Job Week

It's been a hard week. Arguably, the hardest week of my life. After being a stay-at-home mom for the last year, I started a new job this week. Leaving my baby girl with even the best caretakers I could ask for has been the hardest thing I've ever done.

There have been a lot of tears. I started crying when I said goodbye to her on Monday morning. On Monday evening when I had to put her to bed an hour after I got home I locked myself in the bedroom and sobbed. Tuesday morning I cried. Wednesday morning I cried. Wednesday afternoon I cried because I could tell that she had grown while I was gone and because she is so beautiful.

And the job is going to be tough. The pace is fast and we don't get many breaks. Today we didn't get a chance to eat lunch until 2. I thought I was going to pass out from the hunger. But I'm grateful for it. When I'm not furiously working, I miss my baby girl so much I can hardly stand it.

I know that Tom is having a hard time understanding why this is so hard for me. He's always been away from her during the day. But for me, she has been my 24-7 job for the past 13 months. My law school friends have been asking me when I was going to get a job since she was three months old. For them, 13 months at home must seem ridiculous. But for me, even that doesn't seem like enough. She is still growing so fast and learning new things every minute. Every day she changes. Even I could not have predicted how difficult this would be for me.

Our Wedding

Many times in the months we were planning the wedding I said to Tom, "Why are we doing this? It's so expensive. It's so much work. Weddings are not for people with babies. I can't deal with this. You're the one that wanted this. Not me!"

Each time he would assure me that 20 years from now I'd be glad that we had a wedding and that I would regret it if we didn't.

Well, he was right. It isn't even 20 years later and I'm already glad.

As far as weddings go, I think it was fairly drama-free. To the best of my knowledge I did not piss off any of my friends as a result of it and I'm not pissed off at any of my friends. Quite the opposite. I was astonished by the generosity of all of our friends in pulling this wedding together. Since we were working with a relatively small budget, we were responsible for set up and clean up. One of our friends, Beth, took charge of coordination and assembled a crew of friends to do everything. We had friends making signs, picking up the flowers, setting up all the tables and decorations at the Zilker Clubhouse, picking up the keg, running the margarita machine, officiating the ceremony, cutting the cake and cleaning everything up at the end of the night. This wedding would not have happened the way it did without our amazing friends.

And I'm so grateful to my parents who paid for the majority of the wedding and threw our rehearsal dinner. They were so patient with me through all of the planning. They took on this wedding as their project and put so much time into helping me research cakes, flowers, napkins, plates, food, etc. Not to mention eating Paella for weeks in order to perfect the recipe for the rehearsal dinner.

Being a bride was awesome. And a lot like being hugely pregnant. Just like with a big belly, it's hard to be inconspicuous in a wedding dress. Everyone smiles at you, is extra nice to you and expects you to be a little crazy. It was the most amazing experience that I'll gladly never repeat.

And at the end of the night, I got to go spend the night at the Driskill Hotel with the love of my life, my husband. It was our first and only night without Mia. While it was very nice to have some alone grown up time, we both kept waking up every couple of hours wondering if she was awake. We probably won't do that again anytime soon. Honeymoon will have to wait awhile.

But for now, I am so happily married! I love saying "my husband." I love filling out forms and checking the "married" box. I love our little family.

Hail?

Tom said that it was extra-hard to get Mia to go to sleep because of the golf-ball-sized hail that started hitting our roof about 20 minutes ago. It's currently 84 degrees outside. So weird.

File Under: Things I learned as a parent

Welcome to a parental secret!

For all of you non-parents out there, I have a secret to share with you.

This is known, I'm almost certain, by anyone who has had to change diapers on a regular basis.  There is only one substance on the planet that can be used to clean anything.  It's not CLR.  Nor a as-seen-on-TV miracle.  No matter how dirty.  

What is this miracle substance that can clean your bathroom sink?  This supernatural thing that cleans the floor, the stove, the kitchen countertop?  The secret that parents use to clean anything messy, or just plain dirty, such as car tires and rims?

What is this secret thing?  Dear god tell us, I need to clean X and Y, and I don't know how?

Baby wipes.

Long after our babies are out of diapers, have been potty trained and never miss a bathroom break, baby wipes will be a staple of our household.  THEY CLEAN EVERYTHING.  SRLY.  I'm not sure if it's specific to a single brand, or if all baby wipes can clean your mirrors, floors, ceilings, ceiling fans, countertops, car rims, steering wheels... everything.  

A fiery exit!

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Originally uploaded by Sektormedia

Joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy joy fire!


What an amazing night for my awesome wife and family! I don't think any of us got much sleep, but it was more than worth it (when Nana was asked how Mia slept, she said, "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.")


Finally my dream girl is my wife! Forever!


There are so many excellent pictures from the wedding (Cecily totally beat me to the punch with her post below!) From all reports everyone had fun at the party celebrating our marriage. I'm so happy that some of our closest friends and family were able to attend, witness, and dance into the night.

In this picture, I thought I was walking quickly, but Jennifer was afraid she was going to burst into flames (her thoughts were... OMG... run! run! run!)

I'll do my best not to overload the blog with gushing and wedding pictures and happiness and and and... joy.

Wedding Day Photos

I wasn't officially allowed to take photos, but I managed to have my camera out for about 20 minutes and I grabbed a few.

Tiny Dancer

It's been a super busy week with the wedding coming up, but I wanted to report on Mia's 12 month check-up. She weighs 17 pounds, 9 ounces and is 27.5 inches long. This means it's going to be awhile until we can put her in a forward-facing car seat. The pediatrician isn't at all concerned about her size since she's height/weight proportionate.

We decided to hold off on the MMR vaccination. We're going to wait at least until 18 months. After that, we'll make a decision.