Thursday, March 31, 2011

J - 18 Months

March 31, 2011

Dear J,

I know I’m a little late with this letter, but things have been crazy lately. Time is moving very quickly, and you’re growing up too fast, that’s for sure. We’re trying to enjoy these days. They really are special right now.

You’re just so much fun. You’re happy most of the time and just love to laugh and play play play. You’ll play with your toys, boxes, pots and pans, the animals, whatever strikes you at the moment.

Everyone talks about how much older you look – like a little man. It’s funny, because that’s exactly what we all call you. But you really do look so much older. You’ve had a full head of hair since you were born and have been getting it cut since you were eight months old. You also have all your teeth except but the last four molars. I really hope your baby teeth situation bodes well for your permanent teeth, since they’re all completely straight. And none of that even covers how unbelievably expressive you are. I also hope that stays; you have no poker face, and this will come in mighty handy in about 12 years.

You also jibber jabber a lot, as your dad calls it. He actually says jibber jabber to you so much that you’re starting to say it, too. There are so many words, and I know I’m forgetting some, but so far there are: brush teeth, NO! (the index finger must be pointed for full effect), kitty, picture, baby, mama, daddy, gigi, papa, nana, cheechu (that’s a truck, strangely), uh-oh, what’s that, ball (comes out “bow”), cheese, and ice.

Speaking of cheechu, you LOVE trucks and buses. Every morning, we lift the blinds in the living room and watch the busses. Mondays and Thursdays are the best, though, because not only do we get three buses, but also garbage AND recycling trucks.

You’ve learned that a doggie says “woo woo” (you aren’t quite there with the f’s yet), and you bark with your whole body. So, of course, we ask you what the doggie says all the time.

You’ve learned to blow kisses, which makes your constant flirting even more irresistible.

We’ve struggled only with getting you to sleep at night. We’ve tried everything: rocking, cry it out, modified cry it out, staying in the room and soothing, going to bed earlier, going to bed later. And until three nights ago, nothing seemed to work consistently. Then, all of a sudden, for some reason, you’ve decided that you are ok if we slowly leave your room after putting you in bed. You pull on one of your many music players attached to the bed. You pull all your blankets into the crib. You throw your sock dog, Soda, onto the rocking chair. You talk to yourself, and generally procrastinate sleeping, for about an hour. But, and this is the best, you don’t scream your lungs out and cough and heave and gag anymore. Needless to say, we are keeping our fingers crossed that these three nights are the new way of things.

We love you and can’t wait to see what cool things you do next, but, please, not too fast. We are enjoying this time so much.

Love,
Mom

The Album Project

You may have seen on facebook that I'm working on digitizing my record collection.  I'll try to track the project here.

Last night was the first effort, and it took a while to finally nail down the right software and process.  With a little help from Dave - just one last setting - I'm there and really ready to go. 

Album 1, recorded March 30, 2011: Greatest Hits - Kenny Rogers
Album 2, recorded March 31, 2011: Thriller - Michael Jackson
Album 3, recorded March 31, 2011: No Jacket Required - Phil Collins

The initial part of this project will be my albums.  This is just a handful of records from the late 70s and early 80s.  The next round will be albums that my mom recently gave me (the largest collection - probably 30 or 40), and then, finally, the rest will be the albums that came in a record cabinet handed down from my Great Aunt Lou.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Friday, March 04, 2011

Exciting Times Ahead

I haven't posted this anywhere yet, because there are clients on Facebook and LinkedIn who don't know and need to be told personally.  But well, hardly anyone reads my blog, and I'm so excited to tell people that I've figured out what I want to be when I grow up - and I'm going to go be it now. 

I hadn't really thought about posting this here until today, but as I was driving around and running errands this afternoon, I felt a sudden rush.  I've been at my current company more than 10 years now, about eight doing essentially the same job, and I'm ready for something new. So, when the company merged with another one earlier this year, I was not-so-secretly hoping for a severance package.  I didn't get one, and though I was initially disappointed, now I'm even happier.  That may seem strange, but today an incredible feeling of power hit me - power that comes with leaving on your own terms. 

I turned in my notice on Monday, and it wasn't a shock to my boss because this has actually been in the works for several years and I've been up front about my plans (even working part time in both companies for the last year).  I think, though, that there are people who didn't think I'd really take the leap. 

I gave a couple months notice, will take a week of vacation, and then as of May 16th, I'll be working full time to become a financial planner - queue simultaneous excitement and terror.

Here we go ...