Back from the brink

Maybe a warm pan of gooey homemade lasagna, crisp salad and fresh garlic bread can't make the world a better place to live, but it can make the Picard and Dior house a better place to live.

Whew! From the last post to today has been an uphill climb on a rain soaked mountain with slippery moss covering the only passable route. If you asked me a week ago today how baby life is going I would have said, it's great. She's such an easy baby. Ask me today and I'll say, it's great. She's such an easy baby. So what's the diff? Well, between last week and this week I threw contract work into the mix and my world turned upside down quicker than the athletes who traveled to China. It is not easy work to care for an infant and keep a house. It's nearly impossible to care for an infant, keep a house and try to write an insanely complex training session. Even if you do have an easy baby. But, I made it through and learned a lot in the process.

Here are some of the key lessons learned:
1. It will take twice as long to complete my work now that I've added Mommy to my list of titles.
2. It is insane to think I can write a four hour training session with supportive materials in three days now that I have a child.
3. My baby is a very routine child and when I deviate from the preferred routine; I will pay the price. (I let her sleep too long in her car seat while I ran errands and then cursed myself when she wanted to stay awake all night.)
4. I have to eat healthy food or people will die. Why I have to relearn this lesson all the time is beyond me. I am a crabby, moody, unbearable person to live with when I eat a lot of processed food. I get so angry I swear I could leave a pile of dead bodies in my path. Chew too loud Picard? I'll take you out. Drive too slow in front of me? Don't make me smack into the rear end of your car! Drop something accidentally? The Hulk like rage is abhorrent. Sound scary? It is. I know I have to eat well. That's why getting back on track is priority number one and the homemade goodness pictured above will make our world a better place to live.

You live. You learn. Sometimes you relearn. Sometimes you go to the brink and back. But that's the process of life.

Sitting pretty: One of the few pictures that actually looks to me what Alexa looks like in person. It's been really hard to capture her personality and charm in pictures so far.

This is why Picard doesn't get to take pictures very often.

The real shot. Alexa's first tub bath.