Little Women

My great grandmother had a set of Louisa May Alcott books that were published in the early 1900s: Little Men, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Under the Lilacs and Jack and Jill. My great aunt was kind enough to give me An Old Fashioned Girl from the same set when we were in Colorado in August. Notably missing from the set is Little Women, which was my favorite book when I was growing up. I loved it so much I read and re-read it, as well as every one of the books my antique set, countless times.

I've been trying to complete my Alcott set on eBay for the past few weeks, but I keep missing the copies of Little Women that I've seen! My husband taught me how to "snipe" when we began dating, but these days I never seem to have the time to log on to eBay when the auctions are coming to an end. I have, however, bought Aunt Jo's Scrapbag, and Work. I've seen other sets of books that include the elusive Little Women, but I don't really want a half dozen duplicates... I am determined to find this last missing book, if I have to buy a matching copy of every other book by Alcott, whether or not I've ever heard of it.

Morning commute

The Bug was determined to derail the entire morning commute today. She took forever to eat her bottle, so we were running late before she was even dressed. I threw some clothes on her, and gave her to my husband to hold while I packed her bag for the day (bottles, formula, bibs, extra onesie, etc.). At which time she covered not only his shirt, but also his pants, with pungent used formula. By the time he'd changed all of his clothes, the bag was packed. And the Bug had created a poopie diaper to rival the best of them. She definitely inherited her father's comic timing.

Current favorite word

omphaloskepsis -- the contemplation of one's navel

Usually, it is used as a metaphor meaning 'complacent self-absorption', but I prefer the literal meaning.

Big Night Out

Saturday was our first full night away from the Bug. We had a friend's wedding to attend a couple of hours away, and rather than hiring a babysitter to come to our hotel, we had my father-in-law stay overnight at our house. He had a blast; apparently the baby charmed him like nobody's business.

The issue was, of course, me. Not with leaving her at home - I was pretty comfortable about that. Yeah, I missed her, but she was in great hands and I knew that both the Bug and her Pop-pop would have a fantastic time.

So what was the issue, then? I drank too much. I got wasted. I'm pretty mortified about this. Not only am I way too old to get drunk at a wedding, but I have a kid now. I know, it happens to the best of us, we've all been there, etcetera. But I'm really and truly embarrassed. Of course, I'll get over it, but for the moment I feel like a moron.

And to add insult to injury, my hangover lasted all day.

Rollin' Over

The Bug has a new trick today: she rolled over from her back to her tummy! At around 5am. And despite knowing how to roll tummy-to-back for months now, she got stuck. So I had to roll her onto her back so that she could get some more sleep.

On the agenda today: lots of tummy time so that she won't get stuck at 5am again tonight. That's valuable sleep time for mommy.

Back to Work

Tuesday was my first day back in the office. I had a real mixed bag of feelings about it. Happy about being back in my professional life, sad to leave the Bug every morning, unsure if I still want to commute into NYC for my job every day. I think these feelings will continue to evolve in the coming days and weeks, but here's a summary of my initial reactions:

The Good: Everybody in my office (with the exception of my direct boss) missed me. People were really glad to see me. That feels good. But perhaps more importantly, my company's had a great few months while I've been out. We're currently viewed as the leader in enterprise social media solutions, with perhaps one legitimate competitor. Beyond our great market perception - and what really makes me excited - is that the market itself has finally shown that it's ready for what we offer. It's really a great time for me to come back and I'm excited to get back out into the media world and do some business.

The Bad: I really miss the Bug. The first day was hard; I teared up when I was giving her her morning bottle. The second day just about broke my heart. I didn't want to leave at all. I really do believe that it's the best thing for our little family - for me, for the Bug, for my husband, and for us as a unit - to have me back at work and the Bug at her fabulous babysitter. But an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening don't add up to nearly as much time as I want to spend with my little baby.

The Ugly: While I was out, all of my accounts were transferred to my colleagues. Under my name in the sales database, there were a handful of dead deals. No one covered for me - they simply absorbed everything. My boss told me yesterday that I need to name any account I want to be in my territory, but that's not how the game should be played. Now I've either got to fight for things that I want returned, or to identify completely new accounts out there. You hear the stories of women returning after a maternity leave to find their jobs have been stripped away from them, and I felt it had happened to me. I'm hoping that this will work out nicely, but no guarantees yet.

Anyway, three months is a pretty short time to be out. By the time you've finally figured out what to do with a baby, it's back to the office and an entirely new situation. I'm not really sure what the ideal solution might be, but I'm pretty sure this is not it.