Sweet professions

When I grow up I want to be a:






First I'll hone my skills by playing pat-a-cake over & over with my Aunt Kersten:


Then my cousin and I will buy matching outfits and we'll devour cookbooks until we find the world's most perfect cupcake recipes:



But, until then, I'm going to spend lots of time hanging out in river town bakeries with my Grandma



and Grandpa.






(And I'll observe how an expert baker makes the magic happen by spending lots of time crawling around with my cousins on our grandma's spotless kitchen floor.)





And, speaking of professions and what we want to be when we grow up, I returned to work today after a 12-week family leave. The last few weeks have been difficult for me. I was quite sick in mid-February (which accounts for the lack of brilliant posts this month) and last week I grew sad every time I thought of all the special moments I would miss throughout the day when my family leave came to an end. But today was truly wonderful and the most difficult part of the day was walking out the door at 7:00 this morning. I've missed my friends at work, all of whom have been fiercely supportive of us over the past 9 months, and today they welcomed me back to the office with a lovely surprise breakfast of homemade quiches, muffins, sweet breads and fruit. I accomplished so much today and this long break has allowed me to step back and view my routines in a new light and change those that are ineffective or no longer working for me. I've returned to the office with a renewed sense of purpose and vigor and I'm looking forward to working on some special projects in the weeks ahead. Heartfelt thanks to all my working mom friends and to my loving mom & sister for letting me cry on their shoulders and for sharing their strength and wisdom.


Kevin is now on family leave for the next several weeks and knowing that the Loves of my life are spending their days together makes my heart swell. I returned home shortly before Ivy woke up from her afternoon nap and Kevin and I sat down with cups of tea and talked about our days before Ivy awoke - being home when she woke up and getting her out of her crib this afternoon was glorious. She smiled at and reached for me and I held her in my arms and inhaled her sweet baby sleepiness. I know that I'll be exhausted from time to time and I know that there will be days when I feel like I'm an unwilling participant in a juggling act, but I needed today to show me that I will be able to balance both parts of my life.

Speedy delivery

Brinnan from SCLS delivery sends messages out to all our libraries a couple of times a year sweetly informing us that our fantastic delivery office needs red bins and asks library staffers to send as many empty ones back to her as possible. I've often wondered how these red bins are used and now I have the answer: librarians put adorable babies in them.

I must petition Phyllis and Bruce to name Ivy the official SCLS Delivery Service Baby and suggest that we screen this photo on every van and truck in our fleet.   Who's willing to sign on to my very reasonable request?

A day at the office

So, you know how it is.  You wake up and eat some oatmeal, play with your blocks and practice standing for about 2 hours, take a nap for an hour, wake up, eat some lunch and then head out to the office where you immediately take off your socks in order to face a 60-minute work day.  Well, Ivy made it to the office last week and visited all her friends at the South Central Library System who have been patiently waiting to meet her for the last several months.  Her friends from the Wisconsin Library Association in the office down the hall stopped in to say hello and we promise that we'll return soon so Phyllis and Rose can meet her, too.  Ivy was very social and showed everyone how great she is at crawling.  She sat in a few laps and examined everyone's shoes.  Kerri and Lisa won the prize for having the most interesting shoes and Jean won the prize for having the most interesting mouth:

And Orlando Bloom won the prize for having the most wistful gaze.

I was relieved to discover that I had very few voice mails and that my in-box hadn't collapsed.  It was great to see all my friends at work who have been so supportive of all three of us throughout our adoption journey.