Scarlett is a Toddler / Mommy Friend Group / Lead Scare / Chip's Teeth / Work Struggles
Scarlett is beyond thirteen months and continues to grow and excel. More and more of her personality is coming out and she's using her body in more risky ways. What I mean by that is that she's begun climbing furniture, running, tripping over everything, and standing on things that she falls off of. She also throws proto-tantrums and is very much a needy and opinionated toddler now. Nicole and I continue to have to change things around on a near-daily basis to continue baby proofing this house. Our latest decision was to push the couch up against the wall completely because Scarlett has begun climbing up on it, dropping toys behind it, then trying to leap over the backside to retrieve the toy. It's adorable to be sure but ugghhhhh we may as well not have furniture. We remain vigilant and we miss having Nicole's family here to help. It sucks to do all this by ourselves.
One very bright spot is that Nicole has been making great strides at making new friends. Through our neighbors as well as our local public library, we've met other new mothers and Nicole has been starting to have play-dates here at our house. It's so wild to open our home up to new people and their children. It makes me feel like we're evolving into new people or something. Maybe this is what it's like when they say "putting down roots"; like we're really becoming citizens of this goofy little town. New friends is always nice and being closer to our neighbors is great too. We are lucky and fortunate. I hope these new friends of Nicole's stick around.
During March when we had Scarlett's twelve-month checkup, they did an in-office blood test and found that she had a high lead level. We were sent to a bigger clinic in April to get her blood drawn (Another first!) and she did so well. She doesn't tolerate getting shots at all and so I was petrified that having her blood drawn would be that much worse. I know for myself, if they don't jab the needle into me just right, it triggers my sympathetic nerve and I could pass out. It's rather embarrassing. Anyhoo, Scarlett shocked all of us and sat calmly and quietly and did just fine. Best of all, the results came back clear and it was a false positive. I don't know what we would have done if there actually was lead contamination in this house... I wouldn't even know where we'd begin...
Speaking of medical stuff, we took our dog, Chip, in to get his teeth cleaned (because we aren't good at doing it ourselves) and they unfortunately had to remove something like seven of his front teeth. He's always had this underbite that's left the teeth permanently exposed for most of his ten years and so this was just the name of the game. They were telling us that a couple of the teeth were only held in there by the plaque itself. I feel terribly but he's better off now and this is why we have it done professionally. Now he's happy and healthy. Plus, his underbite is gone so he looks like a different dog. It's odd. He'll be ten years old in a few months. Can't believe it.
The bulk of the stress in my life right now isn't Scarlett or making friends or my dog losing his teeth; it's my job. I've been talking about it in every last one of these stupid journal entries for eight months now and I'm sorry to report that not much has changed in April. I did speak with my manager and ask for a reassignment somewhere else but he came back with: "The team you wanted to move to isn't hiring but I'll keep my ears open and I expect you to be 100% on your current responsibilities." I mean, that's fair and understandable but ooof what a disappointment. He also warned me that I might have to wait TWELVE MONTHS to move to a new role after changing roles due to company policy. Ughhh I hate weird rules like that. The beginning of May will mark eight months so I'm two-thirds the way there. And who knows; it's a big company. They may bend the rules if an opportunity comes along. So that's where I am right now: Trying to keep my sanity and lie low while doing work that's way outside of my comfort zone and wheelhouse.
The struggle is happening all over, too. My brother, Ryan, was laid off last week from a job he's had in the technology sector for approaching a decade. He was similarly frustrated with his employment so we were kindred spirits. After I found out that he'd been terminated, I told him to enjoy this moment because he's free of the horror. But being truly unemployed is still frightening and he's got a mortgage and family to support. My sister, Val, is also recently-unemployed after being with a single organization for nearly twenty years. I've been at my current company just over ten whole years. Apparently, my family has a history of being loyal to companies for decades at a time. It's just a shame that none of us are experiencing that in return right now...
Time to dust off the résumé.
One very bright spot is that Nicole has been making great strides at making new friends. Through our neighbors as well as our local public library, we've met other new mothers and Nicole has been starting to have play-dates here at our house. It's so wild to open our home up to new people and their children. It makes me feel like we're evolving into new people or something. Maybe this is what it's like when they say "putting down roots"; like we're really becoming citizens of this goofy little town. New friends is always nice and being closer to our neighbors is great too. We are lucky and fortunate. I hope these new friends of Nicole's stick around.
During March when we had Scarlett's twelve-month checkup, they did an in-office blood test and found that she had a high lead level. We were sent to a bigger clinic in April to get her blood drawn (Another first!) and she did so well. She doesn't tolerate getting shots at all and so I was petrified that having her blood drawn would be that much worse. I know for myself, if they don't jab the needle into me just right, it triggers my sympathetic nerve and I could pass out. It's rather embarrassing. Anyhoo, Scarlett shocked all of us and sat calmly and quietly and did just fine. Best of all, the results came back clear and it was a false positive. I don't know what we would have done if there actually was lead contamination in this house... I wouldn't even know where we'd begin...
Speaking of medical stuff, we took our dog, Chip, in to get his teeth cleaned (because we aren't good at doing it ourselves) and they unfortunately had to remove something like seven of his front teeth. He's always had this underbite that's left the teeth permanently exposed for most of his ten years and so this was just the name of the game. They were telling us that a couple of the teeth were only held in there by the plaque itself. I feel terribly but he's better off now and this is why we have it done professionally. Now he's happy and healthy. Plus, his underbite is gone so he looks like a different dog. It's odd. He'll be ten years old in a few months. Can't believe it.
The bulk of the stress in my life right now isn't Scarlett or making friends or my dog losing his teeth; it's my job. I've been talking about it in every last one of these stupid journal entries for eight months now and I'm sorry to report that not much has changed in April. I did speak with my manager and ask for a reassignment somewhere else but he came back with: "The team you wanted to move to isn't hiring but I'll keep my ears open and I expect you to be 100% on your current responsibilities." I mean, that's fair and understandable but ooof what a disappointment. He also warned me that I might have to wait TWELVE MONTHS to move to a new role after changing roles due to company policy. Ughhh I hate weird rules like that. The beginning of May will mark eight months so I'm two-thirds the way there. And who knows; it's a big company. They may bend the rules if an opportunity comes along. So that's where I am right now: Trying to keep my sanity and lie low while doing work that's way outside of my comfort zone and wheelhouse.
The struggle is happening all over, too. My brother, Ryan, was laid off last week from a job he's had in the technology sector for approaching a decade. He was similarly frustrated with his employment so we were kindred spirits. After I found out that he'd been terminated, I told him to enjoy this moment because he's free of the horror. But being truly unemployed is still frightening and he's got a mortgage and family to support. My sister, Val, is also recently-unemployed after being with a single organization for nearly twenty years. I've been at my current company just over ten whole years. Apparently, my family has a history of being loyal to companies for decades at a time. It's just a shame that none of us are experiencing that in return right now...
Time to dust off the résumé.