Autumn installment

I have a sore throat and am feeling generally run-down, so I came home early from work today. I've come off a recent stretch of working an awful lot, and I'm grateful, in a way, for the little bug I'm fighting off: I think I need the down time.

I wrote what follows in an email to a good friend of mine; I think it does a nice job of crystallizing what's up with me of late. Enjoy the cheater's blog entry!

I think I am approaching a point in this crazy world of social work at which I might be able to begin to synthesize the experience into a few words, so this is my best effort -- fingers crossed for an arrow into the heart of the truth of the experience ... or at least in the vicinity of the bull's eye.

The experience of now a year of working at social work is crazy and comical and tragic on multiple levels simultaneously. First, there's the Greek tragedy that is working for a small government bureaucracy, full of procedural quirks, the monotony of the death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts of governmental red tape that takes about as much time as my actual work (and this ratio is a definite improvement over my first six months, when I struggled to manage the myriad stupid tasks in something approximating a 40-hour week); the sense of rubbing shoulders, six degrees apart, from small-time elected officials; the insane personalities and cliques endemic to a mid-size government agency.

Then there's the tragedy of the work itself, which is just full immersion in every "social ill" imaginable. Substance abuse, mental illness, criminality, domestic violence, and most of all, grinding, bone-crushing poverty, have been the most common of the lenses through which to view the clients I've worked with. (Oh, and the custody battles that make me want to rip my eyelashes out, one at a time.) The actual work with clients is harder to try to explain, because learning to manage the multiple levels of the job, and having done well at it so far (I've just recently broken through to a new level of feeling competent on a number of fronts), means that the job is actually treating me well, personally. Which is a crazy thing to say, when in a certain sense, I guess you could say I'm benefitting by others' misfortunes. But that's not really what's going on, of course: my goal always is to try to help, and it does affect me deeply when I have to walk away from a situation that I know is awful, but it's not awful enough for me to justify escalating the intervention, which obviously would have its own negative consequences. Above and beyond "do no harm," I'm cultivating the mentality of "leave no trace," which also is not entirely accurate, but it's helpful in terms of a check on my "good intentions."

I feel like a cliche sometimes: the well-meaning middle-aged middle-class white lady who just wants to help. I guess the part of the stereotype that doesn't fit is the idea that the well-meaning white lady is often sort of stupid. I'm not. I try to be as transparent as possible with my clients, especially regarding the legal or technical stuff, which often means I'm talking over their heads. I haven't yet figured out how to translate it into regular talk. But at the same time, I am smart, dammit, and I think sometimes complex concepts just can't be oversimplified, and I don't want to find myself in a situation where I'm talking down to people and, by doing so, misleading or misinforming them.

Yet another level of the work to be mastered, which I've come a long way at in the past three weeks, is the court report writing that I do on a very regular basis. In Emergency Response, we are the first line of direct contact, after the hotline screeners. What this means is that our unit does the least writing of court reports (later on in the life of a case, there are status review reports that are due at least every six months; when you have 25 kids on a caseload, this means workers are probably writing at a minimum 1-2 reports a month, with heavier months when the report-writing schedule gets bunched up). In ER, we only have to write court reports when we need to initiate a CPS case with a family; in those cases, we write the initial court report that gets the ball rolling. So my co-workers in ER write these reports ("petitions") here and there, some workers just write more petitions than others, due to a variety of factors, and sometimes it comes in waves. Bottom line: ER workers don't, as a rule, write a lot of court reports. And when they do, they tend to be on the shorter side. So, in addition to investigating referrals (which may or may not lead to court cases), I also have two other major job functions: I investigate non-relative guardianship applications heard in probate court, and I investigate the teens who have gotten into some trouble with delinquency court, in the event that the court requests that we assess in conjunction with Probation to see which agency would best serve the kid and family. Having these two other functions as part of my job means that every time I'm assigned either of these types of investigations, I am automatically writing a court report. I've just finished a 2 1/2 week period of writing 6 court reports. And Veteran's Day was thrown in there, so I lost a day. I was writing 2 or 3 reports a week; over the week of Veteran's Day, I wrote about one report a day. And the craziest part was that it sort of catapulted me to this Zen place, where I knew everything would get done, and I wasn't worried about it, and I had this clarity, like, I can handle this. I don't really know how or why it happened, but it was true, I did get everything done, and I didn't work on the holiday or on the weekends, and I didn't work overtime, and all my court reports were turned in on time.

After the reports were all turned in, I thought, I wish I could just write all the time for my job. And then it took me a few more days and I realized, oh, that is what I do! I like my job a lot. The county I work for is about to lay off a bunch of people in the position below mine, and it sucks. I think they're using the economy to restructure the organization and lay off people they view as dead weight. It totally sucks, I have all this survivors' guilt about walking in with no seniority, and in effect displacing people with fewer credentials but way more experience. At the same time, I'm just grateful to have a job, and that it's a job, as I say, that I like a lot.

There are several other things that are treating me well these days, primarily our new house (which I love) and my Kid (ditto). Kid A is doing just great -- she blew past walking and is running practically everywhere now. She understands just about everything we say, and has just started learning words at a frightening pace (time for us to cut out the salty sailor talk!); she now knows, in addition to "no" and "shoe," "light," "leaves," "car" (a favorite), "cat," "dog," "duck," "water," "cracker," and just this morning, said "flor" ("flower" in Spanish). She's just come out of a particularly fussy phase (I think it preceded the new developmental leap of learning to talk), but still has moments where she's easily and thoroughly frustrated by knowing what she wants to have or to do, and not being able to get the thing, or to express what she wants. Fortunately, she's fairly easily distractable, as well, so she can often redirect well. She's just so much fun, and she makes us laugh a lot. She's also starting to find things funny, and she loves to "talk" in full Audrey-language sentences that nobody but Audrey understands, but boy is she emphatic about whatever it is she thinks she's saying! She's got inflection mastered.

Our new house is just perfect for us: not too big, not small at all (for us), tons and tons of yard, and all of us have settled in super easily. It feels like home, and it has made a huge difference in my overall quality of life. The cats adjusted almost instantaneously (the only stress in their lives now is the large toddler that chases after them and shrieks with delight when she sees them. They are not fond of this). I feel frustrated a lot of the time, when I think about how I want the house and yard to look, and how little time and money I have to make the place live up to its potential, but I'm trying to take the longer view, and think of it as a marathon rather than a sprint, but it's hard sometimes. And sometimes, it's just great and perfectly fine, because it's a great house.

And now, some pictures:

Taken a few days after her 1st birthday, in mid-July. She was not yet walking on her own.

A few weeks later (early August). Just beginning to walk. Doesn't she look so proud?

Her first hair bow! This hair clip only worked once or twice -- it was waaaay too easy for her to take out herself. We've moved on to teeny tiny hair elastics that she can't pull out. Ask me in a few months if I'm still trying to let her bangs grow out.

Does it get any better than that face?
This was an amazing late summer/early fall afternoon: sunny, windy and cool. Wood chips and climbing on the play structure at the park.

SPAGHETTI!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Probably a little incoherent

This post has all the potential for either being rambling or shockingly brief, but almost undoubtedly will be a mess. But the house is quiet, and I should digest the homemade bean-and-cheese burrito I just devoured before I fall into bed and pass out from utter exhaustion, so here's a new post. Enjoy!

In the past two weeks, I have racked up over 13 hours of overtime. That's almost two whole work days. I know that some people work that much, and more, on a regular basis, but this is new to me. Or at least it has been a very long time. Although I honestly can't remember a job I've had where I've worked this much. Of course, as I've pointed out in recent posts, the work is also quite demanding (obviously). I do enjoy it, but I am very much looking forward to a reprieve. It's hard to imagine, at the moment, exactly how I am going to get caught up. That's the most daunting part. I wish that there were some way for the documentation and paperwork to just get done without my having to enter all my contacts, etc., etc. I need a secretary! Too bad that will never happen.

Sharp departure, and abrupt change of subject! We're buying a house! Escrow will close in 10 days' time; the sellers will move out the day after we close, and I'm taking the week of October 12th off in order to coordinate and orchestrate the move. Woo hoo! It's all very exciting, but I wish I had more time not working lately in order to start lining up bids for some minor cosmetic work on the new place, getting estimates for movers, that sort of thing. TM says just a couple of hours on the weekend making calls and scheduling appointments should do it; we'll see.

Kid A has been amazing. I got her some teeny tiny hair elastics, to keep her bangs out of her face, and I've been putting in these adorable little samurai top-of-the-head ponytails ... OMG, too cute. I'll have to take some photos and post them. It's enough to make a person die of too-much-cuteness. She's still not really talking, but she is going through an intense imitative phase. We feed her graham crackers with cream cheese for breakfast, and if we give her a cheese-less cracker, she'll break it into pieces like she sees us do for her. Last week, TM said she opened the kitchen cabinet where we keep the garbage and recycling, and threw away a paper towel. We never even realized she was watching us throw things away until she did it herself that day. Wow, that sounds like such a trivial thing, and I cannot fully describe it appropriately, but having this kid just blows my mind sometimes. The things that kids learn, just by watching and living with other people -- it makes me realize how much of parenting is accidental, and at the same time, makes me want to be so much more intentional in what I teach her, which translates into wanting to be much more intentional and deliberate about who I am, and what I do.

This corresponds with some major lessons I have been taking away from a current family I've been working with, as well as something super interesting I was reading about during my lunch break today (read the book excerpt). In a nutshell, there are things I want Kid A to learn from me and her dad -- practical skills (laundry, cooking, managing money) that will help her succeed in adulthood, as well as concept stuff like the value of effort and determination -- that so freakin' many kids just don't get. Kids on both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum, as I was reminded in the above-linked article today. And the family I'm nearly finished working with is the absolute poorest end of that spectrum; this family is not the noble, downtrodden poor, with a quiet dignity of bearing that suggests finer things are in store for them someday. No, this family embraces a specific culture, one that is completely foreign, even anathema, to me. If there is an antonym for "industrious," I don't know it, but I wish I did, for that would be the word which best applies. I have such little compassion for the members of this family, and I know it, and I hate that I have insufficient compassion. I get angry that people like these are the beneficiaries of heroes of mine, those who have fought tirelessly and suffered greatly to promote civil rights and social justice, and people like my clients just spit on the memories of my heroes. I mean, 14-year-old kids who tell me that they want their education, but can't go to school because their hair's not done, or they haven't been taught how to wash their clothes out in the sink in order to have clean clothes to wear? Intellectually, theoretically, I know that this family is the product of lots of problematic forces in our society, and that mostly, it's not really their fault -- they're just casualties of a messed-up set of institutions and systems (mine included!) that oppress and disempower the poor, the uneducated, and those with little to no economic opportunities. And yet, at some point in time, every person has to make a decision that they're going to live and act like a grown-up, and stop blaming everything around them for their own problems. I want insight, I want ownership, I want some goddam responsibility every now and then.

If you've made it through my ranting and raving, congratulations. You now have a greater insight into the early stages of my transformation into a more conservative creature. We shall see, over time, how this plays out.

And now, after a very very long day, I am going to bed, as I am nearing the point where I can no longer see straight. Sweet dreams!

Major developments

Yes, it's true, it's been a while. Life has been a bit fuller of late, so the updates, they have been not so regular. I hope what is to follow makes up for it, a little bit.

Work has been very full over the past month. I began working with a family in mid-July that consumed much of my time, culminating in a placement into foster care, complete with a petition and report to the court, at the end of August. For six weeks, I spent I don't know how many hours working with the mother to try to remedy the chronic problems she's been struggling with for decades: mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness. After four weeks, it was clear that she was going to need a bit more, um, authoritative intervention, and we planned to go to court to see if the court would order Family Maintenance services. After I wrote the court documents, one week before the scheduled hearing, things got a bit out of control, and law enforcement ended up placing the kids into protective custody, and we removed them from mom and placed them in foster care, and moved up the hearing a few days.

Having spent so much of my working life with one family that consumed my time, it has been disorienting and strange to shift gears and begin moving at the different pace of more typical investigations. I still think about them often, but it does seem to be subsiding. I feel proud of the work that I did, and I feel good about the outcome. I hope that the mom is able to pull things together and reunify with her kids, because she loves them and they love her, and of course they all miss each other. But there were -- are -- serious problems that need to be addressed, and the outcome for the kids would have been worse, I think, if we had not taken the actions we took. Ultimately, my goal with every family I work with is to leave as few traces as possible that I was there; when that is not possible, I strive to leave the situation a little better than when I came on the scene. I think I did that over the six weeks with this family. I'm looking forward to a time when weeks will go by without thinking about them.

The other thing that has been disorienting and strange is that we made an offer on a house, and it was accepted! My goodness, I can hardly believe how fast it's all happened. It's not far from where we live now, and I feel pretty good (in theory) about the schools we'll be in if the whole thing goes through. Escrow is expected to close on October 9, and our contingency/inspection period ends next Sunday (September 13). It's an older home, built in 1954, and very small -- just 2 bedrooms and 1 bath -- but the lot is huge, with tons of room for gardens and for Kid A to play. It's on a quiet street that dead-ends; we're in about the middle of the street. We've had a number of preliminary inspections this week, and things are looking great, so our full home inspection will be next Saturday, at which point we should be full steam ahead!

It's crazy, because we only went house-hunting on two consecutive weekends, and this was the first house we saw on our second outing. Everybody's said that "when you know, you know," and several people have compared it to finding the perfect wedding dress (an apt analogy). TM and I spent a lot of time in it the first time we saw it, and have gone back twice (with my mom, and with his parents), and have liked it just as much each time we've seen it. I spent about three hours there yesterday with my realtor, for the inspection of the septic tank, and it felt just great to hang out there. I haven't been sleeping very well, because I'm thinking about it all the time, and it has definitely affected my ability to fully focus at work. But I think once the inspections are done and the lending has been secured, I'll be able to focus on other things again.

I'm 36 years old, and just entering the world of home-ownership for the first time. It's funny: for having spent my teens and twenties being so parentified and mature, I'm certainly a late bloomer in many respects: just starting my grown-up career, first-time mom of a toddler, and first-time homeowner. I wouldn't trade it for anything, though (well, maybe more traveling during my teens and twenties); I did get to do so much as a result of being somewhat fancy-free for all those years. And TM and I really got a long time to get to know each other and work out the kinks before throwing all these stressful and highly-charged components into the mix. Seriously, how do newlyweds go through all these things together, while they still hardly know themselves and each other? I feel so very grateful, and lucky, that these transitions have been so manageable, and I attribute that in large part to having this super solid foundation with the spouse.

Speaking of, our 11-year wedding anniversary is this month. Eleven years. That means we've been together now for 15 years. (That anniversary came and went with both of us forgetting about it! It was last month. We both just acknowledged it and kind of did a little "Wow!" thing, and now we're both back to doing what we were doing just seconds before.) We don't have anything planned, and if the house is going to go through, it's probable we won't do anything beyond toast one another over dinner on the night of the anniversary. But that's kind of my favorite way to celebrate, anyway.

Now for the Kid A developments. She's walking! It started for real the week before last, although for months she'd been walking well with assistance. She's getting to be a real pro at it. I bought her shoes last weekend, and "shoe" is one of the three or four words she can say, which is hysterically funny to me. Dear god, I hope I don't have a Carrie Bradshaw-type shoe nut on my hands. Her other words are "dog" (actually, "doh") and "duck" (see "dog"). Occasionally, she'll make some "mama" sounds, that these days do seem to be aimed in my direction, but usually only when she's super tired and about to go down for a nap. She's also lately saying something that sounds like "H" or "itch," and I have no idea what she's trying to say. She babbles beautifully, and often, and I would love to know what she's trying to tell us. I'm super surprised that it's taking her so long to talk, because we talk and sing and read to her all the time. I attribute it to the steady stream of Spanish she gets, as well.

I'm trying to speak Spanish with her at home, in addition to the full-time Spanish she gets at Carmen's during the week. I went to a bookstore last weekend, in our old neighborhood in Oakland, that carries a great selection of Spanish-language children's books, and bought six. I've been reading to her in Spanish at home, and it's helping my Spanish improve. I also regularly practice my Spanish with some of my co-workers, and of course with Carmen. I'm hoping to raise Kid A to be fluent in both languages. I think that might take some work as she gets older, but I hope that she and I can help each other improve our understanding of Spanish together. When you're born and raised in California, there's no excuse for not being bilingual, and I wish the public schools in our area had Spanish-immersion options for grade school. Anyway, I think it's taking her longer to speak because she's busy processing two languages.

Unfortunately, I don't have any recent pictures uploaded. Maybe I'll get a chance before my next post ... but frankly, I doubt it! Wish us happy escrow, and happy moving!!

Warning: From Icky to Sappy

We survived a parenting rite of passage last night: Kid A threw up (repeatedly) for the first time. We're not sure if it was something she ate, too much pool water (followed by too much milk) combined with lots of throwing and splashing and dunking in the pool, or if perhaps she ate a teensy bit of bar soap at the end of her bath. Or a combination of all of the above. Whatever the cause, we put her to bed at just before 7 pm yesterday (so very tired), and she slept well for about an hour. Then we heard her wake up and start to cry instantly. We both figured that she was still hungry, as she hadn't finished her bottle, but had pushed it away after a few ounces, so I took that upstairs and went in thinking I would sit with her while she finished it, and put her back down. Instead, when I opened the door, I found my poor little pumpkin sitting up in her crib, with an ungodly mess in her lap, on her hands, etc. I think my exact words were, "Tom, I need you," and he came upstairs with a quickness. Meanwhile, the poor thing was screaming at the top of her lungs.

I took her into the bathroom and put her in the tub while I stripped off her pajamas and diaper, then ran some water and got her cleaned up; Kid A screaming all the while (and by the end, she had started to shake, which really freaked me out). The whole tub ordeal couldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity. I wrapped her up in some towels and took her back into her bedroom, where I tried to rock her and calm her down, but she was beside herself. Finally, I just decided to get her diapered and dressed again. I think TM took over at some point, because I remember changing the sheet and matress pad in the crib. We were able to get her calmed down a bit, but before we got her back into bed, she threw up again, all over herself. See above, from "I took her into the bathroom ..." except no tub this time. She finally passed out, exhausted, nearly an hour after I went upstairs thinking I would feed her.

Two hours later (10 pm), it happened again. Fortunately, she didn't throw up as much, and we hadn't dressed her after the second stripping, so from clean up to back down was much faster (this time, though, it got in her hair, which ... ew).

Twice more: once at 11:30 and again at 12:30. Worried and exhausted, we took her temperature both times, and she had no fever. Both times, she woke up crying, we cleaned up (by this time we had perfected putting down a clean baby bath towel under her, so clean up was now quick and easy), and she passed out from exhaustion within minutes of waking. It was harder, by far, for me to get back to sleep after each episode than for her.

I woke up a couple of times between 12:30 and morning; I checked the time, and went back to sleep. At 7:30 this morning, I heard her happy little Kid A morning babble over the monitor in our room; I went in to find her beaming at me, standing up in her crib in nothing but her diaper, the towel and her quilt in a heap at the foot of her crib. She went back down for a nap within an hour of waking up, but she had a decent breakfast and some formula, and no signs of any lingering problems.

So we're initiated. Growing up, I hated stomach bugs and vomiting worse than any other kind of sickness in the world. I would cry and cry and cry any time I had to throw up. My mom is the same way. I always thought that I would not do well the first time I had to be the responsible parent in that scenario, but I did just fine: plenty of compassion, plenty of keeping my wits about me, and plenty of (intestinal) fortitude. I'm not looking for a trophy or anything; I'm just glad she seems to be fine today.

And tomorrow, we celebrate (with about 40 of our closest friends and family members) her first birthday with a big party in the park. I think about those parents who go through much worse -- those who have children with medical or behavioral problems -- and I feel so much gratitude for our happy, healthy, strapping big girl. She's the light of our lives, and I can't imagine this world without her in it.

One-year portraits

Our fabulous photographer, Nicole, came out to our place again last Saturday. Here's a sneak preview of three of the photos:

http://nicolescarborough.blogspot.com/

As of this moment (7/16/09), Kid A is the most recent blog entry; within a day or two, you may have to scroll down (or search) to see the pics. The entry is dated 7/15/09.

Don't you just want to eat her up?

Happy birthday, Audrey!

Here's our happy little water babe, a few days before her first birthday.

Chompin' on a watermelon rind in the park. She's not a kid who likes a lot of fruit, so when she finds something she does like, we tend to let her go for it!

With her buddy Molly, at the park. Look, Mama: I've got my foot! I know I do this all the time, but still: I've got my FOOT!

It's so hard for me to believe that my tiny little baby is already one year old. I know that everybody says that, and I hate to be cliche. And yet, the reason everybody trips about their baby turning one is because it goes so fast, and so slow, and the days add up, one by one, drop by drop, and before you know it, what was once your baby is now your child. I think about all the things she can do now, and how very strong her will and personality are becoming, and even the seemingly simplest things that she can do now were impossible just a short time ago.

And I'm oh so very tired, because, well, remember back when she was first born? How hard she was, how difficult to soothe, how particular her needs? Well ... I'm a little concerned that we're entering a renewed period of cantankerousness. I am praying to whatever benevolent forces might be that we're not going to go through three tough months every year. That would be, well, not fun. TM and I joke that she's hit her terrible twos early. She is an advanced child. Seriously, she has begun to throw some pretty phenomenal temper tantrums. And she seems to be tired all the time. And she sleeps, it's not like she doesn't sleep: at least two naps a day, at least one hour each, and more often at least one of her daily naps is more like two hours or more. AND she sleeps for anywhere from 9 to 11 hours at night! Oh, I'm hoping this fussy phase will be short. And I'm fearing that it might not be.

But when she isn't fussy or tired, she is just the sweetest, happiest baby around. She still loves to be on the move; she's learned to climb the stairs, and loves to chase after the cats (who really do not love to be chased. Fortunately, she rarely gets close enough to them to freak them out too badly; Georgia, in particular, is a very good sport about the whole thing). She had two weeks of swimming "lessons" with her dad in mid-June, and spent 30 minutes a day for eight days splashing and shrieking and having a grand time. Since then, they've been hitting the pool in our condo complex more days than not, and they both love it.

She's closer and closer to walking all the time. I think that's what's making her both tired and fussy: I think her little brain and body are churning out new programming at a furious rate, and when it all comes together, I think we'll all settle back into a more "normal" state. Of course, it will be a new normal, involving chasing after a toddler for 12 hours a day!

We're looking forward to her big birthday bash on July 19th, but we celebrated fairly quietly over the July 4th weekend at my mom's, with dinner out (and breakfast, too), more presents (from Nana) than a one-year-old needs (thanks, Nana -- we love you!), and, of course, her first cake:

Fortunately, she was far more interested in getting it on her than in her, so thus far we're successfully dodging the sugar beast. We'll see whether that trend continues at her next party!

I'll try to post more often than once a month, I really do try not to let so much time go by. We'll see how July works out.

Developments

This has been such a long week. I spent Tuesday and half of Wednesday in Santa Rosa, at my (hopefully!) very last CORE training. This one was on child maltreatment: indicators of physical abuse. With pictures and everything. Pretty much what you'd expect, so I won't go into detail for those who haven't ever been exposed to anything like that, and it wasn't like it was the first time I was seeing those sorts of things. But it's made it a lot harder this week to leave Kid A at daycare and go to work.

And she's been sleeping so much lately, that I hardly get to see her when I am at home. With the exception of last night, which I'll get to shortly, she's been going down between 6 and 7 pm, and sleeping until I wake her up at around 6:45 am. Considering that I drop her off at daycare as soon as she's changed and dressed, and that I don't get home until 6 pm, you can see that it leaves very little time to be together. I realized this morning, as I moved the box of formula out of my way while I made my breakfast, I've prepared maybe three bottles all week. If that. That's pitiful.

It makes me feel so sad. I know I'm not stay-at-home material. I do like my job. A lot. But Kid A is just so much fun these days -- so happy, smiling and laughing all the time, getting into everything, learning new stuff practically every day -- I would love to have more time with her. This week really makes me despise spending 40-50 minutes commuting each way. Bleh.

So last night*, she decided to stay up until 8:00. It was so nice to be able to finish feeding her her dinner, take a bath with her, and watch her play. Such a nice change from the rest of this week. TM even said she took an independent step while I ate my dinner and he supervised her playtime! We're pretty close to walking, I think. I predict before the end of the month.

* I began this post on Friday morning before work. It's now Saturday morning, and she's napping. So "last night" actually refers to Thursday night, for those of you following along at home.

Still no words yet. Lots and lots of babbling, and lots of new babbling sounds. She babbles along when TM or I sing to her, and "dances," too, by moving her little belly back and forth. A couple of weeks ago, we had our first heat wave of the spring, and we took her to TM's parents' pool, where she had an absolute blast. Splashing in such a big pool was big fun for her. Last weekend, we took her to the beach** for the first time, and she was amazed by the sand. She had an opportunity to check out both dry, sandy sand, and harder-packed sand. When we got her onto the harder sand nearer the water, she crawled around in huge loops, as fast as she could go. It was great to get her out into the fresh air and let her blow off energy. She's a very kinetic kid, constantly moving or trying to squirm her way out of a cuddle to get moving again. She loves to have her daddy hold her while he dances and jumps around -- she laughs and giggles like crazy. She loves it when we dangle her upside down. She's beginning to try to launch herself off of couches and chairs, and is starting to crawl up stairs and trying to crawl over things. She has discovered that she can open doors, and that there are things behind the doors that are interesting to check out. She opens the pantry door, and pulls herself up with the middle shelf, where there are boxes of cereal, and heavy cans of things. She'll take interesting things off of the shelf, and hold it with both hands while she sits back down to check it out. She carries things in her hands, or pushes them along with her, while she crawls all over the house.

And she is beginning to demonstrate her will. This is interesting to me. She is just beginning to push or swat at our faces if she doesn't like something. Nothing too serious yet, nothing big, but it is interesting to see her "push back" in an effort to change the course of things.

** The "beach" was actually a river beach. Even though I've been hankering to take Kid A to the ocean, our heat wave didn't last, and so we remained inland. Nice to have options, though. We'll eventually make it to the coast!

TM was laid off, and then his lay-off was rescinded. He will undoubtedly, though, be teaching at a different school in the district next year. He is credentialed in both biology and chemistry, so there's also a big chance that he might be teaching a new subject next year, as well. The district has not yet told him where he will go, and, as with most beaurocratic systems, their process leaves much to be desired. But we are thrilled that he has a job, and things are still looking ok in my line of work, so we feel very lucky and grateful.

I have taken a bunch of amazingly adorable pictures over the last few weeks, and plan to upload them this weekend, so I might add another post of pictures in the next day or so. Check back!

Oh, and Kid A is eleven months old today. The last month of her first year! I can hardly believe it.

So much to say, so much to say

Boy, that's terrible: March 6 was really the last time I sat down to write anything? And even then, I was amazed at how the time was slipping away. Now that I'm up and running at work, it seems as though I am up and running from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep. But Kid A seems to be sleeping in this morning, I'm having an easy breakfast, and my lunch is already at work, so surprise! I've got an unexpected half hour free to talk to you! (Spoiler: there is a new picture at the very end of this post. It's a little treat for those of you who make it through to the end, and also for those of you who skip all the words and just scroll down to see the sweet little pumpkin.)

First, the Kid A milestones update:

She learned to crawl about a month ago! (Oh, she's 9.5 months old now.) Very exciting for her, and for us. I was beginning to think she would skip crawling, because she was getting so frustrated with wanting to be mobile, but not having the patience to stay on her hands and knees -- she much preferred to be helped up to standing than to practice trying to crawl. But, as babies are wont to do, all of a sudden she figured it out, and has been crawling all over the place. She's much happier that she can now get to where she wants to go. Of course, we haven't done all the things that the magazines and websites say you should do to babyproof our place, so that means we're just watching her like a hawk all the time. So far, so good, though!

She's become Olympic-class at pulling herself up to standing and getting back down again. She loves to stand in her Pack-n-play and wave at us and say "Hi." (That's her only word so far, by the way. "Hi." It's adorable, although I'm looking forward to some recognizable syllables.) She's trying out this new royalty/beauty pageant wave, the kind where it's all in the wrist. She seems to be doing it all the time, even when she's falling asleep on the bottle. Very cute. And the waving thing now seems to be happening for "Bye," too, which has just started in the past couple of days.

She still loves her daycare provider, Carmen. When I drop her off in the mornings, she gives them all big big smiles all around. It's wonderful to see, and I feel great about leaving her there.

She's eating lots and lots of different foods. She's losing her patience for pureed stuff and really wants to be trying real food. So far, pretty much anything with protein is a hit (oh, except for salmon. We were having some a couple of nights ago and she was sitting in her high chair at the table with us, and was eyeing my plate, so I gave her some. Not super successful. It's a strong flavor, so I'm not hugely surprised). She LOVES chicken, and has some for dinner every night. (This works out great, because I cook up some chicken breasts every weekend for my lunches during the week, and I just make a little extra that TM cubes up for her to feed herself with.) She also loved some amazingly delicious tofu that TM made last weekend, cooked in coconut milk and soy sauce and basil. Again, we were sitting down together, and she was super interested in what I was eating, so I gave her some, and she just kept coming back for more. I wasn't surprised that she liked tofu -- it's pretty bland, after all -- but I was surprised that she liked the other flavors that were with it. Although it was delicious.

Oh, and she has entered the beginning of the shrieking phase! So far, it's really cute, because she'll emit this high-pitched little scream, and then we'll sort of do it back to her, and we'll play that game for a good while before she gets distracted by something else. It's also cute because, so far, she isn't screaming for long periods of time, and it isn't yet super loud. We just sort of play catch with the screaming. It's fun ... for now, anyway!

Ok, briefly, before she wakes up and we have to get going for the day, my own personal updates:

I have been given my assignment in my new county, and I am back in Emergency Response (still with CPS, of course). I've been doing actual work for about 2.5 weeks now, and it's going very well. Very, very busy, but very well. For reasons that are unknown to me, I feel much more ready this time around to do ER investigations. Partly, it must be that I've done them before and so I've gotten over some of my initial fears about barging into people's lives (although I am, of course, still respectful and do my best to barge in as unobtrusively as possible). I think another piece of it is that Kid A isn't so little this time around, and the emotional nakedness of having a newborn has subsided a great deal; last time, I think I feared being an emotional basketcase, and this time I feel much stronger.

My referrals so far are intense: much more so than anything I worked on in my old job. I'm glad they're giving me real work to do, and I'm glad that because I'm still new, I won't be getting any new referrals for at least two weeks, but I have quite a lot on my plate for the next two weeks. I definitely feel the pressure, with the mandated timelines, to get things done quickly, but investigations themselves just take so long. There are always lots of people to talk to, and so far, nothing is just cut-and-dried "Yep, it happened and we have proof" or "Nope, it's all a big misunderstanding." I know that there will be a few of those, on both sides, but most of the time not. I wish I could write some details to flesh out what I'm talking about, in terms of the intensity, but, well, of course I can't. So yes, it's intense and busy, but I really like it. I like my supervisor, and I like the vibe of the ER unit in my new county. Good folks, little drama, good supervisors all around ... I'm happy. I feel like I landed in the right place.

And generally, I feel like I landed in the right place. I think my new county is, in many ways, a better fit for me than my old county. I think the size of the operations, and the size of the county, suits me better than the large county and bloated agency I worked for last year. I see that there's room to make an impression and advance my career in a more tangible way; the deputy director is in our building, as opposed to being off in some office somewhere far away. We only have three program managers, as opposed to the however many -- ten? twelve? -- the other county used to have. So there's fewer layers of bureaucracy, which is also a much better fit for me. Had I started out here, I wouldn't have appreciated it; I had to have the experience I had, with the bloat, and the layoffs, and all of that, in order to really appreciate what I've fallen into. So I'm immensely grateful for all of it: the roller coaster, and the job experience, and going back to work so early, and the layoff, and the six weeks with Kid A before I started working again, and the sheer joy of discovering that I really like my job. I like ER, and I think I'm going to be good at it. And I like my new, goofy, little county.

I've got some great new pictures of Kid A from Easter, and I'll try to post some soon. (We just went to the park during the day, and that's where the pictures were taken; that night, we went to TM's parent's house to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. 35 years! Congrats, M & E!)

But here's one for your enjoyment for now. She's SO CUTE!

Picture postcard for the new year (albeit not so new anymore)

From Christmas: Boy, how time flies. Truly frightening.

Kid A is 8 months old today!

In honor of the occasion, some more photos:

Again, from Christmas. We call this "Christmas Drunk," also known as "too much Christmas." And it was only the first one (of three)!
Early January, just before her 6-month birthday. I like this one because her face has changed so much from the months before (and has changed so much since then). I also totally dig her expression:

Priceless.

At the end of January, we took our first family trip to a museum, the De Young in San Francisco. Kid A did so well; she loved looking at all the different shapes and colors (and people!). This was her little cafe stop snack break.

Although we don't have photographic evidence, a few weeks after this outing, we took her to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (which I think I may have written about), and she loved, loved, loved it.

We like to buck convention when it comes to gendered clothing; here's our "little prince" enjoying the delights of the Cheerio:

The weekend of my birthday, our dear and dearly missed friends were in SF, and we caught up with them and their twin boys for a little visit. Here's Kid A's first playground swing ride:

From last week, lovin' both "grandpa" and breakfast (the latter being much more present than the former):
Life's been super busy, and I wish I had time to write words, but perhaps another time. Love to all!

New stuff, good stuff, old stuff ... blue stuff?

I finished the first week at the new job. It's a mixed bag, really: I'm happy to have a job, I'm not happy about how little I'm going to be seeing my child. She's sleeping great at night, and she's now sleeping a total of 11-12 hours each night. Which means: I get home a little before 6:00, and she's down for the night between 6:30 and 7:00. She will usually wake up for another feeding between 8:00 and midnight, but it's a total of about 20 minutes or so that she's up, and then she sleeps through until somewhere between 5:30 and 6:45. And I drop her off at Carmen's at 7:00, and I'm off to work. Yeah. That's going to suck. I have a feeling I'm really going to be living for the weekends.

It was great, though: they observe Lincoln's birthday (which is also my dad's birthday), and they observe it on the actual date. Which meant that I had Thursday off. And they also observe Presidents' Day, this coming Monday, so I'm at the dawn of a three-day weekend. So my first two weeks are short weeks, which is pretty nice. (Sadly, though, there won't be another holiday until Memorial Day, so I'm looking at a pretty lengthy dry spell. Can't have everything, I suppose.) Nice to have a soft landing, as my friend Ryan would say.

Last weekend, we went down to my dad's house for a pre-birthday visit. Dad is doing surprisingly well, physically, but cognitively he's not going so great. He's having difficulty with mental functioning like math, reading and writing. He's supposed to be doing some brain-boosting video games and the like, but I'm not sure he's able to get his computer functioning in order to get going on that. He's also almost certainly going to have to move out of his house. He's 8 payments delinquent, and even if his lender approves a modification of his loan, I'm not sure the payments will be affordable. He got approved for Medi-Cal, but it's a share-of-cost benefit, and what they expect him to cover before Medi-Cal kicks in is about half of his monthly income. I'll be applying for some other stuff for him -- IHSS and an application for low-income housing -- but I'm just not sure what's best for him, or what's possible.

That said, it was a pretty nice visit. TM and I were both pretty tired, having hosted TM's family the night before for a little dinner party, so it was nice to have a mellow little visit and go to bed early. And Kid A did great -- slept straight through the night, something like 11 hours without a feeding. On the drive down, I was venting a little bit to TM -- sometimes it gets to me that my dad isn't normal, and I end up feeling sad and sorry for myself that we can't take advantage of all the fun things there are to do in that area -- and TM said, "Well, let's just start doing things that we want to do when we come visit. We have a family now; let's spend some time with your dad, and also spend some time doing stuff with Kid A." TM's parents are great about balancing together time and not-together time when they visit relatives or go on trips with their children and grandchildren, so he's had some good modeling in that respect. I, on the other hand, am blessed with two parents who can never quite get enough of their children, and so there's a lot of guilt (especially with my dad) about not doing/giving enough. And so, last Sunday morning, we got up when Kid A did, fed her, went out to the local coffee shop for our Salinas coffee ritual, came back to dad's and did a few more things around the house for him, and then broke the news that we were going to Monterey to take Kid A to the aquarium. He did his usual I'm-upset-because-you're-leaving grumbling, and I felt my usual guilt for not doing/giving/being enough, and then we left. And had a GREAT TIME.

Oh, the aquarium. I love that place. Kid A was her best Little Mesmo* and could not get enough of looking at the fish. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is an incredible, amazing place. The tanks themselves are stunning: lots of contrasting colors and interesting, unpredictable movement, perfect for a baby to get transfixed by. She stared and stared and stared all day, was happy in the Ergo carrier, and only fussed when she was hungry. We spent probably four hours there, longer than I would have expected, and she never cried, never fell asleep (even though I'm sure she was probably tired). When we left, we walked up Lighthouse Avenue to Gianni's Pizza (a place with a lot of memories for me, not to mention delicious pizza), and within a block or two, she was asleep.

* Little Mesmo is a name we have for her when she's utterly transfixed (i.e. "mesmerized") by something. It's that look of wonder and awe that all babies get when they are looking at something new, and wonderful, and awesome. "Little Mesmo" is also an idea we have for a series of books that we joke about from time to time, where the same story is told from two different perspectives, the baby's and the parent's. Yeah. Like that's ever going to happen. But we like to joke about it sometimes.

I'm turning 36 in a couple of weeks. No, actually, in 8 days. I told TM that what I want for my birthday is for him to do all the parenting one night a week so that I can go to a yoga class. We agreed on Tuesday nights, and even though it's not my birthday yet, we agreed that I would start going when I started working. So, last Tuesday night, I went to my first yoga class since before Kid A was born. It was great, and really hard. The studio is easy walking distance from our place (ah, pedestrian living, how I will miss you when you're gone), so from the time I leave the house until the time I get home, it's only 2 hours of being gone, but boy, it's some quality self-care time. I'm very happy about it. (And, of course, I'm waaay out of shape and way heavier than I'm happy with, so it also kind of sucks. But you gotta start somewhere, no?)

Ok, she's waking up from a nice, hour-long nap, so I'm off. Happy Valentine's Day to one and all!

The Ill-Advised 25 Things

My goodness, it's been a long time! I thought, at the beginning of my unemployment, that I'd be posting all the time. Obviously, that was not to be. I don't even know where the time goes. Okay, I can think of a few things. Kid A's a lot more fun these days, and when she's with me (she has spent some time with her care provider to keep some continuity, and to provide me an opportunity to handle some miscellaneous things), I have hardly a minute of down time. Facebook has proven endlessly fascinating of late: people have been exploding out of the woodwork of the past, and whenever I'm online, it's hard to tear myself away. And TM has gotten us completely sucked into Battlestar Galactica. Yeah, shut up. It's a good show.

In the interest of brevity, and in an effort to cover as much of the last few weeks as possible, I am inspired by the silly "25 Things About Me" that seems to have taken Facebook by storm.

1. We just transitioned Kid A to her own crib. This is night 3. I was surprised, on the first night, at how sad I was to have her out of our bed. If someone had told me before she was born that she was going to spend almost 7 months sleeping in our bed with us, I would have said that person was out of his mind. Just goes to show, I guess, that nothing, especially parenthood, ends up fitting in with one's preconceptions.
2. The transition to the crib has gone really really well. She's handled it great, and it really is nice to reclaim our bedroom.
3. I went to IKEA today and bought a new dresser for our bedroom. Yay!
4. I have been engaging my domestic goddess fantasies somewhat. Last week was all about cooking. (The last couple of weeks, actually.) Here is a partial list of some of the dishes I have made:
- chocolate chip banana bread
- havarti-and-oregano-stuffed chicken breasts with mustard sauce
- spinach and bacon quiche
- butternut squash pecan spice bread
- baby food (butternut squash and peaches)
- chicken thighs with tomatoes, capers, anchovies and olives
5. Kid A's diet is increasing in variety. She now eats peaches, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado, Cheerios, oatmeal, bananas, and rice cereal. We haven't tried peas again since the first time (they made her cry!).
6. Kid A can now sit up independently and reliably. This means that she can play independently for longer periods of time, which is both fun to watch and also a benefit to getting adult things done (albeit brief adult things).
7. She has cut her first tooth. It's still pretty close to the gumline, so I haven't actually seen it, but I've been able to feel it for about a week now.
8. I officially have a job! I start on Monday, February 9. I just received my final offer letter via fax today.
9. I just realized that this isn't so much "25 Things About Me" as it is "A couple of things about me and 20-some-odd things about my daughter." *sigh*
10. I am surprised at how hard it has been to get the baby weight off. It kinda sucks, actually.
11. The various projects I had for myself -- the photos, the sewn scarf, the crocheting, the quilt-making -- none of them has materialized. I started the scarf, and I've cut out some pieces for the quilt, and I've made half of one crocheted baby bootie. Nothing completed.
12. My dad has got me worried. He's so depressed (or out of it, or something) that he never calls anymore. I'm trying to work on some of his financial affairs, since he's in pretty bad shape, and I call him every 3-4 days, but he never calls anymore. This is highly unusual for him. This has been going on for several weeks. I have no idea what's going to happen.
13. I turn 36 in 3 weeks.
14. Kid A turns 7 months on Friday.
15. I bought a new baby carrier (2nd hand, off the internet) for Kid A recently -- an Ergo -- and I love it. This morning Kid A and I went on a brisk (okay, cold) morning walk.
16. Having so many people from my past pop up on Facebook is tripping me out. It has me reminiscing, for sure, but also thinking, "Am I still who I was then? What changes? What stays the same?"
17. I have decided that someday, when Kid A is much, much older, I will probably return to grad school. Can't get enough, apparently!
18. I was 18 when I got my first tattoo. I have many tattoos now that I like, but that is the one that I dislike. Someday, I will get it covered up with a piece of ink that I feel good about.
19. Now that Kid A is grabbing at my face all the time, I badly want eye surgery to correct my vision! I haven't been able to wear contacts for years.
20. I am tired and should probably be in bed.
21. I can't stand forwarded emails that are all, "pass this on in the next 5 minutes and you shall have your hearts desire!"
22. I should probably make a list of all the things I have to do tomorrow.
23. One of my favorite little unemployment projects has been adding to my recipe collection. I started a journal-type book, into which I'm cutting and pasting (like literally, not the cyber kind of cut and paste) recipes that I've gotten off the internet, or from magazines, etc. I have quite a few new recipes to try, as well.
24. I was 21 years old when I got engaged; 25 when I got married.
25. Before I became a mom, I had dreams every night, and could almost always remember them in the morning. This used to be a regular topic of conversation for TM and me. Now I'm lucky if I remember one dream a week.

Wow, I did it. Not sure I would do that again as a blog post, but there you have it. I hope it wasn't too boring!

Long overdue

Well, hello there. It's been a while. Life's been a bit hectic, with getting fired,* enjoying the holidays, and beginning my new life as a (temporary) housewife. First things first: it would seem that I have a job. The county in which I interviewed in December finally called on the 30th to say that they would like to "move forward" with my "hiring process." It's by no means a job offer, but they go through these layers of background checks prior to making an offer. So far, I've done my fingerprinting, and am waiting for that clearance to be completed; then, they'll call to schedule a physical and drug test. THEN, they'll call to officially offer me the job. In the meantime, I am enjoying my time off.

* Of course, I got laid off, not fired, but it amuses me to say "fired." My first year of grad school, I interned with a guy who I just adored who was constantly worrying -- in a half-serious way -- that he was going to get fired. This cracked me up every time, because, as I kept telling him, you can't really get fired from a job you're doing for free. It's hard to screw up so badly at a mandatory internship that they tell you not to come back.

At any rate, I've been really busy, even after the layoff. My first week of unemployment flew by, because I scheduled lots and lots of things for myself. This week is shaping up to be a bit mellower, but I've written a long list of projects for my down time. There's no way I'll be able to get to all of them:

- scan, organize, and put away photos (probably a 4-hour project, once I have all the supplies I need)
- organize the bathroom cabinets and drawers
- thank-you notes from Christmas (yes, I realize it's already the 12th!)
- finish Kid A's baby blanket that I started knitting when I was pregnant
- crochet (I recently taught myself, and am making a hat. I am considering, though, unraveling it and starting over, since I was making stuff up until TM's mom showed me what I was doing wrong)
- scarf (a coworker had this amazing cloth scarf that I was inspired by and am planning to sew one for myself)
- quilt (out of the excess of receiving blankets that we have and are not using -- and probably never will)

Of course, this list does not include the various cooking and baking projects I'm planning to indulge in, or the exercise I plan to get, or the various mundane things I also plan to do (like cleaning the house for TM, so that he can spend his non-working time on the weekends with us, or paying bills). As you can see, I'm indulging in some throwback domestic fantasies, and am enjoying it. It's great if it's not the only thing I'm doing, and I know there's an end in sight. It would be truly not great if I didn't have a job to start in a few weeks.

Kid A update: she's eating! So far, she's had rice cereal, baby oatmeal (which she really digs), carrots (that I steamed and pureed myself), peaches, and peas. The peas were a little advanced for her; they were pretty thick. Next time, I think I'll thin them with a little formula. It's what I do with the carrots, anyway.

She's also sitting up extremely well. She gets excited about toys she's playing with or a toy she wants and ends up face-planting a lot, but she does great in the couple of high chairs she's been in (when we've been out at restaurants). So I just ordered a Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair online, and I can't wait for it to come. It should be here on Friday! Whee!

As I mentioned in November, we had some professional photos taken of Kid A. We wanted to wait until we gave the family their Christmas presents before posting them widely. Here are a few shots from our session. Kid A was 4.5 months old. (She just turned 6 months on January 6th!)







Well, Happy New Year! I'm off to clean the kitchen ...