Speed Bump

Ah, Spring. We definitely have Spring fever around our house, but the weather is not cooperating. We caught some basketball games this past weekend, and challenged our fine motor skills with some chopsticks and Pad Thai. What will we do when we no longer live across the street from Lulu's? Parking outside and trekking in and out of our building morning and night sure makes me long for a garage again, especially in this weather. Put on the coats, take off the coats, lose the mittens, find the mittens, adjust the car seat straps over puffy coats, slosh in the snow and slip on the ice - all in a day's work for these downtown kids. Izzy's morning yoga this week was a bit uninspired... I brought these goofs a rare treat in the car when I picked them up from school on Wednesday. I think they liked it! Who's ready for Easter? I hear it is going to feel like Spring this weekend!

It may have been snowing outside when we made our house tour yesterday, but it was warm inside - finally! The insulation is going up and the house currently looks like a snow cave. What a mess! They were just finishing up on the first floor when we toured the house and were beginning clean up. I think we saw the mess at its worst.

Sometimes I watch Charlie and Izzy play together in quiet amazement. In the past 4-6 months they've become playmates, partners in crime, each other's constant laugh track. They have a humor all their own and I doubt I will every understand what makes them laugh so hard. And that's OK. I don't mind being outside the joke. I love that they have inside jokes and don't need anyone else to join their fun. I remember worrying before Izzy was born about how they would get along (I'm a worrier, it's what I do). I read a few blog posts about how you can try to foster love between siblings, I guess some brothers and sisters never connect. I needn't have worried.  When Izzy was first born, Charlie didn't pay her much attention - she didn't do much but eat, sleep and cry - not very interesting to a two-year old. It was easy to spend time with Charlie alone during her multiple naps and things didn't change too drastically for him. Once I...

Marissa Mayer, Anne-Marie Slaughter, now Sheryl Sandberg. The conversation about women and their careers just keeps gaining momentum. Sheryl Sandberg, the current COO of Facebook, has a new book that is hitting a Barnes and Noble near you today. Her book called "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead" has received a lot of buzz, some positive , some negative . Controversy sells books, as luck would have it, and it has already hit number one on Amazon. Lean In is also an online community, launched last week, with over 40,000 facebook likes in its first week. From the Lean In website : "The book Lean In is focused on encouraging women to pursue their ambitions, and changing the conversation from what we can’t do to what we can do. LeanIn.Org is the next chapter."  With colleagues at our annual Women in Medicine and Science dinner. Do we need to lean in? Most of the negative commentary prior to the book's release has centered on the fact that Sh...

This park was just across the street from our rental house in LaJolla. How I wish I could transport us all back to this park in Paradise today...

When I ask Charlie if he is excited about our new house, he tells me he wants to go back to our old house. I can't really blame him. When we go over to check on the new house, it's cold and messy, and there are no toys. I'm not sure he understands that some day we will have walls, floors, heat, furniture and even toys in our new house. Most days I manage to convince him how great our new house is going to be. Lately, I've had a hard time convincing even myself. The month of February has been a bust for the house as not much of anything has been done. The demo, framing and roofing all happened really quickly and then everything seemed to stop. I'm not sure why, except that the hvac, plumbing and electrical contractors are all on their own time and don't seem to be in any hurry. Probably anyone that has built or remodeled a home has experienced this. But man oh man, is it frustrating.

  Said no one ever .

It's that time again...the month of rainbows and leprechauns. I had so much fun putting Izzy's St. Patrick's Day birthday party together last year. The cake was beautiful! We're having her baptism on her second birthday this year, so I won't go crazy with rainbows and little green men  -  but you can bet I'll do it again sometime. Such a fun birthday to have! Check out last year's party pictures here .

Were we really at the beach just a week and a few days ago? Seems like a million years. Winter has hit hard over the last week and I don't know about anyone else, but I am so ready for Spring.   I promise an update on Modern on Meadow next week. The whole situation has been too depressing to write about - nothing to report, we're way behind schedule. But I guess in the interest of telling it like it is, I should report on the uneventful and the frustrating aspects of this redesign as well as the fun and exciting aspects. It certainly isn't all a bed of roses and we knew that going in. But I'm not thinking about it today - it's Friday and I'm looking forward to the weekend.   Thanks for the comments on my post on Marissa Mayer both here and on my Facebook page ( Anne Marie Slaughter herself actually read my post!). I love discussing these career-life issues and pro/dissenting opinions are always welcome. I'm still thinking about the matter an...