bring your baby to work day!

Remember when I used to get all jazzed about bringing Lola with me to work?? Well, it's for good reason. Having your sweet pup hanging out under your feet all day is just plain fun. Need a moment of stress relief? Pet your pup! Want to distract your coworkers? Invite them down to meet the dog! Really- dogs at work is the most fun.

But you know what's even MORE fun??

Bringing your Nuggie to work!

Sophie, are you stalking me? Everywhere I go, there you are. I will eat you.

Yaaaay! 

Wanna guess why Millie got to spend the day at work with me today? I bet you don't even need three tries.

Yup, sick baby. Womp womp womp.

I'll spare you the play-by-play, but the bottom line is that now she has croup. And also, I should be given an honorary MD degree or something. I TOTALLY called this one, too. I'm 2/2 on properly diagnosing her issues before we even get to the doctor's office. If only they'd let me call in prescriptions...I could really save us some money. Oh, and I want a stethoscope, too. Then I'd be invincible.

So since contagious croupy babies aren't really embraced at her school, she spent the day with me. My goal was just to go in for a couple of hours and get my most urgent to-dos done...but as it turned out, she was quite a breeze of a work companion. She mostly snoozed in her Ergo. Or on the floor.

And since she's not mobile yet, even when she was awake, she was easy to just plop down on her pallet and she'd play with toys and entertain herself while I did productive Work Things. It was really quite fun. Plus, it had all the bonuses of bringing your dog to work- like cuddles when you needed a mental break, and providing plenty of distractions for coworkers and passers-by. I think people even like babies more than large black dogs, strangely enough. Although they weren't jazzed about her contagiousness, so maybe we'll call it even between Millie and Lola.

Anyway. It was nice to not have to use a day of PTO. Matt will keep her home tomorrow, so today was just a happy anomaly, but one I'm very thankful for. This goes down as Reason #2941 that I love my job: understanding about working parent issues to the max.

Remember in my past life (pre-Millie) when I had years of really hard decision making? Like...life changing things. Well, I'm gladly in a place where I don't have any really hard decisions to make right now. But it's like there's this void in my heart, so what I do to fill it is inflate really small choices into BIG FREAKING DEALS.

My current BIG FREAKING DEAL decision: which three Essie nail polishes do I purchase during Target's buy-2-get-1-free sale? Seriously. I've been debating this for over a week. It's a great deal, obviously. And I'm just SURE I need three new polishes. But like...which ones? You know how we've been sick for like 3 weeks? Well, we've had to get more than a few prescriptions filled at Target. And every single time I'm standing there, waiting for my prescription to be filled...I stare at the Essie display and debate my options. It's kind of insane.

Anyway, the sale goes through February 18, so I'm not pressured to make a decision too soon. I just can't decide. It's cold. It's winter still. I kinda want to get more dark winter colors!! But then...spring is around the corner. In April, will I regret not having bought any new pastels? Oh woe is me, this is so hard!!! (No, it's not. No need to tell me that this is ridiculous- I know already. But if there's a particular shade that you just KNOW I should get...feel free to tell me all about it.) Also, this can serve as a PSA in case you weren't aware of the sale. Now you can join me in stressing about the biggest $16 decision of your life.

And now I'm faced with another huge decision: what the heck do we eat tonight? We were still in sickness recovery mode last weekend and didn't do much cooking ahead for the week...and now it's time to pay the piper. Ugh. On the plus side, that's what Mexican restaurants were invented for, so yay.

goodbye, plague. hello, world.

I'm happy to report that the Plague of 2015 seems to have finally passed us by. Millie and I feel a LOT better, and Matt feels better, so...we're calling it a win. I don't know if my coworkers would agree, though. I went back to work today and was JUST SO VERY EXCITED to be out of my house, dressed, wearing makeup, having something to do, talking to people...holy cow. I think I experienced a day of what extroverts must feel like all the time. PEOPLE!!!! People everywhere!! People to talk to!!! Weeeeeeee peeeeeople!!! I mean, my enthusiasm for not being stuck in my house was so extreme that when I overheard some people wondering whether we may see a snowflake this week (which would naturally entail the entire city shutting down and staying home for days on end with nothing but eggs and milk for company...you know, as in the thing I spend most winters diligently praying for), I gasped in horror and forbade Mother Nature from punishing us with such a thing. I am not ready for a snow week. Try me again next month, snow. This month, I love PEOPLE! 

Although we spent way more than our fair share of time just laying around, napping, groaning, and watching Gilmore Girls last week, at least one person in our family used their time 'off' wisely, choosing to master new skills and get super smart over the course of the week. I'll give you a hint: it wasn't anyone over two feet tall.

Look who decided she can sit independently now!

Look, ma- no hands!

She officially spends more time upright than toppling over, so I guess we call her a sitter? It's crazy. But it's really fun. She didn't wait long before she moved to Stage 2: sitting and grabbing whatever is nearby and looks awesome.

Who says grown-ups are the only ones who can sit on their tushies and eat all day long?

She can also sit up while babbling, spitting, laughing, and grunting. If she decides to whine or cry, though, she tends to crumple over. It's very dramatic.

Tonight she learned to splash in the bathtub with her left hand. Only her left hand, though. Right hand doesn't understand the game. I think she's going to be left handed, if handedness can be determined by observing the hickeys on one's hand and fingers in order to determine Hand Sucking Preference. According to that, the left hand is highly preferred. And also, it's the only hand that can splash. So I guess it's decided. Leftie it is!

But wait- I use my right hand to help me ponder my deep thoughts!

So we had book club on Saturday night. I was supposed to host, but because I actually like my friends and do not wish a plague on all of their households, I opted to host at Starbucks instead of in my living room. Pretty sure that was the right call. I already mentioned that we read The Rent Collector* this month and that I loved it. Luckily, I wasn't alone in my love. We had some ridiculously great conversation based on this story- we barely even had to use the discussion questions that were conveniently located in the back of the book (I truly love when authors do that, btw). That story just really lent itself to a lot of deep reflecting. Also, the girls in my club are super smart and have a lot of academic and professional experiences with poverty, power structures, literacy, and other themes covered in the book. I always love book club, but I especially loved this month because I felt like I left it a wiser, more compassionate person. Also, because I got to SEE PEOPLE. We haven't picked our book for next month yet- any suggestions?

I'm nearing the series finale of Gilmore Girls. It's taken me since October to get through this series re-watch, but it's been delightful. I'm a good 10 years-ish older than I was the first time I watched everything, so I notice things and relate to the situations differently than the first time through. Matt watches it off-and-on with me and tonight he was like "so how does the series end? Do they all die in a plane crash?"

Ummm...yeah. Because that's how rom-com series typically end.

Since I only have a few episodes left, I've been stressing (ha, not really. Promise.) about what to watch next. I think I've decided on Parenthood. I've actually never seen a single episode! I've always imagined it would be a show I would like (Reasons #1-48: Lauren Graham), but until ohhhhh, August...I just couldn't watch it. I mean...it's called Parenthood. Let me take a guess at what it's about. Hm. Probably a little more than jealous, bitter, childless Erika could handle for the past 5 years. BUT now everything's different and all that bitterness is only a distant memory (haha, not really that, either. but it stings a lot less.), so I think the time is ripe to watch. Plus, it's ending, so it's kind of a great time to get on board. I won't have to sit around waiting for new seasons to air and then make it to Netflix...but it's not so old that nobody remembers it or wants to talk about it. Oh, plus, Lauren Graham.

(One of my coworkers told me the funniest story ever today. Her 26-year-old brother seriously called her up the other day and was like HEY! Oh my gosh, I just discovered the FUNNIEST show on Netflix- have you ever heard of a show called Friends?? It is SO funny. There's this character called Monica, and she... and went on to describe the characters and basic premise and basically he totally thinks he just discovered this great little unheard-of show. My friend was so shocked she didn't even know how to respond...because he was dead serious.)

So anyways, now that Parenthood (both the show and the...thing) is in my future, now I can finally be cool and understand what all the hype is about. 

Actually, I'm pretty sure I already totally understand the hype about parenthood. There is absolutely nothing more incredible that a sweet baby who decides she's done playing and just wants to cuddle. Not to sleep- just to stare at her mommy. Be still my heart- this is what I was born for.

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such a special week...

So here we are on day 3,392 of The B Family Sickness of 2015...or maybe I'm exaggerating, but it sure feels that way. I think we all feel better at this point...but not enough better to like...get out of our pajamas or do anything remotely productive. I tried yesterday. I actually went in to work for a half-day. It seemed ambitious but doable before I left for it...and about an hour into it, I was like what the heck was I THINKING??! All that sitting upright in a brightly-lit office? Trying to whisper-talk to people? Yeah, no. And then last night my fever jumped back up, so apparently my body thinks going back to work is a terrible idea. So I didn't try again today. 

We all still have these terrible nasty coughs and off-and-on fevers, but it does seem like we're on the mend. A slow mend. And we better stay fully mended for a long time because now I've already used a full one THIRD of my PTO for the year and it's not even the end of January. WAAAAAAHHHHH.

Millie seems to be the best-feeling out of the three of us right now. Unfortunately, she's not really using her health and energy to pick up the slack around the house...??? Where have we gone wrong? Have we raised a spoiled brat? Ha, kidding. She still has this nasty cough and congestion, an on-again-off-again low fever, and obviously sometimes her ears are still hurting (you can tell because she will just SCREAM and writhe for however long it takes for the Advil to start working...so sad!!), but she's mostly back to being her happy self. And that's good for MY soul- because watching her be happy and playful makes me happy. And I think the endorphins promote healing or something. Surely.

Plus, playing with her doesn't really use all that much energy. She doesn't even seem to care that I can't talk. As long as my arms aren't broken and I can help her fly...she's good to go.

So cute it hurts. 

Plus I get a free arm workout. Because let's see if we can calculate how many times I've done T25 this week...

On the down side, 'flying' a semi-sick baby means that there is a 100% chance you will get all sorts of bodily fluids raining down on your face and chest. Snot, slobber, spit up, snot...you name it, it falls on me. But still. A small price to pay.

When my arms can't handle flying any more, we move to the Jump Jump. She has started to figure out all the different features (buttons that make music, things that spin, things you can pull) and it is SO much fun watching her brain work. But NOTHING is as fun as when her favorite sister Lola comes over to play.

Lola's idea of a good time is taking a nice taste-test of all the aforementioned fluids that are constantly on Millie's face. YUM. And you might be a sick and lazy mom when instead of being grossed out by your dog licking/slobbering all over your baby's face, you think hey, that's one less time I'll have to wipe her face off! Score! Just kidding. I've never actually thought that. Promise.

In summary, being sick with a baby is tougher but ultimately better than being sick without a baby...because there's a baby. And the awesomeness of having her is far greater than anything else.

Plus, there are extra snuggles all day long. What's not great about that?

Have a wonderful weekend!

almost wordless wednesday

It is Wednesday, right? Or close to it?

This house is down for the count. Sick baby (add in an ear infection to everything else), sick mama (I even have a fever. Haven't had one of those in like...a decade.), sick daddy. Misery. 

If I had a genie in a bottle right now, I would wish for the bottles to all the washed, the dog to be walked, and every stinking surface of our house to be cloroxed. But I don't have a genie. So I'm going back to bed. Waaaahhhh.