tfl: The Flatiron Life

So you may have noticed that the last few weeks, if not the last few months have been a little light on the blogging. For good reason. Here’s an update on the insanity that has been the Tomaw household. . .

Teeth - While not exactly a schedule filling event, I know eager friends and family will be interested to know that little Jonah has sprouted his first two teeth. He was really not terribly happy about it at first, but I think he’s starting to get used to teeth. He holds his mouth a little differently now and puts his fingers in to touch his new chompers.

We’ve also started Jonah on rice cereal. It’s a delicate process, only going well if Jonah is hungry, but not so hungry he just wants to nurse and tired enough that he doesn’t resent sitting still, but not so tired he needs to take a nap. When it all comes together in a perfect feeding, he eats an entire bowl of cereal. When the feeding forces are against us, the meltdown starts after just a few spoonfuls. Regardless of whether it’s a good feed or a bad feed, there is usually one successful swallow for every three spoonfuls wiped up off the little guy’s chin. . . or hands. . .or hairline. . . or thighs.

Baptism- As Jacob mentioned, Jonah was baptized two weeks ago. It was a beautiful and meaningful service. Jacob and I believe the church is a vital and influential community in the life of a child. We feel very blessed to know that present at Jonah’s baptism were grandparents, god parents, and church family that will take very seriously the commitment they made to guide Jonah in his faith.

Moving- Well, we’re still searching for a permanent home for a good portion of our belongings, but we’re no longer tripping over boxes. We are very happy with our new neighborhood and our extra bedroom. With room to prowl and carpet to roll on, George is acting more like a normal cat. We’re still sleeping on an air mattress, but that should change this week.

Moving is such an unsettling thing. (I guess that sounds silly. It is probably literally the unsettling thing.) You never realize how natural living in your home has become until you move to a new one and are forced to adopt an entire new set of motor patterns.

Mystery Allergy- At the age of 27 it appears I have developed an allergy manifesting itself in the form of a rash. Now that I’ve typed that, it sounds like an understatement. For a while it was like my legs were on fire. Two emergency rooms, two dermatologists, one general practitioner, seven medications, one biopsy, and two and a half weeks later, the rash has healed, although I will need to follow up with the last dermatologist before I find out what gave me the black death. Very frustrating and very bad timing.

Graduation- This past week was my final final finals week. Forever. (I think.) It has been an inspiring, but project intensive quarter. When I was working full time and going to school, I thought I was pretty good at juggling a full schedule. Mothering and going to school is way way harder.

At last I’ve graduated with my MBA, qualifying me to use terms like leverage and synergy and invoke the proverbial thirty thousand foot view. It feels good.

Thank you to everyone who shared the highs and lows of the last few weeks with us, especially those of you who helped with Jonah while Jacob was out of town. We are a very fortunate family indeed. We are looking forward to a delightfully lazy summer, catching our breath and enjoying all that our new neighborhood and Chicago have to offer. We wish you all an equally rejuvenating summer and hope to be blogging more regularly over the next few months.

It is probably no surprise that with Jonah we were planning to move out of our 1 bedroom condo. However, we were planning do this in the next year or two.

Why are we moving sooner?

I have mentioned before the rental cap our association is proposing. With this cap, if your unit is below the cap you can rent forever as long as there is not a break of leases larger than 4 months. When the cap is met, no one can rent. Our plan has always been to rent when we moved out. We want to insure we can rent as long as we need to before selling our condo. This means renting now while the cap is not full.

Where are we going?

Lincoln Square (technically North Center) This is where we thought we would move next. We are renting from a family that has connections back to Joscelynn’s family in Brookston. They seem like they will be good landlords. This is a 2 bedroom about twice the square footage with a little back yard and garage.

Our plan now is to rent for at least a couple to few years while we wait to find nice large home we can afford and grow into. We are sad to leave out first home, but I know we are going to make the next place a great home for young Jonah.

We will miss our condo, but we are looking for someone nice to make it their home at a reasonable rate. If you know anyone looking to rent on the North Side, let me know.

As part of my final and mega group work project quarter, I’m working on part of a paper and presentation about Merv Griffin as an entrepreneur. I came across this video and I woke up this morning wanting to watch it for the third time, so I share it with you now.

He reminds me of Conan in a way. I just can’t figure out how he makes those facial expressions.

My little pumpkin rolled from his back onto his tummy! Jonah’s been rolling from his tummy onto his back for about six weeks now, but we had all but given up hope that he would ever indicate any sort of interest in rolling onto his tummy. His main impetus for rolling tummy to back was really just that he Hates, with a capital H, being on his tummy; so it seemed unimaginable that we would ever entice him to the less desirable position. I really thought he might bypass this milestone altogether. Thanks to the rattle ball toys Grandma gave him, Jonah found the will and the way.

Now we are approaching this month’s check-up with heads held high. “Does he roll over?” the Doctor will ask and we will give a resounding “Yes!” in reply.

Stuff White People Like (SWPL) is an endlessly entertaining blog. I fall right in line with plenty of entries; #90, #81, #72, #44, #40, to name a few. But I especially love the White People Policy issues.

Today’s entry: #94 Free Healthcare.

A close second favorite of mine to #12 Non-Profit Organizations Have you ever noticed that the actual mission of the non-profit seems to be secondary in importance to the non-profit status of an organization for people who work there? I’ve had the following conversation several times:

Me: “What do you do?”
Other person: “I work for a non-profit.”

Well ok, then. I still have no idea what you actually do.

IMG_0465

Originally uploaded by flatiron32

I am blogging this picture as well because, as Jonah grows, I do not want to forget this fine baby ‘do’. I call it ‘Category 5 hurricane underscored by bald spot’. Gene Keady only wishes he had the guts to pull this off.

IMG_0444, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

I really like these pictures of cows from my grandparent’s farm.

Yay!, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

New Pictures of Jonah!

Red Pen, Inc.

Last week Jos was relieved to find out other people don’t like to use the phone.

Today, I stumbled upon a similarly revealing fact. Other people do a lot of stuff at the same time on their computers, and other people think they are interrupting them with an IM.

When I get an IM at work that is something like, “What you up to?” I usually respond with “Working.” It is what I am doing, but it is not “Working, leave me alone!” Sometime people think they are interrupting me, but really they are not.

The only interruption would be caused by me. If I need to concentrate, I just don’t respond. Most days I have a half dozen browser tabs open, the same number if chat windows, am listening to my iPod, have my IDE open editing several files, 4 or more terminals, and might be carrying on a conversation with 3 or 4 people in person. Heck, sometime I am doing all that and participating in a meeting. I have 3 monitors at work and 2 at home. I don’t notice another chat tab. In fact, I am so used to this setup I might be less productive if people stopped contacting me.

You might say, I must not be productive at work. However, I think i get a fair amount done and my performance reviews are always positive. There is clearly time for heads down working, but thankfully Orbitz generally wants us to be happy at work and do things well and thoughtfully.

You might also say, I mist not value IM conversations enough to give them my undivided attention. I disagree, i give IMing a very special and high place in my life. How could I disrespect the medium over which I first learned I did not want to live without Joscelynn?