Gin, Wine, and Work

No, I'm not talking about gin as in gin and tonic, although, that is a good summer drink! :-) My husband recently learned the card game, gin, from one of the eldest members of our country club, and now we've started playing together. It is wonderful. Whenever Robert Alan goes down for the night, if we feel like it, we play a couple hands. So, we've only played twice, and I have to say that I got beat both times. Not just beat. Annihilated. Completely smashed. It hasn't been pretty. Today, I got beat in less than 30 minutes by more than 100 points. You'd think I don't understand the game. But I do, you see. I guess I just haven't had the good luck David has. Hmmm...I'm not giving up!

Tonight, after having a good talk about being a working mom with David, he cooked me a steak and we accidentally opened a bottle of wine we'd been saving for a special occasion. It's not that we didn't mean to open it. We knew we were opening it, but we were opening it fully expecting it to be corked. We could see the wine was coloring the top of the cork, so we figured it would be corked, taste bad, and we'd open another one. We figured we may as well open it to find out, and it turned out to be AWESOME! It is the best wine I've ever tasted. Our friends Marilyn and Raf gave it to us before we got married (they actually gave us a whole box of various wines and champagnes----a FABULOUS gift!), and we thought we'd drink the ZD (oh yeah, it was a 2002 bottle of vintage ZD Cabernet) on our first anniversity. Well, as you know, I was pregnant on our first anniversary, so I think we decided to save it until our 5th anniversary. However, during the move, it ended up spending some time in a garage, and then, mysteriously, the cork started to show wine on the top of it, so, as far as we knew, that meant that it could be corked. Well, it isn't, and I am enjoying it now as I write this. I highly suggest this bottle, although I just read on an online wine snob site that the best dates for drinking it are 2011-2035 or something like that. If only we'd waited until our 5th anniversary.....oh well. It's pretty dang good right now!

Speaking of being a working mom, I really thought I'd have a harder time going back to work than I have. Don't get me wrong, it's tough, and I've cried, but I am absolutely LOVING being back at work. I love my job. I love my son and I love my job. I am allowed to do both. And I'm capable of doing both well. I know that I am. It's something that I've had to adjust to. I was raised by a stay-at-home mom who did a wonderful job and I always thought that I would do the same. However, I like what I do too much to give it up. I don't think that working means I have to sacrifice time with Robert Alan and I don't think that my working is hurting him one bit. In fact, I think that it's helping me to be a better mom when we are together. I enjoy our time more, and I don't take for granted rocking him to sleep and being around him all day long on the weekends. I love it! I live for it! It's hard to realize that he's learning things that I'm not teaching him (like the fact that he's doing a really good job of pushing up from the floor when he's on his tummy---Gigi is working so much with him and making sure he gets plenty of tummy time), but I also see that he IS doing things that I'm teaching him, like the motor-boat sound. He does it all the time, especially when I do it first. He mimics me. He also does it to his daddy, who, for some odd reason, can't seem to figure out how to make the sound. It's so simple. How can you not make the motor-boat sound? Anyways, like I was saying, he does it to his dad as if to mock the fact that he can't do it back. Ha! I'm raising him well. :-) So....I've cried about not being the one working with him during tummy time, and not being the one who reads to him during the day or plays with him or takes him on walks during the day, but I have realized that a) I'm super blessed and grateful to have someone who loves him who is doing all those things and more with him every day (thanks Gigi, Honey, and Aunt B!), and b) I'm still playing with him at night, reading to him at night, and taking him on walks on the weekends. We're doing all that and more when we're together and I'm loving it. I may change my mind in a year or two (I highly doubt I will), and I know I'm allowed to do that, but the fact that I continue to work just means that he will have a mom who figured out a way to balance her career and her family and nobody suffered or wanted because of it. I'm happy that I have the support of my husband to fall back on when I doubt my abilities to do both well. You see, I don't want to do both if it means that one isn't getting my best, but he reminds me that I am doing a great job at both--I need more reassurance that I'm doing well at being a mom than I do for my job, working is the easy part! Thank you, Dave, for talking me down from the ledge when I begin to doubt myself and my decisions. So, I love being back at work--it feels like I've started a new job that I'm super excited about but I don't have to meet new people and I don't have to prove myself. It's wonderful! I know that the newness will wear off and it won't be new anymore, but I don't think that I've ever really thought about it as my J-O-B. It's something that I do daily that I truly enjoy and am so lucky to have landed in this career, working for the people and the company that I do. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to have a job that I love that allows me the flexibility to still be there for my family when they need me.

Okay, enough mushiness. I'm over it. We think Robert Alan may have a tooth coming in soon. He's been pretty fussy at night lately. Maybe it's because he's been missing his usual super-late afternoon nap....in fact, now that I think about it, that's probably definitely it, but he's also been gumming all his chew toys lately. (That last statement made him sound like a dog...chew toys...hmm). Anyways, if he cuts a tooth, that'll mean his first tooth came in before he was 4 months old. I highly doubt that will happen. I think the more likely explanation is that we're trying to find a reason for him being fussy and really he's just being a sleepy baby.

He is such a sweet kid. Tonight, he started "almost" laughing while David bounced him on his lap and we sang "Are Ya'll Ready for This?!" (we were watching a basketball game and it was on in the background). He loved it!

Well, that's it for now. I'm off to watch (500) Days of Summer. Man! This has been a great day!

Talk to you later!