I setup a separate site where I’ll be posting all the cool videos and photos that we have of Avery. You can find the link on the right under the links section or you can click here. At the suggestion of my brother, I have commenting turned on so feel free to leave any comments about the photo/videos. Hope you all enjoy.
The site has an RSS feed so you can subscribe to Avery’s photos and videos.
Well it happened. I’m a dad. It’s been alomost two months now and it is great. I was worried handling the baby because I had absolutely no baby interaction before this. I got over the initial “I’m gonna break him” worry pretty quick. Maybe this was due to his size.
He crossed the 15 lbs mark and from talking with other people who have babies, he is comparable to e 3-4 month old. This definately shows because none of his footed PJ’s fit him. With some of the pj’s we have he can’t straighten his legs out because they are too short. so we’ve had to retire a whole bunch and go in search of new 6-9 month ones.
In the past week he has found his voice. I can talk to him and he’ll start making noises. Before all he would be doing was grunting when he was eating or when he was freaking out. Now these are pleasant noises. He also has started smiling when you talk with him and make certain noises. I never thought that I would get so much enjoyment sitting on the floor and making noises with my son. I could do this for hours. Unfortunately, he has about a 30 minute tolerance before he a) gets angry, b) gets hungry, or c)gets really angry.
He has been the best baby ever. He doesn’t cry much, only when he’s hungry. The hardest part is if a bottle isn’t ready, he may start freaking out and it takes a little work to calm him down before he will take the bottle. I can’t complain though because that as bad as its gotten. I don’t have any horror stories to share because he has been so happy. My only fear is that someday he will decide that he’s been too easy on his parents and become difficult to handle.
The waiting has started. We have the nursery all ready and he has plenty of clothes. What is the hold up, buddy??
I know that my wife is definitely ready for this to be over. She doesn’t sleep that well because she’s up ever couple of hours and I’m just getting anxious. I just want the waiting to be over. I’ve never done well with anything that dealt with patience. I usually give my wife her birthday present a couple days early and we always find a reason to exchange Christmas gifts a few days early.
Everyday at work I get at least two or three “You’re still here??” questions, or an email that just has “Baby??” in the subject. It’ll be nice once he’s here so I don’t get those anymore. Then they will ask how much sleep I’m getting or something else. I guess I should get used to the questioning. It’s hard for me since I’m usually a person who keeps to myself.
The only other time I have had this mix of excitement and fear is when going away to college. It’s the excitement of something completely new, but the fear of the unknown. This baby thing scares me more since I don’t have any clue about babies. Everyone assures me that I can’t screw it up and will be a good dad. I hope they are right.
After a month of informationals and interviews, I have accepted a new position with the company I’ve been with for 3 years. I was beginning to doubt that there were going to be any opportunities for me with the company. I honestly thought that I would have to leave to further my career but it all worked out in the end.
Unfortunately I got to experience the politics that take place at my company. Before this round of interviews, I had heard conversations regarding the office politics, but never experienced it first hand. This changed when I went to my direct supervisor with a position that I wanted to apply for. How it works with the company, I needed to have the approval of my direct supervisor to apply for a new position. This position would have been a 4 level jump. (Most promotions are just 2 level bump). Initially he did not have a response for me. All I got was “I’ll need to think about it” from him, this basically translated to “I need to check with my boss”.
Later in the day he pulled me aside to discuss the job that I wanted to apply for. He told me that “management” thought that I needed more experience before applying for the position. I inquired what he meant by experience. The response was vague and did not make sense to me. “Management thinks that someone at the level of this job requires more experience.” I pushed further to see how much experience would qualify as enough in the eyes of management. The response was another vague and worthless reply. I questioned again if I could apply for the job and the response was, “I won’t say you can’t, but if the hiring manager calls me I’ll have to tell them the concerns the management has.” Again, a vague and non-explicit answer. I decided asking questions because none of them were getting concrete answers.
During the rest of the day and evening I thought over the discussion I had with my supervisor. I re-read the job description, requirements, and desired qualities. After careful thought, I decided to apply for the position even though management did not support me 100%. I pulled my supervisor aside the next day to tell him what I planned on doing and the reasoning behind it. My rational for applying was that I met all of the requirements and desire qualities. The only mention of experience in the requirements was to have 2-3 years with the company, I had 3. I also explained that I would feel more comfortable if the hiring manager was the one who made the decision regarding my experience. I was lying or misrepresenting myself on the application. The hiring manager could see and evaluate if my experience level was a deal break. When I told my supervisor about my decision, I met a steady flow of innuendos.
Things my supervisor said:
Putting together all of these statements I was able to see a lot about my supervisor. He is afraid of directly telling me to apply because he will get in trouble with his boss (a.k.a. management). After the discussion, I got my resume together and sent it off to the appropriate people. I later talked with a co-worker and she confirmed he made comment to her that I was doing the right thing by applying.
With a large company HR plays a big part in the hiring process. The HR for the department called my supervisor and asked if he supported the change. His response was that he was in a tough spot because management reservations regarding my experience. A day or two later I got an email from HR saying that I was not going to be considered for the position because the length of my experience. I’m not sure if this decision was made by the HR person or the hiring manager. If I had to make a guess, I would say that HR stopped the process before the hiring manager made the decision.
It was at this point that I thought that I may need to look elsewhere to move further in my career. I never wanted to get caught up in these politics. I realized with this experience that from now on it is going to be something I don’t have to participate in, but it will have some effect on me. I’ll just have to keep an eye on that.
All during these on goings and discussions about experience, I saw that there was a posting for a similar job in the same department. I setup some time to talk with the hiring manager and get more information about the job and area. After talking with the hiring manager, I told my boss that I wanted to apply for this position. He was more receptive to this position because it was a “more natural fit”. I interpreted this as “It isn’t too big of a jump, so management will support it”.
I had an afternoon of interviews and an assessment test for the job. After a couple days, I received a call from the hiring manager. She told me about different position that was going to be available in the department and asked if I would be interested in pursuing that also. I’m never one to turn down an opportunity, so I had her send me the job description. In the back of my mind I had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I took this as a bad sign for the first job. The hiring manager was trying to pawn me off on someone else. On the flip side, this was a good thing. I must have impressed her as some level to pass my name off to someone else. I was hired three years ago in a similar situation.
Once I got the other job description, I recognized that it was very familiar. Turns out that the department recently changed the level within the area. This job was the exact same as the one I had applied to early but was told that I needed more experience. The only difference is that this job would deal with the routine processes rather than the longer and more complex processes. I find it odd how one week I’m unqualified and a little I am a great candidate for it. I’m sure it boils down to responsibilities of the job and some other things behind the scenes, but I still find it amusing and frustrating on some level.
Turns out that I didn’t get the job I originally applied for. I was told that there was no doubt that I could have done a great job, but she thought that it wouldn’t challenge me enough. On the upside, I got the job she referred me to. I start on May 1.
I’d be surprised if anyone is still reading this, but I hope you found it somewhat interesting and/or amusing.
I think everyone at some point has an life lesson that comes with significant cost. I remember my brother’s furnace wasn’t kicking on so he called the repair man. The guy came out and wiped down a sensor. Unfortunately mine was with the dishwasher and was simpler than a sensor. The dishwasher repair man came out and took off the bottom panel of the washer. Asked to see the fuse box because the dishwasher wasn’t getting any power. I checked the fuse box and all was fine. He then started looking around the counter.
I’ll divert here to discuss the intricacies of our house. We have two or three switched in our house that do not appear to do anything. We have one in our living room and in the kitchen. (If you are following you may know where this is going)
The repairman flips the switch and the dishwasher comes on. He chuckles a little and says “Some electricians wire things weird.” I am astounded that I called a repair man to flip a light switch on the counter. I asked him how many dishwasher have a wired switch like this. He said less than 5%, so I feel a little better. Never in my life have I come across a dishwasher with its own switch. I’m not sure why I am so upset by this. I think it’s a tie between being out $100 for some guy to flip a switch or the fact that I feel so stupid.
The lesson learned is make sure I exhaust all possibilities/switches/connections before calling the repair guy.
I got to experience the coolest thing the other day. My wife just entered the third trimester with our first child. Every now and then I ‘ll get a frantic “GIVE ME YOUR HAND!!” from her in hopes of feeling the kid move. Most time I put my hand on her belly and wait…. and wait. Turns out that I must be too slow. I have felt little rumblings but nothing significant.
That change on Sunday morning. My wife and I were up and I put my hand on her belly. After a minute I felt the baby push against my hand. I gently pushed on my wife’s belly. A split second later I felt the baby push back! It still sinking in that in a few short months we will have a baby. My wife’s been able to experience the boy move around for awhile, but I haven’t been so lucky. This is the first interaction I’ve had with my little boy and I”m so excited and anxious at the same time.
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