2014: The Great Look Forward

I won’t be making any resolutions just now.  I can see myself making some exercise goals at some point in the spring, once I have recovered from the birth.  But resolutions are a form of self-improvement, right?  And 2014 is not about me, it’s about Tex.  The first year of an infant’s life is a profoundly selfless year for the parents.  In 2014, I resolve to Survive and Advance (the Professor’s chosen theme for parenting three children).  Anything beyond survival is just gravy.  And, as any parent knows, our productivity and happiness in 2014 will be entirely dictated by the personality of this little baby bean, so it’s hard for me to predict what I’m going to be up for anyhow.  But the fresh page of a new year is a fun time for reflection.  2014 is largely unwritten . . . what will we experience as a little family of five?

Home and Family in 2014

In 2014, I’ll (likely, ideally) be nursing a strapping young son from beginning to end.  Tex will begin by sleeping in our room in a Pack and Play, but as soon as ever possible I plan to shove his little tail up in the guest room upstairs, which is where we’ve put his crib.  I still call it the Guest Room and not the Nursery, I suppose because he probably won’t be in there long.  I hope to turn the boys’ bedroom into a little bunkhouse for all three of them, and preserve my Guest Room as is, for as long as possible.  Tex probably won’t make the move from crib to bed til 2015, but still a year goes by in a flash these days.  In our last two tiny homes, the crib was either in our room with us (Liam) or just on the other side of a non-insulated wall made of medium density fiberboard (Jack).  I could hear every snuffle and breath.  If they even thought about rolling over, my eyes would pop open and I’d be listening with dread for the wail that may or may not come.  They could also hear me, and what’s more, they could smell me, tantalizingly close.  I do not plan, at this point, to get baby monitors for Tex, and I’m hoping that putting some distance between him and us will help us all sleep better sooner.  I am owed a good sleeper this time around, and I will have one, by God.

Tex will be home with me, then his father, and then a nanny, eventually – he won’t start daycare for at least a year.  This is partly because his daycare has no room for him until he’s a year old, if you can believe it.  They are already full up with babies, so no additional younger siblings can be accepted until they get old enough for the toddler room.  We’d rather not move Liam to a new place for his last year, so we’re working it out, but it frustrates me.

In 2014 Jack will turn 6 (SIX!), and Liam will turn 4.  I’m already thinking of doing a bowling alley birthday party for the first one, and a pool party for the second one – is it weird that I’m excited about their parties already?  Jack will finish Kindergarten and start First Grade . . . Liam will be in his last year of preschool/daycare.  We will continue to work on Jack’s speech and processing issues, continue to try to civilize Liam, and continue to stare agog as their limbs grow gangly and long, their faces thin, and they completely transform into Big Kids.  What a joy to watch, what a joy they are.

We will probably build the backyard fence we’ve wanted since we moved in 16 months ago.  We may get some landscaping for our bare house-front – the erosion we’ve seen already is something of a concern, so that has to step up in priority.  I’d rather buy a master bed and a pair of bedside tables . . . I’ve got my eye on a fabulous master bed suite from West Elm.  Love the reclaimed, unfinished look, especially since I know that my eleventy million children are going to bang the hell out of whatever we get anyway.  That will probably have to wait, though.  We’ll see what the year holds, in terms of feathering the nest.  Our list is long, but if all goes according to plan, so are our lives.  We’ve got decades to get where we want to be, and we are very comfortable right now.

Career in 2014

I’ll be off for a quarter of 2014, and back working the other three quarters.  There is a huge trial boot camp I hope to attend in June, if the firm will pay for my trip.  I’ve also got another trial coming up.  It was supposed to happen last October but got continued, and the first-chair made sure it was bumped up to well after I’d be back so I could still second-chair it, which is awesome because I’ve read approximately 5000 pages of medical records for this trial and I’d hate for all that knowledge to go to waste.

The hours promise to ramp up, which is good.  My hours requirement will be pro rata, given my absence.  Though I probably won’t be profitable this year, I will technically be able to meet my hours – in other words, I won’t have to make up for taking 3 months off, thank God.  I think I’d die.  My fellow preggo coworker, currently on her second month of maternity leave, will be back when I return.  She and I are lunchtime running buddies, and I know we’ll both be motivated to run off baby weight and get back to our pre-baby running goals.  We were aiming for a sub-9 minute mile and almost there when pregnancy “struck” the both of us.  It’ll be fun to get back on that track.  Right now work is such a chore – the more stressful interactions with opposing counsel cause major contractions, and even pleasant daily chat with coworkers is more than I feel up to.  I’m skipping church right now for that reason – I just can’t handle PEOPLE.  I’d prefer to hibernate during this last month.  Anyway, for all its ups and downs, I do love my job, and I look forward to coming back to it hale and hearty and fetus-free.  I think 2014 holds some exciting stuff on the job front, if I can just limp along this last month without alienating anyone.

You in 2014

What are you feeling about yourself?  Are you well, are you ill?  Are you in a rut, or happily content, or neither?  Are exciting things on your horizon, or is it still something of a mystery?  Whatever you have coming at you, dear reader, know that from this little corner of the internet, I wish you the best.  I hope that you can face adversity with resolve, find beauty in day to day life, weather your inevitable sorrows with aplomb, and revel in your equally inevitable joys.  Blessings to you all, and thanks for reading!