I took a break from thesis writing today to frame my favorite photo of Nicki. I seriously can’t believe that came from my camera. No color adjusting or photo editing, I only cropped it.

Sometimes I can’t even believe Nicki came from me. How did I get so lucky to have such a wonderful daughter? We were playing together this evening, she was sitting in my lap and I was doing itsy bitsy spider tickle attack (itsy bitsy crawls up her arm and tickles her under the chin.) My little miss giggle fits loves it. I had just discovered a bug in my code, and I wasn’t sure how badly it was going to affect my thesis. I was two weeks behind where I wanted to be. I was frustrated with myself, and so stressed I was getting multi day migraines. Baby laughter in the best medicine.

It’s so easy to get bogged down in the stress of an incredible to-do pile. I have to remind myself that those self imposed deadlines are, indeed, self imposed. All these things I’m stressing over are nice-to-haves, not necessities.

In my next incarnation after graduate school I will have good work/life balance. I will make this happen.

Posted in Family Life | Tags: The Mommy Gig