* Our family of four traveled to and from NY/NJ twice. We spent the week around Christmas with PJO's family. Our Christmas baby turned four this year, so we celebrated his birthday Christmas morning in Manhattan. It involved driving in the snow to midtown after Christmas Eve dinner at my sister-in-law's house, immense excitement from both kids at the prospect of spending the night at a fancy hotel, waking up to a few presents on Christmas morning, getting hot chocolate and going to Rockefeller Center (with a million other people...next time, we'll try ice skating at Bryant Park), and treating Timmy to a special brunch before heading back to PJO's parents' house for Christmas festivities with his extended family. If we have to be away from home on Christmas (and not be able to follow all of the traditions I would like to establish for our little family), then this was pretty near perfect. I am glad that next Christmas we're staying home though. Our second trip was last week. One of PJO's best friends from college got married and PJO was in the wedding. It was a 4-day Hindu / Jewish celebration and, while not massive on the scale of most Indian weddings, it was a pretty big event from our perspective. The kids stayed back with PJO's parents so we had nearly 48 hours child-free at what was essentially a college reunion. We got to dress up in traditional Indian garb for the Hindu ceremony and wear fancy formal attire for the Jewish ceremony. The food was AMAZING at all of the various receptions/parties. It was a lot to travel cross-country twice in the winter in a 4 week span, and I'm glad we're done with traveling for a while (except our quick trip to Seattle in two weeks).
* I had my 20-week ultrasound and managed to stay strong and not beg the tech to tell me if it's a boy or girl. We'll find out in about 3.5 months and I'm so excited for the surprise. That's about the only part of my due date that I'm really anxious for because I am in no way ready for the upheaval a newborn will cause in our lives. Timmy only refers to the baby as his baby brother. When I remind him that there is a possibility it could be a sister, he says "No, I already have a baby sister. I think this one will be a baby brother." Up until this week, I would have said Ellie has no idea that a baby is even coming, but then on Tuesday, she started randomly picking out "I'm a Big Brother" from Timmy's bookshelf to read before bed and she has been extra clingy to me, so I think she has at least a sense of it. I am not sure if it's because we decided early on to not find out, but I haven't had a strong feeling one way or the other about what the sex of the baby is. With both Timmy and Ellie, I KNEW from the second I found out I was pregnant and was right both times. Occasionally, I have an inkling with this pregnancy, but I go back and forth.
* I closed out the billable year with a few very busy weeks in December but managed to take off basically after the 20th. I also managed to make my hours and get my first bonus since I started working. At my firm, you are considered a "stub" associate for the first few months you work (until the new calendar year) and aren't eligible for a bonus. At the end of my first full year, I was on maternity leave and also hadn't made my hours (it was SO slow most of that year), so I didn't get a bonus then. So ... I should be excited. A bonus is better than no bonus. But I would be more excited if every single penny of it weren't going to pay about half of what we'll owe in taxes. Ugh.
* We celebrated the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. My friend hosted a very low-key, game night celebration at her house. I indulged in way too many hors d'oeuvres and de-alcoholized champagne (which was absolutely delicious, I will need to buy some for my 30th birthday in April). It was a total of 5 couples, 3 of which were pregnant and 1 had a 4 month old, so it was small and decidedly not rowdy. We played Wits and Wagers and Taboo and stayed until just before midnight so we could watch the ball drop at home on TV. My resolutions this year, which I have basically been making good on so far, were to make time for exercise and pay for lunch no more than twice a week (sadly, a huge improvement budgetary-wise from my norm).
* I joined a gym. I hadn't had a gym membership since law school. I joined the big, fancy, elitist gym with my corporate discount through work (PJO is also a member through his work), and I have to say, I am loving it. Even when I'm not pregnant, I am not a gym rat and I think of a treadmill as a kind of torture device. But this gym offers the most amazing selection of classes. The yoga teachers are all phenomenal and teach at Yoga Works. The salt water pool is heated to the perfect temperature and is outdoor but partially covered and always empty (and they offer a masters swim class a few mornings and evenings per week!). They offer zumba and spin and barre and all sorts of fun classes (that I probably won't try while I'm pregnant). Of course, my favorite part is that the locker room is basically a spa bathroom, so I can get ready for work there without bringing much of anything. They have high quality products that I would never, ever pay for on my own. Even with the discount, it's a ridiculous expense to pay for a GYM, but to me, it's an indulgence that is well worth it while we can afford it. And considering I've actually been working out, I am looking at it as an investment in my health (or at least a reward for working in BigLaw). The membership is month to month, so I'll probably cancel it when the baby comes and that will be a sad day.
* I threw a garden party themed baby shower for my best friend from law school. It was so much fun to plan it and host. Everyone keeps telling me I should be a party planner, but I'm pretty sure I would hate almost any client that has to hire a party planner. So the search for my next career continues.
* I signed up for a knitting 101 class. Have been wanting to for a while and I'm really looking forward to it (it's on Saturday morning). I love sewing and wish I had more time for crafting. I have high hopes that I'll actually find time to knit once in a while since it doesn't involve lugging a bunch of heavy equipment and messy supplies out of the upstairs closet.
Things that have not happened:
We have made zero progress on deciding what to do with regard to moving, jobs or anything related to those two things. If anything, we both feel more confused than ever about whether we can leave California. The insane real estate market and our enormous tax bill make us desperate to get out quick, but then our trips to below-freezing weather where we couldn't find ANY good produce, even at Whole Foods, had us questioning whether maybe we should just stay and resign ourselves to a dual-demanding-career lifestyle. I personally go back and forth daily on whether I want to always work full-time, stay home for a couple of years or scale back dramatically and find a part-time job (any part-time job) until I feel up to working more. And PJO, well...he tends to think about the present and not as much about the future. And if we were divided up on the camps from Modern Family, he would be a dreamer and I would be a realist. So I think in his mind, we can maintain status quo for a few years and then his business that he's going to start would be making millions of dollars and we could afford the lifestyle we want here. Meanwhile, I am thinking there is no way that I can survive at my job longer than another year and I'd really like to settle down somewhere before Timmy starts kindergarten in 2014. So this year should be the year we make a move if we are going to, right? So yeah, no progress on that front.
Hopefully it won't be another two months before I post again.
