What a day!

So I started my new job in sales this week and I had quite an interesting day. I called this one house and a little girl with a soft voice (so soft I could hardly hear her) picks up the phone. So I asked her if her mommy was home. She says yes, so I asked her if I could talk to her mommy. She tells me no that she is busy. So I then asked her if her daddy was home. And she says, “Yes, but he’s busy too.”  I then asked her if there were any other adults in the house that I could talk to. Are you ready for this? She tells me, “Yes, the police are here.”   Now I start to get freaked out and wonder what the hell is going on in this house.  So I asked her if I could talk to a police man, in which she replies, “No, they’re busy too.” Now I’m really curious as to what the hell is going on in this house. I then asked her what everyone is doing in which she replied, “They’re looking for me.”


Happy Friday!

the good with the bad

Well I’m a couple of days late, but last week we took AV for her one month check up. It was nothing but good news from her doctor. She is now up to 10 lbs 8 oz and grew ¾”, which makes her now 21 ¾”. But the biggest surprise was that her head measured 14 ¾” – 2 ¼” larger than at birth! I almost fell over, but apparently she’s on a normal growth rate. In other one month milestones, she has almost found her hands and is able to bring them to her mouth. She is also doing well with her neck control and can lift it up off her mat for a little bit at a time. Every day is something new and exciting!

On the flip side of the coin, my wife’s family is dealing with an upsetting death (not that any death is ever pleasant, but this is extremely hard). My mother-in- laws best friend, who was more of a sister, passed away yesterday rather suddenly. To just say she was her best friend, is an understatement. They’ve known each other since school. Their families did everything together; vacations, holidays, random middle of the week dinners. It’s hard to explain in words, but they had traditions between their families – traditions which they quickly and openly welcomed me and J (I think I’ve mentioned her before. If not she’s my daughter) into. They were special times that only their families shared – times that will be extremely hard to deal with over the next couple of months. How could this happen to a young, loving wife and mother? Someone that battled breast cancer at a very young age and beat it. Someone that always brought laughter to everyone. These are the same questions that I asked myself 13 years ago when my mother passed away from cancer. Spending the day with their family yesterday and seeing the faces on her husband and her kids, brought back so many memories of the days that followed my mother’s death and the look of complete loss. Not only of a woman they loved, but someone that held their lives together. We’ll miss you Aunt Jan!

Remember me?

Well it has almost been 4 weeks since my last post and there are good (and bad) reasons.

Back in the beginning of September I joined the 9.8% of America on the unemployment line. After being employed for three years by the same company I was laid off because the company was losing money and no longer expanding, which designing and overseeing franchise expansion was my key objective. At first it was so surreal; could this really be happening to me? I mean my new baby was due to arrive in two days! I do I go home and tell V? How would we be able to support ourselves and a new baby? I put that all behind me because I am sure V had the same questions and many more and I had to be strong for her. I had to show her that we WOULD be able to do this, no question. After being home for about 20 minutes I dropped the news and I could see the disbelief flash across her face as all the color faded. But as I knew I had to do, I acted strong and assured her everything would be fine. As the days went on from there we learned that we would have the total support from our families. So now it has been four weeks, I’ve submitted several resumes to an array of companies for a variety of positions, but still no response. I’m positive that as I continue to look, the right job and I will find each other and life will be “back on track”.

Well that was the bad news, the good news is that is that same dark period, the light shined through and we became proud parents to a baby girl! Yep, after nine months of being convinced that Baby D was going to be a boy, we were blessed with one of life’s few surprises. She ended up being five days late, much to the dismay of V, but everything went so well and quickly. The contractions started coming on “regularly and strong” on Thursday evening and continued into Friday morning. However the contractions weren’t regular enough to go the hospital. V decided she had had enough and called the doctor’s office to make an appointment to find out what was going on. When we go in to see the doctor he pointed out that we should head to the hospital immediately because V was 4 cm dilated. Now let’s take a step back for a minute. Before we left home to go to the doctor’s office, V made me go through her checklist and gather the remaining items for her hospital bag – which to me was a waste of time. I mean, we talked to her doctor at 4 AM and were told to wait until the contractions were 5:1:1 to go the hospital and they still weren’t at that point. I was convinced that we would see the doctor, be told to just go home and continue to wait so what was the point of lugging everything into the car only to take it out when we get back in 30 minutes?! Well caulk one up for the female gender, because boy was I wrong. (note to self - never question maternal instincts). So we got to the hospital, settled into the LDR and 4 ½ hours later baby girl (AV) was born.

AV is just shy of her one month birthday and it’s been one of the greatest months of my life. Being able to spend every day at home with V and AV has been a blessing in disguise. Who would have ever thought that being unemployed would be this great!?