the last week at work

sunday 21st:

super busy afternoon with a full apartment and mr smear getting lots of attention from new people, small victories and a shopping trip, mom chat then aristocats followed by feeding and putting mr smear to bed, then struggling to eat stealthily

monday 22nd:

i wish i could record my dreams...

a relatively good night followed by an ugly morning

feeling concussed when it was mr smear who fell over hard (he does that quite a lot, it's very unnerving), receiving a mediocre job offer but an offer nonetheless, getting good work done, successfully "letting go" when a dev decided we were wasting time "talking" all the time (designing and planning)

leaving work early, a busy mr smear entertaining my mom while she helped me with the salary negotiation, an evening playing with mr smear or being fascinated by the dragon's den while eating dinner

the pokemon theme song stuck in my head for the second day in a row

tuesday 23rd:

a decent night with lots of forgotten dreams

post-bath scream: apparently (with me, at least) mr smear would rather not be wrapped in his towels

a pretty good day at work, if a little pressured... the test for the job coming in handy at my (now) old job...

... accepting the revised job offer! even though it's not as much as i'd like, it's a good place to get started so i'm excited and relieved and they've been really cool with me since then

gd preparing a big celebratory dinner, getting chores out the way while managing a particularly feisty little boy, putting him to bed at nap time and being surprised by his actually sleeping

the weirdness of the idea that i have an interesting job waiting for me, where the pay's not bad and the atmosphere seems relaxed and i'll be getting another macbook pro (although better purposed this time, it's much better suited to web development than to cross-platform development)

the apartment: putting prices on things is weird

wednesday 24th:

a midnight feed (oh, no! he's going to turn into a gremlin!), not an easy night but not too bad either, an odd apartment proposal that would totally sort us out and my mom looking at places for us, saying "aunty gd" to my nephew amusing me endlessly

nice weather, the only reason to put the hood up being to avoid snow melting in my clothing

figuring out some cool stuff in laravel in spite of their half-assed (but pretty!) documentation, a good lunch at aux vivres with my manager, the satisfaction of a job elegantly done turning sour as i struggled to merge something i'm proud of into a brand new repo that's already been corrupted by nem and his team's never having learned how routing works; spending a few minutes introducing one of them to the concept and then rushing home late to meet a potential tenant who arrived earlier than expected without the landlord in the pouring, freezing rain

coming in from taking out the garbage to find mr smear crawling! and then sitting up by himself! *super proud dad*

the disturbing realization that we bought the wrong luggage, trying hard to stay relaxed even though i know that we've handled all the really important stuff

thursday 25th:

up for at least five minutes every half hour from 4am

mr smear's crawling was not a fluke! cancelled prescriptions and almost accidentally cancelling gd's phone too early and good company news and finally arranging the right insurance form and getting my feet wet returning the luggage

an unsuccessful hunt for the right luggage, picking up copper branch, lunch, playing with mr smear, gulping down coffee, buying onesies and hitting walmart for their last large duffle bag and baby food

the grocery mission, accidentally missing my final meeting, forgetting to call an illustrator

selling and packing, feeding and showering and doing laundry and eating and feeling rather pleased with everything

friday 26th:

another tough night, this time giving up early and letting him sleep on his belly while i arranged material for the new illustrator; an interesting discussion about fidelity brought on by an offer for beauty products, the dress clothes' triage

mr smear doing interesting yoga moves and mimicking his parents for the first time

my last presentation, a surprising and interesting pushap lunch with vfmp, saying goodbye with some surprising emotional moments, packing up and heading home with some surprising finds from my desk

surprise!

a relatively quiet and easy evening

yesterday:

another difficult 5am, this time desperate enough to put mr smear on his belly after which everything was fine.

selling stuff day. gd's friend coming over to help her triage, finding some of gd's childhood photos, gd's friend's father coming to buy our air conditioner and give shipping advice, finally (four days before we leave!) putting a bunch of stuff up for sale online, showing the apartment to a couple of people and then learning that our landlord doesn't intend to hold us to our lease (amazing!) so now we're actually hoping that he doesn't find anyone immediately because he doesn't mind us staying for two extra days if nobody needs to move in which would make our lives *immensely* easier

selling the television and getting an offer for the projector and feeling the stress melting away little by little

so: http://www.plantpurenation.com/
for something both fascinating and distressing, it's a surprisingly inspirational documentary. i think they have the right attitude

today:

a better night after giving up quicker, a busy morning with lots of visitors, general exhaustion, scanning and selling, whirlwind afternoon with some surprise visits and a huge relief from some old training partners and nox, a quick bath and a quick, cold run to the supermarket (where they made sure to remind me not to miss them), then slowly winding down the day.

today's experience has left us feeling like we're doing alright with this parenting thing. *knocks on wood*

...

as our apartment empties out, our relocation is becoming very real. and through all the exhaustion, the restlessness, the little but important conerns... we are very grateful.