Working Life, Part 2

Oh, how lovely it must be to be a full-time mom. But for the majority of the known universe, that's just not an option. Plus, I like working. I'm good at it. Since I was about 9 or so, this has been how I have defined myself--although that definition has evolved over time. Never thought I would leave reporting, but since I'm not into poverty, per se, I had to adjust.

Plus, my job now allows me certain freedoms--like bringing Billy in to my office for half the day. In November, the marketing group of my former company set off on our own, starting a new branding/marketing firm called Southern Growth Studio. There's only seven of us, and I have a lovely office with a door that closes instead of a cube. Plus, the work is collaborative, so I need to be here. So I started working from home in the morning and bringing Billy in with me in the afternoon.

That punishing schedule in which I worked all the time (my productive hours were 12 to 2--AM) but got very little accomplished made me feel like this:
So, about a month ago, Ace came up with a solution. I come into the office super-early, and he spends the morning with Billy at home. I leave when they are both snoozing. He reasoned that with us at home, his mornings were pretty shot, work-wise, already. Plus, I think he saw me sinking into the sleep-deprived abyss of frustration. I come in, crank out a few hours of hard, focused work. Then, I either head home at lunch or Ace brings Billy with him to town. Billy spends the afternoon in the office with me, and Ace heads home to crank a few hard hours of work on his own.

It's not ideal--I wish Ace could have the whole day, because he really needs intense focus to write. But I'm not exaggerating when I say this arrangement saved my life.

So three cheers for Ace! Father and husband of the year!

Billy really loves the time with Dad, too.

Here, he plays in my office. As he gets more mobile, we may have to come up with some new strategies.

Yesterday, he banged the crap out of his head four times. He's crawling, but then he tries to crawl using his feet instead of his knees, which tips him off balance and he pitches forward onto his head. The floor in here is carpeted, but just barely, and by the end of the afternoon, he was just inconsolable--but wouldn't let me hold him, either. He wanted down, wanted to try out his legs, but didn't like it when he fell and would start screaming bloody murder.

But man oh man, what a cutie. I uploaded a video of some of his more successful crawling. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSL16dunNwQ
The best part is when he gets distracted by his hand.