And So It Ends...

I highly recommend taking a twelve week vacation from work, if you can. Even if you have to give birth to a baby to do it, it's worth it. I have, over the past three months, completely forgotten about work and it has been wonderful. I can't even remember what number to dial to check my work voice mail. I just hope my brain still works when I flip the switch from "mommy" to "employee" on Wednesday morning.

Some things we've done over the past few weeks, as my leave draws to an end.....

(1) Minh and Tai and I went to our first "Pampered Chef" party. For those of you who don't know, it's like a high-end tupperware party. It was "hosted" in the home of one of our childbirth class friends, so babies were welcome. Here's how it worked: some woman cooked a meal in front of us, all the while raving about each "Pampered Chef" bowl, knife, chopper, platter, etc that she used. Those of us with babies were mostly in the next room, not really paying attention. But we had no problem eating the food she cooked. Then, guilt set in, and we felt obligated to order something from the Pampered Chef catalog. Minh and I will soon be the proud owners a $9 pizza cutter and a $16 pair of kitchen shears (plus tax and shipping!)


(2) Tai has started daycare. Last week he did an hour one day and three hours the next day. It wasn't so much that he needed to practice being away from us, but that Minh and I needed to slowly get used to this new arrangement. I also needed to practice getting up at the crack of dawn to walk the dog and get myself showered and ready to go out the door by 7:15 -- no small feat. Today Tai went to daycare for six whole hours, which means I got to go to the mall and buy some new clothes for work (ahhh...pants that actually fit, that feels nice!)

(3) We've hired a dog-walker. She came by and "auditioned" tonight. She and Buttons hit it off right away. After about a half hour of chatting with her, we all went around the block together, so she could "test drive" Buttons. It went well. Even when Gus, the 100lb black lab with far more energy than any creature should have, came bounding down his driveway to slobber all over Buttons and jump on our dog-walker, she remained calm and handled the situation as well as anyone could expect. We hired her on the spot.

So, back to work I go. On a part-time basis, anyway. I'll try not to worry about Tai while he's at daycare. It's hard not to, though, when I think about that fact that we are paying someone $8/hr to walk the dog, but only paying $4.50/hr for daycare for our son. Somehow that doesn't seem quite right. But, my transition back into the world of work will undoubtedly be made easier by the knowledge that I have high-end kitchen utensils waiting for me at home.

Who Loves Banks??

Minh and I, until recently, had both a mortgage and a home equity loan. A few months ago, we paid off the home equity loan. Naively, we both assumed that paying off the balance would make that second loan go away. Not so.

Minh noticed last night that our mortgage bill has a $75 annual fee associated with our home equity loan. Upon calling the bank, he learned that this is a fee for holding the home equity line of credit open. Apparently, we were supposed to somehow "close" that loan, in addition to just paying it off.

So, the nice person Minh spoke to explained that we can avoid paying the $75 annual fee if we go ahead and close that line of credit. Apparently, we do this by writing a memo to the bank stating our desire to close the account ... and sending them $75 to do so!

Yes, that's right. We have to pay them $75 to get them to not charge us $75. Seriously. This is not a joke.

Convincing Myself...

...That it's perfectly fine to hire a dog-walker for Buttons has been difficult.

Minh brought up the idea while I was still pregnant and I pretty much dismissed it. I think most of you know that I really enjoy walking Buttons, most of the time. In fact, part of the reason I wanted a dog was to have an ever-present reason to walk every day.

Well, Minh brought it up again last week as we discussed my imminent return to work and I pretty much dismissed it again. Until I really started thinking concretely about what my days would look like (get up at 5:30, feed Tai, walk the dog, shower and get ready, drop off Tai at day care, work an 8-hour day, pick up Tai at day care....and that's all before dinnertime). So, I've conceded that having someone walk Buttons three afternoons a week is actually a great idea for everyone involved.

Luckily, there are about 2,000 potential dog-walkers right across the street. So we've made our need known and already have two interested applicants. Hopefully, by April 1st we'll be exploiting--wait, I mean employing a reliable, responsible dog-lover to get The Butts some exercise on the three days a week that Tai goes to daycare and I go to work.

It is still hard, however, to come to terms with being "that kind of people" who actually hire someone else to walk their dog. As someone who takes pride in doing things for myself, I worry that this is a slippery slope and before long we'll have a maid, and a cook, and a nanny, and a gardener.......oh, wait! What am I saying? I'm being ridiculous. Minh would NEVER stand for hiring a gardener.

I'm Not So Hard-Core After All

I've always been a real wimp when it comes to the dentist. First off, you need to know that every year they find new cavities to fill. I must have at least 15 fillings by now. I think even some of my fillings have fillings. This is, much to my dismay, despite the fact that I brush my teeth 2 or 3 times a day and floss every night before bed. Minh, on the other hand, brushes far less often and doesn't even know what floss is....and his teeth are cavity-free. (Let's hope Tai inherits Minh's teeth.)

Anyway, I've always needed TWO shots of Novocaine for each filling. Normally, they shoot me up, wait five minutes and start to drill. Then when I cringe and tell them I can still feel pain, they give me another shot. A few times I just told them up front I was going to need more than the average person and they gave me the double dose right away.

Now, since I have recently pushed a human child out my vagina without any pain medication, I figured this dentist thing wouldn't be so bad anymore. Yesterday on my way to get a cavity filled, I told myself it would be a piece of cake. Now, I certainly was not about to go through this process drug free (I'm not that crazy!) But I figured I would surely be able to just have the normal dose of Novocaine. Not so.

As usual, they shot me up, waited five minutes and started to drill. I could feel it, a little. But I reminded myself of how much birthing a child hurt, to keep things in perspective. The dentist stopped and asked if I was doing OK and I bravely said I was. So she started to drill again -- deeper. I couldn't take it. I couldn't "relax through the pain." So I ordered up another shot of the good stuff before we continued. That did the trick.

Of course, the entire side of my face was then numb for about 6 hours afterwards, making eating and drinking a tad difficult. I went home after the dentist and ate a candy bar (like you do) while nursing Tai. Apparently, some chocolate escaped the numb side of my mouth without my noticing. When I looked down at the boy, he had chocolate on the shoulder of his outfit and smushed behind his ear. I guess that's the price he had to pay for my pain-free dental work.

My Handsome Boy

For anyone interested in keeping up with the latest photos of Tai, we've posted some albums at this site. http://picasaweb.google.com/kathyfoley77. This way, I won't be tempted to clog up the blog with pictures of him all the time.

If you have a gmail account you won't need to sign in, but apparently if you do not have gmail you have to sign up to view the photos. We know...that totally sucks. We can't seem to find a photo sharing site where you don't have to create an account and sign in.