Adler Gradutes from Work

I'm a little behind on posting this, but last week was Adler's last week at my office. She turned 6 months old and that is the cut-off for our bring your baby to work policy. This has been such a wonderful experience for us and I feel extremely lucky to have had this time with my daughter. It wasn't always easy, but well worth the challenges. In May Adler and I will be traveling to Wisconsin to speak at a national conference on our Bring Your Baby to Work policy, so I am really looking forward to spreading the word about this interesting policy.

So here are some final pictures of my working baby!

Most of you know that I am the Statewide Breastfeeding Coordinator in Nevada, but if you didn't know that already, that's why my office is full of breastfeeding references.

Adler loved to help me talk on the phone and check my email.


Here she is playing with her official state badge.

She really likes this doll that I keep in my office as a breastfeeding model.

On her last day my co-workers threw a little Graduation Party for Adler. She was asleep for her party.

And then she woke up while everybody was surround her posing for a picture. That kind of freaked her out.

Mmmmmm....icing. This is way better than rice cereal and bananas!

This is the Health Division Administrator, Richard....who I have to thank for implementing the bring your baby to work policy. He has refused to hold or touch Adler for 3 months, but her last week we made him hold ALL the working babies for a funny picture. Adler was not a happy girl for this shot!

Here is Adler participating in a meeting.

This week was a difficult one, as Adler spent 3 days in day care (probably more difficult for me than her). It was so weird being at work without her. But I'm lucky because I work from home 2 days a week and I keep her with me on those days. The day care days went all right, except for the fact that Adler refused a bottle and sippy cup most of the time. Yesterday she actually took 3 ounces of milk in a sippy cup, so we are excited about that. Maybe she'll just bypass the bottle completely and go straight to a cup. I go feed her on my lunch hour and she would typically eat just enough to get by until I got there for lunch. The staff at the day care are wonderful though and are being really patient with her feeding issues. Next week should go much smoother.

Welcome 32

Today I welcomed my 32nd birthday....soooo hard to believe. I remember in high school I always wondered what my life would be like in my thirties and here I am......sharing my life with a wonderful man, raising two great kids, have a job that I enjoy, and am blessed with amazing friends and family.....I can't complain. Life is good.

This morning Adler and I were sleeping in and Owen came running into the bedroom, threw the covers off of me and demanded I get up and come into the kitchen for my birthday party. He had gifts on the table and party hats ready to wear. What a wonderful birthday wake-up call. Here he is carrying in some of the packages I received in the mail.

Owen making my birthday cake.

After I relaxed for a birthday massage, we took a family picnic to the park.

Then we headed to Reno so I could shop and spend my birthday money.

We had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, BJs. My friend Kristin and her boys joined us for dinner. Three boys and baby......we are brave!

Thanks to all of the phone calls, gifts, and to everyone for making my day special. I am one lucky 32 year old!

Adler's Big Adventure

Adler and I just returned home from a week long trip to Washington DC. This was her first plane ride and first big adventure and she did GREAT! She is quite the traveler.

We were really lucky on the flights there, as we had an entire row (3 seats) all to ourselves!

I had to go to Washington for a WIC conference and extended my trip a few days to visit my friend Melissa. It was so great to visit with her and her husband Steve! What wonderful hosts.....they treated me to a personal tour of all the monuments, Greek food, Mexican food, a lovely stroll in old town Alexandria, and provided me my very own taxi service whenever I needed a ride. Thanks for everything, Melissa! Miss you.

Adler and the Washington Monument

Adler at the World War II Memorial

At the Korean War Memorial

Melissa and Adler

Lincoln Monument

Adler's first stay in a hotel room

White House

Our nation's Capital

Adler attended the WIC conference with me every day and was quite popular among all the other attendees. The last day of the conference was a Breastfeeding Summit and I was on a panel of speakers with other breastfeeding mothers.

Adler didn't get stage fright....she did great in front of an audience of around 150 people.

Our flight home on Wednesday was a disaster. There were bad thunderstorms in Dallas, so our flight was diverted to Oklahoma City. We had to sit on the plane in Oklahoma for over 2 hours! When we finally made it to Dallas we had missed our connecting flight to Reno. So were were stranded in the Dallas airport for almost 8 hours before we finally got on another flight. It ended up taking us 19 hours to get home that day. But again, Adler was a trooper. She was way less cranky than her mother. And I was beyond thrilled to finally make it home that night!

Still fighting it.

We are STILL fighting sickness around here. All of us are on round two or three of a cold and Owen spent half of last weekend throwing up, poor guy. We think it was something he ate because he didn't have a fever and nobody else got the stomach bug. SOooooo, there's not a lot going on around here. We're just trying to take it easy.

A few days ago we did give Adler her first meal with a spoon....bananas......she's not a fan. But we'll keep trying.

Here's Micah attempting to read a letter from his Grannie.....Adler sure did want that paper from him!

Army guys vs. dinosaurs. Who's going to win the battle?

Owen did start swimming lessons this week.....real swim lessons, where I'm not in the pool with him. This was weird for me, especially because I taught swim lessons for so long (back in the day). But he's doing great and is really enjoying it.