New Beginnings, cont'd

Is it Friday yet? It sure feels like it. It seems surreal that we haven't even reached the middle of the week. For the first time in my life I've got a taste for what it's like to juggle full-time work (for both of us) with parenthood.

Allan dropped Todd off at his first day of his new preschool/day care yesterday. Though I was confident that the drop-off would pose no problems (since Todd is used to going to school every day, he no longer has separation anxiety over it), I had trepidations about what would go on IN school. Like his slow eating. Or his shyness at asking for help (i.e. going to the bathroom, asking for a drink). Or his tendency to let his eyes and mind wander and not pay attention, esp in new surroundings. I was also concerned about how the kids would occupy their time after school (which only runs till lunchtime).

Sure enough, when I went to pick him up, Todd was playing in a freezing cold room where a harried teacher was busy minding a half dozen other rambunctious (some shrieking and wailing) kids. His jacket was barely staying on, as it wasn't zipped up. His hands were freezing. Worse yet, he was wet, because he had been too timid to get up from his nap cot to ask for a trip to the bathroom. Lord only knows how long he was wet in that cold room. Then I opened his backpack-- except for the empty juice bottle, the food was more or less intact. He'd eaten nothing for lunch. Off we went towards home, where I quickly gave him a hot shower and stuffed him full of good food. All the while, I repeatedly instructed him on what to do the next day, like asking for help zipping up his jacket, and making sure to go to the bathroom, and eating all his lunch!

It must have helped, for today he ate most of his lunch (at the expense of not drinking, though :-P Well, we'll get there). He was dry. And his jacket was zipped up and the playroom wasn't freezing like yesterday. Small steps. Now we just have to figure out how to get him to give us more than an "I don't know" when we ask him what he did at school today :-P

As for me, my first day was about as busy as can be expected, mostly with admin stuff. Then today I "met" with my team lead, who actually lives in Kentucky and works remotely. So, lots of phone calls, and keeping mindful of the 3-hour time difference. Still, it's great that the company values him enough to allow him to move across the country (due to personal reasons) and still work for them. Our project manager is a British expat who commiserated about the recent record-breaking spate of rain we had. After all, he'd left England to get away from precisely this kind of dreary weather! ;-) And of course, because the company is based in Santa Barbara, it recruits heavily from my alma mater, UCSB, and I've already run into a ton of familiar names and faces just roaming the halls. Quite an eclectic mix, all around!

The days so far seem long, but the hours have been very productive, so the time flies by very quickly. Having a commute under 10 minutes is a welcome change from the near-hour commutes I used to make to Amgen. And nothing beats having my very own personal slave-- ahem, I mean, loving source of help, both technical and physical, just downstairs :-)

I'm actually looking forward to another busy day tomorrow. No more meetings to interrupt me, but I've got a nice long laundry list of things to do, endless sources of help when the need arises (and I know it will, a lot) and interesting projects to jump headfirst into. And, with a little luck, Todd will settle down in his new school and actually start paying attention and learning stuff!

(originally posted at:  http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/352963416)