Work toned down for me when CubeTree was acquired by SuccessFactors in July, not a moment too soon because Falco’s summer school wrapped up the first week of August. That meant 16 days of together-every-minute time with Falco before school started for the fall.

It was nice to be able to give him my full attention during his break after a couple of months of letting him watch way too much TV while I worked all the time. It gave me a chance to feel like a good mom again (most days), but by the end I was definitely ready for him to go back. Monday was the first day of school. It was a little anticlimactic since he spent the entire summer there for camp (which is nearly indistinguishable from school). Still, it was exciting because he moved up to the older group this year.

The day started out with cheese danishes. I’d like to say this was a special treat for my special man on his first day, but actually I just wanted to try making danishes. They were easy and yummy.

He chose this stylish outfit for the occasion:

Yes, that’s his pajamas under his clothes. It’s a rare day that he doesn’t wear jammies under his outfit. He is a San Francisco native, so I guess he knows about layering.

Here he is at school:

Matt’s startup, Cubetree, has been in stealth mode for over a year. Today was the official public launch, and it’s all very exciting. Check it out (for free!) and invite some coworkers.

There are many things in life I spend too much time on like choosing mustard or booking travel arrangements, but a biggie is sending Evites. I can never make up my mind about the design, and then I think and write and rewrite the party description until I’m finally satisfied or give up on being witty. It’s just so much pressure to make it good when it’s going to lots of people, and I want to make the event sound as fun as possible.

Now I’m making an Evite for my job, so multiply the agonizing times 100. I’m actually here writing about it to take a break from my indecision. Do I pick a professional-looking design or a funny one? What if my message isn’t what my boss had in mind and I send it out to a bunch of important people? What if it’s too boring because I’m playing it safe?

I don’t know why I’m so neurotic. No one else cares about Evites I’m sure. My boss probably doesn’t care as long as the date is right, and guests will just RSVP without noticing what it looks like. I need to take a deep breath and just send the thing and move on with my life. (But do I pick the picture of a stapler or pencils…)

I have had a cold for the past week, and Falco and Matt have had some kind of weird pseudo cold. I started getting sick Sunday night, and Matt got a sore throat and felt run down on Tuesday. That night, Falco cried a lot at bedtime and couldn’t get to sleep until after 8:00, which is very late for him. He had a fever that night and the next morning but never got any other cold symptoms. Matt hasn’t gotten any other symptoms either, so maybe they will get away without ever getting a full-blown cold.

Anyway, a side effect of this cold is that I kind of lost my job. In addition to my being sick, Falco has been not napping well at all for the past week or so, which means I was having a hard time getting my work done. I told my manager that I was having trouble meeting the minimum number of lines per week and asked if I could reduce my minimum, but she said that they couldn’t afford for me to produce less because they have to pay a seat license fee for me to be on the account. So, basically I was given the choice of working nights and weekends to make my line count or quit, and I opted for the latter. I am disappointed that it didn’t work out because I was enjoying the work, but I just can’t depend on having 2-3 hours of time to work every day.

As I mentioned, Falco’s nap schedule has changed yet again. It might not be a permanent thing, but for now I can only get him to take one nap a day. It’s a little early, but maybe he is ready to phase out the morning nap. So, we’re shooting for one nap to start between 11 and 12, and we’ll see how that goes. Otherwise, there is a lot of crying and fighting if I try to force the two naps, which is miserable for both of us.

Falco is crazy for standing up, and that’s pretty much all he does all day. He can’t stand on his own yet, but he doesn’t really need to pull himself up anymore. He just needs to put his hand on a wall or something to balance while he stands, and he is good at standing with just holding on with one hand. Today at the playground he let go of the wall with both hands, but I think he might have been leaning on it with his stomach. He is definitely getting close to standing on his own though, and walking will surely be soon to follow! He seems to be working hard on saying his first words too. He doesn’t actually say any words on purpose that we can tell, but I think the babbling will turn into something soon. I can’t wait for him to call us mommy and daddy!

Here is a quote from a medical report I’m QAing right now. Let your imagination run wild:

“He is currently facing a possible disciplinary action, and this is based around him having body odor.”