Sometimes I wish I had a camera strapped to my face and I could make it snap a photo by blinking. Oh, wait. Okay Andrew, sometimes I wish google Glass was ready to be released to the public!

At any rate, after missing the actual rollover yesterday, I missed the Houdini picture this morning! I went up to check on Tess, who had somehow, through her swaddle, swung sideways in her crib and stuck her feet out through the bars. So I walk in and I see wriggling toes and a mess of blanket sticking out the side! Tess is so mellow and small that I forget how strong and agile she is. More importantly, I was in such a hurry to free her I forgot to document! I’ll work on it.

Tess was fussy all day yesterday, so I found myself still typing away furiously at my current project at 9:30pm last night. It’s on nights like that where I’m so grateful for Dave. I’d had big plans for cooking him a nice dinner. Instead, he picked up the groceries followed by the wailing baby and cooked the same dinner for me! Having a partner, a true partner in every sense of the word, is impossible to describe. The give and take we accomplish in a day – whether it’s handing Tess off mid-feed or running errands or problem-solving from very different angles – amazes me.

I think it’s easy for all of us to belittle our contributions to our friends and families, to underestimate our impact on the people around us. A well-timed smile, mom letting me swipe groceries from her fridge, babysitting for a friend, helping a coworker get a project out the door: all of these can really change the course of another person’s day. In our case, my late work night went from frazzled to fine in 10 minutes. Dave and I joke about adding points to our permanent record, but on occasions like that I believe in permanent gold stars. 🙂

The opposite is also true. Mom was over working on kitchen plans. At some point, my stubbornness tore out of me like a giant laser beam, and I could see her on the verge of exploding. Her day did not improve with my participation. Yes, sometimes I even annoy myself. Just because the point I’m arguing has value doesn’t mean I need to be an ass about it. Maybe by the time Tess is old enough for me to sanctimoniously preach patience to her, I’ll have gotten the hang of it myself!