Talking Up a Storm Now

We seem to be in a learning, growing, changing spurt in this house. And not just Kate. It seems like there is something churning through all of us.

Mark is busy at work tackling a big feature story which at times has had him feeling frustrated, but ultimately has been a great project for him to take on. And finally it seems to be in the wrap-up final edit stages (knock wood) and so it’s nearing time to settle down and feel proud and relieved and ultimately thankful for taking on the challenge in the first place (since writing isn’t really a job requirement for him).

And I’m still on the upswing of my new-job learning curve. I’ve started to get to know the team and am feeling lucky to be part of a friendly, un-political and talented office. Sure, I’ve battled with intermittent frustrations–mainly about the client services lack-of-savvy that seems to pepper the ranks–but ultimately what I’m learning about people I’m appreciating and feeling grateful for. I’m also getting to know the clients and seem to have made some modest but real inroads in relationship-building there. I’ve tackled some challenges, crossed some things off my To Do list, and managed to have a feeling of job satisfaction minus the up-all-night stressing component that seemed to be part of the last job at least.

And our glorious little Kate. She is just shining and sweet and aglow. She is crawling and trying to stand–until she realizes she’s not holding onto something and she topples over. And she is saying words like a fiend: apple, doggie, turkey, book, ball. Most words you can make sense of. The one that’s totally off base is pumpkin. She says something that sounds like “BA-bi” for pumpkin. She’s also learning things like where her feet, teeth, hair is. She’s clearly a small sponge, and we just need to remember to keep adding information.

All this learning is leaving us all pretty tuckered out by night’s end. So Kate’s been sleeping through the night (knock wood) and Mark and I are intermittently keeping each other up by sleeping restlessly and thinking of everything we have to do, or going out like lights.

Oh, and on a totally different topic, today when the nanny left she said, “I love you, Kate,” which was very sweet.