Month: September 2007

Today a door swings shut. My babies are off to school and I am moving to a new phase. It seems like yesterday that I was feeling those first kicks in my ribs, panicking about sleepless nights with a colicky newborn, or worrying about nursery school. And there is a list of new concerns, of course, but those ones are gone now. I cried walking away from G’s school yesterday and today’s goodbye at W’s school had the same impact. I don’t want to go back to those days, but there is a distinct sense of loss as I say farewell to a life stage that was complicated, emotional, intense, and, in retrospect, incredibly short.

Pictures from the road that is turning now: Grace at 4.5, Whit at 2.5, July 2007; Grace at 2.25, Whit at 2 days, January 2005, at 39 weeks of pregnancy, 1 day before Whit’s arrival, January 2007.

This is what I’ve been reduced to. I now puree vegetables and hide them in Whit’s food. Sweet potato and carrot puree as a layer under the (wheat germ) breading on chicken nuggets, broccoli, pea, and spinach puree (above) hidden in meatballs, white bean puree in chocolate chip cookies. Come hell or high water, that son of mine is going to eat his vegetables.

This was taken at 7:45 this morning as both children were eating their breakfast. This was one of those mornings where I do think sometimes time just stretches itself for me as I am able to cram an immense amount into an hour. We got up at 7:15, got dressed, packed bags for school, kissed Daddy and sent him off to work, made breakfast for the children, steamed and pureed the spinach/pea/broccoli mixture, scheduled 3 COO interviews for the week after next. After I decanted the beautiful (really!) green puree into its various containers for use and freezing, Anastasia arrived and at 8:02 we headed to G’s school. 8:20 arrival at W’s school, 8 minutes on playground and an exceedingly uneventful drop-off. Whit’s dismissive “I love you, mummy, bye” made me both proud and sad. And then we drove to G’s school again to evaluate Anastasia’s non-parallel-parking options for pickup, went to Starbucks, the gas station, and the ATM. And got home at 8:50. What kind of universe do I live in where the time stretches itself to accomodate the mundane days but flies by at warp speed in the moments that I want to live in forever?

That’s Whit’s orange room pattern. I can’t believe it. My baby is going to school! And I can believe even less what a cliche I am being about this. Grace goes to “big kid school” tomorrow, and Monday Whit disappears into the doors of CES. Wow.

“If you wait for the perfect horse, you will walk.”

So sayeth my favorite MD at PEP. This is day 3 of training which has been exhausting and overall somewhat boring. Today Alex came in and gave the 14 trainees some closing words, in which he focused on how they should approach and participate in the firm’s three assets: capital, people, and brand.

Alex literally got choked up talking about the people and the responsibility to the brand and the necessity of not developing a sense of entitlement. The quote above was regarding capital and was part of his encouraging the new folks to always look for the good things in a deal. He said it is always easy to focus on what is bad about a deal, and that there is great value in looking for positive attributes. There are no perfect deals, but there are many great ones. This of course extends into all aspects of life. Alex’s comments were surely the highlight of the week for me and, I think, for many of the trainees.

Heading back home shortly for orientation at nursery school tonight and Grace’s first morning at her new school tomorrow.

Morning in Providence.