glenrockschwartz

Hi Avery, Today you turned seven months old. I can't say that the jump from 6 months to 7 months was as dramatic as previous months. You are still talking and sitting and are toothless, but that's the same as before. This picture shows you standing, but I really just posed you and took the picture super quick before you got distracted and stopped leaning and fell. I guess the most dramatic difference for me is that it seems all the sudden that you are a part of the family with your own personality (your daddy loves when you get bossy and yell at me!) and own routine. You have regular naps and regular meals and your eyes light up whenever you see someone you know. You also let us know exactly when you don't like something. You are very clear in your communication. You got to spend your 7 month birthday celebrating at your cousin Sophia's birthday party. There were lots of children running around and you took it all in. So much so that you could not eat your dinne...

Ah yes, today's modern woman - we have figured out how to do and have it all - a successful career, a satisfying home life, time for ourselves. We have cracked the code, right? Yeah, right! I was having one of those idyllic I can do it all Mommy moments last week. I had come home early for a conference call that was going to run directly into focus groups. I had not traveled to Chicago with the rest of the team, but rather would be watching the groups on my computer via FocusVision (hooray for modern technology!). Since the groups started at 6p.m., right when Avery and Alex eat their dinner, I was going to cook and prepare all their food in advance and be ready to go. I had also taken out their pajamas for the night, vitamins and toothbrush with toothpaste lined up in the bathroom. I had thought of everything! To the point that I was even making homemade baby food. Non of that jarred stuff for me! (at least not this night) While on a conference call in which I was not just...

So this is something that I want to remember years from now. I'm writing about it now even though the story takes place this past summer when we were in Fire Island for vacation. In any case, the house we were in was kind of a dump but we were with good friends eating good food and drinking good wine, so what could be bad? Bugs. Not terrible ones though. Just a giant praying mantis which absolutely fascinated Alex. I shared the name of this fascinating creature with Alex and then tried to explain the name (the praying part, not the mantis part). I asked Alex to show me what prayer hands looked like. This is what he showed me. Because in Alex's mind prayer hands must be related to lighting Shabbat candles. All I can write is that I feel so proud and that I have already done a big important part of my job as Alex's parent.

Today is picture day at the Glen Rock Jewish Center Nursery School. Alex is in the 4s class. This is the outfit he chose to wear today. Seriously, he is too cute and will probably end up costing us a LOAD of money (he wanted me to buy him a suit for picture day, but I said no). The other thing I want to write about this grown up boy is that lately he has taken to talking on the phone with his friends. When he was talking to Rachel this past Saturday he was asking her to wear a sparkly dress when she came over so she would look like a princess. It was SOOO sweet. He will also scroll through the caller ID and call random friends of ours. Last night he talked to Adam about school and native Americans. It is going just too fast. Avery better not crawl anytime soon or I'm going to cry.

So I spent the afternoon in SoHo today at one of the advertising agencies that does work for Unilever. And I'm wondering, how is it humanly possible that I am not only a mom of one kid, but a mom of two kids AND I live in New Jersey suburbs AND I work in Englewood Cliffs. There is no way that this fits with who I think I am. Luckily, I have that Leo superiority complex thing going for me. As I sat in that meeting, with the cool agency people and my colleagues from Unilever I kept thinking I am WAY more like these city folk than the people I work with. But after today, I think I need to get back in black and stop looking like a such a suburban sweatpants mom. Time for a shopping spree!

So in thinking about the phrase "It takes a village" I am struck by just how true this rings for me in every aspect of my life, not just raising a child. I have a happy home life because Eric and Jenny and her sisters and her mom, Caty (a.k.a. Mama) and the grandparents and aunts and uncles all make it so easy for me to be happy there. Work right now is a different story. There I am an island. I have no team working with me and I have an admin with major attitude who tells me she has no time for me. So who loses in a situation like this? Frankly, it's work because it's 4 p.m. and I am ready to get up and leave for the day.

On Friday, I took Alex and Avery to the doctor before trick-or-treating. Avery was due for her six month check up and a bevy of vaccines and Alex needed a flu shot so I just tagged him on to the appointment. Lesson learned - never schedule a doctor appointment at 3:15 on a Friday, particularly a Halloween Friday. We waited for what felt like hours cooped up in a little room because some girl had an earring backing that her ear grew around because she didn't clean it (yes, gross and that actually can happen!). And with Cooper's pre-trick-or-treating Halloween party starting at 4, I became more and more agitated. But of course it all worked out in the end. - we made it to the party with minimal tears (Avery - when receiving her vaccines, Alex - when he saw Jack trick-or-treating on our street without him as we were pulling into our driveway). So Avery is officially 17 lb 7 oz and 26.5 in. This puts her in the 77th percentile for both height and weight. As I say to the nurse every...