Wednesday was a good day, but I was in a bit of a bad mood, a little sick, and so was Zak. It just hung over us the whole day. Nitpicking at each other. Work is definitely on my mind a lot these days.
We went to the rec center and played, but only the video games. Normally we play some pool (interesting with a 3 year old), and shuffle board..but he only wanted to play the video games. Babcia did a small work out. We decided to go to Indian for lunch. Babcia had never eaten Indian before. It was a bit of a challenge because Zak was in such a bad mood...he kept wanting to serve himself from the buffet. He was surprisingly interested in trying everything though. He especially liked the "puffed up" naan.
We came home, and I tried for 2 hours to get him to sleep. It just wasn't meant to be. I kept falling asleep, and he kept waking me up. I feel asleep with my head on his pillow with him, which apparently he didn't like. He pushed me off, and just as I was about to tell him that wasn't nice and he should share his pillow, he reached over and got my pillow and pushed it under my head. I guess that's fair. At some point I told him I wasn't feeling very good, so if he could please sleep, I would be very happy. He then put his hand on my tummy and said "Hmm, yup, a little hot, but not too bad." I couldn't help but laugh.
So we got up, and I asked if he wanted some hot chocolate. He said, "No, some warm chocolate please." So I made him some chocolate milk, and I don't know what I was thinking, probably about work or something, and forgot to warm it up. I gave it to him and he said "Hey, that's not warm at all!" Oops, right. So I heated it up.
Later we were eating a snack, and he started playing a game...he would put the cashew on his head and say "We don't eat like this" and then he'd put it in his mouth "We eat like this." Then he'd do the same thing to his ear "We don't eat like this", and then to his mouth, "We eat like this." He was watching me to see if I'd catch on. So I put one to my knee and tried to eat it that way. And so we finally broke out of our bad moods. :-)
One thing I did forget to mention on Friday...I was meeting my friend for lunch, but she had slipped her car off the road into a ditch. (Guess who???) :-) Anyway, she called and said she was waiting on a tow truck. Zak wanted to play with my iPhone, and normally, if someone calls or text messages, he just cancels them and I don't know anyone was trying to get a hold of me until after he's done. So I told him, Zak, you can play with it, but if someone calls or texts, you HAVE to show me. Aunt Sara hurt her car and she might need help. So when Sara called again (2x), both times he said "Mommy, Aunt Sara! Is her car ok?" and handed me the phone. It's really nice that he's starting to understand and be understanding.
Sometimes I wonder if I blog too much about the cute things that Zak does, versus the trials and tribulations of working part time...but Sara last night reminded me...it's all these cute things that I would have missed if I had been working. And she's right....of course I would get to see cute things no matter what, but I definitely get more than my fair share now! It's the "pro" side of working part time :-) And I have time to blog about it so I'll never forget..
Friday, January 28, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Days 73 and 74
This week has gone pretty well. I tell you though, these two day work weeks (since Monday was MLK day) really do make it hard for me to keep up! And the snow days aren't helping either. A little chaotic of a week, but all and all ended on a high note. I keep feeling like if I had one more day a week, I'd be completely in control...wishful thinking I'm sure. The other thing thats become very clear to me...we have way too many full day meetings. Jimini. We need to get more efficient with coming to the big ideas. Anyway, I did do some work a couple hours during the evenings after Zak went to bed this week. It worked out well. I honestly don't mind doing that, the only risk is that if there is some kind of escalation sitting in my email that I can't fix until the morning, it will ruin my sleep that evening. Anyway, that didn't happen this week.
I have what we call a "triad" next week. Where I talk about anything on my mind with my manager and my manager's manager. The interesting thing is that my manager suggested that I not even mention my less than full time. I thought I'd at least talk about how it's going, the challenges, etc...she said there is no reason to even mention it because I'm doing great. I understand what she's trying to do...but it's the first time in a while that I was reminded that there is a stigma with what I'm doing. A feeling of "maybe she's not as dedicated to the company as others", and she's trying to manage it. Or, maybe, it's just not as big a deal to others as it is to me.
Anyway, between MLK day, daycare opening late and closing early...it seemed Zak and I got to spend a lot of time together thsi week. We didn't do much, because of the weather. On Wednesday, we did go up to the rec center. We love playing shuffleboard together...and he's pretty good at it! We then went to check out the YMCA to see if we wanted to join. Zak was so cute on their tour. He walked into every room, looked around. Stood and listened. Anyway, when we were done, I had planned to head home for lunch, and Zak if we could go to Applebees. Sure, why not. Turns out, Wednesdays kids eat free. Good call Zak! We came home, and napped together. I could tell he was starting to get a bit sick. He slept for an hour in his bed, then for another two hours in my arms in the orange rocking chair. He's getting so big, he can barely fit with me, but we're adjusting. By Thursday, he had completely lost his voice, and found that very disturbing. I would tell him, it's ok, you are sick and sometimes you lose your voice when you are sick. He would try to yell, but it would only come out in a whisper "No! I'm not sick.." and then look at my strange like, what the heck is going on with my voice??
Thursday night was a bit of a tough night, and I was glad to have Friday off. One bonus to working part time, is that as long as he gets sick on the days I have off, it doesn't through too much of a wrench into things. So Friday we just stayed at home to recoup. He was much better, although again slept for 3 hours in my arms in the orange rocking chair...so he was obviously still recovering. In the morning, he was kind of lazily playing computer and such (which I didn't mind, because I didn't want him too active)...so Monika and I made some chicken enchilads and birthday cake for Kuba. I met Sara for lunch, which was great, then came home and held Zak while he napped. At 5 I met Kuba for some tennis, and then Dana, Matt and Rowan came over to hang out. All of this is just another great side effect of working part time...I have more time for myself and Kuba as well.
One cute thing Zak did this week, we went over to Dana and Matt's at some point, and he loves their cats. He was petting softly their black and white one...and he said "Mom, look, he's so beautiful!" and then the cat ran off, and Zak said "Aww, he's a little shy, like you Mom..." I was astounded. I asked him to say it again, just to make sure I heard him right...and he said the same thing. I have no idea if he even knows what shy is, and why he thinks I am (I am!)...cracked me up.
I have what we call a "triad" next week. Where I talk about anything on my mind with my manager and my manager's manager. The interesting thing is that my manager suggested that I not even mention my less than full time. I thought I'd at least talk about how it's going, the challenges, etc...she said there is no reason to even mention it because I'm doing great. I understand what she's trying to do...but it's the first time in a while that I was reminded that there is a stigma with what I'm doing. A feeling of "maybe she's not as dedicated to the company as others", and she's trying to manage it. Or, maybe, it's just not as big a deal to others as it is to me.
Anyway, between MLK day, daycare opening late and closing early...it seemed Zak and I got to spend a lot of time together thsi week. We didn't do much, because of the weather. On Wednesday, we did go up to the rec center. We love playing shuffleboard together...and he's pretty good at it! We then went to check out the YMCA to see if we wanted to join. Zak was so cute on their tour. He walked into every room, looked around. Stood and listened. Anyway, when we were done, I had planned to head home for lunch, and Zak if we could go to Applebees. Sure, why not. Turns out, Wednesdays kids eat free. Good call Zak! We came home, and napped together. I could tell he was starting to get a bit sick. He slept for an hour in his bed, then for another two hours in my arms in the orange rocking chair. He's getting so big, he can barely fit with me, but we're adjusting. By Thursday, he had completely lost his voice, and found that very disturbing. I would tell him, it's ok, you are sick and sometimes you lose your voice when you are sick. He would try to yell, but it would only come out in a whisper "No! I'm not sick.." and then look at my strange like, what the heck is going on with my voice??
Thursday night was a bit of a tough night, and I was glad to have Friday off. One bonus to working part time, is that as long as he gets sick on the days I have off, it doesn't through too much of a wrench into things. So Friday we just stayed at home to recoup. He was much better, although again slept for 3 hours in my arms in the orange rocking chair...so he was obviously still recovering. In the morning, he was kind of lazily playing computer and such (which I didn't mind, because I didn't want him too active)...so Monika and I made some chicken enchilads and birthday cake for Kuba. I met Sara for lunch, which was great, then came home and held Zak while he napped. At 5 I met Kuba for some tennis, and then Dana, Matt and Rowan came over to hang out. All of this is just another great side effect of working part time...I have more time for myself and Kuba as well.
One cute thing Zak did this week, we went over to Dana and Matt's at some point, and he loves their cats. He was petting softly their black and white one...and he said "Mom, look, he's so beautiful!" and then the cat ran off, and Zak said "Aww, he's a little shy, like you Mom..." I was astounded. I asked him to say it again, just to make sure I heard him right...and he said the same thing. I have no idea if he even knows what shy is, and why he thinks I am (I am!)...cracked me up.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Day 72
Today was interesting. I allowed one meeting on the calndar, a president/CIO review that has been rescheduled so many times, I figured that I could be flexible given Babcia is here. I also agreed to go to 2 work Christmas parties that got rescheduled from before the holidays.
So I got up this morning and played for an hour or so with Zak. It was kind of a cute morning...He wanted to play with this mosaic magnent game that Auntie Ann bought him. Basically you put the pattern on a whiteboard, the pattern tells you what color magnets to put where, and when you are done, you have a pretty mosiac. Generally, my role is to put the magnets on the pattern, Zak's is to use his "diggers" to grab the magnets and piled them up for me. It actually takes a good half an hour to make one, so it's not a simple thing.
Anyway, this morning, he picked up the box, and it unfortunately wasn't closed properly, so it fell open and magnets fell everywhere. I didn't hear anything, but walked in and saw Zak just standing there in disbelief, looking at me like, "I didn't mean to do it...and I don't know what to do now." He was just standing there, holding the box, frozen. He's so cute. I told him not to worry, not his fault, and we picked up all the magnets.
Then he did something REALLY sweet...everytime we play this game, we kind of argue over what pattern to do. He always wants to do the fire truck or the train. I've done them so many times, that I always beg to do something else, and sometimes refuse to do the train or fire truck if I've just done them several times in a row. Well, we hadn't played with this in awhile, so I fully expectde to do one of his. He said, "Mommy, let's do the flower, because I know you like flowers." And then he came up and hugged me. It was so cute!!! I gave him the biggest hug.
Anyway, we did that, then I went for my meeting. It wasn't the best meeting, wasn't the worst. I learned something from it. The good news is the reason it wasn't the greatest had nothing to do with my working part time or not having enough time...I simply mis-understood one of the objectives. So for two of the objectives, it went great. :-)
After that, I went to one of the Christmas parties, worked in between the parties, and then decided to skip the second one in the end to come back and hang with Zak. I got home and he was napping, so I curled up beside him with personal laptop and read through a bit of the news. He woke up 15 minutes later, smiled, and asked if he could play on the computer. I said ok...but asked if he shouldn't go to the bathroom first since he'd been asleep for so long...he said "Yeah, that's a good idea." (First!) So he went to the restroom, and is now sitting next to me playing Dinosaur train. Let me tell you...touch screen computers are so great. He navigates himself, and talk about whatever is on the screen...right now we're learning about different dinosaur tails :-)
Anyway, I gave up 6 hours today, but felt it was sandwiched between some very quality Zak time...and next week is a 2 day week again! Spoiled!
So I got up this morning and played for an hour or so with Zak. It was kind of a cute morning...He wanted to play with this mosaic magnent game that Auntie Ann bought him. Basically you put the pattern on a whiteboard, the pattern tells you what color magnets to put where, and when you are done, you have a pretty mosiac. Generally, my role is to put the magnets on the pattern, Zak's is to use his "diggers" to grab the magnets and piled them up for me. It actually takes a good half an hour to make one, so it's not a simple thing.
Anyway, this morning, he picked up the box, and it unfortunately wasn't closed properly, so it fell open and magnets fell everywhere. I didn't hear anything, but walked in and saw Zak just standing there in disbelief, looking at me like, "I didn't mean to do it...and I don't know what to do now." He was just standing there, holding the box, frozen. He's so cute. I told him not to worry, not his fault, and we picked up all the magnets.
Then he did something REALLY sweet...everytime we play this game, we kind of argue over what pattern to do. He always wants to do the fire truck or the train. I've done them so many times, that I always beg to do something else, and sometimes refuse to do the train or fire truck if I've just done them several times in a row. Well, we hadn't played with this in awhile, so I fully expectde to do one of his. He said, "Mommy, let's do the flower, because I know you like flowers." And then he came up and hugged me. It was so cute!!! I gave him the biggest hug.
Anyway, we did that, then I went for my meeting. It wasn't the best meeting, wasn't the worst. I learned something from it. The good news is the reason it wasn't the greatest had nothing to do with my working part time or not having enough time...I simply mis-understood one of the objectives. So for two of the objectives, it went great. :-)
After that, I went to one of the Christmas parties, worked in between the parties, and then decided to skip the second one in the end to come back and hang with Zak. I got home and he was napping, so I curled up beside him with personal laptop and read through a bit of the news. He woke up 15 minutes later, smiled, and asked if he could play on the computer. I said ok...but asked if he shouldn't go to the bathroom first since he'd been asleep for so long...he said "Yeah, that's a good idea." (First!) So he went to the restroom, and is now sitting next to me playing Dinosaur train. Let me tell you...touch screen computers are so great. He navigates himself, and talk about whatever is on the screen...right now we're learning about different dinosaur tails :-)
Anyway, I gave up 6 hours today, but felt it was sandwiched between some very quality Zak time...and next week is a 2 day week again! Spoiled!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Day 70 and 71
Ok, back to the grind! Last week was a bit more stressful than I would have liked for a first week back into the New Year...but I survived. Probably it just felt stressful after 2 weeks of waking up at 9, napping at 2, and then going to bed at 9 again :-)
Actually, I knew it would be busy, because there were a couple things I didn't get done before the holidays, and I knew they needed to get done for this week at work. I actually THOUGHT I had 3 days to get them done last week...but realized as we were flying back from Floriday that we actually had Monday off last week! I decided to somehow make it all work in 2 days...and did.
Luckily Babcia was here though...because Zak somehow got a 104 fever on Monday. He managed the whole vacation without any illness...and gets sick the day before we have to go back to work. Good boy :-) Seriously, if Babcia hadn't been here, my stress would have went through the roof. He was over it in a day, so it wasn't too bad.
I also got my annual review results last week. Looks like I'm still managing up to my standards :) I know in a recent post I was pretty critical of my results...but at least so far, that seems to be only my perception...so...SO FAR SO GOOD! It can be done (at least for 7 months!) - that was the amount of time in the last review cycle that I was on reduced work schedule. Let's see if I can keep it up. I'm very lucky that both my new and old bosses are so supportive.
I'll blog about one cute thing from Zak from last week...much of the rest of the time together was us trying to get him feeling better, and unpacking, cleaning up, etc from the vacation. On Tuesday he was still running a 104 fever when we didn't give him medicine...so I worked from home just in case Babcia needed any help or he got worse. At first, I planned to go into the office...he was very panciky about that (we'd been together for 15 days!)...and he was crying that he didn't want me to go. I told him I WANTED to go, I like working...and besides, I need to make some more money so we can go on another great vacation. He said "Oh, you need to make money? Because we're all out of money?" I explained we weren't completely out, but I need to make sure we don't run out. About 30 minutes later, when I decided to work at home, I told him I was going to work down in the basement in case he needed me, and I'd come up for lunch. He said "Oh, because there is money in the basement?" LOL. I told him no, but I can work from there and then I will get paid for it.
About 2 hours later, he decided he wanted to come down and see me. He came down and on his way down, I hear him shouting "Mommy! Do you have your money yet?"
At about 4 o'clock, FedEx drops off a package...as I'm opening it, Zak says, "I hope its some money for us Mommy!" I hoped so too!
Oh, the other thing - I was napping by him on Monday when he was sick...I woke up to him trying to syringe out my nose. :-P
Actually, I knew it would be busy, because there were a couple things I didn't get done before the holidays, and I knew they needed to get done for this week at work. I actually THOUGHT I had 3 days to get them done last week...but realized as we were flying back from Floriday that we actually had Monday off last week! I decided to somehow make it all work in 2 days...and did.
Luckily Babcia was here though...because Zak somehow got a 104 fever on Monday. He managed the whole vacation without any illness...and gets sick the day before we have to go back to work. Good boy :-) Seriously, if Babcia hadn't been here, my stress would have went through the roof. He was over it in a day, so it wasn't too bad.
I also got my annual review results last week. Looks like I'm still managing up to my standards :) I know in a recent post I was pretty critical of my results...but at least so far, that seems to be only my perception...so...SO FAR SO GOOD! It can be done (at least for 7 months!) - that was the amount of time in the last review cycle that I was on reduced work schedule. Let's see if I can keep it up. I'm very lucky that both my new and old bosses are so supportive.
I'll blog about one cute thing from Zak from last week...much of the rest of the time together was us trying to get him feeling better, and unpacking, cleaning up, etc from the vacation. On Tuesday he was still running a 104 fever when we didn't give him medicine...so I worked from home just in case Babcia needed any help or he got worse. At first, I planned to go into the office...he was very panciky about that (we'd been together for 15 days!)...and he was crying that he didn't want me to go. I told him I WANTED to go, I like working...and besides, I need to make some more money so we can go on another great vacation. He said "Oh, you need to make money? Because we're all out of money?" I explained we weren't completely out, but I need to make sure we don't run out. About 30 minutes later, when I decided to work at home, I told him I was going to work down in the basement in case he needed me, and I'd come up for lunch. He said "Oh, because there is money in the basement?" LOL. I told him no, but I can work from there and then I will get paid for it.
About 2 hours later, he decided he wanted to come down and see me. He came down and on his way down, I hear him shouting "Mommy! Do you have your money yet?"
At about 4 o'clock, FedEx drops off a package...as I'm opening it, Zak says, "I hope its some money for us Mommy!" I hoped so too!
Oh, the other thing - I was napping by him on Monday when he was sick...I woke up to him trying to syringe out my nose. :-P
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