Happy Retirement to "Gra"

Pardon the non-Olivia post, but I just wanted to take a minute to gush about my sweet daddy who just retired from an amazing 33 year career with ExxonMobil.  Long before the phrase “work-life balance” was a part of my vocabulary, my dad was showing my sisters and me the balancing act every day.  He would drive 45 minutes to and from work, put in a grueling day at the office, and then come home and jump into helping with dinner, homework, and extra-curricular activities.  He was a chauffeur, a teacher, a counselor, an arbitrator, and, to this day, our biggest fan.  When I graduated from law school, my parents hosted a small dinner party for me and some of my friends.  My dad, with tears in his eyes, gave a toast expressing his pride in my accomplishments and his hope that I got as much joy and fulfillment from my career as he got from his.  That was a really touching moment for me and it signified a change in the relationship between my dad and I.  While we may not have bonded over dance recitals, make-up, boyfriends, and prom dresses, my dad did understand careers, office politics, bosses, raises, evaluations, and work stress.  And over the past 8 years, I have loved sharing all the ups and downs of my career with him and knowing he felt each disappointment as strongly as I did, and celebrated each victory as if I had just been named to the Supreme Court!  I am so proud the example he set for me and when I struggle with my own work-life balance issues (which is usually on a daily basis!), the one truth that brings me the most comfort is knowing that I am better for seeing my dad try to balance it all and hopefully the same will be true for Olivia.  Congratulations daddy and we hope you enjoy retirement!

Here are the proud sisters with their wonderful dad!

And the whole family!

Movin' On Up Monday

Matt is out of town again this week.  I always hate it when he's gone, but I have been dreading this particular Monday all weekend because today Olivia officially transferred to Movement II, the next class at her daycare.

As you may remember, Olivia had a very hard transition with move into Movement I.  We had several weeks of some very traumatizing (for me at least!) crying.  So, when the time came for this move, her daycare did all they could to ease the transition.  By way of background, a "typical" transition at Olivia's school is that you visit your new class for longer and longer periods of time over a 1 week period, and then you officially start in your new class the following Monday.  However, given Olivia's aversion to new things (can't imagine where she gets that from...), she had a THREE week transition.

So, today was the first official day in her new class.  I summoned my best "happy face" as we marched into the school.  Right before we got to her hallway, I told her we were going to see Miss Virginia this morning (her new teacher).  She looked at me, pouted her lip, raised her arms for me to pick her up, and burst into tears.  Good times.  I stayed in her new class for about 20 minutes and finally calmed her down.  At some point I realized that I had to rip the band-aid off and just leave.  So I gave her a kiss, handed her to Miss Virginia and then left.  I stood outside the room and after about 2 minutes she stopped crying, so I left.

I must have looked worried myself because by the time I got to work, I had these pictures on my phone along with the following text: "She's fine.  Don't worry.  Miss Virginia :)"

Thank goodness for cell phones and thank goodness for Miss Virginia!  I got another picture a couple hours later after gymnastics.

This evening, I left work a little early and was expecting the worst.  But when I got the room and peeked in the window I saw her sitting at the "kitchen" stirring the heck out of a cup of tea!  I opened the door and she ran over to me, gave me a hug and kiss and then ran to give each of her teachers a hug and kiss goodbye.  Success!

We are really excited about this new class and all she will learn and experience.  This class is definitely more toddler than baby....she has her own "locker!"

She will also go to Spanish class, take gymnastics, and have a special art class and music class.  They focus on language, flash cards and "introducing" potty training.  I think she will love it.

And.....we got some other exciting news today....I applied for a part-time schedule at my work that was approved today.  I will be back to the schedule I had after maternity leave (Mon-Thurs from 9-4:30).  I am SO excited to have Fridays with Olivia again and I am already planning lots of fun things for us! 

We finished the day with a Face Time call with daddy and went to bed. Pretty good for a Monday!

Outside play

Matt and I were both grateful for some nice weather this weekend and a chance to get outside.  Olivia (and her parents!) get a little stir crazy if we have to stay inside all weekend, so we spiced things up with a few trips to the park + a brand new, bright pink bike.  Olivia LOVES them both!

We were lucky enough to have "Gra" (Grandpa) join us at the "pa" (park) on Sunday.

I am so behind on blogging, but I promise that I've got a couple posts in "draft" form and I"m hoping to have time this week to add some pictures and actually post them!