Yes it is cliché, but this guilt is a very real thing. If you are not careful, it can eat you alive. I try and listen to all of these guilty signals in my head and course correct if any of them get too out of whack. I have found that the key is to not be too hard on yourself and to let the less important things go. The house does not have to be spotless EVERY day. My work hours can be flexible when needed so I can put in more hours after Belén is in bed. If I get a workout in during the morning hours before Belén is awake, the entire day works out better. On days when I really feel like I need more time with B, I do the daycare drop off so I can get an extra 30 minutes with her. I communicate with Andy about roles and responsibilities I am expecting him to do. I ask for help (usually.)

I kept my desire to do a crazy race that I do not have time to train for at bay by going for an hour run in the morning on the race route before all of the races got started. That kept me content such that I could support Andy without wanting to give Belén to one of the other trailing spouses and run the race. I had actually mentioned to Andy a couple of weeks back that I could do the race too and his response was something to the effect of, “Have you ever just come to a race and supported me and not done the race yourself?

Today is a short post since we were gone all weekend and arrived home past 7pm last night. We have photos to download, clothes to launder, emails to read and respond to and bags to unpack. Stay tuned for an update on Belén’s first road trip, some photos of Bend/Sun River, Oregon and the results of Andy’s half marathon.

I almost forgot my favorite part of RedBubble. As an amateaur photographer, not only can you look at the photos of the pros but it is also a very reasonable place to purchase photos for the walls of your home in the form of prints, calendars, cards, etc. AKA, GREAT GIFT SHOPPING.

Belén is 14-months-old. It is getting to be “about that time” if we want to have two kids close together. I told Andy about a month ago that I wanted one month where I was not breastfeeding and not pregnant. A month where I could have wine with dinner and have even more than one glass if I wanted to. A month to wake up at 4:45 and go run with my friends. A month to revel in normal-sized boobs. A month to not be exhausted and dehydrated. While this month has not been exactly that, this is my month, dammit.

This child of ours continues to amaze us each and every day and nowadays she is 100% pure toddler and we are enjoying every second of it!

Poor thing, she was tired though and we did feel bad about that. But let’s be honest, we had had a couple of beers ourselves so we felt less bad than maybe we should have.

In short, giving the shots today was one of of the million parenting calls where there was not a right and wrong nor black and white. I hope I made the right decision and based on the fact that each time she has had a vascular (related to blood vessels) HSP reaction, it has been of decreasing magnitude it seems like I did. Let’s hope that continues if she does react to the shots at all. Cross your fingers.

Apparently this parenting strategy was not going to pan out. I went for another learning opportunity and told her that when people get into the shower, they do so naked and that we needed to take her clothes off. I took them off and washed her off a bit, to at least get a bath for her out of the “learning experience.”

Being that it’s a Monday morning after a jam-packed weekend that left us exhausted and wanting more, I thought it might be appropriate to visit the topic of what motivates us. This is very applicable to a work-environment but applies to everything in our lives. Here’s a hint, it’s probably not what you think it is.