I'm always worried (and terrified) that since Jax spends most of his days with his dad, that he will start to favor his dad over me. but each time i see him at the end of my work day, he always seems super excited to see me when we say hello after being apart for the day. it's something i  look forward to after a rough day at the office. 

he's getting so big now and becoming such a little boy right before our eyes :( . we think he will start crawling soon. hes been lunging at things, getting up on his knees (or trying to and teetering) and getting boo boos on his head. he never seems to sit still these days, especially when you try and put on his diaper or dress him. pretty soon we will have to baby proof our cluttery house (uh-oh). no teeth yet (and thats ok by me!). he's been eating more servings of solid food (this week its broccoli) and has had plain pasta, soba noodles, yogurt,  and his daddy's tortilla de patatas.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary last night. cw lined up a babysitter - our lovely neighbors. who i just found out will be putting an offer on a house tomorrow - which makes us very sad. not because we are losing our potential occasional babysitter but because they are wonderful charming people to have right next door. we have another couple in our 4-plex who are also putting in their offer for a house. sigh..these couples are newlyweds so i guess it comes with the territory. you get married then you buy a house, then you have a kid..oh wait.  anyways..we decided to just stay in and enjoy dinner at home without the rush of having to tend to a 7 month old. except that we had to tend to our starving stomachs which were used to the normal rush  rush  rush (rush to get home and nurse or pump, rush to cook dinner and rush to eat) we typically experience once i get home from work. we enjoyed a beet & quinoa salad, seared scallops and steamed mussels in a white wine garlic sauce.

the above pictures are from the very day, two years ago - april 12th - of when we first met and went out on an undate. did i know two years ago that i would be with him today and for the rest of my life? no, not quite. but i did know that if i had wanted to spend that much time with someone i just met (we spent 10 hours together that day and i really didnt want the undate to end) he was at least a contender. but it wasnt long after that first - not as awkward as you would have thought - undate, that i knew he was more than just the contender..he was definitely the one.

Well, that was weird. It must be a sign! Right? Let me explain. Yesterday (that would be two days ago now, if I actually am able to publish this post today), I was trolling the internet (at my job) and fantasizing about getting a new one. One that would pay a considerable amount more so that we could continue this stay at home dad lifestyle we’ve become accustomed to. But then last night as I settled in and perused the internet on my phone (as I normally do when Jax is drifting off to sleep- please go to sleep?!), I read a post on this blog I go to often. The blogger wrote about how despite the mediocre paycheck she got, the flexibility of her workplace and the awesome people she worked with more than made up for it (I think that’s what she was saying).  As I continued to read the post and exclaimed YES (in my head of course, Jax was sleeping- YAY) at every perk the blogger mentioned, I felt sort of relieved and it calmed my woes and fears of my own mediocre paycheck (not that its terribly mediocre. I have definitely climbed the ranks and in a short amount of time here) because what my workplace lacks in monetary accommodations it more than makes up for it in its people and flexibility. This morning I realized this is sort of a hot button topic, as I found a few more blogs and articles regarding – workplace flexibility. so hot that its taken up residence in the white house. well, figuratively speaking of course.

Anyway, I know I should count my lucky stars that one of us is able to stay home to take care of Jax and that even with my mediocre salary we are able to not only survive but maintain some of our luxuries like having/buying fresh local and or organic produce and live in the house we were in when we were single and a sort of two income household (oh AND have internet and cable!).

My workplace is pretty awesome, in all the ways that the blogger had said hers is. My boss knows my husband by name and asks about Jax on a daily basis. He even likes it when they drop by so he can hold and play with him. It helps that he is a father also (He has a daughter who is 10). His wife schedules lunches with us outside of work and we go on hikes together. We get invited to weddings and definitely have birthday cakes at our office for employee birthdays- although we seem to always forget our boss' birthday (i know, terrible) until after the day. It's really a relaxed atmosphere. There is no dress code and I feel comfortable with having my tattoos out in the open. I also get home at a reasonable time (by 5 pm) and weekends are all mine. Work is left at work (but my brain has a hard time understanding this sometimes). I know that in other larger companies of the same trade, someone in my position could have a company car, maybe a company credit card for expenses and also earn $10K to $20,000 more annually (and now with my newly acquired credential, it could be more)- but then again that same person in that larger company may not have a job right now in this economy or never even had the wonderful perks that I have here. In many ways the rewards are priceless. Some of which we won't know or can define until Jax is much older or when we actually have to go to a two income family to compare it to.

But still, I fantasize when we both can stay at home and not have to seriously work just to make ends meet. For now we pull on those ends and make a knot. And sometimes when those knots get undone, I unravel and worry about how we will get by and then I fantasize about getting a new higher paying job. its a vicious cycle.

originally from Oh dee doh site:

Seriously? these are real products?? and people actually bought these.

These are just two of ten that were on the oh dee doh site. a medicine cup lined with sugar to make the medicine go down easier? now, couldn't you just dip the regular medicine cups that is usually comes with the medicine in sugar or pixie crack of some sort? honestly, sugar rimmed medicine cups? made by a pediatrician no less. and is it me, or do those "pee pee bottles" look like your average nalgene bottles? and really, i dont think one would want to advertise that youre carrying around your pee pee..or again, it could just be me.

i was thinking of a clever april fools joke to post but alas nope. none. fail. bleh. is it friday yet?