Our daily schedule

I always find these posts interesting on other people's blogs, and I love looking back on them on my own, so here's a summary of what my day looks like with a toddler, a baby, and a Biglaw job:

5:30 am - I wake up, feed babygirl (lying in bed, snoozing)

6:00 am - Leah sleeping peacefully in my bed, I nudge Bryan to keep a hand on her and I get up and shower, etc.

6:30-7:00 am - Eden gets up. We eat breakfast together (I stop what I'm doing getting ready and eat with her. I eat breakfast every day and she eats breakfast every day, and we both eat cereal 99% of the time, so I have made a priority to eat with her at the table. It's our girl time together and we often have our best conversations at this time.)

7:00-7:30 am - Eden watches a little TV, does her morning routine (hand massage, getting dressed, hair, teeth-brushing, etc.) Sometimes Bryan handles this, sometimes I handle it; it just depends on who has more time at the moment. (Usually it's Bryan).

7:30 am - I try to pump.* Sometimes I'm running late and end up missing this (which means that the first time I pump at work it's a little ridiculous...)

8:00 am - Out the door. Walk to bus, take bus to train, train to downtown, walk to work.

9:00 am - At work. [Yes, I get up at 5:30 am to make it to work at 9. This is crazy.] Bill as much as I can until

11:00 am - Pump. Sometimes I try to get some work done while pumping hands-free, but it's difficult because the room I use is on a different floor, there's setup and takedown time, and it doesn't actually take that long to physically pump. So I end up billing maybe .3 hours.

11:30 am - Back to work, eat lunch at my desk. Bill as much as I can until

3:00 pm - Pump again.

3:30 pm - Back to work, eat a snack. Bill as much as I can until

5:30-6:00 pm - Leave work. (I know, I am really blessed to be at a firm/in a group in which this is totally acceptable. And I'm not the only one doing it. In fact, if I'm there until 6:30 I'm often the last one to leave).

6:30-7:00 pm - Arrive home. Grab Leah from Bryan and feed her while Bryan and Eden have dinner (usually - sometimes Leah's schedule works out so that I can eat with them and then feed her).

7:30 pm - Eden takes a bath, Leah's playing. Then Eden's bedtime routine (hand massage, jammies, hair, teeth-brushing, etc). This is when I get some quality time with one or both kids. I either do Eden's routine or play with Leah (or both!), depending on the night. Bryan and I rotate who puts Eden to bed, based on the sleep consultant's recommendation, and it's kind of nice to have scheduled individual time. Usually at least once a week Bryan has something going on in the evenings so I end up putting them both to bed, but that hasn't been too much of a problem so far...

8:00 pm - Whoever is putting Eden to bed reads her 2 books, then we all read her Bible together and then pray as a family. (Eden always wants to pray for the same 4 people. So we do.) Usually at some point during this timeframe Leah goes to sleep as well. Her bedtime routine involves laying her in her bed. Much faster. She doesn't even really need a pacifier anymore except to show her she's tired. She spits it out and gets her thumb when she starts to get cozy in her bed.

8:30 pm - Both girls asleep. Hopefully. Time for relaxing, catching up with Bryan, etc.

9:00 pm - If both girls are really asleep, either log back in and work or watch DVR. Or Modern Family on DVD. (Why haven't we been watching that show all along? It is awesome.) Or just hang out and talk to my husband. You know, that guy that I had these two beautiful babies with? :)

(Love this picture so much - it's the background on my phone right now...)

It's a crazy crazy day, but it's also so amazing in almost every way and I wouldn't change it. Except maybe I'd spend more time at home and less time working, but who wouldn't? And, while I'm not married to my job for forever, for now it works for us and allows me to provide for my family in a way that pretty much no other job can. (That's my working mom mantra of the week).

What we've been up to / Random Thoughts

I've been terrible about blogging lately. The truth is I haven't really had the energy. It's one of those situations where I've waited so long that now there are a million things to update and the thought of it is just too daunting... To be honest, I didn't even send out Christmas cards this year! That's how crazy it's been!

NOTE: I drafted this post a couple of weeks ago. Since then, work EXPLODED (I am getting ready to start working now - procrastinating, actually). I updated a couple of items (for one, there is a new little man in our neighborhood) and then just published. Sorry it's not the most recent news, but it's news!

But things are good. Very good. Here's a general update:

-Our little girl is SO BIG. Her hair is long and curly down her back, she gets taller every day, and she talks constantly! Though we only understand about 5% of what she "says", she is learning to communicate very well. She has made up her own signs and words for things, and gets her point across pretty well, actually.

-We have successfully weaned Miss Eden from her beloved pacifier. I very carefully snipped the end of the "backup" paci (and put her usual one, unmarred, in the junk drawer in case of emergency) and gave it to her. She sucked for a few seconds, took it out, looked at it, showed it to me, and said "hot" (which means either "hot" or "I don't like this"). She held on to it though, and when I put her down to sleep with her lovey she took it with her. She screamed for about 15-20 minutes, which, to be honest, might have happened even with a real pacifier, and then I went in there and calmed her down, and she went to sleep! She clutched that paci right next to her face, but it wasn't in her mouth! A couple of rough(ish) nights later, she was completely fine!

-Work is crazy busy over the last couple of weeks, which I think is a good sign. December was very slow, but we took a vacation (more on that later) and the holidays meant all of our clients were on vacation (though I am told that is not always the case - apparently sometimes the second half of December can be pretty insane as people try to close deals by the end of the year). I am involved in several vastly different matters, and I am loving the stimulation and challenge each brings. I really do have the perfect job for me. :) I actually got to meet with some students in conjunction with HLS's new Problem-Solving Workshop for 1Ls, and it was really weird to be on the other side of the table, giving advice to these students about law school and the practice of law. Probably would make an interesting blog post, actually, because I was struck by how surprised they were that I was happy. I think that people have a pretty negative view of BigLaw, and I'm not sure it is merited (though I freely admit that I am starting out in a pretty terrible economic climate to be making generalizations about what life is like in BigLaw...)

- Bryan's still working part time on staff at our church, and he still loves his job. I think if he could do it full time he absolutely would. He's trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up, but he has time to figure that out! There is one path in particular he's interested in, but more on that later...

- I might do a longer post on this later, but I keep getting asked when we are going to have another baby... and the truth is, we're not sure we are ever going to have another baby. There are a lot of complex reasons going into that decision, and, like I said, I might post on this later, but suffice it to say for now, barring divine intervention either changing our hearts or creating an "oops" situation, for right now we're pretty happy with just the three of us (and Nino...).

- We spent the week before Christmas with family back in Oklahoma. It was really nice. We got to see my little brothers, both of whom are veterans since I last saw them. It was the first time all 5 kids had been together in I think 3 years? It was pretty great, actually. My sister threw a big party for my newest-returned brother and we all gathered at her house around pans and pans of yummy enchiladas!

-We spent Christmas at home in Boston again, which I L-O-V-E. It is soooo nice to wake up in our own comfy beds and have a slow, relaxing Christmas morning as a family. This year Kel's parents and sister came up to see her, since she was getting dangerously close to the "no-fly" part of pregnancy (with precious little Quinn - see below!), and we got to spend some time with them, including yummy meals!

- I've been singing again. Since we switched to three services at church, I haven't really been able to sing with the band (it's hard because that is a loooong day, and Bryan has to be there anyway, so Eden has to be there too, and there is only childcare for the 1st service). But a couple of weeks ago I was on the schedule, and Bryan and I made it work with Eden, and it was amazing. I missed it so much. There is just something about being able to use this instrument God gave me to help lead a congregation in worship, and standing in the front and being able to hear all of those beautiful voices praising together that speaks sweetly to my soul.

- I threw a baby shower for Kel a month or so ago. Ruthless came up and helped, and Kelly P and Laura H made food - which was a HUGE help. It was really classy, and very fun. It was great timing. Kel and I went to get pedicures two weeks later and BAM, out came little Quinn! :) (OK, not exactly like that, but he's here and he's adorable and we are so excited to love on him and see John and Kel as parents!)

- Now I am planning another (Jack and Jill!) baby shower for my sweet friend Kim - and I can't wait. I wish I could share all of the details but I want it to be a surprise and Kim reads this blog, so you'll have to wait until after March 6 to see the pictures! :) But it's going to be great.

There have been a million other things I have wanted to post about and I promise I haven't completely lost my reflective side, I have just had other things taking up my time! But I promise I'm reading your blogs, and I am staying relatively plugged in on Facebook, so know I haven't lost touch.

Hopefully getting this monster post off my chest will help me plug back in to the blogsphere.