B.A.B.E. Week 42: “B.A.B.E.dom” goals

 Baby – In some ways, I think the goal that I have for “baby” may be one of the easier ones.  I simply want to provide her with as healthy as an environment as possible.  Providing that healthy environment means making sure emotional, mental, and physical needs are met.  Meeting these needs doesn’t feel onerous because it is such a pleasure to be a parent to Elle.  She delights us and engages us and makes it easy to provide her with stimulation and attention.  

For example, this past week she continues to show how much she loves other babies and children by trying to kiss them (and perhaps bite them…).   She also has been practicing walking by having her feet on my feet as we walk around house.  And she continues to be a be a joy at restaurants – laughing and playing.  She even ate from chopsticks for the first time.

Eating fried rice from chopsticks

Aspirations – This is a harder goal for me.   My goal in this department is to improve my work productivity.  I plan to do this by taking 4 minutes at the beginning of each day and planning out my “plan of attack.”   And then accomplish what I have set out for myself.  With vacation time, I have about 30 or so days of “B.A.B.E dom” left.  I hope to make that “plan of attack” at least 25 or the 30 or so days.

At the top of the slide in the park by our casa

Body – This is probably the hardest goal arena for me.   Like many people, I feel like my health and fitness (and body image) could always improve.   So to improve this arena, my goal is to eat 60% plants (vegetables and fruit) five out of seven days each week.    This plant idea arose from how Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen eat (although supposedly they eat 80% plants and vegetables).  It’s a tall order to eat so many plants when I think about all the grain, protein, and “other” things I eat.   Like for example, does eating peanut butter count as a plant?   I think that I will count it and maybe jam at a small percentage.  So I guess a PB&J sandwich on my whole grain wheat bread would be a 25% meal--making it hard to average to 60% overall for the day…

Exploration – This is the easiest goal.  Being married to Wilson is a constant adventure.  He is full of exploration plans and ideas.  So I guess my goal here is to blog about these explorations at least twice until the end of B.A.B.E. dom.

B.A.B.E. Week 41: Poop, sleep training, and exercise...

So maybe this week's blog post is T.M.I., but that hasn't stopped me before...

Elle pooped in her potty twice!   And has peed a handful of other times as well.   It is pretty exciting as a mother of a 9 month old baby to see my baby go to the bathroom in the appropriate place.  Let's just hope potty time continues with upcoming travel and life busy-ness.   I think that it will be hard to maintain this pattern as we travel since she uses a child-specific potty and getting the voiding action on an adult potty will be tricky...

In less happy news, we have entered the realm of sleep training.   A confusing realm to be in!   Our first couple of nights, we have stayed pretty close to her (e.g., staying in the room while she cries, nursing her a couple of times during the night etc.).   But after five nights, it seemed like things were getting worse not better.   And so on the 6th night, we resolved to not pick her up throughout the night.  That night was pretty bad as, among other wakings, she cried from 3:45-4:45 am straight.  I hugged her down in her crib and probably would have jumped in the crib if I thought that I wouldn't break it.



But then on the 7th night, she slept from 9:30 - 5:55 am!   The late bedtime was actually her second bedtime, earlier we had put our sleepy baby down around 6 pm but then we had a dinner party starting at 6:30 pm and she woke around 7:30 pm and was very confused to see 6 extra people at our dining room table...her face coming around the staircase to see all our friends in the house was priceless. But, per usual and a big credit to her, she happily adapted, ate some dinner, played happily, walked our guests out to the gate and then proceeded to have her best night of sleep yet when we put her down for the second time at 9:30 pm.

And beyond poop and sleep training, career, exploration, and fitness continues.  On the fitness front, I finally made to a yoga ashram here in the Bahamas.  It was Very.  Very zen and very affordable for the Bahamas (only $10 for the class).  Our cross fit adventures also continue -- we have been doing cross fit in a neighbor's sweet garage gym.  Our last session was yesterday (right before above dinner party) and we are hobbling today...but it was good -- 100 burpies is no joke!

B.A.B.E. Week 40: What is this all about?

Chilling in her ride as mom is about to take her for a run

For the past 40 weeks (40 weeks, wow that passed fast), I have blogged about “B.A.B.E. dom”.    And I am finally grappling with whether I am actually maximizing “B.A.B.E dom” – baby (maximizing time with Elle and fostering her development), aspirations (maximizing work performance and career), body (maximizing fitness and health), and exploration (maximizing adventure and travel).

At the primeval forest - note the land bridges to their right

I only have 12 weeks of this series left and I think that how I want to close off this blog is the following:

(1) Continue to blog about Elle’s development.  This blog is first and foremost a documentary of Elle’s first year of life.

In that vein, this week has been exciting, as Elle has continued to dance and bounce.  She also has balanced standing on her own for the first time.  She is babbling and is extremely social  (except for late afternoon/evening).   Elle still tends to be a little crabby during “cocktail hour”.   As my mother-in-law said, there’s a reason for cocktail hour.   But even during cocktail hour, Elle can rally to her sociable self to allow her parents to do crossfit during this fitful time (pic below).

(2) Write about and analyze the concept of goals for “B.A.B.E.dom” and what I think that I can accomplish in these last 12 weeks (Week 41).

After a cool dip in our pool, wearing Elle's shark robe and swimsuit

(3) Report on how I measured up to these goals – so Weeks 48, 49, 50, and 51 will each focus on one aspect of B.A.B.E.dom and whether I have met and kept goals related to these.

Sleepiness after a full day and on our way home from the aquarium

(4) This gives me 6 weeks of no set agenda.  In those 6 weeks, I hope to cover some topics near and dear to my heart such as breastfeeding tips and lessons (this one may have to be a 2-part series).  Please let me know if there are any other topics that I should cover.

12 weeks left of “B.A.B.E.” blogging to go.   Here’s to making them good!

B.A.B.E. Week 39: Blurry dancing and separating personal from work

Elle "danced" for the first time this week.   By dancing, I mean bopping up and down while sitting in her high chair.  She is also starting to pick up and eat finger foods a little bit.  Above, you can see her grabbing some off her friend's high chair.   (Incidentally, they also held hands below.)

Elle's dancing hasn't really been blurry.  It's more my life has continued to feel blurry.   Juggling "B.A.B.E.dom" isn't easy and it's hard not to repeat myself as I examine the reasons why.   One new insight that I gained from a friend today is the fact that maybe my life is too "integrated".

An "integrated" life -- what does that mean?   Well, as my friend said today, there are two major ways to think about how people deal with their lives and work.   One way is that they are "separators" -- they keep work and personal life separate -- clearly delineating between personal and work time.   Whereas integrators, often try to do both.   The research that she saw was that separators tend to be happier and more productive employees.  Who knows if this is actually the case?  Or would be the case for me?  But it is something to think about.


I think that I often do work during non-working hours and also do the reverse.  And I wonder if I might feel less harried if I separated more.  I am not sure -- I think that it might simply be our modern condition that we are so connected in all ways that it is hard to turn either off or forego any opportunities in either dimension.  E.g., we want to go to our friend's barbeque but we also want to be put on the newest or biggest project.   Finding that balance is difficult whether you are a separator or an integrator.