Does your mother know you talk like that?

Yesterday I had a chance to sit down with my old boss (now my boss's boss) for the first time since I was out on maternity leave. I wanted to prime the pump for the upcoming bonus discussions that are sure to start taking place any day. I reminded BigBoss that he didn't come through with a raise or much of a bonus this past year despite being promised an increase when I first came on board over a year ago. Sure, times are tough. I get that. BigFinance has had some troubles but I wanted to make my case now rather than in the meeting when I find out I'm getting shit again. But I'm not holding my breath. By the way, did I feel at all guilty about asking for more money while just back from a 3 month paid leave? Hell, no! To [mis]quote Donna Summer, "[I] work hard for [my] money."

While I was chatting with him I mentioned a few problems I've been having on my project. And this is when I realized I am still a long time away from the corner office. BigBoss picked up the phone and had a 2 minute profanity laden conversation with a peer and cleared up one of my issues. I have never heard so many f-bombs and other 4 letter words in a genial conversation. Yes, they were very friendly with each other amongst the profanities. Now don't get me wrong. I swear plenty but tend to regulate myself at work to the occasional "shit" or "damn." I was awed. And frankly a little intimidated. Is this what senior level conversations are all about? If so, I'm not sure I can hack it. I mentioned the chat with a colleague and he commented, "Yeah, they are really informal at that level, aren't they?" Informal. Yes, that's a good way to put it.

Regardless, I look forward to the day when I wield the power. Mwah ha ha ha ha. I'll just do it with a little less swearing. How about the rest of you? Have you had any eye opening experiences as you interact with more senior executives?

I'm OK with keeping her at this stage forever

When we took Cameron in for her four month doctor's appointment her pediatrician commented on how much fun the 4-9 month stage is. Think of all the pluses it has going for it: start sleeping through the night, nap consolidation, longer alert periods, no teething (yet), and still not mobile. Throw in lots of smiles and laughter and you have for one fun infant.

This weekend was the first we experienced the consolidation of naps. And it made a huge difference in how I was able to spend my day. We are leaving for a vacation next weekend so I had lots and lots of errands to get done while DH took care of some much needed yard work. Cameron has started taking a 2 - 2 1/2 hour morning nap, a 15 minute snooze in her carriage while running errands and a 3+ hour nap in the afternoon. Amazing! Of course I have no hope that she will replicate it at school. Sigh.

She has coupled this with refusing to nurse except for morning and occasional evenings. I was sweating it in the beginning but quickly tired of fighting to latch her on. So now she gets bottles and I pump while I can. This gives me added flexibility of a bottle on the go and for DH to pitch in more with feedings. Liberating! This bodes very well for our two (!) week vacation.

I realize I have been remiss in posting some Cameron pictures so enjoy!

Cameron sports a mini mohawk after her bath.

Cameron is so close to rolling over!
Cameron loves it when Daddy plays with her.

Look at those big beautiful blue eyes. She can thank her Daddy for those.

About a dozen toys but Cameron would prefer to play with her Taggies onesie.

Addicted to Hulu

DH loves to watch baseball. He might be OK watching something else if his beloved Yankees aren't scheduled but otherwise, the TV is his for the night. I could go up to his office and watch TV but there's no DVR and I can no longer watch commercials. Yes, in the 6+ years since I received a TiVo I hardly ever watch "live" TV.

So during the summer and all the baseball watching, I decided to check out Hulu.com. Now when DH starts watching baseball I do my own thing and power up Hulu.com. I love it! I love when they give you the option of watching the longer commercial for no commercials during the program (duh, easy choice) or to pick amongst three different commercial options. Very, very smart advertising strategy. And I actually do watch the commercials since they are usually 15 or 30 seconds and then right back to the show. I love when I find a show that I've been meaning to check out and I can "dip my toe" into the water. I love all the old shows they have although some of those have not held up well.

Since I started watching Hulu I have seen the last few episodes of Scrubs, all of John Doe, a couple of Doogie Howser, MD (wow, those are dated!), dabbled in a variety of other shows and discovered 30 Rock. When I asked for TV suggestions before heading out on maternity leave quite a few of you recommended 30 Rock. I have avoided the program because I was afraid it was too much in the vein of The Office and rife with embarrassing moments humor. I hate that. Plus I also discovered that watching shows via DVDs isn't for me. I need to tape them and have the urgency to watch them as my % available decreases. Otherwise it just won't happen.

Anyway, back to 30 Rock. I freaking love it! I've been skipping around because Hulu doesn't show a lot of episodes or all of them in order. But ever time they have one up I haven't seen before I am very excited. I love everything about the show. Alec Baldwin is a genius. And the writing is very sharp. Question, what do the letters TNS (is that right?) stand for before "The Tracy Morgan Show" on all the signs? I can't figure it out and have only seen episodes from Season 3 so far.

If you all are interested in my other recommendations for comedies here are the ones I've enjoyed. Comedy is probably the hardest genre in TV shows. So few are truly enjoyable (Yes, Everybody Loves Raymond, I'm looking at you):

• Friends - yes, along with the rest of America. But even now if I see an episode I will still laugh out loud. Pretty good for a show that has been off the air for years.
• Scrubs - I stopped watching this show when it was airing new episodes but I enjoyed catching up on the last season via Hulu. And if there's nothing else on I will watch some episodes on Comedy Central.
• How I Met Your Mother - it's a-wait for it-mazing. I have never laughed louder or longer than at the Bob Barker and Slapsgiving episodes.

Have you tried Hulu? What do you think? Game changing in how we view entertainment? I think so. I've even heard they are getting higher ad rates than prime time shows. What other comedies do you like? I'm tempted to check out The Big Bang Theory but it's not offered on Hulu. Curses!

And so we say goodbye to a very unique judge

I won't have Paula Abdul to kick around any more in my American Idol recaps. Apparently she was never asked to renegotiate her contract. The producers decided to go with the younger, hipper and arguably more talented and hard to pronounce Kara DioGuardi.

I know for sure that 4 judges didn't work last season. There wasn't enough time for them to make comments and I didn't like that I had to wait so long to hear what Simon said. But I'm not sure the producers are making the right choice. Paula has always been viewed as the "nice" and "supportive" judge. Not to mention the fact that I usually got a break in recapping the shows when she started nattering on and on.

What do the rest of you think? Is this an improvement? Will you miss the odd sexual tension between Simon and Paula? Will Paula ever learn that unique needs no other modifier? Will Paula have a nervous breakdown now that she isn't a judge or does this mean we can expect a new season of "Hey, Paula"?

Losing the battle of the bottle

This weekend was a bit of a turning point for me in feeding Cameron. DH and I went together to drop off Cameron at school on Friday morning. I work from home most Fridays and it's a nice ritual for us to go together. Plus I wouldn't get to interact with her main teacher unless I had at least one drop off. Miss Tanya works 6 AM - 3 PM shift and I usually do pick up.

I really wanted to talk with Miss Tanya (these Southerners LOVE their "Miss" and "Mister" in front of first names!) because I have become very concerned with Cameron's napping. Or rather I should say her lack of napping. One day I picked her up and she had only slept 50 minutes. 50 minutes! This is from a girl who naps 5 hours a day on the weekend! Grrrr. Anyway, Miss Tanya assured me that they were trying to put Cameron down and swaddled her and rocked her but she just won't sleep. Apparently she will lie in her crib for some "quiet time" but 50% of the time she won't fall asleep. I guess I'll worry about it more if she stops napping for me.

I was also assured that she never cries except when she has been reaching the end of her 4 ounce bottle. It was like a dagger to the heart, people! I have been starving my child. OK, dramatics over. So I have upped her bottles to 5 ounces (3 bottles total at school). And she has been drinking every single drop. What does that mean for me? That she is much less interested in the boob.

Weekdays are fine because I just nurse her twice: wake up and evening. She's always had a final bottle before bed and I'm not messing with that because for 6 nights now she's slept through the night. Damn, I probably shouldn't have written that in case Cameron reads this blog. I pump 3x times and get about 12-13 ounces total. Doing the math I need 19 ounces for school and final bottle leaving me with -6. I have plenty of stored milk that I'm leveraging but that will probably be gone by the time she is six months old.

The bigger problem is that on the weekends Cameron doesn't want to nurse exclusively. She wants the bottle. It gives her more and she works less to get it. And really, who can blame her? I can probably get in an extra nursing session but she'll still want bottles. So it becomes the worst of both worlds. I (or DH) have to give Cameron a bottle and then pump. Basically I'll be doing twice as much work. Is this sustainable? Hell, no. I am considering dropping all pumping once she hits 6 months and nursing 2x and supplementing with formula. But we'll see. Maybe I'll be a glutton for punishment and continue. Plus despite being able to provide only breast milk for 6 months I will still feel like a failure for not making it to a year. I swear this is why women should have a year of maternity leave. It is so damn hard to make breastfeeding work if you work full time. And if WHO and other organizations recommend a year then we really need a year of maternity leave. OK, getting off my soap box.

A couple of questions for my readers. How do I introduce formula? Is it better to mix it with breast milk or just give an entire bottle of it? DH thinks Cameron won't like the taste of formula because she has only ever had breast milk. Is that possible? Will the mixing help with that?

A fun weekend

DH and I had some friends visit this past weekend. They were our first couple friends in Charlotte who we met while I was interning at BigFinance. We moved here and they moved away to DC less than a month later. And then they moved to NYC. And then to Germany. We were beginning to feel insulted. Did they really need to cross an ocean to get away? But common sense (and a desire to watch sports while drinking American beer) prevailed and they are back in the US temporarily settled in DC again. DH and I put the full court press on for them to move back to Charlotte. We cued up the cute baby and everything.

Time will tell if we were successful. In the interim we ate too much, drank a bit more than was good for us and slept too little. Good thing Cameron likes to nap on the weekends! It did remind me that I'm a mother and I was usually in bed before 11 PM - a big difference from their last visit just before I found out I was pregnant. It was nice to have an extra set of hands but I think Janusz managed to go the whole weekend without holding Cameron. We'll get him to change a diaper the next time!

A rare picture of me and my little one.

Cameron was extra cute while snuggling with Stacy. Yes, her name is Stacy and at times it can be confusing. Stacy indulged me talking non-stop about how awesome Cameron is while our husbands talked baseball. A good division of labors.
It wasn't only a visit for me and DH. Charlie also got to play with one of his best friends, Satchmo. We are convinced they are gay lovers. There was a lot of humping and licking.

All in all it was a great weekend. Move back to Charlotte, Stacy and Janusz, so we can do it more often!!

How to annoy me

Do you really want to know what annoys me? Are you looking for ways to piss me off and get me ranting and raving? Then read on....

1. Slow drivers. Especially slow drivers in the left lane who drive next to a car in the right lane and won't speed up. Yes, apparently God made you the arbiter of the speed limit. Please make me tow the line and travel at exactly 40 miles per hour as I am heading to work.
2. People who don't flush the toilet. Is it just me? 50% of the time when I walk into a public restroom stall I have to back out because some woman before me couldn't be bothered to flush the handle. Or better yet, it's an automatic flush but she doesn't look to make sure it actually worked. Technology doesn't work all the time, ladies! Do another woman a favor and make sure that your business makes it all the way down the drain.
3. Putting me on loudspeaker for a one-on-one phone meeting. I know you have a headset. Or at the very least a handset. You can't be bothered to pick it up and plug it in just because you are sitting pretty in your cushy office? Instead you want to make me listen to every ambient noise that echoes through your speaker phone? Gee thanks. How did I get so lucky?
4. Do you see me struggling with my stroller? No, no. You go first and let me hold the door for you while I try to maneuver this carriage through a heavy door.
5. Oh, I didn't realize that because you are dropping your child off at daycare you can use the handicap spot. Apparently walking two extra feet from the open parking spot next to it is just too much for you to bear. And while you are at it, go right ahead and take up both of the handicap spots. It's not like anyone else could need them, right?

That's just my top 5. How about the rest of you? What annoys you enough to mentally or verbally spout off at people?