First Day of Maternity Leave

In California, by law, you are entitled to stop working 4 weeks before your due date. As awesome as that would be, I want and need to maximize my actual paycheck, so I only planned to take a week off before Funky's arrival. Like with Norah, my agency permits new parents-both moms and dads-an entire year of 'family leave'. After exhausting my paid time off and state disability it will be unpaid, of course, but still it's a year so I can't complain. (As of now I do plan to take the year off with a handful of exceptions-there are some hearings I will do this summer, etc.)

Even though I was train wreck by the end of pregnancy last time, I was able to keep working (mostly at home) to the end, and planned to take 2 weeks off before Norah was set to arrive. Of course, my water broke the night before my last day of work, so not only did I miss out on any kind of relaxing maternity leave sans baby, but I had a ton of loose ends to tie up while trying to recover from a crazy labor and c-section.

Thankfully, Funky cooperated and I enjoyed my last day in the office on Thursday (I have some stuff to take care of next week, but for the most part I am done for a while). Norah and I celebrated my first official day of leave Friday morning by making a bunch of messes in the house. After about an hour of that we started to get a little stir crazy (it was pouring rain), so we went to the mall.

And had a snack of milk and croissants.

Stopped by her favorite store where we discovered a new shipment of Bullseyes. She had no interest in Bullseye, though, because there was a Sully (from Monster's Inc.) It takes everything I have not to see her love something and buy it for her immediately, but 1) my worst nightmare is a kid who feels entitled to get everything she wants, and 2) another stuffed friend is the last thing in the world she needs. So we talked and hugged them and walked around the store with them and then said goodbye.

We rode the elevator about 9,000 times and discovered a new toy store that had lots of ride on toys. Like a digger.

After lunch, I took Norah to Ruby's house so she would actually nap (she won't nap at home but will do anything for Pamma) and I could run some errands. I planned to get a pedicure, pick up some last minute baby stuff, and then go to acupuncture. I went to the Stanford Shopping Center for the pedicure, which is a lovely outdoor mall, but not one I frequent very often because it's kind of far away. I got an awesome pedicure and treated myself to a Haagen Dazs ice cream cone when I was done. I had about 45 minutes to kill before my acupuncture appointment, so I stopped in a few baby stores (didn't buy anything as they all violated my 'spend no more than $5 for any one piece of kid clothing' rule), but it was all a little annoying because it was pouring rain.

So, I headed back to the (covered) garage to collect my car. And that's when I ran into trouble. See, I have no sense of direction and serious spatial limitations. I have to drive the same route to places I frequent often even though I have been there a million times, and I have to park in the exact same place or I am lost forever. It makes BVZ bananas, especially because he is the exact opposite. My GPS and iphone maps application are my most prized possessions. You can, I am sure, see where this is going. I got to the parking structure and literally had no effing idea where I parked. I walked up and down the rows for about 10 minutes like an idiot figuring that it would come to me, but no dice. The structure wasn't even that big and I knew I hadn't gone down any stairs, so there were only so many places it could be, but I walked around for another 20 minutes and still. Nothing. This is when I started to panic. I was clearly going to be late for my acupuncture appointment and I was going to have to spend the night in the parking structure.

So, I called BVZ to ask what the hell I should do. He told me there was a panic button on the key to my Prius and I should walk around pressing it to see if it would set off any kind of alarm. So, I walked around for another 10 minutes pressing the button. I didn't set off any alarms, but I did open the trunk of a Lexus and a Camary! WTF?? I was thoroughly amused, if a little alarmed, by this.

To make a long story short, I finally found my car tucked in a little corner of the garage after walking around for over 45 minutes. I was totally late to my acupuncture appointment (my excuse? People don't know how to drive in the rain!) and felt like a complete idiot for the rest of the night.

After collecting Norah and battling the people who don't know how to drive in the rain (see, karma will getcha every time) on the freeway, we made it home and ordered a pizza. Then she had an early bath and we had a pajama movie party. Not a bad way to start my leave, I think.