating between “Nemo” and “Dora”, so we went with Dora. Thanks Mom for another great cake! We spent the afternoon moving Olivia’s crib out of her room and replacing it with a “big girl bed” (more pictures later). She was super excited about this, even though it crimped her bedtime style. She was up and down for a long time and appeared for the final time at about 9:30 pm tonight before finally settling in and falling asleep. I’m hoping that will only last a day or two until the newness wears off.

We tried to get a family picture, but that is tough to come by these days. The one on the bottom of the post was as good as we could get.

Have a great week! Happy Birthday to our little spit-fire…

6 months old already. It is hard to believe!!! Someone must have told her this news though, because just in the last week she has started sitting up and also pulling her knees under her to crawl. She does a funny yoga plank position, and then knees up. She will be crawling in a few weeks! I cannot believe it. My tiny little early baby has turned into a regular butterball ready for action. So cute, I just love on her all the time. So do her sisters. Ava loves to make her laugh. And Olivia loves to give her toys or shove her binkie back into her mouth, the concept of gentle is not clear with her but its all love really.

We are busy, busy around here with lots of new developments. Ava is headed back to school next week! She and I are both excited for this. And, I am going back to work full-time in a couple of weeks. I had an amazing job opportunity that was too good to pass up. I am still going to be working at home, just more hours and more responsibilities. I am very excited about the job though and I am also excited that we have found a wonderful babysitter/nanny who will be at home with me during the days to take care of Mia and Olivia. This way, I won’t have to worry about running three kids back and forth to daycare and schools. And, when kids are sick or the school closes due to swine flu (they are already talking about that here) then we will be covered. Plus, I love having them at home where they feel most comfortable and I can sometimes eat lunch with them or check in on them. I spent the past few weeks converting our guest bedroom into a full office with a pull-out couch (so our guest still have a place to stay) and I have been working there a couple days a week for my current job. It is great and I LOVE having a designated quiet space to escape to. We are finishing hanging up pictures this weekend and it should be DONE. I will post a picture when we get all finished. I think it turned out great.

I just feel so fortunate! Lucky to have such a great opportunity after stepping off the track for a little while, lucky to have a supportive boss who is flexible and didn’t hesitate for a second over the fact that I hadn’t been in the lab for a couple years, lucky to have found such a great nanny who my kids ADORED the minute she walked through our door, and lucky to have such a supportive husband and family that totally had my back and convinced me I really can swing all this. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Should I say it again?