The assistant director was very somber and asked that we give them an opportunity to show that things can be good and asked that if we leave that we have a in depth conversation with her about things that can be improved. Great, no getting out of there without confrontation!

OK, here's a pic of Kate's face (as she stuffs her face with a cracker). It looks pretty bad in person, hopefully you can see that there's a scratch on the top of her nose and the side of her nostril, and there are two scratches below her right eye...

I'm trying to be understanding here, but I'm not known for being patient. Yesterday Jay came home from dropping Kate off and said that one of the other girls in the class got in Kate's face when he dropped her off. He didn't think anything had happened because the teachers got her and scolded her quickly, and Kate wasn't upset. He was wrong - when I picked Kate up her teacher told me someone had scratched her face. She has three scratches; two on the top of her cheek and one on her nose. It wasn't until I got home and read the incident report in detail that I realized that it happened at 10:00 - it must have been that incident that happened when Jay was there. OK, so what are you going to do, these are toddlers after all. HOWEVER, it happened again today when he brought her in. He said he put Kate down, took off her coat, and was turning to hang it up when the same girl (she's 21mo) got out of her chair (snack time) and got to Kate's face again. This time Kate was extremely upset, and Jay had to leave her there while she was freaking out because she wouldn't calm down (she's tired today). The teacher was upset, but come on, why is it hard to control these kids? Two days in a row?!? Jay talked to the asst director on his way out who was also very upset, but you know, it's all talk people. He was really mad when he got home, and the longer I sit and think about it the madder I'm getting.

I'm so upset. This whole thing is hard enough, even though she's been doing so well - I don't want to have to worry about whether she's being bullied while she's there too! I'm definitely going to be talking to the director this afternoon to find out what happens on the other end of this - will the little girl's parents be notified that this is happening? Is there some kind of limit to the number of times a child can hurt another child? I'm already not that impressed with this center but decided to give them time to prove themselves. This afternoon I'm going on a tour of another center and I bet I'll put Kate on the waiting list there.

Kate did great today at daycare again. Jay took her up there at 10, and I picked her up at 3:30. Her little daily report sheet says that she slept from 1-2:30, and that's a pretty short nap for her so she's starting to drag now. I doubt we'll stretch her to 7:30 tonight; we'll probably aim for a 7:00 bedtime. She didn't eat much today, so she's eaten quite a lot since we got home - except for her dinner, of course. Just a couple of bites of it...twit. In any case, I guess she's got the hang of this daycare thing. Jay said she was a little timid at first again, but by the time he left she was having a good time. Her sheet says her mood was 'content' and the teacher commented to me and on the sheet about how well she's adjusting. Oh, and her sheet says she likes to play by herself. I'm not surprised by that given her personality and the fact that today was only her second day really having kids to play with.

So it was very strange for Jay and I to be home and not with Kate...that was odd. Yesterday it was only 2 hours, so that went by quickly. The 5 1/2 hours today was noticeable. I did some cleaning,  made a huge batch of chili, and got her chicken 'sausages' prepped so I just have to cook them tonight after she's asleep. That's the end of the cooking frenzy, and it's a good thing too - I'm tired of doing it and our freezer is stuffed! When I was writing the other day I didn't want to exaggerate how many meals we'd have in the freezer so I just said a dozen - man, I was way off. I imagine we have close to 20 meals, if not more, down there ready to go. I know it'll come in handy.

I'm really excited for work on Thursday! I've still got a lot of reading to do before Friday morning, but I'm hoping to make some progress on that tonight. That, and I'd like to read the book I'm in the middle of. I think my time being 'productive' before starting work is just about over. Now I'm going to enjoy the last bit of time of my non-working existence.

Today was Kate's first time at daycare, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she loved it. Jay and I walked her up there at 10, and at first she was a little freaked out - not upset, but hovering near us. But then we talked a bit to the teacher and she was interested in the other kids (they were all having a snack). Jay left the room, and then Sylvia, the head teacher, reached out her arms to Kate and Kate went to her just fine, so I left. That was it. No tears (from anyone ), no problems. We walked back up to get her at noon; we had intended to get her before lunch was served, but apparently they run a little early because they were well into lunch when we arrived. Kate was so cute, sitting at the little table, eating her food. We were in the room for over a minute before she realized we were there (and we were talking, so who knows what that was about), and when she saw us she just kind of looked at us. It wasn't until a couple of minutes later that she smiled and waved. Jay and I went out to the lobby to wait until she was done eating, and when we went back in she was certainly in no hurry to leave. The teachers said she did great, so that was good to hear. We walked home, and now she's down for her nap.

So the way this played out was supposed to be how things were going to go tomorrow, so now we're thinking that we'll leave her there for her nap tomorrow and Wednesday, and I'll pick her up around 3 when she wakes up. Actually, that's how Thursday will go as well since I'm only planning on working a half day. We'll see, though, if tomorrow and Wednesday are a breeze maybe I'll stay a full day on Thursday. I have a lot of material to read before this big meeting on Friday, so I'm sure more time at work would be helpful. Anyway, I don't know what to think about how Kate's going to do tomorrow. On the one hand, she did great today. On the other hand, it was the first time - new fun toys and people, etc. It could be that tomorrow she'll realize that this is going to be recurring and will not be happy about it. Or maybe I'm just overthinking it and she'll do great all the way through. Wouldn't that be nice?

Congratulations to Carmen and Matt! Carmen gave birth to a 8lb 15oz (!!) boy, Evan Gregory, early this morning. I'm sure that Tyler is super excited to finally see his baby brother. I can't wait to see pictures of their new little guy!

One of the more daunting aspects of going to work full time is the idea of making dinner. It's simply not going to happen every night after I get home and pick up Kate. By then it'll be 6, and the little munchkin is not going to be patiently awaiting her dinner - and I'm not going to be full of energy and wanting to make it anyway. So I'm kind of expecting it to play out like this...Over the weekend I'll prep at least one full meal, and maybe a second one. At a minimum everything will be washed, chopped, etc. I'm intending to make things that will be taken even farther down the cooking line. A couple of nights we'll use food from the freezer (see below), and we may work in a night or two each week of Let's Dish to save my sanity. The whole thing is going to require a lot more forethought and organization than I've been putting into dinner planning, but I'm willing to embrace the new paradigm!

So I'm spending this weekend making a bunch of food to freeze for later (Tracey, I wrote 'freeze down' at first!). This morning, first thing, I made a massive batch of spaghetti sauce; it was enough for 4 full containers in the freezer (each big enough for one family meal and leftovers for Kate for a couple of days) and one massive one to cover tonight's dinner and a lasagna I'll be making tomorrow. I was just about to start 5lbs of meatballs (a freaking lot of meatballs!), but my meat is slightly frozen still, so it's sitting in the bowl finishing up the thawing process. I'm being adventurous this time - I'm adding 2lb turkey to 3lb ground beef, and I'm tossing in two packages of chopped spinach to bump up their nutritional value. We'll find out tonight if they're still yummy! We'll eat some for dinner, but the vast majority will go into freezer bags for future meals. This is an especially important food for Kate, so I'm going all out. Either tonight or tomorrow morning I'll be making a zucchini 'lasagna' in addition to the traditional sausage and mushroom one. Monday I'll be making a lot of chicken 'sausages' for Kate - this is a great recipe I found that she loves loves loves (unfortunately they're a pain pain pain for me to make!). At some point I'll make a double batch of chili for the freezer as well. By the time Thursday rolls around we should easily have food for a dozen meals and tons of food for Kate for those nights when I just don't have my act together. Phew, it's tiring just reading all of this, isn't it?!

Jay had been bugging me to give him more chores since the first of the year, so a few weeks ago we decided that he would be our grocery shopper. I took him along with me last time (it was a huge amount to buy, way more than he could figure out on his first trip), and this morning he went and did the work. Yay! Isn't he so sweet to have wanted to help me out? I've followed Claire's example and came up with a computerized grocery list that covers all of the staples and has room for lots of write ins. I'm thrilled to have one less item on my to do list, and having to make a list for someone else will force me to do more planning than I have been.

OK, I'm off to tackle all of that meat!

WARNING: LOOOOOOOONG entry ahead! I haven't been blogging lately because it's so hard to talk about anything without talking about this: I got a job! I didn't want to mention the interviews and things here in case they searched for me online; they would instantly find this space and hear how nervous I was about the whole thing! So, here's how it all went down...I applied for the job (found on monster) on 1/21. The next day I got a call from my new boss - we talked a bit, I guess it was an informational interview, really. On the 25th I got a call from a scientist that I'll have to work closely with for another informational interview. The next week I found out that they wanted to bring me in for a real interview, and that was on 2/5. I was so nervous in the days before the interviews! I mean, man, I've been applying for jobs for months, and this was my first possibility - I wanted to move on to actually having a job instead of just envisioning it happening one day. In any case, the day of interviews went really well, and my new boss (Sarah) made it pretty clear to me over lunch that she'd be offering me a position (two were open). I came home totally psyched about the position, the company, and the real possibility of getting to work. That was on Tuesday. Sarah needed to check my references, but my old advisor (my most impt ref) was out sick and had no voice for the rest of that week...so it wasn't until the following Wednesday (the 13th) that I got a call from Sarah telling me that she would like to unofficially offer me a job. Yay! They run a pretty thorough background check on candidates, so she thought it would be last Friday or this Monday before things would be finalized. Those days came and went...yesterday (Wed) I left her a message just asking about what she was thinking for a start date...I just wanted to get back on her radar. It turns out she was out of town, and today I got an official offer (over the phone) and officially accepted the position. The papers should be here tomorrow or Saturday. So, now it's a done deal, and I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited!

The company is MacroGenics, a biotech company in Rockville, Maryland. Rockville is 45min from Ashburn with no traffic; the morning of the interviews I made it there in an hour to be there at 8; I didn't think that was too bad, considering how the traffic around here can be. I'm actually more concerned about coming home, and I have no idea how that will play out because I haven't driven the route at that time of day. I'm dreading driving that commute everyday, but it's only for a couple of months. We'll be buying a house very soon, and we had already intended to move closer in to DC, so this just solidifies that decision. The area we're looking at would be ~20min from Rockville - much more do-able! Anyway, I've been hired as an Associate Project Manager, and I'll be working with the company's oncology products, at least one of which will be entering clinical trials in '08. My role will be to oversee the schedule, budget, and interactions of all the groups that are involved (Research, Regulatory Affairs, Manufacturing, Clinical Research), help assemble reports to the FDA, and in the future, really work on a marketing strategy (for those who have experience with these things - the position is much more a program manager than a project manager. My boss is Director of Program Management, so I'm not clear on why my title is Project Manager, but I'm not picky at this point). Sarah brought me in at the Associate level, she says, so that there will be opportunities for me to be promoted relatively quickly. I'm pretty nervous about actually executing the job responsibilities - I have no doubt in my abilities, I just know that I have a ton to learn all at once. Happily Sarah is allowing 6-8 months for me to really get to full speed, and she's got lots of training planned already. I think the job will be the perfect thing for me, and I do think I'll be good at it - once I know what I'm doing!

Since this whole thing started I've been obsessing over the daycare situation for Kate. The only center in town that has spots in her classroom just happens to be in our neighborhood (literally a 5min walk away) and happens to have a 20% Microsoft discount. I like it ok, and I think for the few months that we'll need daycare in Ashburn it'll be fine. Really, though, is anywhere good enough for your baby? Nothing's perfect, right? So, anyway, I've been obsessing a lot about Kate's schedule. You all are aware (too aware, you probably think) of Kate's napping issues recently. In daycare the kids have to nap at 1. That's it, no questions. So that was the first issue. The other issues seemed smaller - more about how to shift her appetite so that she isn't starving by the time their later mealtimes roll around. Luckily, this has all been worked out. We endured a couple of days of what appeared to be a downward spiral of sleep (Claire was telling me this morning that she was getting really worried), but Kate adjusted and now we have a good thing going. Kate's new day goes like this: up at 7:30, nap from 9:30-10 (woken by a parent for now), nap from 1-3, in bed at 7:30. BEAUTIFUL!! Our plan is for Jay to bring her to daycare between 10 and 10:30, and then I'll pick her up, hopefully around 5:30 (although in the beginning probably closer to 6). I'll bring her home, give her dinner, play, bath, bed. That's not a whole lot of time for the two of us (consider that I've spent every day except for 5 of them with her in 16 months), and I know this transition is going to HARD. Jay and I are confident that she will, in the end, love daycare - she is extremely social and has never been afraid of strangers, and I think she'll thrive in an environment with other kids. For now, though, we're expecting some chaos. We'll start easing her into the routine on Monday. I think Monday will just be two hours, no meals, no nap, just hanging out. Tuesday we'll add lunch. Wednesday will be the real test - sleeping there. Thursday will be a little longer, and then Friday will be a full day. I talked with the center's director at length last week, and she was very reassuring that they are used to handling transitions, so I'm hoping it all goes smoothly. And who knows? Maybe Kate will love this new life from day one - it's clear on many days that she wants to see other people just as much as I do. I of course have the mommy guilt that comes with full time daycare, but right now I'm feeling pretty ok about it all. I never intended to be a SAHM, and 16 months of it proved that I really don't want to be one. I know it's better for all of us to have a happy mommy around, but that doesn't make it any easier to have so little time with my baby (who is, btw, so freaking darling!).

I'll be starting work on Thursday. I'll be going in for a half day in the morning to do paperwork and get kind of situated, and then Friday will be my first full day. There's a big meeting happening on Friday that Sarah wants me to be in on, but she's out of the office that day - hence the half day on Thursday so that she and I can get organized. I could have made it a full day on Thursday, but Jay and I weren't sure that Kate would be ready for a full day of daycare that soon. Maybe one day wouldn't really matter, but this is the plan. I'm so excited! My mom was in town from Saturday until this morning, so Tuesday she, Kate, and I went shopping to get my wardrobe established (happily, business casual). That was a lot of fun - I haven't really bought clothes in a long time although I've desperately needed them! I'm about 8 pounds lighter now than I was prior to getting pregnant, so most of my clothes are too big. No longer, I'm all set now. I'm sure on Thursday it's going to feel like picking out what to wear the first day of school...how silly!

OK, that's the scoop over here. Life is getting very interesting...